Friday, October 20, 2006

Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya

Deepavali - perhaps the main message of this pagan festival is to seek to God this: "Asatoma Sathgamaya, Thamaso Maa Jyothir Gamaya, Mrithyor Maa Amrutham Gamaya, Aum Shanti Shanti Shantihi". (Lead me from untruth to the truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality- Invoke Peace). There are so many levels to this one sloka from Brihadaranyakopanishad, or maybe I see it as that- invoking peace for and within oneself, asking to be led to the light representing enlightenment.

May this festival of lights drive away the darkness in all of us, especially in me. Have a happy Deepavali!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Life? .... dont talk to me about life

There are times when I wonder what life is all about, why I am here and what am I expected to do here. These are the times when I have loads of work piling up on my desk and I have not had a doze of my morning caffeine. One ‘hot, tall, coffee mocha, no whip’ and all these thoughts fade away in deep chasm. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that coffee, if not in entirety, atleast partially- has something to do with my purpose in life. A few mental blocks later, I also came up with a theory that being jobless is the aim of my life- I don’t remember how, though. Now, you cannot mug up a theory or a proof, and according to me, if you come up with a theory which you, yourself cannot reproduce later, then, you don’t exactly believe in it. I mean, proof should stand the test of time, thought and coffee or more precisely, the lack of it.

I prioritize my life. Sometimes I am so jobless that I have to come up with some work to prioritize. Most other times, i.e., when I have something to do, I philosophize (myself) into believing that although life need not necessarily be a philosophy, philosophy is definitely life and hence all work (resistance to joblessness) is useless. The rest of the (very small fraction of) time, I actually work, is, according to my manager, really insignificant.

I will, standing by the title of this blog, not try to find an answer for life. Let me try and seek, what it is that I want to do before Yama-Raj* has his way with me. As in what do I want to do? What are my priorities? Let me analyze this (and put forwad the theory I came up with):

As stated elsewhere, my ultimate aim in life is to sit somewhere and be unaffected by anything around me or affect anything. This I will call state of “perfect joblessness”. It will only be sheer coincidence if someone has already come up with this idea. Practically speaking some coffee will always come in its way. So it is too idealistic an aim, something I know I can never get to. So I am back to square one, I have my aim in life but I am too lazy to be perfectly jobless. Now I am relieved that I don’t expect anything out of myself. I can now get back to being a vagabound and have fun*.

But I see people take this concept of life seriously. I think the problem is they define life in a way to make it difficult for themselves. There is a lot of crib that one has to do something in life, live upto some expectations they, or in some cases others, have set! For all you know one truth is final, you never get out of life alive. So why take it seriously and spoil all the fun in the meantime? Who knows! Maybe the purpose of life is to not worry about it. Maybe it’s a game where you have to be materialistic* and still be unaffected by it- I mean like not feeling bad about an exam where you didn’t do well or being overtly happy about seeing a three-legged puppy.

My conclusion is this: There are some things one** cannot control in ones life. One should not even try to. For other stuff, one must try his/her best and still, if the result doesn’t turn out to be good, give a damn and look for something else to do. And once again, life will go on.

* Definitions vary. I have mine. No, don’t ask what it is.

**I was asked why the blog is "Kboyone". what is one? Have you heard of someONE? Well, I am KboyONE.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Happy Birthday

…to me! Thank you, Thank you. It has been 25 useless years to date- a quarter century nonetheless. I celebrated it with a signature 12-hour sleep perhaps analogous to the life I have lived to date.

Birthdays mean nothing to me. It was purely coincidental I was born on this date- well, I was born, they tell me, at 12:01 AM (7th Oct-8th Oct) - so much for controversies. If we started at what we now claim to be March 1st as January 1, I would have been born on August 8th, which is more significant for me than 8th Oct- why? Freedom of choice, as guaranteed by the Constitution of India. That is why when people go gung-ho on 15th August and January 26th, not to mention 2nd October (purely again for Gandhi only, a certain Mr L B Shastri was also born that day, FYI), I am awestruck. How does it even matter to be proud of that tricolor for 2-3 days in a year and as much as ignore it to say the least for the remaining! For me, everyday is a celebration of life. But then again, I know much better than to hurt so many of my friends who remembered me having been born this day and wished me- even when I am no longer on Orkut! Thanks so much. Had I been in college now, people would have been vouching to do the obvious, well, assuming they could lift me up now ;) Darn! I miss having my b’day celebrated in tea-board, IISc.

And whats special this day? Lets see. “Violence breaks out in Mangalore again” Wow this is the top story on rediff! My ‘friends’ would now be thinking in terms of life being so apt to ones birthdays. For a hate-monger, this is the best gift they would say- like I give a damn, but nonetheless. Let me tell you about my experiences with communal violence in that area – my Mangalore:

Year 1992: I was in 7th Standard. All I remember was that a certain Babri “masjid” was demolished. A small scale demonstration broke out in Mangalore and a lot of people were arrested symbolically. (I later came to know they were given a banana and let go). I could not figure out then, why a structure was important to be destroyed even if a certain Hindu ‘God’ was born there. Of course, my social studies courses wouldn’t tell me that there existed a temple at that site before destruction by Babur in 1527. This I came to know from Encyclopedia Britannica (a friend showed this to me) under entry “Ayodhya”. (Also read ASI findings by Prof B B Lal, I read it in ‘Manthan’ in 1990/91- there have been claims of independent ‘experts’ having found otherwise, who these experts are, I dont know, probably a Patwardhan or a Ashghar or a certain “Dr” Shrivastava who claimed that a mosque was built on a mosque, as expected without evidence- and I’d rather not believe these morons. After all, we aren’t YOUR monkeys either, Mr Pat ;). I then wondered why would Babur do such a thing- for all you know, he had enough land nearby where he could have built as big a mosque as he wished. But why that particular site? This context is pertinent when thinking of why the mosque was razed, according to me. A lot has been said and done on this topic. So I guess I will keep to what I saw in Mangalore at that time.

Year 1998: I was in 1st year Engineering then. I commuted from my house in Mangalore to my college in Suratkal (19 kms). It was close to year end and the semester exams were looming large, (and as usual, I was short on attendance which means I had to attend every class). The bus in which I was traveling was stopped at Kulai, midway between Krishnapura and Hosabettu stops- some 8 kms from my college. I later came to know that the following had happened from a friend who lived in Suratkal: “A Muslim youth harassed a Hindu girl when the brother of the girl, tried to intervene. That evening, a group of Muslims came over to the girls house in a ‘show of strength’ and then one thing led to another and we had a stand-off, which led to the situation.“ I walked all my way to college (along the beach with 4 more people – Sandeep, Srinivas and two more- I don’t remember who). I also saw police firing tear gas from “Karkera’s” (KRECians, NITKians rather, will identify this as the 2nd-hand text book shop) and was caught up in college for 5 days before I was able to get back to my house in Mangalore.

All this time, I did not understand why The Hindu newspaper (and Frontline) would put it as a Hindu communal riot. The way I saw it, it was anything but. (Assuming, asking Hindu women to ‘burkha’ isn’t whats on your mind right now). It took me some time to realize that ‘The Hindu’ was Marxist- I mean, yes, ironically sadistic. Meanwhile, what I was slowly becoming aware was the fact that the Muslim population in this area was on a steady rise. I conclude this from the Malabarese Muslims (Moplahs, roughly meaning son in law in Arabic) and their language. A large influx of Muslims in this (Suratkal, Ullal and Panambur) area, I could somehow correlate to trouble.

Many other issues sprung up immediately (or I must say, I became more aware of them). For example, The Chennamma Maidan (Idgah Maidan) issue in Hubli (where as rumor has it, a group of Muslim Youth hoisted the Green flag inspite of a HC ruling against the Re 1/year lease for 999 years (!!) and a SC Stay Order I nthe disputed area) and the well known National flag hoisting issue, when the ‘Rashtradhwaja Gourava Samrakshana Samiti’ (Committee to protect the honour of the national flag) volunteers were beaten up and the flag brought down in an insulting fashion by the police backed by stone pelting by an ‘angry’ (for what reason? I don’t know) Muslim crowd. May I remind you that this was even before the Babri incident.

The Baba Budanagiri incident is another such. (A google search will return you just ‘secular’ sources. I encourage you to read with caution).

Then I read this. To tell you the truth, I was not surprised. Communal divide in Mangalore is evident in every walk of life. Bunder (Harbour) is the only place where Hindus and Muslims work together – more for need than out of willingness. The whole society is otherwise divided. Areas in Mangalore are divided as Muslim majority and Hindu majority. The division is not merely religious. The Malabarese Muslims speak Beary, a mixture of Malayalam, Arabic and I must say some local Tulu. In Mangalore people speak Tulu, Konkani and Kannada. The influx of Malayalam brings with it, the Kerala border just as it did with Kasaragod, which previously was under Karnataka, a dispute even to date. (That Karnataka has a border dispute with Maharashtra over Belgaum, tells me just how liberal Kannadigas are ;)

Apparently the current stand-off started at Bappnadu Durga Parameshwari Temple (a very famous temple in Bappanadu, near Mulky, 23 kms North of Mangalore), where during the Sharada Devi celebrations (part of Navaratri celebrations in Konkan area), a tabloid depiction of Bappa Beary (a Muslim king who apparently converted to Hinduism and built this temple on the banks of River Shambhavi) was shown bowing to the Goddess. I definitely do not know what pleasure whoever made this tabloid, derived from that experience. (It must have taken a lot of effort for someone to actually recognize Bappa beary also). But my point is this- If we are so communally sensitive, are we right in proclaiming that we are secular? Isnt this ironic that a secular state has so much communal hegemony vested in itself?

This stand off at Bappanadu has sparked off the other debate where the Bajrang Dal had purchased lawfully, in an auction, a cow slaughterhouse. Thus at the famous Kudroli temple, when, during the Sharada Visargana day, some Muslim youth tied to pack away cows – for obvious reason- and BD stepped in, a riot broke out. (For people thinking on the lines of freedom of speech/ expression of Muslims in eating beef, I contend with the freedom of speech/expression/non-eat-ability of cows).

What the report at Rediff or Samachar.com or even the stories/ fantasies at Hindu/ Frontline will not tell you is that the violence is not a fresh wound. It stems from a deep religio-social divide in the society. (Politics definitely has a role to play). Islam is a religion that was NOT peacefully ‘inflicted’ upon Hindus. It would be living in denial if one were to suppose that a tolerant religion will continue to remain so in the face of an aggressor. When people talk of ‘Sangh Parivar’ sparking off communal issues, I am forced to think, why is it necessary for them to do so? A quick glance a census will be a tip-off. Our appeasing governments have done no better than add fuel to fire. Are they entirely wrong? I think not. I see it as a counterweight. And unless the root cause is not healed, any solution is only a superficial one.

A lot has been said and done, but for now my heart bleeds for my Mangalore.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Live and let die

No, seriously, what exactly is Ms Roy's problem? Does she think she is doing a great job by saving a 'human being' from gallows? Perhaps, asuming Afzal is one. Yes, you can even show a picture of young Ghalib (Afzal's son, which, all reports mention has been named after Mirza Ghalib, a famous Urdu poet and philosopher- why? I dont know) holding up a placard innocently and claim sentimental refuge. For me, insensitiveness notwithstanding, it doesnt make sense. For all you know, media did not find it important to showcase the life of Nanak Chand and he probably even had a son, like Ghalib -whose placard went unphotographed.

Hold back for a moment- think about if you know this -Nanak Chand- name. This person is the ASI who was killed during the Attack carried out by Afzal (for eyebrows raised on 'fairness' of trial- I rather believe my Govt and Court rather than Arundhati Roy or Nandita Haksar. I absolutely see no reason why my nightmares are worse than their fantasies. On second thoughts, I'd rather not open that door). My point is, for one, we know Afzal carried out the attacks. And he gets to be famous because our Human rights Orgs and likes of Arundhati Roy have to, well, prove their liberal-ness. And who else is around? Hurriyat junta - Sajjad Lone and Yasin Mallik! Perhaps their assumed 'freedom fight' demands that they deny the chance for Afzal to be a 'Martyr'.

How exactly would this be different from Savarkar et al's bombing in London Parliament? 'Cause it was purely symbolic! No one was killed - the intention was not to kill, but to gain world attention to the plight of Indians from British, again, NOT to wage a holy war or convert people or demand a peice of land from someone after an ethnic cleansing and driving away the original inhabitants of that land. Plebiscite seekers can, with this background, as Eric Cartman (Southpark) would put it, Kiss my @$$.

Finally, the biggest question- What do we gain by hanging Afzal? Nandita Haksar, Afzal's lawyer is of the opinion that it would only cause unrest among Kashmiris and will affect Ghalib, making him an orphan.

I, as usual, beg to differ. Suppose Afzal was saved from the gallows. What is the message going out to someone planning another attack on us? I also do not udnerstand why Kashmiris will not be able to understand that it wasnt a Kashmiri who was killed but a terrorist who brutally attacked Indian Parliament and was responsible for the death of Nanak Chand. This person by appearance may be a human being, but by thought I doubt if he is. Young Ghalib must be made to understand why his his father wasnt pardoned. The message that must go out is the one which speaks the language that people who need to understand, will.

Now, how exactly would hanging a terroist be anti-Democratic? I hope M(r?)s Roy doesnt think that all Indians are terrorists, thereby in a terrorist Democracy, hanging one would be immoral. Arundhati Roy has won a Booker prize. Oh Yeah! That was for Fiction. She is apparently good at it.

My conclusion: Twisting words can fetch you an award once alright, but, as someone put it, you cant fool all the people all the time.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Salutations to the great American

Readers please note: I am being highly sarcastic and sadistic in this post. If you think I am like a typical self-hater, no, the title was just to be that much more cheap.

"Indo-US N-deal should be opposed: US activist".(Source)
Gagnon who is on tour of India with another social activist Mary Beth, said he would be visiting at least half-a-dozen cities across India and meeting NGOs, activists and others and collect from them statements on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Dear Mr Gagnon, first of all, your name is funny, like all us Indian ones. We wish you have a nice and safe tour in India- do ride the elephant. Also please take pictures of poor children and 'religious minorities' in India so you can display them in your living room for friends and family to appreciate.

Back to my point, or crib, as you see it, we just had this news come in. We, Indians, are used to it and we either so ignore them that newspapers dont report majority of them. We flip channels and watch "Babaji ke satsang" or "Kahani ghar ghar ki" or MTV when such news reports come in. Ashamed to put it in words but for your benefits, we give a damn. Its not just We, The People, but also They, The Government (see). So you see, we are basically like a sitting duck. People come over, screw around and go away nice and fine. We dont do much with them.

That, is precisely why, you guys dont have to be afraid of us. if you give us the nuclear green signal, we wont screw around with our neighbors or threaten America or for that matter neither will there be any shortage of "legions of people (are) sleeping in the streets and many places have no sewar systems." We are humble people and we make up an accent to please you and will ever continue to do so. Dont be afraid of us.

Ah! before I forget, you will meet numerous people all of whom will have opinions similar to yours, which is ample proof for our tolerance. Well, we require them back in India so that we dont progress and overtake you. We sarcastically call them 'progressive'- but hush! dont tell them, not yet. Go to Iran and find me people who will support you - or get out of there alive, whichever is easier- and we can think about your proposal.

Even in the US, people were initially attracted to nuclear weapons, Gagnon, a follower of Gandhian philosophy to an extent, said. "But after some time people are coming back to their tradition and culture. People are now going away from materialism. This in the end will save the people from corporate globalisation", he said.
We, in India, regardless of your views on spirituality in India, would like to tell you that we appreciate a peice of bread more than all Gandhis principles or Christian bibles you can preach for us. We dont want high held quotes on spiritual salvation or Nirvana (just put this word in here as I know if turns you guys on), just give us, if you really want to, some bread. May I also request you to kindly visit the missionaries in India while you are there and share with them, all these aphorisms on corporate culture, tradition and culture (which incidentally we, Indians have too).

And while we are on Gandhi, the amazing human being, that was a poor joke about his persistance having won independence for us. The British just found it expensive to sustain India. I agree gandhi was a cool dude, but please dont take it too far. If you still think British ran away because he 'offered the other cheek', I dont see why I spent my (otherwise unproductive) time over this. So long and thanks for all the fish.

PS: While you are in Chennai, do try Madras coffee and Masala Dosa at Saravana bhavan.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Another one bites the dust

There is no Higher Reason, No thing wretched or tart;
No heights to scale, No pitfalls to fall;
From dust I came and will someday go back;
And, what is left behind is just my own thought.

-I think, therefore I am and was!

To believe or not to?

Halt! This one is not about God and religion. Its my (arguably confused) take on social networking. See you later.

Shit happens! I mean we all do things and then look back and blame it on the ‘situation’, that God almighty (with all due and undue respects, whoever That is) was not as lenient with us as he was with the others- Most of the times though, it is not true. One is usually in control of the way things get to happen around self. Luck is a part of life, So is ones thinking and it matters more. More it is under control, the better. Treating luck as a separate ‘unknown’ variable will only increase the bliss that we are in (read ignorance -for dummies). Its better to just consider it as a statistical variation in a linear curve. Some old adage on ‘will’ and ‘way’ of people was not unduly based on inexperience, I believe. Most of our miseries are due to, what Munshi Premchand put so neatly in “Godaan” – Paapi pet (Sinner stomach). (There are some books people must read in life, at least once. Godaan is one such).

But wait a minute, not all of them are linked to the misfortunes bestowed by a hungry stomach – We have (in) human rights organizations to make the case up here. What with my excessive dosage of chat and ‘social networking’ these days, I am introduced to a new kind of mental pressure- that of living up to the expectations of someone you have never seen (and may as well, never will). But it is personal again. If you are like me, you would be emotional - but never throw up your emotions, or at least try not to. That doesn’t mean I am a door-mat people walk over – Most of the times I don’t give a damn to stuff. But there’s always so much to learn in life. How could I miss out? Education, of what I have ever had, has mostly been outside of my schools and colleges. The formal one didn’t ruin me- No Mr Twain, I beg to differ. It is only that I had so much off-school that the former seemed less significant.

I have made some very good friends on the internet, perfectly normal for anyone of my age and ablutions. I mean, for me, personally again, Friends are one of the best things to have happened. So I tend to choose friends with care and Passion. So am jittery about friends I make online, and what amount of information I give out to them. What guarantee will someone give me that the person at the other end isn’t faking off all his info and trying to get me all crossed up and emotional. Why? For the heck of it. My question put simply is - Is it alright to believe in someone when you have not even seen the person? Refraining from delving into the mires of right and wrong, I wonder, if belief is really a bad thing to happen to one self, or let take over one self, if that’s how you look at it. The point is, is it worth believing in someone? Obviously I concur with what you apprehended currently – Believe? In whom? The ‘whom’ part is most interesting – You will have to get back to ‘believe’ that what you know about ‘whom’ is really true.

But lets look at the other side of the coin- As long as you don’t actually give away too sensitive an information like your credit card number or the answer to ‘Life, The Universe and Everything’, you might as well not run into serious trouble. Sensitive reminds me of an interesting chat I had with a friend the other day (I shall refrain from the usage of names, relationships and salutations of the aforesaid), about sensitive information. The words truly amazed me – ‘never reveal..u will be hit at vulnerable spot’. The icing on the cake came in the form of the very next sentence – ‘and its applicable unless u know a person’. My point is how do you know you know a person? It is certainly a bad thing to happen, to open up all about your life and happenings and be not treated as honestly. More than any material damage, it affects the social thinking of an individual. Moving ahead in life (or at least pretending to), we may even have the secret swiss knife in our defense hidden in the stockings – you never know the guy next door!

If at all my ravings above seemed to be well against the apparently conservative (and for heavens sake get the hell out of American politics) bunch of individuals, I do see the justifications of the people who are in favor of not opening up ‘easily’. The point is its better to shut up and be thought of as a fool than to open up and clear all doubts. I think I have presented the two ends of the thread – its time to tie them up.

My take- The more you hide something and reveal later, the more it will hit in case of a forgery (wow, the term IS catchy). That means you must not create a public directory for people to hit and run, but give it out when you feel like (I hope the word ‘gut feeling’ as an approach to convey what I mean wouldn’t be misinterpreted as careless). But why feel sorry about what happened? The person if at all is a loony bloke, may not also have the guts to use it in manner that would bring shame. I don’t give a damn about such people. Lets just not make them popular by thinking about them so much. As for people who quote Chanakya in defense, Chanakya was a shrewd politician. He didn’t have the internet back then. If he did, I *believe* he would have blogged on similar lines.

Implicit Moron of the day

"We do not believe in making rhetorical statements which were made in the past like aar paar ki ladai and all. The prime minister and our government, we take stock of the situation. We are firm in our handling. Let everybody be reassured. When we convey our concerns, we convey them clearly and firmly and that is why I used the word, We will watch what Pakistan does." -Anand Sharma (Source)

I was looking forward to writing something on my pet subject. People call it bigotry, but I guess its for 'secularist'-usage-only in India. I will call it implicit moronicity or IM for shot.

For one, I will never understand what will it take for our Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma to be convinced that 'taking stock of situations', and 'watching what Pakistan does' are themselves rhetorical and justify my bestowing upon him, the coveted IM-of-the-day title on his divine self. To further substantiate his stand, he comes up bashing opposition leader Hajpayee, who has, no doubt, done his bit (but finished in a close second) towards getting to the title himself. The point is when two morons blame each other, Indians get screwed. (Mr McKay would now say "Being moron is baad", but whatever). Whats more; Anandji, somehow I guess, is under the impression that ISI is like LeT or something (i mean bureaucratically, organizationally). For all my money, I'd bet on ISI being more a part of Pakistan Govt than an independent organization- asking Pakistan to take action against it is like asking you to punish your hand. Best of luck with that, by the way.

The evidence that these people collect, also doesnt make any sense unless its revealed to the world. Maybe they have evidence, but unless you show them to me, "Screw you guys, am going home". I dont know whom more to blame:
a) Pakistani Govt (and/or ISI) for perpetrating violence. (which I am sure they did, but have no proof of)
b) Indian Govt for its ah-go-screw-yourself-Indians attitude
c) You, for wasting time over reading this, or
d) Me, for being as jobless

I have pretty much reached to this conclusion: Nothing good lays ahead in the future. I may be wrong, pessimistic or sadistic about it, but definitely NOT a moron.