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Golden Age Creative Adda | Golden Age Diary | Astrophysicist

January 26, 2010 | 02:39 PM

Happy Republic Day for India the Idea.

Sitting at Narita Airport in Tokyo. Thinking about my country and my people. The people of India. It's Republic Day today in India.

The people of India ?

Is there another country on this planet with people as diverse as ours ? And while we constantly speak and complain about differences and conflicts, today must be a day to celebrate that diversity. The fact that despite the diversity we have clung to one nation even though everything threatens to tear us apart everyday.

Why ? Because India is more than a country. It is an Idea. An Idea that was born as a reaction to being colonized, to being enslaved by colonial power for centuries. As long as the Idea survives, India survives. They day we let go of that idea, we might as well let go of India.

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December 29, 2009 | 01:26 PM

Lindsay Lohan's poverty tourism - a therapy ?

This has been sparked by a statement I read by m/s Lohan's mother, that her trip to India where she saw the plight of the poor Indian children changed her and she is a different person now. Like it was the best therapy ?

Ok, enough of this. Enough of press and media attention gotten from celebrities visiting poverty stricken children in the world. Enough of media attention for celebrities adopting kids from materially deprived places all over the world. I think the attention should be on why, despite being the greatest consumers in the world, despite having every material choice they can imagine....

why does seeing someone else living in poverty make you feel better about yourself ?

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November 10, 2009 | 03:53 PM

Delhi descends into savagery : another personal experience

It may be wrong of me to keep posting these stories, but it is important to know that the carnage against Sikhs in Delhi is not something that can be consigned to History. It is something that happened recently and the both victims and criminals are still alive. It also shows (as in Gujarat and in Mumbai after that) how easily we descend into savagery worse than animals, where a human being ceases to be one. Why ? what happens ? Why would a neighbor kill another ? Is it within us to do this ? Within you or me ? This one is from Aimee :

my uncle was the first sikh who was killed in the riots... he owned a huge business of taxi's and this is the story i heard from his own family that survived... i must have not been 9... my uncle was dragged out from his house to his taxi stand beaten all the way there... while his young daughter ran after him trying to save him... they hanged him in front of her but did not kill him fully and then burned him alive... imagine seeing your own father die in front of you.... she was left to die at the stand... broken arm leg and god knows what else... I heard of her after 1 yr - she lived and joined the radical Sikh movement... then they ask why and how do we save our children from something like that. ? .. she is dead now.. well that is what i know... no one talks about this in our family... but 1984 case are still going on... so many died in name of caste system... we should not repeat the past and learn to heal those who have been hurt...

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November 03, 2009 | 09:11 AM

Do we have to slow poison our kids ?

No, for once I am not talking about the effects of global warming and the retreating glaciers. I am talking about something that is far far easier to control if we had the will to it.

With diabetes becoming an epidemic in urban India ( India is the diabetic capital of the world) and more and more kids being prone to the disease, surely it time to check the rampant advertising that comes on TV that tries to drive kids to stop eating fresh foods, but those foods that use chemicals to provoke the taste buds in children - fooling the body into believing those foods are good for them. The overheated and chemically created snacks, chocolate bars, breakfast foods, noodles and chips, ice creams that are made of the same chemicals and fats that detergents are made of, etc are slow poison not only because of the chemicals and fats they contain, but also because of they are replacing natural foods.

Commercials on TV are designed by experts that are very good at driving child psychology. Especially as the child's mind is the most vulnerable of them all. If smoking and alcohol ads are banned, then surely we should look at ads that encourage eating habits that lead to diseases in children ?

I wonder how many parents would allow their kids to eat a packet of chemically laden snacks, if the the packet said in clear bold letters " This food could lead to chemical imbalances in your child that could lead to diabetes"

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October 23, 2009 | 11:54 AM

Is India the ultimte under achiever ?

With the newspapers full of people celebrating or mourning the election results in Maharashtra, and ridiculous pictures of politicians wives dancing and senior politicians lighting fire crackers, have we forgotten that after the terrorist attacks the people of Mumbai came out to condemn the politics and politicians of the nation ? Have forgotten that there is a huge upheaval in India where the farmers are unable to even provide one square meal to their families after 6 decades of independence ? And they have a choice between suicide and joining the Naxal movement ? And that India is heading towards an ecological disaster ?

Have we become such slaves to the concept of Power, even if it is the most corruptible and self centered form of democracy we know, that we are willing to revel in highs and lows of election results ? We are like people who's house is on fire, and are sitting at home indulging in the politics of the Fire Brigade.

It would not be so frustrating i the people of India did not have potential. When I travel through India, when I meet the youth of India, when I look at their aspirations, their potential talent, their sheer ability to work hard and commit themselves, when I look at what faith people have, And finally their sheer resilience and fortitude, I am left completely breathless and angry at the same time. For it is this resilience and fortitude that our politicians are getting fat on.

What Potential !! What people !! What capacity !! But for the sheer crass selfishness of the politics of India. Sometimes I wish there was a different system. Sometimes I wish that all this could be overthrown in favor of a better system of governance. Sometimes I feel such sympathy for a revolution in India !

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August 31, 2009 | 06:39 AM

Cynicism, the line behind which the elite escape their guilt

Being a judge in India's Got Talent was a real emotional experience for me not only because I discovered my roots that I had left behind, but the sheer odds that many of the participants overcame with just passion was incredibly moving.

What caught me by surprise often though was the often derogatory reportage and comments by some of the elitist mainstream press, that saw such display of emotion or passion as a source of amusement or cynicism. Many assumed that it must have been scripted. It was not.

I realize that cynicism is the wall that the elite often protect themselves with against the onslaught of guilt they might feel at the completely dis balanced socio economic conditions that exist in India.

How often, for example, does one hear cynical and dismissive remarks about the ability of the working classes, or their own domestic servant class to rise above their own conditions and take responsible and honest charge of their own lives. Remeber how cynical the English language press was of Mayawati before she took UP by storm. Uh oh !

Proffessor Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank proved the opposite - lending only to the poorest of poor, he showed that Grameen Bank has the lowest 'Bad Debt' ratio in the history in banking. Corporate and rich borrowers were 50 times more likely to default or cheat on Bank repayments than the poorest section of the population.

The Cynicism must go. For it ignores the reality of groundswell movements that are taking place in rural and poorer parts in India. The Cynical elite has often been caught off guard in revolutions across the world. I am not advocating or predicting a revolution in India. But we are ignoring the existence of movements that are fundamentally changing the nature of the ground beneath our feet.

Time to drop Cynicism and look hard at the desires and aspirations of our people. And celebrate them.

Comments (50)

August 15, 2009 | 02:34 PM

Independence day for whom ?

Happy Independence day everyone ! And while we celebrate, lets give a thought to the idea of 'equality of Independence'. Independence was the both the end and the beginning. The end of the rule of the foreign Colonial Masters, and the dawn of the responsibilities brought with Freedom. Each Independence day should we not evaluate how responsibly we, the people of India, have treated the idea of Freedom ? How many of the citizens of India and the institutions of India have upheld the fundamental rights and duties to the Nation, to fellow citizens, to our environment,

65 % of our population was born in Free and Independent India. To them that day is only marked by an event in History, lots of rhetoric, lots of celebrations, and of course a holiday. Very very few truly understand the nature of living under an oppressive foreign rule. I know because both my parents and the rest of my family were part of the freedom movement and I grew up on the stories of incidents like JalianWala Bagh where my uncles and Grandfather were present.

But to the people of today surely freedom must mean, the Freedom from Hunger, The Freedom from Ignorance. The Freedom from illiteracy, The Freedom from oppression from one of the most oppressive police regimes in the world, Freedom from Injustice in one of the most extended and chaotic justice systems in the world. For justice delayed is justice denied. Freedom from disease, in a country that has one of the highest rates of infant mortality, HIV cases, Diabetic people and Heart ailments in the world. Freedom from the Caste System - which is probably the most oppressive social systems in the world, consigning huge swathes of our population to a life of fear and economic and social servitude. And Freedom from one of the most corrupt places in the world to live.

Yes, India is shining. Yes India is the only growing economy in the world in the current downturn. Yes, India has a mass technological base, with some of the best scientists, entrepreneurs, doctors, technologists in the world. But these skills serve and live amongst no more than 5% to 10% of India's population.

For 80% of the population of our country 65 years of freedom and democracy has done nothing other than the chance to vote in a completely imperfect and corruptible voting system. How would we ask them to celebrate the Independence day ?

What are we going to ask the poor farmer in Maharashtra, in Madhya Pradesh, In UP, in Orrisa, in West Bengal or Bihar to celebrate ? What about ? Ridden by debt, unsure of his survival, unable to feed his family leave aside educating them, this is the only life the farmer has seen in the last 65 years. Nothing changed for his Grandfather or his father, nor does he see any change or hope for his son since the British left. Other than that those that have used freedom to their own ends have gradually eroded his environment and sucked out water from his land and made it even tougher for him to survive.

I am sorry. But 'we the 10 % ' that have walked away with all the advantages of Freedom usurping power for our own benefit and often at the cost of the rest of the people of India, need to pause on this day and ask :

" Are we following the true spirit of our Constitution and the idea of Freedom that Nehru spoke so fervently about in his midnight speech, that Mahatma Gandhi along with hundreds of thousands of people that gave everything including their lives and those of their loved ones for a great idea, a great dream ?

Or have we corrupted those ideals for our own benefit and good, thereby making mockery of their sacrifices ?"

Today, the 15 of August 2009, we should all pause for thought, and then take the next step foward in our lives.

shekhar

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July 12, 2009 | 01:22 PM

Money cannot be eaten

"Only after the last tree has been cut down.
Only after the last river has been poisoned.
Only after the last fish has been caught.
Only then will you find that
money cannot be eaten".

Prophecy of the Cree Native American Tribe

Thank you, ratna

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March 20, 2009 | 05:15 PM

The loot of Colonization

"An estimated 1.64 million Chinese relics are owned by foreign museums. Even more than that are owned by private collectors. A great number were looted, stolen and smuggled out of China between the 1860s and 1949 when the country was subjected to colonial invasion and civil wars.

Because of the difficulties on the way to recovery of the stolen/ looted artifacts through diplomatic channels, or purchase them at a reasonable price is still the most practical way, however with the latest auctioned prices being rocket high, it is rapidly turning to be unpractical if not impossible...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article5829613.ece

Put Vijay Mallya's purchase of Gandhiji's personal artefacts in that context

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March 09, 2009 | 10:00 AM

Who do Blogs really belong to ?

When I first started to blog, I saw it as a way to express myself. I enjoyed putting thoughts down first thing in the morning. And then as the blog caught on, it was like relating to a whole universe of people with diverse thoughts. I then discovered that people like to express themselves back through this medium, not only to themselves, but also with each other. And then as our community got larger, I was approached by many people to sponsor the blog with advertising. I resisted that, and continue to resist it. After all their is a difference between a Newspaper and a Blog. One is a forum of discussion of diverse points of view of which I am merely the convener. The other a commercial enterprise for the benefit of the owners.

Anyway, for the moment no advertising. I will consider it if I need to spend money on the blog eg if and when we need a search engine, or I need to begin to pay people to manage it. In the meantime I wanted to tell you all that Himanshu is now back in India and working with me. He has left his beloved city of NY and decided to plunge into the world of film making. I wish him luck and all of those of you that are looking to do the same. Including Kedar and Sanjay and other that have actually completed their films within the years that they have been members of our community.

Good luck to you all and the only advice I have is : It's not a career, it a passion. and 'kal kisne dekha ?"

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