STRAIGHT TALKS

The oft repeated word in Indian Politics and elsewhere is Self Respect.  There was a movement in South India which christened itself as Self Respect Movement. The thing about the movement was that it demanded people rebel against status quo instead of questioning it. Questioning would have been an intellectual or a mind job. Rebellion often an emotional mindless act. But sadly despite many self proclaimed scholars and intellectuals of the movement, none demanded fundamental definitions for coinages that mesmerized millions. What is self respect? We have the dictionary definition here. In general usage, the  term is vaguely defined as respect for self. Let’s avoid the spiritual and metaphysical connotations for self. We will relate self to a person here. But let’s ask questions. How does one get to respect oneself? Is it the same as self esteem and self acceptance? We will try to study and if possible, distinguish. Self esteem superficially is how we see ourse...

Let’s make a point clear. All media is business. A media business may have been initially launched with an utopian inspiration. To survive they need to have a business model & forget the inspiration. The longevity of a media business proves they are indeed clever. Claims of ideals are hogwash. How does media work, exist? Print media earns through selling copies and advertisements. Many times more through advertisements. Editorial policy compulsively matches with this requirement. Fill up pages with advts.  Then remaining pages with news, opinions. News and opinions will necessarily need to match with motives of advertisers. Or will lose out future advts. And precious money. We have adverts now. But fact remains that a copy totally was and is an advert. Have you ever heard of a media rejecting Govt ads?  In fact, they beg for Govt ads. This is titled as Independent journalism. Visual TV media acts similarly. But TrP is fundamental...

While at school I had heard of Nehru rolling a clutch of rupees and lighting them as a cigar to prove to British that he was as rich as they are. That his clothes were sent from Eton to India for washing and pressing. My mother said that I was lucky to receive a garland Nehru threw when she carried me as an infant to look at his motorcade in Madurai. I was impressed. He was the best bet to impress the world in British style, I had imagined. Nehru’s oft quoted tryst with destiny is often lauded without understanding the substance behind it. Rhetory excites. For a person educated in the west, supposedly groomed by Mahatma and taking over the reigns of an independent India, tryst with destiny sounds ideal but fatalistic.  On independence, Indians were euphoric. But that was all. There was no striving to build a strong India. Happy and content.  PM Nehru despite his education in capitalistic Britain was impressed by the Soviet model of economy. Mahalanobis became his gui...

We fight for water but will never save it. We  bargain with roadside vegetables seller ,flowers vender & shocked when prices of grains rise, but shed loud tears for farmers' miseries. We will NOT follow traffic rules but blame government for road accidents. We are hardly pious but practice  a fire brand religion. We are against dowry but prefer a filthy rich groom. We support eco protection but can't live without air-con, cars, gadgets. We condemn politicians as corrupt but we will reelect them when they  grease us. Governments are bad but we prefer government jobs. We demand more  facilities from Govt but would prefer a tax free Govt  We hurt others but totally unaware of it we blame others for hurting us. Porns, getting drunk, revealing clothes, late night outs are our birthright. But we demand respect and safety  in company of perverts. We fight against corporates but high paying jobs secured by some beco...

The mark of intelligence lies in asking fundamental relevant questions.  Years of Mughal rule & British colonisation killed the spark of questioning in Indians. It was a perfect condition for the Nehrus to pull wool over the eye of Indians who had come to relate white skin as the eligibility to rule India. We are told that Nehrus belong to Kashmiri Kaul Brahmins. That Motilal Nehru was one of the richest men of his times when being rich then was impossible without British support even as a chieftain of any area. If he amasses wealth, how did he? How did Brits permit? Had the Nehrus been Kashmiris, some roots ought to be available in Kashmir. Except for the fact that the Nehrus were close friends to Kauls, Fotedars, Dhars and Hakshars, no proof was made  in defence of this claim. Fact that the Nehru clan did not move their little finger to help the Kashmiri Pandits when they were displaced gives strong thoughts that their claim to the community could be a preten...

Our family had just moved in from an almost poorish one bed house near the dry river Vaigai in Madurai to an independent house in the now posh K K Nagar in Madurai. Ours was the first building to come up in the area in mid seventies. My brother and I shared a cup board each in the supposed office room in the new house. We even had keys to them and protected it passionately. Those days Tamil weekly magazines released fat special publications to mark Deewali every year. They carried mostly  spiritual posts along with pictures of Hindu Gods and Saints.  Am not sure whether I found a copy of Amudhasurabhi or Kalki special deewali edition. As I loved the deewali jokes I began reading it. And this picture of an elderly man in saffron clothing blessing in almost a salutish manner attracted  me. So I kept the magazine in my cupboard and locked it hoping to reread it later. And forgot about it.  Couple of months later in the neighbourhood called Anna Nagar,...

This was in 1991. I along with our infant daughter, Wife, sister and her husband travelled from Tiruvallore to Kanchipuram to have a darshan of Mahaperiyava. The famed Sage of Kanchi. A heavy non stop downpour on the way could not dampen our enthusiasm as that was to be our first darshan of the Saint at the mutt. As we entered the mutt, we wereconnected to someone who was to help us out on the darshan. Then we were led to a place where there were tens milling at a door way to have a glimpse of Mahaperiyava seated in a room. Mahaperiyava in his nineties, was seated on the floor with knees tucked to the chest. His thick eye glasses were simmering under lights. A picture of tranquility. The person with whom we connected went near him and shouted out my name and informed that I had come from Raj Bhavan where I worked then. He also shouted that I had come with my wife, sister and brother in law. Everyone in the crowd could hear his loud voice though none knew that he was referring...

Nations have been a comparatively a new phenomenon.  Drawn by physical boundaries, often fenced to wend off neighbors, obsessive on matters of defense, the people within boundaries are forced to remain a nation for perceived mutual purposes and benefits. Nations view other nations especially neighbors as enemies.  Concept of civilization ruled mankind for many millennia. Civilizations are about social development. Marked by a uniting singular culture, often by a belief in Superior powers that sustain the spirit within, a sensitivity and more selfless approach to fellow human beings, excellence in learning, achievements in arts especially in literature and kindness to all living things. Civilisations in brief is all about cultures. Civilizations influence beyond any territorial definitions, oceans  like a mesmerizing idea. We need to define an idea to understand the concept of civilisation. An idea is one that can influence a period of time. It's strength is ...