Vacancy: An Icon for India

What does India need urgently?

An Icon.

Not the icon of of just a religious or a display nature, but a Symbol.  An Indian who stands for something.  All societies and nations need an Idea or Person or something, to which they can believe, and internalize.  Something which can give Identity, a sense of togetherness, something that rises above the petty divisions of caste and creed, community and religion.  Without this symbol, we Indians are doomed to fight our petty internecine battles – never to rise above the pitfalls of our diversity.  

We have given up on our politicos (barring a very small minority), to be an Icon.  For these few, it is a struggle against the entrenched bloated crass set, collectively encompassing the legislature and the bureaucracy.  We’ve seen cases of judicial activism – but the judiciary cannot take the place of the legislature.  Our intelligentsia set is no good, endlessly debating various logic to their bitter end, or paralysis by analysis, if you must.  This makes people escape to sports-persons (cricketers?) and/ or movie – and TV – persona, good in their fields, but not suitable enough to transcend barriers and inspire policy.

An Icon, when when he or she emerges will unite our hopes, desires, loves and fears.  The identity forged therein will transcend our current identities of region/ religion.  And make them irrelevant.

The time is ripe for our Icon.

Writing of the Wall

Citizens of India,
It is clear - the writing on the wall...
Time to stop the infighting, it will destroy us...
Time to put "India First!"
No, I don't care about what injustices your 'region', 'religion', 'caste' suffered... Nor should you...
Those affiliations are meaningless... Useless...
Time to be human... Time to Indian!

"We must all hang together, or we shall each hang separately" - Benjamin Franklin

And, trust me - lots of people in the world would happily hang us... for their own benefit...
Remember that every time before you complain about a perceived injustice by another Indian, or before you do an Indian an injustice.
Time to wake up!

India First. Foremost. Always!

A Letter to the Times of India

Subject: Deterioration of the "Masthead of India"


Dear Editor,

It is with great regret that I am penning down this e-mail.

Once the TOI was really a Leader. Features such as articles by Prof. Yash Pal, Dr. Nadkarni, Hi-Tech and Sci-Tech, the Centre articles on the Editorial page (which was on the right), an International page (which even the Economist would have been proud of), a crossword section unrivalled anywhere, food and lifestyle articles by eminent writers by Siddharth Kak, etc, were what made the TOI a prized newspaper.

Times change and so should we... but consistency should be maintained. Now, all your articles are becoming smaller and more opinionated, your editorials sound like advertorials, ad space has increased, etc. Infact if you compute the quantity of column inches dedicated to core news vs. that dedicated to advertisements and advertorials, over the last 15 years, you'll find a substantial decrease.

More important is the quality of news. Once what was a hotbed of incisive journalism is beginning to sound more like a tabloid like the Sun of Great Britain. Pray what is going on? Your Sunday editions are no longer readable, except for a few sections by Jug Suraiya, Bachi Karkaria, et al. Swaminomics and Gurcharan Das also seem to be getting rarer.

Is it a sign of the times (pun unintended) that the TOI must join its crass counterparts in Aaj Tak and India TV, where the news is so unreliable that it must be seen as a comic relief, at best?

It sounds suspiciously like your marketing department is running the show. Being a marketing professional myself, I can tell when you try to maximize short term revenue. But it is at a great cost. The reputation which was painstakingly built over the years will be irrevocably lost. It us, the Readers, because of whom your circulation is large. Because of which you can command a premium in advertisements. But increase advertising and advertorials beyond a point, and your readership will flag, sooner than you think. Because your target audience is still your Readers and not Advertisers. Your differentiating factor is your reputation as a serious, critical newspaper - and converting it into a tabloid will only hurt, not help. Just wait and see. For all the hits you're taking now, recession is not the answer.

My marketing professor used to joke: "Definition of Marketing: A sucker is being born every minute somewhere - your job is to find him." Let's hope you are not unwittingly taking him seriously. Because customers/readers take great objection to being suckered, and they vote with their purchase/reading preferences.

Think about it. It's about TOI's survival.

Regards,

A Reader

Grow up, Indians

The Taliban-Al Qaeda threat is at our borders, and we people are still fighting on religion, caste, and now - region...

When will we grow up?

India: State of War


"Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction."
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


India is at War. No question about it. This may not be a war in what we generally take war to be: two nation-states facing-off each other, soldiers and machines of war on the battle-field, planes flying through the skies - raining munitions and destruction, warships facing each other at sea, missiles flying off to destroy civilian and military installations, et al.


But it still is war - lives are lost, blood flows, weapons are used, tempers exist, warmongers rule the roost, innocents are harassed, truth is subverted, accusations fly thick and fact, gruesome images haunt and there is a rule of chaos.


Consider these:

• Kashmir primarily and the rest of India sporadically faces bombings, shootings, hijackings, murders, pillaging by proponents of a extreme form of hatred, under the guise of a religion, which like other religions, never sanctioned or condoned such wanton violence under any pretext
• North-East states of India being devastated by self-styled groups under the pretext of liberation of the people there
• Areas of West-Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, etc being degraded under the Naxalites, claiming to follow the principles of equality and self-rule for the people, but actually have suppressed and looted the people, maimed the economy and destroyed the will of the people they claim to serve
• Self-styled armed groups who resort to periodic violence under any pretext of religious and casteist slights and injustices
• Political groups who do not mind resorting to divide-and-rule policies on regionalism, language, caste, culture
• The new players on the scene - self-styled 'moral police' who claim to protect a culture which they know nothing about and care even less
  

This is the war by fundamentalists, people who have no other agenda but to subvert entire groups of free-spirited people, impose regressive agendas on them and use unwarranted and unpardonable violence to keep the people enslaved. Under guises of protecting and benefiting people, all they want is: Power and Money.


Let us not kid ourselves that they are benefiting us. Lots of comments in the media indicate that groups of people support the activities or the ideals professed by these groups. That is sad. What we, the people, don't realize is that all the causes are elaborate facade for power-hungry money-grabbers. If they were really concerned, they would put themselves through the rigors of proving their point, instead of planting bombs, wielding guns or beating up innocent women and men.


The end-result of all this will be, without doubt, dead or suffering innocents, psychologically scarred individuals, economic losses, an atmosphere of rage and fear, and - more importantly - a weak and divided nation.


About time we woke up to the reality.


Make no mistake - India is at War.

'Defending One's Religion': The New Evil - A Few Thoughts

Recently, a friend of mine, Malachi Lopez Mendes, sent in a few comments in response to my previous blog. They are so thought-provoking, that it is worthwhile sharing them:

• An interesting thought is that the cosmos does not have gods. Men find gods to explain what they do not know or to seek solace when they cannot find it in themselves.
• The creator has also created animals where they kill each other routinely. We do not consider that incorrect. Do we? What makes us better than animals in the justice of the Creator?
• Very true is the fact that the All-Knowing, All-Powerful Supreme Being needs no protection from mere pitiful words and / or images from us mere no-consequence mortals. So why do we fight?
• I think that while this (Each has taken to wearing one's religion on one's sleeve, and banishing its teachings from their heart) is true, there is also a very large population that is moving away from it. These people see the shame that the religious scramble has become and are seeking either other religions or shunning religion all together as atheists. This is the probably the silver lining to the bloodbath?
• (Pray, tell me, does that not take us away from what the purpose of religion is supposed to be?) This question i have expolored in depth. What is the supposed purpose? Do any of the scriptures state the purpose of religion itself? (and here i do not mean faith) In my view religion is a drug. What do u think?

These are very thought-provoking, & my sincere request is to think on them...

Thanks, Malachi!

The Violently Volatile Atmosphere of India

We challenge the culture of violence when we ourselves act in the certainty that violence is no longer acceptable, that it's tired and outdated no matter how many cling to it in the stubborn belief that it still works and that it's still valid. ~ Gerard Vanderhaar

Over the last few days, news about India is pretty well dominated by acts of violence - be it Hyderabad, Punjab or Singur - whatever be the cause, whoever may be responsible, this blog does not deal with that...

What this blog deals with is the fact that we are becoming an increasingly violent society... We literally give call to arms at the smallest provocation... sometimes before the cause is established or who initiated or why the triggering incident occurred, suddenly large mobs gather & go around shouting, beating up innocents or scapegoats, killing, maiming, pillaging, burning, looting, sacking & generally making everyone miserable in their misguided quest for justice.

Even in cases like Hyderabad, where the initial blasts were the handiwork of the enemies of the state, why did we loose our control & start mob rioting instead of keeping calm & showing some solidarity & help? Why did we have to play right into the hands of the secessionist elements who triggered off the blasts to divide India & destroy its harmony, by further setting off chain reactions of violence? Why does the media have to report potshots taken by our so-called leaders as to who is responsible, before investigations have properly started, & why does it not act responsible & spread messages to calm the society & help us project a message that we, the people of the Sovereign Democratic Republic of India, will not let the secessionists' designs affect us?

In Punjab & cases earlier, we are seeing increasing cases of religious intolerance. Religion, which is supposed to be a private issue, is becoming increasingly a hair-raising trigger for violence - a small whisper, a small deviation, a small expression of artistic freedom - becomes a matter of ego & pride, & we just attack. We do not even realize the fact that the more we indulge in violence, the farther we go away from God..

Have we finally lost our senses - our sense of calmness, courage under fire, rational thinking, tolerance? Are we seceding from the civilized world? Will the resurgent Indian story be again mired in darkness & chaos?

Where are the voices & forces of Peace?

These are questions that need to be answered if each Individual Indian is to enjoy his/her right to Life, Peace & Prosperity.