Friday 13 December 2013

Section 377 and modern day blind men of Indostan:


Dear readers,

The current debate on homosexuality , spurred by the recent  judgment of the supreme court of India , reminds me of  the poem written by John Godfrey Saxe in the 19th Century, about three blind  men and an Elephant. As a respect to this classical poet, before I continue writing on the topic , let my readers read this apt poem........

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -"Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he,
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

MORAL.

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!


Well as the moral of this poem goes, our moral custodians, legal luminaries , opportunistic politicians
and our so-called emancipated young generation are all describing an elephant called homosexuality...

The archaic law of Section 377 of Indian Penal code , was debated in the High Court, after an elaborate debate by the civil society and it was felt that the Law was discriminatory as it criminalizes consensual sex between adults if the sexual act is  done against the law of nature: So what is this act against the order of nature?  In many cases debated in India since 1925 , various  such acts were declared as unnatural, viz anal intercourse, oral sex, sex with animals  etc. The point of debate here , if the unnatural act is done by consensus, is it criminal ? Reading the text of the supreme court judgment, I felt that the judges were of the view that even if it is logically not criminal, un-natural nature of  act itself, even if it is consensual  makes it  criminal . Hence, what is natural or not natural is for the society to decide and the onus was pushed  on to the legislature and taken away from the judiciary. Secondly there are instances of sodomy and other unnatural sexual crimes in society which article 377 protects , which the judges felt should be given due credence. On the other side  critics can always say that when the High Court has already debated the matter in length, should a two member bench take a moral stand and throw the dirty linen to the legislature, rather than cleaning it themselves. Why the  Supreme Court who  infringes into many areas which normally falls in the domain of the legislature, found this case to be put in the reverse gear?

Well the truth is on our notion of sexuality as an expression of love: Culturally and religiously we were made to believe that sex is an act for procreation and as a sacred and secret act. From that closet we are now slowly emerging to accept the fact that it is also an expression of love. Even though homosexuality, like prostitution did exist in our social milieu from time immemorial , we are still not ready to accept it as natural, even after scientific evidence proves that , same gender attraction is created by the brain and not by perversion of the mind. Neuropsychiatry proves beyond doubt that feelings and emotions , are based on electrical sensations created by neurotransmitters in the brain. So if you are in good mood and ecstatic, it is because of serotonin and nor -epinephrine levels in your brain being  high and if it is less then you are sad. Similarly dopamine makes you fall in love. The electrical signals created by those hundreds of discovered and undiscovered neuro -transmitters in our brain synapses creates the phenomenon called mind and its consequent thoughts , emotions and deeds. Homosexuality is similarly  a physiological phenomenon and homosexuals are born as homosexuals, and they feel attracted to their same gender, and since they love each other, they express it and derive pleasure . They might be using their fingers, their mouth or thighs or even their anuses for that matter, but what is your problem as along as it is not a problem for them and for you ?

As like the unknown elephant for the blind men of Industan, our modern day blind men too don't realize that heterosexuals and homosexuals are tweedledum and tweedledee , differing only on the HOLE but not on the WHOLE:

GIVE THEM EQUAL RIGHTS.

Sanyasi...

 

Thursday 5 December 2013

Media Trails and Intelectual masturbations:

Dear all


Many years before mainly after the Prasar Bharati act and the liberalization of media, India witnessed,  reverberation of our fifth estate. In exposing corruption and building up of public opinion, our media performed a stupendous task. Its role in building up public opinion did have a positive effect on our public policy. However somehow on this route something foul is taking place. Our Supreme Court have smelled the rot and have asked the state government on how much an Investigating officer should brief media on a criminal case and has asked for a report on this.
Let us take the most recent cases. Notwithstanding the fact that Tarun Tejpal was alleged to have attempted to violate the modesty of a junior colleague, the media houses was on a continuous tirade against the magazine tehelka and its management. In our national media we could see a crusade of self-interest. An opportunity for rival media houses to pounce on the fallen hero, and a smooth revenge for a political party to settle their scores. The victimized journalist’s molestation cry is far heard than the brutal rape and murder of a north eastern women .Similarly an intern files complain on her superior judge for sexual harassment after 11 months giving the  right opportunity for the vested interest to malign the credentials of an honorable judge who was critical about some political party. The trial and judgment is already done by the media. 

Media trails, character assassination and defamation has now become the order of the day among the elite in India. They are teaching the rest of the world the wonderful art of mud-slinging. In an election year this also acts as cannon fodder to political rivals in settling scores.
 India’s public discourses have become a farce with any bedroom news worth a sensation becoming national debates. Our media selected intelligentsia is seen daily blabbering on gender and women’s right while ordinary women flock still  out there  suffering with the social evils of dowry death , female infanticide and malnutrition . Our High net worth Intellectuals opine and tweet their egos and is well cashed by the media and its cronies.
At a time when India need to set a social and economic agenda for its future, this media masala has stooped into an intellectual masturbation giving  only them a one sided pleasure  but making us the audience puke:
Sanyasi

Monday 14 October 2013

In search of reality: Seeing a tip of an Iceberg:


Dear all
As we emerge in festivities and with an upcoming new year let us ponder over the triviality of our existence and go beyond the ritualism that we practice and make an effort in understanding reality, if at all it is real
In the 18th Century the Irish philosopher George Berkeley propounded the theory of subjective idealism in a paper which was named ‘’ the new theory of vision’’. He propounded through this theory that objects  we see are nothing but perception of light seen in colour and shape. This thought process was further developed by the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in his theory of absolute idealism. According to Hegel, for human consciousness (which is the subject), the perception of the material world (which is the object) is based on a relationship between both, through the medium of thought. To make it simple, if you are standing on a floor and observing it, in your mind (observer/subject) the floor (observed/object) is a solid surface. If you are instantly hypnotized and told by the hypnotizer that you are on a pool of water, the mind perceives the floor as water. So here the thought creates the relationship between the object and subject.

This theory was further rationalised by the theory of transcendental idealism by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. In  his treatise the critique of reason which he published in 1781,Kant argued that our experiences are structured by our minds. He wrote that ‘’ we never have direct experience of things and what we do experience is the phenomenal world as conveyed by our senses. 

 For any student of Vedanta, genesis of these thoughts can be traced to the philosophical ponderings of our seers, who believed that the sensible external world is a perception of the consciousness.  According to A Parthasarathy from the Mumbai based Vedanta Academy (readers are recommended to read his book Vedanta Treatise ) perception is the interplay (identity or relation of Hegel )  of  the internal world of consciousness (object) to the subject. Let me quote him “Let us examine the perception of a flower. As per Vedanta the quality attribute of the flower exist in the flower as an object. The thought of the flower exist in the mind as a subject. The union of the thought and quality of the flower produces it”.

Indian philosophers from time immemorial believed in the illusion of the world which they referred as Ma (not) Ya (that) meaning ‘’not that’’ we see. The best definition of this is seen in the second verse of the Chatusloki Bhagavatam (canto 2 Srimad Bhagavatam) which reads

Ru- thertham Yad Pratiyeta Na Pratiyeta Cha Atmani

Tad vidyad Aatmano Maayaam Yatha bhaaso Yada Tama:

It means - Besides the real existence whatever is experienced is not that is experienced by the soul but that experienced by you which is    MaYa ,like a reflection in  darkness-

It is this reflection (Abasa) in darkness (Tama) which later became part of the quantum string theory and was called as the holographic principle by Gerard Hooft, the 1999 Nobel Prize winner and Dutch Physicist. For him the whole universe is an holographic reflection of a two dimensional information structure painted over a space-time horizon. His theory was later interpreted   by a physicist from the university of London named David Bohm who was a protégé of Einstein. Along with Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram they developed a new way of looking at the universe. (Please read The Holographic Universe: The revolutionary theory of reality: Harper Collins 2011.) Their work explains on the quantum levels of existence distinct from the observed and experienced universe.

In 1975 , Fritjof capra , the Austrian born American Physicist wrote Tao of Physics, which is probably the first book written  on ‘’scientific orientalism’’ exploring the parallelism between modern physics and ancient Indian wisdom . I quote from the book “Quantum theory reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated "building blocks," but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The human observer constitutes the final link in the chain of observational processes, and the properties of any atomic object can be understood only in terms of the object's interaction with the observer.”  It is this dichotomy between the perceived and the real world , makes us think of a realm which is actually real and to which we are all part of . Our ancient rishis called this  as Brahma ( Sarvan Khalidam Brahma ) embroiled in an expanding egg like formation (brahmandam). In reality beyond our perceived knowledge of our reality, we are scientifically proved to be part of the Universal energy level. We are only experiencing a state of differentiated identity from a common whole .The ancient Indian sankhya philosophers explained this as a differentiation of the   prakriti from the purusha. According to them prakriti is a space-time conundrum which is maya which I and you believe is our world, where our feeling and aspiration (Kamaartha-moham) dwell. It is the place where we love and hate and a place we enquire and seek which in itself is not real but only a holographic projection. However it is for a moment of that experience that we are all here, beyond which I,  you and all are just  quantum states of consciousness  . We are all like the series of pots emerging from an artful potter’s wheel, to be broken back to mud and re-emerge as another new pot.

As science and philosophy merges let us cherish, and celebrate the moment of life with mutual acceptance and respect. While reading stories of horror, of death, destruction , violence and hate , I feel let the humanity be taught the science of Vedanta and meta physics and made to realize that peace and love is what only that exists , the rest of the feelings being hallucinations and what that exists is one , which is complete and universal .  I conclude this article by a verse from Isha Upanishad

Purnamadah Purnamidam
Purnat Purnamudachyate
Purnasya Purnamadaya
Purnameva Vashishyate
Om shanti, shanti, shanti

Sanyasi:

Thursday 12 September 2013

Narendra Modi : The PM designate: A Choice less Choice:

The BJP parliamentary board is likely to meet and announce that Narendra Modi is the Prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 General Election in India : As per press reports, veteran leader L K Advani and his mentee Sushma Swaraj , has opposed the move. On the eve of this announcement, let me put forward three questions  on What it makes to be a Prime Minister of India and you readers think and decide on how much is NaMo ( Narendra Modi) eligible as per this questioned  criteria .

1   Nationally recognized and acceptable?It is said that the legacy of the congress party in the post      independent era has its genesis on Mahatma Gandhi anointing Jawaharlal Nehru as his       successor. The socialistic and secular credentials of Nehru outweighed the feudal and rightist lineage of Sardar patel in this choice exercised by the father of the nation. Nehru was a nationally accepted leader irrespective of party affiliation- a charisma later inherited by his family and carried forward even now to the fourth generation-  Atal Behari Vajpayee was also viewed as a moderate leader and Statesman , in the whole of the country irrespective of his being the leader of a right wing political party.The present Prime Minister did acclaim a nationalist credential as India's path breaking Finance Minister:On these yard sticks, where do NaMo stand?


2   Administrative experience in a National Level?All former Prime Ministers excepting the       makeshift PM Deve Gowda had considerable exposure in handling national issues. Does NaMo have it?


3 Crossing the Language barrier?Much has been done unsuccessfully  in camouflaging the national identity of INDIA to that of the Hindi language. Setting aside the diverse and culturally richer languages of India, efforts in officiating Hindi hitherto have been resisted by people who don't speak that  language as their  mother tongue. Here the Queen's language whether we like it or not have been an acceptable lingua franca and  hence all Prime Ministers of India were fluent and converse in that language whenever they addressed the non-Hindi speaking people which made them comfortable ?Will NaMo do it ?


On other counts too like ‘’NaMo being a successful Chief Minister’’ is not a singular eligibility, as the chief ministers of Bihar,Tripura, Goa and TamilNadu were all  equally successful .


In spite of all this what makes NaMo the numero uno for the Prime minister post? This is not a result of  marketing gimmicks or any  type of social media blitzkrieg , but due to the  prevailing lack of trust and the leadership vacuum that this country faces. The level of energy and youthfulness lacking on our existing political establishment and the need for a leader ,  who is selfless and incorrupt have made NaMo a better choice in spite of all the ineligibility cited against the above three questions. The determination and strength shown by him  in the caricatured and pinpointed  political mudslinging and International isolation  he faced since the Gujarat riots , did make the nation realize that it was unfair to put the whole blame on him.


As he is poised to surpass this milestone and as cited earlier in this blog (Modification of theBJP June 9,2013 ) , the inner conscience of NaMo should act in paving way for Advanji to lead ....... If Sonia Gandhi can listen to this call in the last minute, why not our NaMo.....  Sanyasi

Thursday 29 August 2013

Thought of the day: We the land of Asarams:

Dear Readers,

We all know that in India , there is this  Godmen syndrome. A sense of blind belief , or a mass hysteria spread around an ascetic who is normally addressed as  Baba or a Sadu  . Among such innumerable characters both dead and living  , few were  indeed pious and philanthropic and  set up schools, colleges and hospitals , delivered lectures on Hindu scriptures and benefited  a large section of the population. 

''Sadhuism" as I will call it is  great business . A Baba  with millions of followers is a force indeed. Armed with  oratory skills  and   ability to win mass followers, they  attracts money and power and eventually  rise to be  a CEO of a multi million charitable organization. But as long as they preach peace and the society benefits , I don't see any wrong doing . As  a society we need religious preachers with a positive impact on our lives . But the tragedy today  is  on the  emergence of black sheeps  among those herds of religious preachers. Many of them have come to prominence by their  claim of curing diseases through some mass placebo effect or by propagating some variant of yogic exercises or religious mass games . The strategy is by conducting  religious congregations called satsangs  which increases popularity and resultant cash flows . Behind the veil of religiosity,  these fraudsters indulge in unlawful activities  be it money laundering, land grabbing or sheer sexual voyeurism, all with candid support of the vested interests.
The question here is , If such religious fraudsters  emerge what is the check and balance  . It is here we fail as a state. Among the many such instances that are reported , the recent episode of child abuse,  against a popular saint in western India named Asaram babu is a case in point. This seemingly eccentric saint is alleged to have acted like a pedophile with the police behind him now, but cautious enough,  fearing political backlash of losing his million plus follower's votes in an election year. This babu is notorious to have been in the law makers records for all reasons ranging from land grabbing to mysterious deaths . But ever since ten days of framing allegations against him, the police till this time has not arrested him. This is the pathetic state of our criminal delivery system. The high and the mighty, the sadhu and politicians are always above law. 

The thought here is '' where do we take this discourse further? . How do we as a society check this evangelical malice ? 

 Sanyasi

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Dr Amartya Sen : The argumentative Indian:

Dear All


Dr Amartya Sen has proved again to be an Argumentative Indian.  

You should read the sixteen essays written by Dr Sen on the historical and political landscape of India’s argumentative tradition, where, he concludes that arguments are vital for the success of India’s democracy and politics. { Ref Amartya Sen: Argumentative Indian: Writing  on Indian History, Culture and identity } May be it is for us to keep up this tradition that he made national headlines yesterday. The Nobel laureate was not only critical of Narendra Modi’s model of governance but also made public his non acceptance of Modi , even as  a Prime Ministerial candidate.

As a developmental economist of International acclaim  with a leftist lineage, Dr Sen has always had his own critics on evaluating development in an economy. There are two sets of developmental economists. The first ones mainly the capitalist class, looks into the general increase in money supply in the economy and the resultant availability of capital for growth. It is this lot which measures the data on infrastructure development, banking and other macroeconomic indicators ,while the economists of leftist linage- to which  Dr Sen belong to -focuses on  social sector development, mainly on education ,health , poverty, freedom, human rights  etc. When we  analyse and give a value judgement on how good a state’s economy has performed we will always have economists and politicians who cherry picks data and interprets them. Accordingly for the leftist economists, the Kerala model of development may be far better than a Gujarat Model.

The Kerala model which was claimed to have created an egalitarian society with universal education and health care proved to be a misnomer. While education did result in skill development, there was no capital available for utilization of the same resulting in unemployment and skill migration. The Kerala economic development model has only resulted in creation of a money order economy with a dearth of capital, entrepreneurship and policy not to mention of left wing trade unionism. In the health front too while leftists economists talks about well ness indices of  Kerala State, its tribal region of Attapadi recorded nearly fifty child deaths in this year due to malnutrition . On the other hand Gujarat Model which focussed on capital and investment resulted in better roads, power and other infrastructure facilities making it the fastest growing state with no power failures. It increased employment opportunities not only to people of the states but also resulted in migration to the state for employment. On the education and health care front Dr Sen is right on pointing figures at Gujarat, because quality and standards of its health and education delivery system is dismal and needs change. While public distribution system is better than other states, capital percolation in health care and education has created more hospitals, schools and colleges but with low quality doctors and teachers. Most of the capital flows in education has come from the private sector but they have not been able to attract the best talent. It is often heard that school teachers themselves does not have the requisite knowledge and skill with cases of senior students engaged in teaching their juniors.

In such a contradicting scenario we cannot portray a state to have achieved or not have achieved any form of universal growth but growth need to be evaluated in the context of the indices of under discussion. Cheery picking economic growth numbers will never give a clear picture but can only add to political rhetoric.

Well whether Dr Sen accepts Mr Modi or not is his choice but he indeed has thrown open a debate prelude to election and hence proved to be a responsible and argumentative Indian.

Sanyasi

Friday 19 July 2013

An Open letter to Arnab Goswami:


Dear Sir,

I know that I am writing this letter to the most articulate journalist in India. I do respect you for your stupendous contribution in the national media and the activism and vigour you show in bursting the hypocrisy of the political class. I watch your News hour program in Times now and have been following your stellar performance in the media ever since your NDTV times. However off late in your debates, you does not seem to play the ringmasters role of bringing divergent opinions to the nation, but instead you yourself get into the ring, and give an impression of taking sides. This gives an image of you taking positions in a debate. I think the flavour of your program is in your ability to expose the politicians by your rhetoric, but that should not get into a state of sensationalism which I doubt is happening now in your program. Secondly excessive emotion that you exhibit be it anger or sarcasm, does not taste good. I have found you yelling at the participants of them being touchy, but on the contrary you seem to be touchy while you are put in a spot. In one of the debates I heard you  saying that you are a citizen of India and you have a right to say what you want. However it should be understood that being a national figure, your right to speak should not offend others. Your activism on issues related to matters which are  subjudice, needs to be handled with caution especially when you are anchoring a national debate participated by the best brains in the country .

 Media activism and investigative journalism has made a difference to Indian democracy making it more transparent, but media too has a line not to be crossed which needs to defined by law. In the  judgement dated 19th April 2010 ( Manu sharma v/s State of Delhi) , the division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice P Satashivam and Justice Swatenter Kumar observed , and I quote ‘’ Presumption of innocence of an accused is a legal presumption and should not be destroyed at the very threshold through the process of media trial and that too when the investigation is pending. In that event, it will be opposed to the very basic rule of law and would impinge upon the protection granted to an accused under Article 21". The learned judges also cautions that the  ‘’freedom of speech protected under Article 19 (1-a) of the constitution has to be carefully and cautiously used so as to avoid  interference to administration of justice and leading to undesirable results in matters subjudice before the court”

As Parliament elections are nearing the private media finds enough sentiments in their ‘’market’’ which can be capitalized by sensationalism. Be it scamgates or modi mania  for a nation frustrated by their politicians , any ringmaster , who throws a ring to the  political class and make them juggle is a matter of satisfaction. However this does not absolve the ringmaster from his role of not being a player by himself.

Sanyasi

Saturday 6 July 2013

Living in relation: The Elderly way:


Hi,
A recent visit to attend a mass marriage ceremony of lonely and elderly men and women opened a Pandora’s box of thoughts. Men and women aged above 60 but lonely due to the death of a spouse or neglected by children met and choose their companions for a living in relationship for the rest of their life. No strings attached, no liability clauses, you can choose your companion and live forever. Some couples choose not to live under a roof but to only share moments of companionship while on travel or on spending quality time together.

The greatest social threat that we face today is that of the social security of an elderly parent when they are alone. Aging is made synonymous with withdrawal from life and we make our elders a dependent, redundant and feeble human entity in the house by trying to be pseudo shrvan kumars . We approach them with an attitude of a protectionist, giving a heavy dose of instruction the moment they step out of the house or by restricting them to do household work and just spend time by reading and watching TV.  Extra expression of concern on their health, talking carefully with them, taking too much precaution while leaving them alone will only make them weak and dependent and  delicate showpieces in the house.  Our excessive considerations could be out of love or to make them feel special and valuable, but such a singular attitude makes them weak, aged or incapable rather than of confident individuals.  

The legend of Shravan Kumar, the mythological dedicated son of blind parents has been a part of traditional Indian household. Parents cherish their sons to be like shravan kumars to take care of them in their ripe age. Thanks to this tradition still in India we do not find our aged parents languish in old age homes unlike the few hapless ones put to the mercy of the caretakers.  

 In India aging is more related to the cultural mindset. The moment one touches 60, the person is regarded old i.e. not capable of doing work, need retirement from professional life etc . Children and young alike are indoctrinated to give a helping hand to old people. Young child holding hand of a healthy 60 plus is a common image cherished in literature and in Indian cinema. Oldies are expected to spend rest of their life in religious functions or similar types of activities. They should be away from the vibrant social activities. They should take rest, live with their married children, tell stories to their grandchildren and restrain from   their day to day work.

However, this type of mindset is not put into practice in reality. Majority of the elderly living with their children does not live a gratifying life; many are the victims of harassment by their own children and many feel alienated in their relationship with married children while living together. Living jointly is relentlessly marred by the issues of adjustment in life style, feeling marginalized, secluded, and ineffective.    

This is the traditional mindset on old age. Nevertheless, a genre of elderly people who have lived an independent lifestyle and believes in ageing gracefully finds difficult in fitting themselves into such a conservative mindset. They do not believe in shravan kumars tradition and culture.  For them such a living is suffocating.  Self reliant and own space is what present time elderly look forward to and strive for that. Ageing gracefully with spouse or without spouse is what a seventy plus wants. With sufficient funds, own house, friend circle and exciting travelling plans fills the life of today’s generation oldies. They would like to be in touch with happenings and developments in society. This phase of life is looked upon has rejoicing thoroughly each moment of  life which hitherto did not happen  due  to the rush for livelihood and  family responsibilities . No wonder, throughout world, in comparison to young people who are largely down with depression and worries, oldies are the happiest lot.  Perhaps how to live a fulfilling life is realized only at this stage by today’s mankind.  

The new living in relationship models among single old citizens is a step in the right direction and I was feeling OLD among a set of YOUNG 60 plus couples romancing each other.

Long live cupid:
Sanyasi:

Friday 21 June 2013

sanyasi: Sex and the City : Circa 1300 AD: My sojourn at Ko...

sanyasi: Sex and the City : Circa 1300 AD: My sojourn at Ko...:   Hello, A Visit to the Sun Temple at Konark, in Orissa brings in reminiscence of a past on how, life was celebrated by the elite cl...

Thursday 20 June 2013

Sex and the City : Circa 1300 AD: My sojourn at Konark:


 
Hello,
A Visit to the Sun Temple at Konark, in Orissa brings in reminiscence of a past on how, life was celebrated by the elite class consisting of Kings and Priests among the kingdoms at Kalinga. As an amateur   with a   subaltern mind-set, when I went there on 16th June the hoary temple at Konark gave me glimpses of  lascivious life style of the elite well   depicted and preserved in the erotic sculptures set in  amorous postures .
Konark is only 65 kms from Bhupaneswar and on the coast of the Bay of Bengal near to the Major Port of Paradip. The Sun temple was built by King Narasimhadeva -1 of the Eastern Ganga dynasty of the 13th century and is a world heritage site. It  was built in the form of a chariot of Sun God  driven by seven horses and made of black granite stone facing the eastern coast. The architecture of the temple which is in the northern style is made so scientifically that whenever the sun passes the equinox,  the rays of the sun glitters the diamond placed on the forehead of the idol. (The idol today is in National museum Delhi and the diamond is in British museum at London). The polished black sandstone is fixed in the columns with cast iron which are still not rusted in spite of the saline atmosphere here. In order to create a counterweighing balance to the iron clad structure the temple was made with magnets installed on the top.  (It is said that these magnets deflected the compasses and hence the direction of the Dutch and Portuguese ships steaming off shore during the 17th century. Removal of the magnet by the British rulers from the super structure affected the equilibrium of it ,resulting in structural damages as seen today) It is beyond doubt that the builders of the temple in the 13th century had a firm idea on electro magnetism, metallurgy and astronomy.
The local belief here is that the son of Krishna from Jampavati , named Samba built the temple as a tribute to Arka (sun) , for saving him from leprosy. However there is no historical proof to this. According to another legend, based on the wish of the queen of Narasimhadeva-1, the King called the master crafter, Bisa Maharana of Kalinga and instructed him to design and construct the temple in 12 years’ time with 1200 artisans.- The stones were shipped through local barges from the Andhra region and physically lifted to the site of construction which was just on the shore. It is said that the sea water during tides rose up to the sanctum sanctorum and in one of the floods the temple was destroyed, not to mention of the ruins created due to the iconoclasm of the Muslim rulers of Eastern India.-  In the last day of the 12th year Bisa Maharana nd his artisans were unable to install  the superstructure with only a night left. The King visited the site and ordered Bisa Mahara to complete the work before sun rise or to face death. However Bisa Maharana’s  twelve year old son erected the structure at midnight and drowned in the sea the next day to give credit to his father and save him and his craft men from death .-This   legend is a testimony to the arrogance of the early Kings and Sultans who took credit and went with their names into the  annual of history at the cost of talented craftsmen of the period. A real food for thought for the subalterns.
The erotism in the sculpture gave me a feeling that the elite enjoyed a sedentary lifestyle. The devadasi system which was prevalent there, gave ample scope for sexual extravaganza as temple women married an invisible God to be only  used up by the priests and kings. The other argument which came from the locals here , was that,  after the Kalinga War fought by King Asoka , nearly one lakh and twenty thousand men died –which  was nearly the whole of the young male population - making an equally number of women with no avenues for sexual gratification, resulting in polyandry and lesbianism and other forms of sexual voyeurism. Being from a generation ,  grown up from the remnants of Victorian moralism and later Hinduism, we may find it  difficult to accept the argument that  ancient India imbibed an open sexual life, and  is likely to view  those sculptures as voyeurism or tutelages of a maniac king. Well that is an argument or a thought process, but the conclusion here is on the glorification and celebration of sexuality unlike the hypocrisy of today s generation. Within the garb of moralism we deny and negate any form of expressive physical love, be in sex education to children or display of public affection, we are always on the verge of moral policing whether it is the society or the state. It is quite ironical to conclude that this repressed society of us evolved from a free and expressive population who lived centuries ago……………………………………

ILLUSTRATION:

 
The eight spokes of the chariot wheel portrays various stages in life and the cycle of life and death. It also depicts the division of time into 360 degrees based on the ecliptic movement of the sun.
 
 
Lesbianism was widely prevalent and practiced among the temple dancers
 

 
Cast iron bars used for the construction. Preserved and not rusted even after 700 years.

 
The Temple under renovation.
 


Canine saliva was believed to be an antiseptic to treat venereal diseases by women.
 
Oral Sex was prevalent those times long before the west claiming to have taught us about it
 
Prostitute waiting for her client.
 love making in posture 69  (middle sculpture)
Proof of rampant polyandry  .
Some ancient version of ''women on top"'
Serpentine desires .
 
I was tired and resting after an ecstatic journey over a landscape of 13th century eastern India

Monday 17 June 2013

Changing Electoral landscape


The exit of Nitish Kumar from the BJP after a successful electoral alliance of 17 years is a turning point in the Indian political scenario. When the BJP emerged as a political party capable enough to counter the congress, it was the regional parties which sided either with the congress or the BJP, creating a bipolar political balance in the name of UPA and NDA. Since then we have been seeing the rule of these power blocks for more than a decade.

The current development is likely to result in the formation of a third front of regional satraps leading to a tri polar electoral battle in the coming Lok sabha election. On one side this runs the risk of no group getting an absolute majority resulting in a weak government and governance. On the other side it is an opportunity for the people to select a single party. India’s political landscape is now filled left right and centre and this elections are going to be a watershed elections paving way to new experiments in democracy . Lot of debates on secularism, nationalism, corruption and regionalism. Which issue is going to tilt votes is yet to be seen

Sunday 9 June 2013

''Modi'' fication' of the BJP

The “Modi”’fication of the Bharatiya Janata Party has finally began. Narendra Modi after being first inducted into the Poll Panel is now expected to be its chief campaigning for the BJP for the 2014 general election. The BJP national executive currently under session at Panaji is likely to make a declaration to this effect.

Narendra Modi and the modification of BJP has been a case of intense speculation since a year which attained momentum after the successful Gujarat assembly polls and lately after the sweep of the BJP in the Gujarat and after the change in the President ship of BJP from Nitin Gadkari to Rajnath Singh.

On one side it is an acknowledged fact that the BJP is in a major stage of leadership transition. It is similar to the transition of the BJP which we witnessed in the early 90s when L K Advani started the Rathyatra which resulted in the emergence of BJP as a national political party in India. In all such transition there is always a state of dissent and the resultant media speculation. If you recollect the 90s, when the baton was moving towards Mr Advani, there was speculation of an hard-line Advani camp and the Vajpayee camp. While the moderate Vajpayee camp disapproved of the hardliner’s Babari masjid campaign, the rest is history. The hard-liners  won the election under  Advani’s leadership, and BJP became the principal opposition party. Subsequently after the formation of the NDA, when the BJP came to power, the “ hardliner” Advani humbly paved way for the soft and acceptable leader AB Vajpayee to become the Prime Minister.

Today when a similar transition is being witnessed, will Mr Modi show the same audacity and humility to pave way for the veteran leader Mr Advani to be the Prime minister and he occupy the home minister’’s role? Well that is yet to be seen. However there is much debate on who should be the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. Today in a media managed election campaign when Modi is at the helm of BJPs election needs’, an analysis is necessary, especially for my overseas readers, of what makes or unmakes Modi as far as far as the Prime Minister ship is concerned . As a general secretary and spokesman of BJP,  Modi in the early 90s was sent to his home state of Gujarat to counter the severe infighting, corruption and nepotism within the then BJP in Gujarat epitomized by the vagaries   of two leaders viz Keshubhai Patel and Shankar Singh waghela. The state of Gujarat was also traumatized after the killer quake of 2001 . There was enormous caste anarchy with the Patel community ruling the roast. It is into such a socially and politically turbulent atmosphere that Modi was sent. His background as an RSS pracharak in Gujarat had given him a strong insight of the social fabric and its sensitivities. Three months into his position, Gujarat saw the worst communal violence of the time predominantly a retaliation of the Hindu fundamentalists against the incidence of the Muslim radical’s attack on a train killing nearly 57 Hindu men and women. The uncontrolled and unabated violence left nearly 2000 people killed. The involvement of the BJP cadre led by local leaders , and the inability of Mr Modi to quell the violence – making Vajpayee warn him of following Raj Dharma or Statecraft – indeed resulted in the “”monstor-ification “’ of him as a fascist iconoclast and inimical to the essence of secularism and national unity. Well whether he followed Raj dharma or not is not the purview of this article, but since then Modi ruled Gujarat with a single point agenda of development of the economy and bringing up the Gujarati asmita or pride. His successful re -election and the development in investment and infrastructure thereafter and most importantly the connect of the common people with him increased his popularity as we stand today.

However this achievement does make him a PM candidate. Yes as well as No. The reason he is clamoured as a future PM is primarily due to the leadership crunch faced by a nation. He is a man who has proved to be a leader and thought about the nation and his State beyond his self Interest. He is astutely principled, non – corrupt and a strict disciplinarian. Moreover he is accessible to the common man sans his security needs. The nation requires a PM who is decisive and tough and a strong implementer unlike the current PM. While this makes him eligible what lacks in him is the pan national acceptability, shrouded image of a hardliner Hindu radical, above all inexperience in national level administration and statecraft. This can happen if he follows his mentor LK Advani, by winning an election and abdicating the desire to be a PM, and instead be a Home minister paving way for the nationally acclaimed patriarch LK Advani to be the PM only to be accepted later as a national leader later in life. What happens is yet to be seen, but wishing Narendrabhai all the best


Sanyasi

Friday 24 May 2013

Honey and Money: Story of Indian cricket:

Dear All


Many years ago when Kautilya wrote the Arthashastram , in one of the verse he mentions that Money is like Honey, where ever a drop falls ants follows it and hence it is something to be handled with utmost care. It is this verse which comes to the mind when we hear today about the cricket fiasco. Cricket looks today a vulgarized game.

The genesis of this trend begins with the popularization of the 60 overs one day matches against the traditional 5 day test match format. The matches played at Sharjah way back in the 80s, with a cocktail mix of the underworld, Bollywood and the cricketers became the beginning point of betting and max fixing. Scandals over scandals followed then.  The 60 overs one day cricket was then further reduced in this decade to that of a 20 overs match, which finally has taken this form as Indian premier league matches.

The beauty of cricket is not its speed but in its style and slow pace. Unlike football where the speed of the game matters, the essence of cricket was in field management, intelligent batting , pitch performance, handling different types of balling , and its interest revolved on the talent and style of performance of players and teams,  spread over 5 days mainly on winter seasons. Increasing the speed of cricket by reducing the overs in fact killed the game and the 20/20 cricket style was the last nail in the coffin.

I could recollect the early 80s when I played cricket in my village, a time when neighbourhood boys beamed at us looking at this strange game. Cricket was confined to the elite schools and middle class office goers who, moved around with transistor radios listening to the commentary. The frenzy of limited over matches increased since the 90s and was mainly attributed to the popularization of cricket in the Indian subcontinent due to the TV revolution and the proportional commercialization of its growth. Pepci Co and CoCo Cola and other FMCG companies found cricket sponsorship the ideal marketing tool to reach to the masses. With a liberalized economy and a burgeoning growth rate the 21st century India was the best bet for any company to throw money to the cricketing fraternity and increase their market share. With cricket percolating to the rural areas, more money flowed in to tap the vast rural market.

Cricket attained an horse trading format when players where hired and played as stallions on race course with corporate houses and high net worth individuals looking at it beyond brand endorsements to that of  wealth, luxury  and lavishness and the whole of cricket has become an ecstatic pleasure as epitomized by the sizzling dances of the cheer leaders.

Where do we stand today? As long as you are ready to pay and enjoy the orgasmic pleasure of cricket what is wrong about the whole deal. Should the government intervene and where is the dividing line of righteousness, ethics and civility? While we ponder for these answers what is lost is the game called cricket.

As Kautilya said spill  honey attracts ants and these cricketing ants have spoiled the game  and as our law enforcement agencies arrest more of them be it  cricketers, film stars or executives , let us be nostalgic of  those old cricket days with its traditional commentary …Incomes Kapil dave, right arm over the wicket…..

Thursday 9 May 2013

Relationship: Philosophical pondering and practical solutions:


 Dear all

Most of the time, when we are either happy or is sad, and when we introspect, we would be forced to ponder about a question. Is our emotional state dependent or independent over a relationship? Before we answer that question let us look into what others have told about this.

According to the Dalai Lama the need for support is felt at the early and late stage of life, and he advises us to show compassion and love at a stage when we are not dependent, which means at the middle ages the dependence is minimum. Paul Coelho in his blog says that emotional non dependence leads us to know where and dependence brightens our life and if we live superficially the soul is then set on fire.

I recollect my late chemistry professor , who lived all his life alone in a crammed room , running after his evening lecture, to the fish market only to fetch fish for his two pet cats whom he lovingly names methyl and ethyl   ( the two alcohols). He had poured his heart to those cats but unfortunately he died recently mostly a case of suicide. I have also heard about an English woman who gave her fortunes to her dog well written over a will she had made prior to her death.

So what is that we miss and that we want to relate to and that is what we do by building a relation. Let us look into what J Krishnamurthy says .According to him ‘’life is a movement in relationship’’ and perfect individuality is perfect harmony. However imperfection being the DNA of creation-which our saints called Maya- a perfect individuality does not exist and the only perfect individuality is the creator itself. So an in perfect individuality like me or you or us strives to be perfect as it is its ultimate goal and creating relationships are an effort in that direction. However this effort in relationship making in life, according to Krishnamurthy is controlled by two elements that are, image and need, which means we behave and expect from relationships what we imagine of that relationship and what we want from it. So what he concludes is that the need that is imagined to be sourced from that relation is meant to escape the imperfection felt when you are alone,  a state which precipitates need. Hence for him relationships are always imperfect and in a lecture that he delivered in 1971 at New York, he calls this imperfection as a social corruption. So to be in perfect relationship he asks us to look at relationships without an image. I quote him here from his lecture . ‘’ Can you look at your wife, or your friend, or whatever it is without the image? The image is the past, which has been put together by thought, as nagging, bullying, dominating, as pleasure, companionship and all that. It is the image that separates; it is the image that creates distance and time. Look at that tree, or the flower, the cloud, or the wife or the husband, without the image’’ he concludes that we should strive to create a perfect relationship by looking at individuals not through the prism of expectations but on compassion and sharing, which he says is perfect love. So a perfect relationship is that relationship which we should pursue where there is no need for dependence, no need for comfort and care, and when not used as an escape route from loneliness, and where it is only giving but no taking anything from the other. The Gita also echoes the same thought and Krishna advises us to have a determined intellect ( viveka bhudhi) by practice of Yoga that  get into  a relationship where we are involved in desire less action ( nishkamakarma) .

This imperfection was realized by the society ever since it started a civilized life of dependence and the institution of marriage has its genesis thus as a social construct to this problem. A construct to cater to the biological, psychological and economic needs of two individuals who need to be related and create further relations to strive in a need based society. So we need mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and we collectively create them and call our self as a family and such families create and sustain society. I gain refer Krishnamurthy who says that this social construction is habit and habitually continued  and has a meaning if there is a perfection of needless compassion within the unit which rarely exists.

Today I read in the newspaper that a lady in Rajkot just killed her son in despair and was attributed to her marital discord. You all are aware of the needless story of marital discord and resulted turbulence. It might be violence somewhere, suicide elsewhere or sheer suffering in silence just for familial existence. Why this suffering and why do we keep individuals in water tight compartments no scope of escape

Where is the end and meaning to this? Finally I read Osho and got the answer to it. He says love and relationships are two different things and not at all related. A relationship is absolute but love is dynamic. A relationship is a nown and results in a full stop. His call is to forget relationships but learn to relate, as once we get into relationship we take us granted and creates images and ends in misery. So by continuously relating we search for more in an individual and the more we search, the more mysterious we feel and the more we pursue and relate and this process does not end and it can happen only through compassion and selfless action:

Sanyasi
 

 

Wednesday 8 May 2013

'Monkey lost its Mango: Congress win in Karnataka


 Dear readers
 
The victory of the Congress Party in the Karnataka elections as somebody has said is like the electorate giving the keys from the thief to the dacoits. Ever since the time of the late  Ramakrishna Hedge who brought in a political leadership in Karnataka in the 80s, Karnataka politics have been a boiling pot with political leaders with huge business interest taking centre stage. It was when the BJP came to power, the first time in a southern state that the people in the country thought that political decency would come back into Karnataka. However Yediyurappa who became the BJP chief minister proved to be not only corrupt but a power monger . Electorate this time had no other choice but to bring back the Congress to power. Well how the new government is going to perform is yet to be seen, but the most important aspect here to be noted and learned is that the BJP has again proved its political bankruptcy.  In spite of mounting pressure to sack Mr Yedurappa, the central leadership of the BJP was dillydallying thinking that the politically strong lingayat community vote bank will get eroded. It kept on a closed eye to the mining scam and arrogance of Yedurappa , till he became belligerent to have formed his own political party. The result is that BJP lost its southern entry post with severe ramification to its aspiration of increasing its vote share in the south of India prior to the 2014 general elections and the lingayats voted for the congress. BJP today looks like fallen horse with only a Modi to bank upon with.
Political decision making in a democracy should be very much weighed on its impact on long term credibility. BJP had done the same mistake when they failed to dismiss the Narendra Modi government as a sequel to the 2002 riots, with only an advise of rajadharma principle from the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Presently the congress led UPA government is also in the same mind set when they are still allowing the railway Minister and the Law Minister to cling on inspite of all levels of public opinion to make them resign.
It is a time now that political morality as a principle is back in the public life of parties and politicians. Short term gains will always cost in the long term. The Karnataka elections are the latest case in hand. As Judith Cook , the American novelist , has mentioned in her seminal book  Price of freedom, in democracy political expediency outweighs nepotism and corruption. Yedurappa , Pawan kumar banzal and Aswini Kumar are only few beads in such an endless chain of political expediency within our turbulent  democracy
Sanyasi