On relationships

This year taught me two important lessons. One is never enter into any type of relationship which has some bond, another do not invest too much trust in the relationship with women. Normally the close family relationships have the elements of bondage. But once the social status of the menbers involved differs, chasm may develope. Naturally the relations sour.
In the relationship with women, there is an element of dependency. Women prefer secure relationships. All the semblance of sincerity exhibited by them till that date vanish into thin air once they find a new relationship. They have no qualm in disowning their earlier men or if possible to humiliate them . Let the year close on this solemn note.

Ramdev episode

The latest in the series of blunders committed by the Union govt, the crackdown on the supporters of Ramdev marks a turning point. It has given life to the Sangh parivar which was in dormant state following the debacles in the recent Assembly eelctions. The principal Opposition in the country has nothing in its armour to corner the UPA govt over volley of corruption charges being raised againstit .Perhaps BJP can't raise its finger against the corporate lobby , which has assumed enormous clout in the governance as well as in maintaining the rightwing political parties. It is no secret that top leadership of the BJP has numerous friends in the big bussiness . So the faulty handling of Ramdev issue by the UPA has come in handy for the BJP to whip up passions and try to buildup the lost ground.

Endosalfan and the vested interests

To sign Atomic Enery Treaty no discussion was needed , including in the Parliament but to ban endosalfan the powers that be are insisting that numerous studies are required . It is to be examined whether any study was made before allowing the use of this deadly pesticide in the country.. A fundamentalist insisted that a library which doesn't contain Koran should be burnt down and a library which contains Koran need no other books, so the rest should be burnt. There is similarity in the attitudes of the market and religious fundamentalists.

Road to anihilation

As one who is observing the things going on around the nation, one is afraid to state that we are on the road to anihilation. One cannot honestly say that all the wings of our governance are free of corruption and scandals. The neo- liberal policies initiated two decades ago, at the instance of US have began to show its worst consequences. People of this part of the world held judiciary in high esteem as it was reasonably fair and just. The emergence of corporates as the major decision makers in the country , pushed the judiciary as their bidding. During this period hundreds of unfair judgements emerged from the highest court of the country which were patently anti- worker and anti poor . They were in effect giftting the heard earned treasures of the nation to a few corporate pirates. Perhaps our judges too migth have become richer in the process. It is with much pain we witness this gory sell out. Hope a day will come when more and more people realise this robbery and threw the agents of MNCs and Super Power from all the arms of our goverment and usher in a true democratic state, which our founding fathers really dreamed about.

The Arrogance of the Young Pianist

A father, enrolled his 5 years old son to a music school to learn how to play piano, in the hope that the son would later grow up being a famous grand pianist.A few months passed, and there came a very famous pianist to the town where the father and the son lived. In just hours, the concert ticket for his show got sold out. Luckily the father and the son managed to get two tickets for themselves.On the day of the performance, it was one hour before the concert started, the seats were already filled with crowds, and the father sat with his son by his side. As how ordinary a child is, the son didn't find it so pleasurable to just sit doing nothing, and without his father knowing, he slipped away.A father, enrolled his 5 years old son to a music school to learn how to play piano, in the hope that the son would later grow up being a famous grand pianist.A few months passed, and there came a very famous pianist to the town where the father and the son lived. In just hours, the concert ticket for his show got sold out. Luckily the father and the son managed to get two tickets for themselves.On the day of the performance, it was one hour before the concert started, the seats were already filled with crowds, and the father sat with his son by his side. As how ordinary a child is, the son didn't find it so pleasurable to just sit doing nothing, and without his father knowing, he slipped away.The pianist was surprised too, and quickly get himself to the stage. Seeing the child playing innocently, he was not angry, instead he smiled and said, "Keep on playing", and the child who got the permit, kept on his play.The pianist then sat beside the child and started playing together with the child balancing and adding fabulous piano strikes to the play, he filled in the gaps and weaknesses, that they could bring to the audience a very beautiful piano play. It was moreover incredible that it was as if they were united and being as one playing the piano. When both were done, the whole audience gave them very big applause and awe, bouquet of flowers thrown from everywhere to the stage.Unfortunately, for that, the child became arrogant, he thought, "Wow, just one month of piano practice I could be this great!"The child was not aware that the one being cheered merrily by the audience was the pianist sitting by him, filling all his gaps and perfecting his play.~~~~~~What are the implications in our life?Many times we feel so proud for our achievements and successes, and become forgetful of those people around us who were actually very part of our success. Those forces may seems to be invisible, or maybe working our success from behind, but we never not owe our achievements to everybody living, to anything that ever exist for us and any other everything else. Understanding this perfectly, one would automatically always stay humble and never have the reason again to be arrogant

Boring life

Self is fed up with boring routine of daily life.Getting up early in the morning, going to the office , engaging in lifeless works, returning in the evening, having chats or heated exchanges with family members and going to sleep tired. What meaning has in this vegetable life? Why the self continue to do so for years? What purpose it serves. The only possible excuse the self find is that children are too young to look after themselves. After a few years they may not require any help. So the reason for existence of the self ends there. The only escape then is death. With that all the fights of life will come to a close. The self becomes a deadbody - a susbstance to be removed from the premises as early as possible. With its burning or burial all the memories associated with the self vanish into thin air. Thereafter nobody bothers about the creature that lived among their midst. This is not the story of the self alone. But autobiography of mankind.

What is life about?

Self is in a deep contemplative mood for the last few days.The question upper most in the mind is what this life upto and what its purpose. Truly no meaningful answer is forthcoming. whether man is just another species among the fifteen lakhs discovered so far. Sometimes one is tempted to beleive so. It is not established till this date that animals have sixth sense and thinking power.But there is no doubt that they have survival instincts and emotions like love and hate.Their only handicap is that they can't intervene in nature and create artificial comforts. In that respect man is superior. Even then no man can live forever, he can only extend his stay in this world for a few more years.Then why all these conflicts. contradictions and wars.Man usually quarrel over fictitious things like religions, gods, castes , regions and even in the name of patriotism.It is not one's selection to be born on a particular part of the earth.It so happens that where ever man and woman cohabit a progeny is born.We seek comfort and pride in the belief that God,the fictitious super power, really blessed us to be born as an Indian , as a Brahmin,as a Nair etc etc. This misconception has been going on for centuries after centuries.Perhaps it is a consolation that prompts people to live with more self pride. In the end where all these glories go? Almost everybody know the answer to this question. But no one is willing to admit this fact till the last breath. That's the greatest mystery of man's thinking. So the self wonder is man really a wise species as he claims to be? Can't he live happily with the resources available to him and without destroying the nature? Still searching for an answer to this nagging query.

THE GIFT

There was
A blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She
Hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always
There for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world,


I will marry you.'
One day,
Someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages
Came off, she was able to see everything, including her
Boyfriend.


He asked
Her,'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The
Girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The
Sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected
That. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life
Led her to refuse to marry him.


Her
Boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her
Saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before
They were yours, they were mine.'


This is
How the human brain often works when our status changes.
Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who
Was always by their side in the most painful situations.


Life Is a
Gift


Today
Before you say an unkind word - Think of someone who can't
Speak.


Before
You complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone
Who has nothing to eat.

Before
You complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone
who's crying out to GOD for a companion.< STRONG>

Today
Before you complain about life - Think of someone who went
Too early to heaven.

Before
Whining about the distance you drive Think of someone who
Walks the same distance with their feet.

And when
You are tired and complain about your job - Think of the
Unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your
Job.

And when
Depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on
Your face and think: you're alive and still
Around.

I PRAY
THIS MOVES AROUND
THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE....






--

Sharing thoughts.

It is a good fortune to have someone as a friend with whom you can share your secrets, private joys and intimate worries. Human heart is not capable of withstanding much happiness and deep sorrows. so it is better to lessen its burden by sharing it. This should be done with utmost care. The person we select must be trustworthy and generous to offer his time.He/she need not be a great intellectual or a scholar capable of giving valuable tips.Mere patient hearing itself will do a lot. Our life span is too short. We are heavily conditioned by the society .Individuals have only limited freedom to be themselves. This is creating a lot of tension. We may not get exact partners either in private or public life. Naturally, if somebody walks into our life with a bit of consolation we tend to tilt our love or loyalty towards that individual. In due course this itself may become another burden.Then we will be in a predicament as to how to release ourself from this relationship. In such situations often we panic and come to wrong conclusions or take a generalised view that nobody is trustworthy. This leads to isolation which in due course will result in depression. So the better option is try to indentify or trust at least one individual with whom you can share your joys and sorrows. This need a little courage to take risk. Remember the other also may need you.Once this experiment clicked you will have a lifelong friend.

KG Kannabiran

Guest post by VASANTH KANNABIRAN

Kannabiran died on 30 December 2010. As per his wishes and ours, and based on previous discussions we declared that the last rites would be simple, speedy and secular. The secular part we ensured. There were no flowers, no lamps, no mantras, no ceremonies. But the clamour for progressive “traditions” was what I found troubling in the extreme. In doing away with religious orthodoxy, all we have done is replaced it with other orthodoxies.Last respects (in the form of flowers and slogans) must be paid. A “last look” at what? As his wife of 51 years I did not/could not relate to the mortal remains of Kannabiran. My grief was for that indomitable fighting, smiling, tender spirit that had left us. We had agreed long ago that if our only son was far away there would be no waiting for him. Kannabiran was a public figure. He belonged to the people who loved him. There is no disputing that. But did that mean that the public, or their self appointed representatives, which consists of so many conflicting groups should have the right to dismantle his body and take it in different directions?

We all need symbols and some reassurance. But the slogans we raise however loud and clear – can Kanna hear them? Will they, like the traditional mantras, take his soul to heaven? Who are we reassuring? Why are we afraid of silence? Why are we making our radical orthodoxies more rigid and meaningless than the reactionary ones? What is reactionary and what is radical? Why are we in such haste to raise monuments to the people we love? If Kannabiran cannot live in the hearts of people, are tributes and memorials going to bring him to life? To be loud in praise is easy. It dies out in a moment.

The truth is that the dead no longer matter. What matters is our own visibility, our public personae. We want not just to grieve, but to be seen grieving. We need those TV cameras to capture and convey our grief and compassion to our constituencies. And the media rules the day. Rather than digging out file shots and meaningful clips from their archives they would like to focus on the dead body, on the cotton in the nose, on the grief (loud or quiet) of the mourners and place it before the “public”. This is just another manifestation of the blurring of the boundary between public and private by reality shows on television.

Instead of recreating the dead man in imaginative ways that would bring him alive to the public that loved him, we would rather show the dreary details of his funeral. How many people? How many placards? How many organizations? VIPs came out of respect for the dead person. The first sign of respect is to leave your gunmen and security guards outside. To visit KGK with a gunman beside you is the ultimate insensitive insult to his spirit. We need to think afresh and we need to learn the value of silence. We need to stop thinking – what will I get and what will my organization get in all this. It is not enough to write obituary pieces and hold meetings without any reflection of our conduct and attitudes.

The dead need no reification. Kannabiran was the voice of the poor. He never projected himself. He never needed to.

PrintEmailRedditDiggShare
Posted in Bad ideas, Everyday Life, Media politics | Tags: Death, KG Kannabiran
« Trysts at Midnight: Calcutta, Now: Prasanta Chakravarty‘Snakebite or sunstroke?’: An extract from Siddhartha Gigoo’s novel, ‘The Garden of Solitude’ »