The complete uselessness of a badge

One should never underestimate the power of discussion. Conversations and open discussions are usually killed at the altars of religion, politics, and patriotism. The people who wear these badges are usually the most intolerant and a discussion does not get to prosper in this vile atmosphere. As I am an ardent advocate of a healthy discussion, I am waging my war on these badges. Why do we need them at all?

What follows are my views (reinforced with what I had read, continue to read and with innumerable discussions that I keep having with friends (and a very vocal daughter and son) scattered across the globe)

Why am I putting it here? For each of us to have a look at what someone else is thinking and participate in a discussion/debate so that the concept of individual thinking gets polished, hammered, modified, subjected to scrutiny, given alternate views.

Never to conclude.

Concluding is final and closes the most beautiful thing that has ever evolved between active minds.

DISCUSSION.

I have said this before, and I shall say it again.

Discussion tries to arrive at what is right.

Argument targets who is right

None of us have anything to prove to anyone at this point in our life, least of all among ourselves.

So, just indulge me.

What is nationalism or patriotism?

Is it something tangible? J.Krishnamurti once said that his main goal is to set a man free. Hence, he disbanded the Order of the Star in the East (Founded by the Theosophical Society in 1911, that declared JK as the Head of the Order) in 1929. The speech he gave while dissolving the order has been a great influence on me personally. If you want to read that speech, for the first time or for the nth time, the link is given below.

https://jkrishnamurti.org/about-dissolution-speech

What is special about being an Indian? Or an American? Or a Bangladeshi? Or “xxxxx”?

Do not we all realize that this is just a birth lottery? We were born in India and many of us grew up in India. Some opted to stay, and some opted to leave. I never understood this passionate obsession with a country. (or a religion for that matter). Why someone who left India must demonstrate his love and blind faith to the nation and why someone staying in India can’t criticize the functioning of the nation? After all what is a nation? An organization that is run by a set of appointed people (or dictators where applicable). How many of us have stayed in the same job that we joined when we graduated from college? And what happened when we left our first organization? Have we become traitors? Do we silence anyone (or encourage anyone on the other hand) if they speak or mention the first organization that we worked at/for? What happened when we changed the job a second time, a third time, or started something of our own, employed people, had people leaving OUR organization, and proceed to the next? We do not hold (there is no need to is my point) any special attachment that can drive us to kill or question the relationships, consider the sanity level, or the loyalty quotient of the individual who expresses an opinion about the first organization.

I hope I am making some sense and you guys have not given up already and closing the phone/tab/laptop with a resigned facepalm.

I shall continue at the risk of being called names. Let us look at a sport that I associate well with (parallels can be drawn to IPL if Cricket is to your liking).

Soccer. In Europe.

The Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A are all followed closely in India too. As a matter of fact, India is one of their prime markets. Look at the players. They move from one club to another club seasons after seasons and the fans who loved them in one club start hating them when they move to a rival club and the fans of the first and second club start hating them when they move to the third club. Same for the manager. So, what should they do? Stay in one club till they retire. It is a rarity like a Paul Scholes or a Ryan Giggs. The astute ones keep moving.

Look at the most famous face of football.

David Beckham.

From a non-descript Rovers, to Spurs, to Man U, to Real, to Galaxy, to Milan, to PSG, to making his own team!

I am not deliberately bringing in the national team part because that, in my opinion, was the millstone he carried around his neck. England! He kept playing for England in every WC that he could play and never won a WC medal. Somehow this weighs him a down and even portrays him as a failure. Same for Messi today – I have heard people say Messi needs a Xavi to play football. Look at him perceived as miserably failing as an Argentina player.

The same was said of SRT. The poor chap was visibly relieved when India won the WC in 2011.

Because he knows that history will always remember him as a player who never won a winner’s medal for his nation in the world cup, which pits nations against nations. IPL brought in a level field where players of the world could come and play for a substitute-for-a-nation. You call them mercenaries or you call the teams ManU or Delhi Daredevils or Patriots or Bulls, but they play for a tangible thing called money and when they switch teams, they switch loyalties and life is far simpler.

What do we call an obsessed fan who stabbed Monica Seles? What do we call the rabid fans who camped outside Wayne Rooney’s house when Rooney indicated that he might move to Manchester City from Manchester United? (that Rooney did not go was due to SAF and his guile and was also good for his health in short term from those fans). What do we call the Mafiosi of Medellin who shot Eduardo for his own goal in the 94 WC?

If we are not going to be kind to them, why do we justify slandering and killing when it comes to nations? A nation is just a fictional identity.

If I take Czech citizenship tomorrow (just for an argument) do I become Czech and no longer Indian?

Or should I continue to be a Czech but Dil Hai Hindustani?

Will any of the options that are chosen, come to define me differently to the people who have known me all my/their life?

What, as a human being, if I continue to be the same? 

Does not that matter? Or rather, should not that alone matter?

Instead of trust in being an accidental inhabitant of a particular part of this world.

What are the odds of any of us being born (a horny dad and mom, correct time of the month, the winning sperm, the receiving egg, X, or Y chromosome)?

Now consider the odds for surviving childhood and reaching the teens? (Pox, measles, jaundice, typhoid, dog-bite, accidents, near-hits, cholera, hepatitis A B C or D (or there more?) heartbreaks 😉)

And now add the chances of getting a go, to be educated, and if yes, the chances of completing high school and reaching college?

And if we do reach college, the chances of graduating

After graduating, landing a few jobs and surviving to this age with a handful of friends to share these views?

Let me summarize my views here (for the impatient ones who straightaway jump to the bullet points)

•    Nation or nationality is an intangible concept and to me, it only means a document of proof to stay and travel
•     We are all global citizens within the difficult prevailing practices
• .  If we choose our loyalty to something, it should be born out of our own free will (Chelsea, Porn Videos, Sunny Leone, India, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1986 KREC batch), not because of some factor that was imposed on me and in which I do not believe  (Country, organization, marriage, customs, culture, Trump, BJP, Nehru….)

Let me close with a favorite quote from a man I most admire “To observe without judgment is the highest form of intelligence” It is not easy, and we are all guilty of sitting on our judgmental chairs and give out our fatwas like

“let us not discuss”

“do this”

“do that”

“that is forbidden”

“This is wrong”

“This is unacceptable”

and so on and so forth

My only request is, please never stop the discussion. Do not put preconditions to discussions other than these two. (even these two must be discussed 😉)

Decorum is non-negotiable.

Respect for each other is a must.

And for everything else “let us discuss till we see what is right”; one may individually see what is right and may not come to an agreement. That is ok.

You stifle a voice; you stifle the future.

For the good or for the worse!

Choose wisely.

 

 

 

 

 

Which Wolf Wins

Cause and effect can be quite confusing. Deduction is, hence, a perilous game.

A conclusion without deduction is even more catastrophic.

Take this simple example.

Principle: When it rains, the road gets wet.

But concluding that it had rained by deducing from a wet road can certainly be erroneous.

In this simple example, there is no catastrophe. It was just a wrong conclusion based on a wrong analysis.

The data was available. (the road was wet)

The analysis was wrong. (the source of the wet road as rain)

The conclusion was incorrect, as a result. (That it had rained)

You have not destroyed anything by this wrong conclusion based on imprecise deduction. You just made a fool of yourself.

A lesson can be learned.

When you have data (or in the above case an interpretation of data) that questions a principle, do not challenge the principle; challenge the data.

I am forever grateful, to my friend Shriram Venkat Panse, for the above statement in italic. This happened during one of our recent chats. The greatest truths are often simple. I loved the simplicity of his delivery.

We had practiced it relentlessly in years gone by when we had worked together. The application of the tenet was to technical issues. Metallurgy can often be more confusing than moral dilemmas in life that we face these days. We solved many problems by putting this into practice and made Mr. Viren Shah richer.

But the statement is almost axiomatic in its truth. This blog is a result of that conversation and my compulsive need to convert any simple one-line truth to 1000+ words of a post.

If people can have the power to demonstrate restraint, show a scientific mind to analyze the issue that faces them, resist the temptation to jump to a conclusion, not give in to the euphoria of jumping on the trending hashtag – in short, not fall prey to fake news, so much of misery that we see today is avoided.

Propaganda in the times of Hitler perfected almost to a scientific practice by the evil Goebbels is today’s Fake News.

Serving the same purpose. Faster, more efficient and a terrifying global reach, thanks to technology.

It is impossible to plumb the depths of the toxic minds of those who create and peddle fake news. It is beyond reason and logic. But we can certainly not fall for them. They are cleverly designed and circulated to cater to our “confirmation bias” and “echo chambers”. By falling for them, we demonstrate that we are just simple idiots who are so easily manipulated and manipulatable in the future.

The reason why we fall for them is that we allowed our minds to be clouded by the veil of bias. We have just seen what we had wanted to believe to be true. The rational mind meant to evaluate and assess each piece of information on its merit has taken leave.

Has been granted leave, to be precise.

Even after the fake news is exposed as fake news we cling to our original conclusion.

The ego does not give up easily nor does it concede failure. We get into convoluted whataboutery challenging the exposure of the fake news as fake news.

Serious and honest introspection will certainly reveal the root cause. We had taken the shortcut of bypassing the analyzing part and jumped to the conclusion part, fortified by our preconceptions, biases, and beliefs.

Do we believe if a video is circulated in which a solid object when thrown up, does not land back, but instead stay suspended?

No. because we know the law of gravity.

Instead of listing more such rhetoric questions, I shall simply conclude that we have shown, and been showing, an admirable intellect in evaluation, properly, of instances that have a scientific base. In all those cases we apply the logic of science, the application of cause and effect, causation & correlation, the strength of correlation, confidence levels, and million other analytical tools available for an objective evaluation. There are no grey areas. The correct methodology results in the same conclusion.

The instances when the data had not been analyzed properly result in monetary losses to the establishment, a time before an effective remedy is introduced and the possibility of the malady to remain in the system and reduce the effectiveness.

All losses mentioned above are reversible.

Unlike the cases where the fake news that targets the emotions, beliefs, alliances, biases, leanings, and practices. These are subjective evaluations. Fake news thrives on this. Once again, let us not waste time in exploring the purpose of those who peddle this. We are the evaluators. Only we can control us.

The instigators are left jobless when those who are instigated, applying rationale, refuse to be instigated.

There can be a new product that never existed before in the market; but how can there be a product that no one wants in the market?

A friend of mine played a nice trick on us in our group.

He shared two news items (both, probably fake) over a period of a few days.

The first item praised the government of India for handling the migrant crisis well by citing “first-hand” experiences of a traveler in rural Uttar Pradesh, a state ruled by a staunch right-wing BJP minister.

The second item, shared after a few days, recounted another “first-hand” experience of a family who happened to travel from a shambolic BJP ruled state of Karnataka to the “believe-it-or-not,” utopian Kerala ruled by a communist leader.

Without taking anything away from the sterling performance of the state of Kerala (my bias acting here), what followed was two equally strong factions. The funniest part is most members of the group are either not a resident of India currently, or among those who are currently in India, none from the three states mentioned.

We all heard a piece of news. Two in fact. None of us had a way to confirm the veracity of the news. Each faction chose to side with that news which resonated with their convictions and beliefs. Science had taken leave. Commonsense said goodbye long ago.

On being pointed out, many of us went into denial (and defense mode). “No, not possible” “I know the other news is fake” “stereotypes exist for a reason” etc.… etc.…

Be it Hindu-Muslim in India, racism in the US, Immigrants-natives in most European countries, Xenophobia in most nations, freedom-dissent in dictatorships, the narrative is the same.

Spin a story, populate with the right characters, sow discord, flare up a conflict, portray a victim, paint a beneficiary and the Molotov cocktail never fails.

We do not have to have an opinion on everything. It is ok to receive information, take time to consume it. We are not in some race to reach a verdict on every news item that comes our way.

At the risk of the cliché, Haste makes waste.

We should challenge available data and prove a principle. Never challenge the principle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Losing My Religion

I will embrace religion

Any religion

As soon as the

Killings stop in the name of religion

Elections are not contested in the name of Gods

Leaders do not

divide people on their faith

set one against the other

identify the rioters by their clothes

hold a bible and pose in front of a church while the nation burns

restrict an immigrant based on their faith

The moment you show me

A Catholic cat

A Protestant parrot

A Hindu hamster

A Muslim monkey

A Jewish jaguar

A Dalit dragonfly

A Buddhist buffalo

A Jain jackal

The day

Food is not associated with a specific religion

People are free to eat what they want

People are not killed because of what they choose to eat

Places of worship

                                Do not amass wealth

                                Pitch in to ease the pain of the masses

                                Preach equality and tolerance

                                Do not ban entry to certain people

                                Pay taxes

                                Do not stigmatize menstruating women

                                Support gender equality

When

                Any intermediary in the name of religion is made illegal

                A representative of the faith stops exploiting the vulnerable

                Sexual abuse is stopped

                Stereotyping based on religion stops

 

And here is my favorite all-time quote on religion.

“Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.

But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”

Steven Weinberg

               

               

               

               Photo Courtesy: Insidehighred

 

 

 

 

 

 

David and Goliath

The bible glorified how a small, nondescript David killed the giant, Goliath.

Michelangelo gave David a permanent place in the history of mankind.

History and mythology throw up innumerable instances where the underdog triumphed.

David, Robin Hood, Cinderella, Kapil’s Devils of 1983 World Cup, Cameroon for one match in 1990 World Cup, Simon Wiesenthal as a one-man-army chasing Nazi criminals, Leicester 2016... this list can go on and on.

There was something common and united and satisfying in all these stories. The “David” needed to win, we were rooting for them, the fall of the Goliath was justice. If not necessarily evil, the Goliaths were big and powerful and there appeared at least some poetic justice in seeing them fall.

Now, follow the reconstructed event that is given below.

A benign, simple giant, an unnamed elephant, pregnant, grazing the meadow encountered a small human. The elephants have evolved over centuries, came to trust humans, domesticated in most instances, often reduced to a stage where it had to depend on the humans for its survival. It had been lulled into a sense of complacency and trust not to view the humans as uniformly evil. They are used to interacting with them, entertain them at times, and accept their offering on its face value. A prize specimen of this deplorable abominable human race, again unnamed as I write this, as in not yet apprehended or identified, approaches the pregnant elephant and offered it a pineapple, loaded with firecrackers/explosives, rigged to explode when the trusting elephant bit on it.

As inorganic things do not have a conscience or rationality, the said rigged pineapple blew up INSIDE the elephant’s mouth, broke its jaw, and burnt its tongue. The stunned elephant wandered off, unable to comprehend what just happened.

A phase of agony is unrecorded neither in its intensity nor in its duration. We have no idea how much the might pachyderm suffered. The final moments of its life are gut-wrenching.  It stood in the water, probably to cool the burnt mouth and passed away. Two lives were lost, the mighty elephant and the calf it would have delivered.

This Goliath did not need to die.

And certainly, not the way it did.

The period of lockdown due to Covid19 was made beautiful to me as we witnessed, through the webcam, the births of two female elephants in Prague Zoo, in the months of March and May. We, as a family, regularly watch the two baby elephants through the web camera that is publicly available on the Prague Zoo’s website.

https://www.zoopraha.cz/en/animals/live-from-elephant-valley

It is such a delight to see them. The babies as well as their caring gentle mothers.

That one perverted mind could put an end to two mighty lives is difficult to digest.

This diabolical, vile, hideous, mean, ghastly, sadistic, ruthless, remorseless, stone-hearted, cold-blooded, barbarous, callous, brutal, savage of a human being must be identified and dealt with in a telling manner to send a clear message to every single person.

If we, as a society, do not treat this act as a violation of the fundamental decency that is considered a norm for a civilized world, we would fail in a massive way on a gargantuan scale.

In the closing scenes of the film, A Few Good Men, the following, rather bewildered, the exchange happens between Downey and Dawson.

Downey: [anxiously] What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong!

Dawson: Yeah, we did. We were supposed to fight for people who couldn't fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willy.

Willy here is the unnamed pregnant elephant. We are the Downey’s and Dawson’s. There is not going to be a gallant Tom Cruise to nail Jack Nicholson.

Let us not sleep, at least I will not be able to, till we put the stone-hearted bastard away.

Satish Acharya has rendered in a poignant way, the helplessness of even the mightiest animal in the face of the cruelty that humans are capable of

 

 

He is fatalistic, looking at it from the helpless elephant’s point of view. I am asking for blood. Let this innocent death(s) be avenged.

And, as far as poetic justice goes, I have just the correct sentence for him.