MANAS PURI

We the Humans.

2011-11-18T20:11:00.001+01:00

The feathers and the tails

The skin and the nails

The birds and the trees

All are signs of Mother Nature before whom we all usedto kneel

Humans, they say are better that all

For they have a heart and a mind to take the call

Let us ponder and think out loud

What have we ever done that may ever make us proud

Yes we have the trucks the cars and the planes

But do they truly help us loose our pains

The trees we cut the tigers we kill

And consume them as we take a little cold pill

But again we’ve built toasters the bombs and the gas

This helps us to eat, work and kill so fast.

The towers the homes the wires and the pubs

All weapons of self-destructionwhich we so bravely boast with a thud

Oh yes we are humans the wisest of all

We’ve made this earth look like a shop in a mall

Where we walk to consume and then to relax

And leave the Mother Nature to refill the fruits andthe gas

But behold, the time has come

She’s getting back to you, why do you look so glum?

For you now have the tsunamis and the tornados likenever before

Do you realize now, you were living so close?

India- The land of organised Chaos

2009-07-20T11:09:00.001+02:00

India – The land of organised chaos.

The very thought of going back to India was enough to give me a surge of happiness and pride. After all, India is the place full future opportunities, not in the EU, not in the US, but in India. It is the place where everybody wants to be. The high observed growth in the GDP, the buzzing economy; the ever expanding IT sectors are the pillars that would carry India into the future where she will emerge as the largest and the best. This is what everyone says about India in Italy. Notwithstanding the fact that it is still a extremely poor country. What makes people say this? This time around I have come to India not just as an Indian (which I am proud to be) but as someone who is here to absorb and experience the Indian way of living. I also will be searching for or rather trying to experience evidences to support the above claims. I must say, with utmost regret that the evidences for a collective development have been difficult to spot and i do not see India growing for all.
What I do see, however, is a co-existence of two parallel, contradictory worlds. One is a rich fast developing middle class and high class with an ever increasing purchasing power. The second is the poor, underprivileged and hated class that has no name or category in India. The curious thing is that people are actually aware of this distinction, but the problem is that they are aware of this distinction to the extent of forgetting it. This may sound weird but for me it is evident. A simple short ride on a public bus is enough to prove this claim of mine. You look around as you travel and all you see is a unique mix of people, dust, animals and at times a disgusting stink. People act as if the world owes everything to them. In a city like Lucknow which was once hailed as the city of courtly manners and culture, is fast becoming a city of foul language and ill manners. It is common and frequent to see people shouting at each other, swearing and abusing as habitually as breathing. Another thing that really stands out in this city in particular and India in general is the sense of driving or shall i say the-nonsense of driving that the people of this country have. There is an absolute ignorance about following the lanes. People would honk at any and everyone, which for me is extremely frustrating.
The chaos is not just prevalent; it is deeply embedded and is now a part of “Indian way of Living”. This is not all. The curious thing is that it is an organised chaos, as uncanny as that may sound, it’s true. People are so used to living in a chaotic way that it seems perfectly normal to them now. Take for example the traffic in a city like Lucknow. It is perfectly normal here to walk on the roads even though there are footpaths all along. The white line dividing the road into lanes is for the road to look beautiful and is seemingly a sign of development. Driving in lanes is a concept alien here and people take on themselves to develop and follow imaginary lanes which interestingly are never straight but have all kinds of curves and twists. It’s chaotic to the extent of being organised. Even in a muddled situation people know which way to follow and it is the same every time.
I find it astonishing to see people behaving this way. Why would anyone want to live in a disordered way? I’ve wondered for long and what i feel is this. People in India are ok being second best. They are satisfied with being second best and bask in the glory of acting as second fiddle. Every one longs for, presumably, a perfect situation but is satisfied with a Semi perfect situation. Yaha pe sab Chalta hai. If you truly ask someone nothing is of extreme importance. If everything goes according to the plan then it’s all right, if not, it is forced upon the will of God which must have been against it. I feel an extreme lack of motivation to do anything widespread within the people.
Development in India tells us another fascinatingly unromantic and a sad story. The swift expansion of Indian economy has touched the lives of millions of people in the world, except the poorest in India. As i mentioned before, India hosts a co-existence of two parallel, contradictory worlds. Ironically, those people who should have been positively affected by the rise of Indian economy have been left behind and are now struggling to keep pace with the fast moving Indian middle class. The poor in India still remain among the poorest in the world. In some cases poorer than the people of sub Saharan Africa. It seems almost impossible to believe that a country which is being hailed as the next super power has the smallest GDP per capita amongst BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, china) countries. The GDP growth rate of India which has had its share of publicity and appreciation is basically due to a very high growth rate of population. In the last 10 years the population of India has grown 19% which is much ahead of China (7%) or the EU (3%). This is both, a boon and a bane. Due to a large workforce we are able to produce more and consume more. This results in a high GDP growth rate because of domestic consumption. However, the ever-increasing population has been increasing the load on our resources exponentially. The adverse effect on our resources is and has been phenomenal. What we need to do is to extend and transform our goal of development into efficient and responsible development and not just development for the sake of it. A country of over 1 billion people cannot become a super power with only about 30 % of its citizens being actually gaining by the expansion of the economy.

Indian Education System

2008-12-29T18:25:00.001+01:00

Education System

“On the stroke of midnight hour, when the world slept, India woke to light and freedom”. These are perhaps the most famous lines ever said by our first and charismatic Prime Minister Shree Jawahar Lal Nehru. A new era was promised by the “Kashmiri Pandit” to the millions of people in India. A promise which, to many, guaranteed a just living environment, equal opportunities in all aspects. The question that I ponder upon is precisely this. In the past 60 years of independence, has India given its people what it initially promised?
One of the foremost and arguably the most important aspect of a developed and just society is the fundamental right of the people of a nation to get educated and make ensure that the next generation gets the best education. This ensures the all round development of a individual which in turn enables him to contribute, in his capabilities, towards the growth of the Nation. Has India, in the past 60 years been able to fulfill her promise under this light?
The Indian education system was drafted along with the Indian penal code in the late 1800’s by the British. Our complete education system is still based and runs, the English way. Today when Indian student are one of the most sought after in the professional world, it is an irony to note that more that 40 percent of our population is still illiterate and uneducated which makes them an easy prey for individuals who thrive and make a living out of fooling these people.
Broadly our education system consists of three sections. The School level education commonly judged by the HSC examination, the senior level education judged by the SSE and the university level education. One of the basic problems, in my eyes of our system is that there is too much diversification and decentralization in our education management. Each state has its own Board which governs the “extent” of knowledge that is imparted to the residents of that state. This in itself imposes the huge problem when that child is judged juxtaposed to a student which comes from a different state because both of them, Irrespective of the same years of education, have a different level of understanding and knowledge primarily because they have been taught in an extremely different way.
The national board CBSE and ICSE do solve this problem to an extent but the extent of its spread is still limited. Both these boards are the preferred study spots of the urban Indian students. The rural India still studies in a traditional environment in a “State” school where the quality of education is nowhere close to what CBSE and ICSE offers. One thing which can solve the problem of “uneven education” is the centralization of education boards. A common plan of study for all would ensure that entire student population of India is taught a common syllabus and moreover a common extent of knowledge is imparted to them.
Another important yet negative aspect of Indian education system is the non availability of high class research centers. Our universities have become a market for the product called a “degree”. This product, so to say, is supposed to ensure that the student gets a job which can provide him(r) with his bread and butter. This is also one of the major problems in my view. A degree is not supposed to be “granted”, it should be “Earned” by a student. Moreover our research and development wing has a pathetic infrastructure and there are way to less research centers to cater to the growing population. Instead of pumping in money in the already established IIT’s NIT’s and IIM’s, the government should set up more such institutes for the masses. This would ensure a greater involvement and our people who have the passion for research but cannot pursue it because of the lack of infrastructure. Moreover, the lack of use of technology in our study system also makes it difficult for our students to understand and ultimately improvise on the knowledge that they have already gained in their childhood or youth. It is also important for our universities to become research centers rather that a degree lending institutes which would help the student population to maintain a interest in their respective areas of curiosity. Unlike the US and the UK where most of the research undergoes at the university level, we in India have universities where people go in to ultimately get a degree and it ends there for most of us. Our curriculum still consists of giving out lectures which would enable the student to pass the term end examinations. Instead of a examination oriented teaching, it would be immensely worthwhile to pursue a knowledge and understanding oriented study. Also, all universities and colleges should ensure that the student gets a all round exposure. It is not only the studies that is important for a all round growth a individual. It is also important to ensure that a student also regularly gets a chance to showcase his or her talents in various fields such as music or arts. It should be the responsibilities of the education institutes to provide such opportunities to the students.
My conclusion says that Indian being a huge country has a massive talent pool. This talent pool should be utilized in the best positive way and the best way to ensure this is to strengthen, centralize and liberalize our education system. Our leaders should be aware of the fact that it is not only the military might of a country that makes a nation a super power; it is the people and the economy which in turn depends heavily on the education that makes a country a super power. It is high time that we realize this and start making an effort to make our way towards a more educated and literate nation, a nation where the spirit of scientific and social enquiry excels.

Time, Science and Religion

2008-12-24T23:16:00.003+01:00

Ticking away, it walks ahead
Ever thought if it would ever be dead??
Day by day u grow old
but then you celebrate that you've survived the cold

Nice lines..eh.. Well, that’s all i could write as of now.

Time, what exactly is it. Astrophysics says that time began at the Big Bang, but then one wonders what was present before the big bang. Who knows? Does the idea of God comes in here?. Probably yes, but then how do you explain what God is or his existance. It all seems to be getting too entangled. RIGHT!

Lets look into some of the the facts that’s we have. The debate over GOD has been going on from time immemorial. The Scientist say everything can be explained without the concept of an all powerful GOD. But can they prove it?. How do they prove the emergence of the universe? Well, they sure do have answer to this one.The famous BIG BANG. The huge explosion that created everything in the universe. It created the stars, the planets and everything else. The Energy Mass equivalence then converted energy into mass after which the force of gravity bonded the multitudes of bodies together to form stars and galaxies. This sure sounds convincing. Also, the concept of time started from this event. So according to the Scientists the beginning of time is the BIG BANG.

What possible objection can religious Philosophers have on this idea of time and BIG BANG? Well, they say this - - "All right you smart ass. So you think you know everything. If it was this huge explosion that made everything in the universe then tell us what caused this explosion that you call BIG BANG". Now here, our scientists actually look like real asses. They don’t have a clue what was there before the big bang. Having said this, i must say that leaving this out they actually know an awful lot of things and have theories that do explain some of the very perplexing phenomenon of the nature.

So now let’s see where the religious philosophers stand. They have only one answer to all the questions. GOD. That’s it!!!!. This is all that they have to say. You ask them any damn thing, and the answer will be the same. GOD. To me it seems more like a escape goat sort of a thing. Even in our daily life, the overwhelming concept of god has seeped in so much that we often forget that it is we who have to first workout things. Another similar concept profoundly says that it is the destiny stands at the helm of the human affairs. That like saying no matter how much you practice maths, in the exams one would only score how much the so called destiny has in store for you. If that were the case, I do not see a point in doing anything and by anything I truly mean just anything.

I am not an atheist. The idea that i want to bring home is the fact that there has to be a balance. One thing is for sure that we do not know the answers to everything, yet it is also cowardly and foolish, not to enquire and believe everything at the face of it. I do not deny the existence of god. There are people who would say “How does one believe that God exists even when one can’t see him”. Well, there are scores of things that you just know that exist but you don’t quite see them. It is important that we find a balance between these two extremes. Without any evidence one cannot totally reject anything, even though it may sound very lame. There are loads of people who are so filled with this idea of GOD that they refuse to see any logic or any kind of, what i call, natural mechanics in it. This is what is harmful and obstructs the spirit of scientific enquiry, which is of utmost importance.

Does India need a Social and a Political Overhaul

2008-12-01T18:03:00.005+01:00

India, the biggest democracy in the world is now at a standpoint where it seriously needs to look back and ponder deeply about the need of a serious and extensive overhaul of its structure. The recent attack on Mumbai has stirred the very root of Indian politics. The politicians of our country need to unite at this time and together find a solution to this grave danger that confront us.

I am overwhelmed by the response of the people of India who, finally seem to be realizing that they also have a very important part to play in the working a gigantic unit that we call a NATION. In the light of the past events, be it the matter of corruption, or the IC 814 issue, the Indian leaders have failed to prove themselves as a motivated and a focused lot. The Indian politics has been reduced to a dirty exchange of substandard words and allegations. More over, politicians like the the self obsessed Mayawati and the seemingly perpetually high Mulayam Singh Yadav have made it even worse by exploiting and and misleading the poor. Thanks to people like these ,caste politics has emerged as a biggest and the most effective tool for winning the "getting the vote game". Having said this, i would also like to say that politicians alone are not to blame. A nation is not made by the politicians alone. i would now shift to "we the people of India"

We boast of being a huge and united country, but i am sorry to say that i do not see that unity what so ever ,which every one so proudly boasts of. Be it the communal divides to regional partition we have a scores of reasons on which we so passionately divide ourselves. Some call themselves the chosen ones because they belong to a certain community; others call themselves the real representative of a true India. I wonder how we still call ourselves a united country and then there are others who brag tirelessly about them being the Intellectual class. When I look at my country as a whole, it is heartbreaking to see it any thing but united. When I hear the news here in Rome I don’t hear people shouting JAI HIND anymore, rather they chant slogans like jai maharashtra or jai haryana. I wonder how we call us a united country. Although I hate to say this but I now feel that we have reduced to a group of states which continue to co exist just because the British made this of us. We must understand that our strength lies in our unity and we must make our diversity and advantage rather than destroying it.

What I see as a silver line in the darkest of clouds is the reactions that the people of India have been expressing post the attack on Mumbai. It is wonderful to see the people of India standing united and speaking in one voice. Also, it is after a long time that I observe the common man of India being angry. Though it sounds weird but I am elated to see my fellow citizens so angry. The anger in this case is directed towards our leaders. It is important to keep this anger alive and send across this message to the politicians that they should now stop taking us for granted and actually start to perform. They must realize that they are public servants. It is we the tax payers who pay for their expenses. They should do that for what they have been elected and uphold their promises. It is high time now that, both, the people of India and the politicians realize their duties and act accordingly. The people of India specially need to hone their tolerance level and realize that the politician become what we allow them to become. The moment we all decide to say so no to bribes, there would be no one to take it. We the people of the nation have as much responsibility that the politicians have to play our part in the development of our country.

India, Politics and Terror

2008-11-29T12:51:00.003+01:00

I have been watching online the telecast of the horror that has been underway in Mumbai for the past 3 days. I do am physically in Rome but my mind and heart is with my people and my country. I am proud to be an Indian but i seriously doubt if the country is being run by the right people.I guess its about time that the administration realize that they are no longer just running a government, its about running and managing a nation. do we need to wait for such horrors to happen for us start taking the national security seriously.Its pathetic to see our politicians quarrel like little kids on a TV channel to decide whose right and whose wrong.

Thinking about the state of the politics and corruption which is crippling India i am forced to think that maybe it would have been better if we were still under the British raj. At least we had an excuse then that some foreigners are dividing our masses and ruling. It is shameful to say that it is now that our own people who are dividing us on religions bases and then ruling the nation.

Integrity within the masses is the call of the hour. Also,i think as citizens of a country like India, we need tougher laws and we as citizens should be ready to cut back some of our individual freedoms for the sake of our motherland. The administration has once again shamefully been exposed as extremely weak, lacking political will. The politics in India has just been reduced to the politics of religion, of cast and of votes.

It has become important now that India wakes up to this call and try and strengthen our intelligence system which at this time is in shackles. Its about time that we set our priority right and act accordingly.

One thing that looks like a silver lining in the dark is the fact that the people of India, probably now will start exercising their rational side and stop blindly following these damned politicians. Foolish things like the Maharastrian -north india crisis, the North-South india gap may now just be left behind in the aftermath of this grave incident. The people of india are angry but it is important not to let this aneger die.

The worry that i now have is that, probably, this may emerge the point where the people of India may also opt for the wrong path. This may as well emerge as the incident where after a single community may be isolated in the eyes and minds of millions. This has to be taken care of. An emotional division in the masses is the last thing that is required in India. We need to be together in both confronting these antisocial elements and also our good for nothing politicians.