jabdakhata

A question that often comes to my mind is that why are we still the part of an entity called Common Wealth? It is a colonial legacy, it constantly reminds us that once we were servants of a mighty imperialist nation which is now fast going downhill. Perhaps our political leaders like to remind us of our colonial past, perhaps it helps in getting some aids. It certainly does not help the international cause, being on the same bench with some rogue nations who have gone more downhill than their erstwhile ruler. Point is, why waste so much tax payer's money with this extravaganza? What will the entire nation gain through this? even if that means infrastructure development of a single city, can't this happen in isolation? Why do we need an event for developing infrastructure? what is the return that we are expecting? More tourist inflow from commonwealth countries? Hogwash. Most tourists in India are from non commonwealth countries like USA, Japan and Germany. Who will spend thei...

  Just read this news to decide for yourself. Judiciary is beyond any comment? But do we have any conscience collectively as a nation? Does not seem so, else a rapist could not have been qualified for civil services or acquitted as a result of that. This does not happen in any civilized nation. SC rejects women panel's plea against rapist IANS | New Delhi The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition by the National Commission for Women (NCW) challenging the Delhi High Court order setting free a rapist on the ground that he had "redeemed himself" by clearing the civil service exam while in prison. The apex court bench of Justice Harjit Singh Bedi and Justice C.K. Prasad rejected the appeal by the NCW on the ground that it has no locus standi to challenge the high court verdict setting free Ashok Kumar Rai. The NCW appeal was dismissed after Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran, appearing for the state of Delhi, said that they did not intend to challe...

Stoicism as a philosophy originated in ancient Greece by a sage called Zeno in the third century before Christ. The ideals and preachings of Stoicism finds echo in eastern monist thoughts, particularly Vedanta in India. One of the most famous patrons of Stoicism was Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor who was an adoptive son of the Roman emperor Antonius Pius, in the second century after Christ. In his book called "Meditations" he had provided a comprehensive overview of how Stoic principles work in practice. Stoicism deals with self control and control of emotions to understand universal reason, not to get perturbed either in happiness or in sorrow. The same concept is echoed in Upanishads "Dukheshnanudignamana Sukhecha Vigataspriha" theme (remain steady and equally composed under both joy and sorrow) which is recurrent in Vendanta as well as Bhagavat Gita, where the lord Krishna advises people to remain calm and steady under all circumstance and devote all fruits ...

Excerpts from "A World Split Apart" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Replace "West" by "Indian political class and media" and you get the truer picture. A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, in each government, in each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elites, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society. There are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life. Political and intellectual functionaries exhibit this depression, passivity, and perplexity in their actions and in their statements, and even more so in their self-serving rationales as to how realistic, reasonable, and intellectually and even morally justified it is to base s...

Sometimes back there was some initiative by a leading newspaper group in India to identify future leaders. Novel initiative no doubt, but it was mostly a marketing gimmick. Reason is simple, you cannot identify leaders through a marketing campaign. Leaders are identified through their work and attributes. True leaders do no need to go to a market place and beat their drums. True leaders do not need followers, followers need true leaders. As Ramakrishna Paramhansa used to say - "you do not need to write on your forehead that come people, I am a leader, I'll teach you, lead you. If you have right kind of attributes God will make you a leader, even if you do not want to be one." People will find the true leader and will follow him/her themselves. A Gandhi ( an I am talking about the only one true Gandhi who could abdicate all power and adulation, not the other power hungry ones)  emerged when there was a right situation for him to do, he was not picked up by some newspaper. ...

Some snippets from the "Bharat Bandh" called yesterday - A pregnant woman delivered her baby on train because communist supporters in West Bengal did not let her go to hospital. The baby is in critical condition Trains were forcefully stopped and vehicles were not allowed to ply in West Bengal. Even ambulances did not escape the ire of the bandh supporters in West Bengal This is yet another time communists and BJP came together on the same platform almost hand in hand thus providing a major dent to the "secular" credential of the communists A major economy heading towards a major disaster owing to its major political parties who are majorly evil.

The right to education bill is passed and the government is elated. So is Indian media. Nobody cares as to how hollow the bill is when actual implementation is concerned. Another flopshow of Government is Sarba Sikhsha Abhijan initiative, which is supposed to provide education for all but in the end provides good money for corrupt bureaucrats and panchayat leaders. One CAG report showed sometimes back how money for this scheme from British Government was diverted by officials at district level to buy luxury cars, beds etc, while schools are ill equipped and children do not have quality education. Children from poorer section often do not have any money to buy books and only few schools provide free books and other accessories to them. Thus they end up in search for work.I happened to meet one of these kids who was a school dropout because of poverty, and came to Hyderabad from Bidar, which is about 130 km away, in search of work. When asked why is he not studying, he replied t...