Inner Metamorphosis

Most of us talk about corruption in India and most of us are apt to pinpoint corrupt politicians as the root cause of all problems in India . Little realised in the fact, the these politicians rise to ranks from the masses and if corruption is common in politician, its because its common in men. I once asked a close Marvadi friend, if he keeps black money. He replied yes, upon which I asked him being so educated why you should continue to involve in such practises. He said blankly, “ We are not interested in indulging in such practises. But are you aware that at every point we are forced to cough up our hard-earned money to so many officials without any official purpose? If I don’t have this kind of money, I can’t have even a decent life. But atleast I have decided in personal front, that the moment I needn’t cough up money unnecessarily, I shall give up this practise ”. In the struggle for Indian freedom, Gandhiji was correct to dismiss the ideology of revolutionaries who...

One thing that is common for all recent emotional developments – I wanna a quick-fix. Most of our present culture in a way encourages instant satisfaction through whichever means possible. This is a disturbing trend. There are no shortcuts, no free-lunches. But we have conveniently forgotten this under the mask of various clichés.  A case in point is the way most of the self-help books ( i.e. motivational, personality growth based) are written. Almost all of which I’ve seen in recent times are based on personality ethic- superficial changes in external personality . The rise of this concept can be seen with the success of Dale Carnegie’s “ How to Win Friends and Influence People ”. The book was a huge success & this captivated the imagination of many other writers who wished to earn quick buck by writing some out-of-context quotes to derive most funny conclusions. Most of these writers write some personal examples which (supposedly) motivate all to achieve suc...

These are heydays of reality shows. Every channel worth its salt has come up with innovative (uff…sorry most are copied from West) formats. All compete to grab eyeballs & in the name of increasing TRPs most resort to ridiculous stuff. Lets see, why these have become so popular replacing the saas-bahu serials which were in vogue before. I see this as a satiation of common-man to become the centre of attraction. If idealism of saas-bahu type which was removed from reality appealed back then, now the “reality” of normal, ordinary people craving for popularity has become more appealing. So far, only few elite had access to adulation of masses. It is time for the commoner to occupy the centre-stage & enjoy the newfound celebrity status. Hence, this is infact democratization of popularity and masses are subtly made to believe their potential-popularity which forms the lure of these shows. However, I feel that this is not a step in right direction. A casual glance at the...

I fancy myself to have understood philosopher Frederich Nietzsche to some measure, yet when I just came across this quote it hit me like thunderbolt “Every profound thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood. The latter may hurt his vanity, but the former his heart, his sympathy, which always says: "Alas, why do you want to have as hard a time as I did?” Nietzsche has this habit of using extremely complicated sentences which can be interpreted in multiple ways, all of which appear to be equally correct. However this sounded like a warning to me, that by the sheer virtue of being capable of understanding him, I was myself a recipient of his sympathy. Maybe he means that only a person who has personally undergone severe trials & tribulations could be intense enough to understand him. Whatever that means, I had always felt that I’m somehow distinctly different from others not as a superiority/inferiority complex but as a person who do...

Shashi Tharoor was in news recently when he opined that Gandhi Jayanthi need not be declared a national holiday, & instead suggested, following the example of Japan, we all should work more on that day in tribute to Gandhiji. (That around same time he asked media to shut up following allegations of his Five star hotel stay (Gandhian austerity eh?) while involved in Govt work claiming that he was spending money out of his pocket need not concern us :-)) I've just got an answer to his suggestion yesterday. I was casually asking my friends ( all MBA graduates, mind you! ) whether they know why India is called a Republic ? Besides some casual references that its a national holiday, India effectively began to rule themselves, we parade our military might etc, none were able to quite answer my basic question. Why is India called Republic ? ( again I was inspired to ask this question when a blogger claimed that he didn't receive satisfactory answers from his friends, I d...

Telangana problem is the symptom of a much deeper root - underdevelopment . People keep asking why not attack the root instead of concentrating on the symptom.(people tell this as if they were superb analysts & must be lauded for such an unimaginably intelligent deduction!). But again, such development is possible only when politicians are made accountable for their actions which usually goes missing in large area. (Actually speaking, there is also a cultural-emotional aspect of Telangana, people would argue that they were systematically discriminated against, which is quite a valid point..Within the present system, since they're minority they can never get justice within united AP is what they say). They also point out that they need self-rule. (Infact one put it all rhetorically very well "Would you join Germany just because its more efficient?") Anyway a major argument that I haven't discussed so far is about the distribution of water resources. This iss...

(to be read in continuation of the 1st part written below) I would like to discuss each of the 4 possible scenarios & try to argue from the perspective of Middle-class on both sides. Its impossible to take into account every section, as any change of any dimension is bound to create problems for those who've enjoyed the status-quo. Due to the very dimension of this problem its bound to affect many! But I've restricted myself to middle-classes on both sides.(For eg. few telangana people near Hyd suburbs don't like this idea as it might cause slump in their real estate business, does this make this movement any less authentic?) Initially I argued that since common man in AP is the scapegoat, people of Telangana must not ask for separate state as they will eventually be misled by politicians. For precisely the same argument that common man is usually made bakra I have changed my stance now. In huge states, prominent politicians are not answerable to every part o...