Let's all turn atheist!!!

In view of the recurring bomb blasts and the recent attack against churches, one is bound to think about the origin of all this. "Why all of a sudden?", one gasps at the very first mention of these agitations. One always has a perception that religion is behind all this.

I have always wondered at the logic and the cause for all these. What do these miscreants get in return? After finding no definite answers, I divert myself to another question. Why in the name of religion? Why not in the name of the poor? Why not in the name of the vulgarity of our films? All the other topics, apart from religion that were once strong protests have subsided. Even the hot reservation issue has become silent now. The water sharing disputes among the southern states also crop up only when there is a shortage of rains. Then why can't the dispute on communal matters mitigate? Why these religion matters always come up every now and then? Why behind every attack, every bomb blast, the religion issue gets dragged into?

The problem I feel is too much loyalty to one's own religion. The group of persons, who get very possessive about their beliefs and religion, somehow get the wrong perception that their religion is the best and the other religions are a threat to their principles. The common people, however, do not bother about these things. They have lot of other things on priority like, making money, growing their career, taking care of their family, etc. If an outsider takes a look into the Indian society, he/she will be really amazed to find the harmony with which all the different religions' people live together, talk together, and have fun together. Looking at these, one can hardly imagine the same group of people to be at daggers with each other. So the conclusion is that the average society people have no problem with the people of different religions. Hence, the blame lies with those small group of narrow minded fanatics that claim to be extra loyal to their religion. If we take a closer look, we can easily identify such societies and associations that are lurking and operating in every small town and cities. They form themselves in groups and try to create fear, suspicion and mistrust in people towards those of other faith. Sadly, these are backed and funded by our own politicians who want attention and can even go to the extreme of blaming the minority religions for every thing that goes wrong. To make matters worse, these khadi-clad figures try to mix social and economic conditions to the religion issue. These people keep reminding the general public about it and they dig up the past to support their statements.

There is a very thin line between loyalty to oneself and disloyalty to others. That thin division has to maintained strictly by all faiths. One should not get so much carried away by the religions, that they start vandalizing holy places or start blaming other sects for one's condition. We don't want another Crusade or the Swastika fight again. The only solution is to forget what has happened. Let us defeat the purpose of our enemies. Let us not fall prey to our politicians' shrewd communal tactics.

In other words, let us not believe in anything attached to religion. Let us be bold and become atheists. Let us all sacrifice the root cause of all these evil. If we want to live in true peace and harmony, let us abandon our individual faiths and believe solely in our karma and destiny. Sometimes some things have to be changed by drastic measures. Let's all face it.

The mighty Dal-chawal.

Do you have Dal???
Enna sarrr?
dal, daaal..
It is the most common scenario when a north Indian sits down to eat "Meals" in a Tamil Nadu restaurant. The most basic and the most common food across all the north Indian states is the famous Dal-chawal. It is always an essential part of food at household, dhabas and restaurants. Yes, the sight of steamed basmati rice with hot dal and ghee floating in it is enough to make you go hungry. Believe me, it is the most satisfying and filling dish that one can have. No other food pair in the whole Indian food community is as relishing as Dal-chawal.
Even those running after pizzas and burgers, finally resort to Dal-Chawal at the end of the day.It is also the most nostalgic food item for all Indians outside their home.
Even though India may be leaping ahead in technology and growth, even though the count of millionaires will increase and the country might be divided economically in various sectors, there will be one thing that will be common to all. The common food habit(Dal-chawal in particular) will keep the different communities, divisions and sections of people glued to each other. It is this invisible string that binds all of Indians together no matter in which part of world they are.
So, be it channa dal, moong dal, masoor dal, or dal makhani, dal fry,
Dal-Chawal is the King.

PS: This post is dedicated to my sister who taught me how to prepare Dal-Chawal.

The dilemma

The reason why I would like to revisit the debate between "love marriages" and "arranged marriages", is because of my discovery of another Indian truth. It is not the debate between "love" and "arranged", rather it is between within caste and inter-caste. At the end everything boils down to so called "caste". No one knows the benefit of within-caste marriage, but still follow it like a divine order, as if their forefathers are watching them from the heavens. Dare not go against our set standards, or else, I will see you in heaven. Is it because of some unknown fear or because nobody wants to think differently, still remains the big unanswered question.

But because of this unsaid rule, it is we who have to suffer.. The new generation, who somehow can not accept the paradigms have to cope up with the side effects, just to see their parents happy. One marries someone just to make their parents and grandparents elated. Of course, it is every child's duty to make their parents happy. They have made lot of sacrifices and compromises just to enable us to live a better life than they had. Hats off to all parents (Dil se). I am not advising or asking all the youngsters to rebel. I am just putting forward the dilemma in which these youngsters get into. This dilemma has no quick fix solution, or no solution to be more accurate. We have to suffer, we are destined to accept things we don't like, for the sake of the so called society.

To explain the troubles that one can get into if one is bound into the unsaid rules, let me give some real life scenarios. A guy/girl, when grows up, gets a picture of his/her near future like better education and sufficient money (again money is never sufficient, but that's another philosophical topic) and only then a good life partner. He/she might have made a mental plan as to when and how to achieve those, but alas, he/she was not even aware of the plans their parents (in other words, the society standards) had made. His/her plans conflict with theirs and life goes into chaos. After the chaos is temporarily sorted by mutual disagreements and compromises, he/she is shown the list of potential spouses (mind you, this list has been achieved through years of hard work, discussions, bargaining,. negotiations and more strangely, the person not being aware of the whole process).
So what should the person’s reaction be?????

The answer is not easy. The person realizes the hard work spent for that remarkable feat, hence cannot reject those right away, in fear of hurting sentiments and emotions (Emotions and sentiments are the words that I strongly hate, just because they become the biggest obstacles in any person’s life). If that was not enough to create a total dilemma in the person’s mind, he/she is indirectly threatened by saying that if they miss this chance, there is very less probability that they will get another man/woman of such caliber.

Suddenly, all the high aspirations and dreams of the person are shattered to the ground. His/her expectations of his/her partner are put to a toss. He/she has to make a decision quick enough (in other words, accept the parents decision)…….or else, god knows, what may happen!!! The world might end….

Why didn’t the LHC(The Large Hadron Collider) fail and create a black hole to end the universe? At least the dilemma would end.

Government work is God’s work

In India, the government is always stereotyped as “slow, traditional and corrupt”. Their policies are always considered an excuse for politicians prior to elections to gather votes. People feel that these policies remain only on paper. That is the general idea of any government policy or project. People often resort to private companies for quicker solutions.

Let me try to give a different picture of Indian government policies.
The first word that comes to my mind when I think of government is “Trust”. One can safely trust the government policies and schemes. Private companies always look for profit. They will never do anything that is non profitable. Sometimes they become so much business oriented that they are ready to cheat their customers through indirect means. On the contrary, the goal of any government policy is welfare of public, even though it might give a return. The aim is to benefit the masses, improve their style of living, give them better life security, etc. Government plans will never cheat or betray customers. For instance, investing in a government backed mutual fund is always considered safer. One can safely put their money and forget about the risk of losing the amount.

Another thing about government initiatives is that they not very expensive. This is because the majority of people are still middle class people and government. The policies are always designed, keeping the common man in mind, so that they can make use of them. Doordarshan channel comes free of cost and it has loads for good quality programs for all age groups. Indian railways are very much cheaper than any other private mode of transport. All the low cost airlines that had tried to make a revolution few years back is now back to their rocketing prices and hidden costs and taxes. All the government hospitals/clinics provide free treatment and medicines at minimal costs. Many government schools or colleges have fees that can be easily afforded by anyone. BSNL is a lot cheaper than any other service provider.

Consider the case of government jobs. They have better insurance policies and retirement plans. The employees feel more secure working in a government organization. In view of the recent slowdown of the US economy, many US based companies have started laying off people. These private companies, mostly in IT and ITes (IT enabled services), have started firing employees based on some excuses. In these companies, the employees always work under pressure, which can be a health concern. In government jobs, the employees can enjoy their work and life, without worrying about their future. The recent Sixth Pay commission (a government policy for the government employees) is a brilliant example of the above statements. It proves that the government does care for it employees and will keep coming with new policies, as and when needed.

ISRO, DRDO, AIIMS, IIT, IIM, NTPC, BARC--- All these institutions are Indian government initiatives and they all are renowned for their expertise all over the world. They all have brilliant students and faculties and they all are the best in their domain.
One should be proud of Indian army and military, which are examples of perfect management and discipline. They do their duty at all times. They do not even think about the so called “profit” factor. Imagine if they were to do their jobs only if that work yielded profit.

All said, the implementation of any govt. policy takes longer time because it needs to be reviewed many times by different departments. It needs to be accepted by majority. Only when the government is certain that it caters to majority, it goes ahead to implement the policy. The reason, government policy gets delayed is because lot of people start misusing the power of democracy. These narrow minded people use democracy as their weapon and oppose every project of govt. for a few days of fame. To ensure that government’s work becomes God’s work needs the cooperation of the public to implement its policies perfectly. If all the government employees vow to work honestly and diligently and if the common man starts to take initiative at their own level, instead of blaming and complaining, only then the lines inscribed on Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore, will truly prove its meaning.