When will we listen?

Madhav Gadgil

Madhav Gadgil obviously is a sad man today. All those politicians ruling this country as well as in the opposition are ganging up to rubbish a comprehensive report painstakingly prepared by this man. Before doing so I wonder how many of them had really gone through the report and realize the importance of its implementation.

When the report was first submitted they found to their horror, how much attrition it may cause to their vote-bank if it is implemented.  Hence they immediately employed another man with Rocket Science back ground to make a new study on environment (sic) and provide suitable suggestions- and when I say ‘suggestion’ it is only a euphemism for the word ‘water-down ‘-on the existing report. He promptly did so; even identifying and naming hydro-electric projects as environment friendly and clean energy sources! Though the report was diluted to a very great extend; the political masters are still apprehensive of their real bread and butter namely the Vote-Bank being affected and are wondering how much more water can be added to the already diluted report.

This exercise of continuous dilution of a report to suit their political ends reminds me of a story of a sailor who went about to make a sailors cap from a precious little piece of cloth he got as a gift from his mother. First he approached a tailor for this purpose. The tailor took measurements and agreed to make a cap though he felt the size of the cloth was a bit less than required. The sailor felt that he should have a second opinion on this and approached another tailor with the same demand.

 This tailor offered him to make two caps with the same cloth instead of one.  This surprised the sailor. He thought that he should look out for more options and get someone who can make maximum number of caps out of the same cloth. Finally he found a tailor who promised to create four caps. Happily he placed the order with this tailor and when he got the caps prepared he found to his dismay that the caps were so small in size and is more suitable to be used as finger caps.

Ptolemy was a revered scientist of the middle ages. His postulate of the earth as the centre of the whole universe and all the stars and other heavenly bodies circling around it was the accepted idea then. It also suited the Church. When Copernicus, Galileo and their ilk came in the wake of Renaissance period with evidence to the contrary, every one opposed it tooth and nail. These Scholars even faced threats to their lives for propagating theories which were considered to be heretic.

Same kind of situation seems to be prevalent in the case of human development. Basically, as in the Ptolemy/Copernicus case there are two schools. One is economy and business centered development and the other ecology and nature centered. While the first ones declared aim is to have development at any cost the second group feels that a sustainable economy can only survive in a sustainable environment and all development should be nature-centric to be sustainable. 

  

The vested interests of the ‘economy’ group are very obvious. Short term and immediate gains are their objectives. Instead of educating the common man with the repercussion that the future generation would be facing due to the present generation’s greedy pursuits; they are projecting the immediate inconveniences as mammoth and life threatening. They even are able to woo the humble farmers and the common man by raising the boggy of loss of cultivable land and compulsorily confining to organic farming. Their stakes are quite high and they will go to any extend to protect their concerns.

Today those who bat for a nature-centric approach are in the minority and their task of fighting these vested interests are very great.  The time is ticking away. By the time wisdom dawn on those who matters; will it not be too late?

Our free will and its compatibility

When I wrote an article about ‘Moral dilemma’* in my blog last year my friend Rajagopalan had come up with some fresh  ideas and arguments . It prompted me to write a sequel to the original article (again see in my blog)* Now this one is my third posting on the related subject, again using ideas for inputs from Mr. Rajagopalan.

Writings by David Bain a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Glasgow also have great influence in the following blog.

So now let us interact.

At present I am sitting in front of my computer keying this article; I can see my computer in front of me; and while reading this article on your computer screen you are also doing the same thing; seeing the computer. Now let me ask you; what makes you believe that you are doing that?

‘What a simplistic question’; you may retort. Let me hasten to add that I mean no offence.

 Okay you believe in your senses. But the question is; don’t you know that these senses do mislead many a time?

When you immerse a straight stick in water; half submerged it looks bent. We have seen drawings of ‘Pen-rose stairs’ perpetually and eternally climbing but always taking you to the same spot where you have started.

Now look at the following illustrations. Don’t you agree that those redlines look different in length (on is shorter than the other) though by exact measurement it can be seen that they are of the same length

This Muller-Lyer illusion shows how much we can believe in our senses.  Look at a Barometer and it can predict the possibility of a rain in the immediate future though you are inclined to confirm it by actually going out and checking it. But in all cases you cannot do the same. You cannot get out of the experience and conduct a reality check to confirm that what you experience is right. Coming back to our earlier assumption that a computer does exist in front of you cannot be independently verified.

There is a very well known example frequently quoted and which was originally used by Shankara - the snake and rope illusion. A rope taken to be a snake is a delusion which was cleared when more light was provided.

In our case the existence of the computer can be reasonably confirmed because someone else watching at the same direction or the pet dog looking and seeing the picture flicking across the screen do see something. We can assume the reliability of sensual evidence because there is uniformity to a great extent.

Now let us come to the choice we make for our actions. Do you think that you have really decided to read this article of your own or you were just following something which was originally decided much before you have even thought of reading it?

All of us have heard about the big bang theory and the creation of this universe. Let us imagine that Raju had existed immediately after this bang. Let us also assume that he had unlimited intelligence and memory, and knew all the scientific laws governing the universe and all the properties of every particle that then existed.

Thus equipped, billions of years ago, he could have worked out that, eventually, planet Earth would come to exist, that you would too, and that right now you would be reading this article.

You are now reading this article and no one deny the fact that you chose to read it but at the same time there were causes for your choices (in your brain for example certain events). For those events also had causes in-turn and as a chain going back to the first bang.

In other words your reading of this article was predictable for Raju even much before your existence and you as such could have done nothing about it.

Now of course Raju did not exist and hence he did not predict that you will be existing now.  But the point is that had he been there -with all the faculties mentioned-; he could have.  In other words everything is destined to the last alphabet and you and I just enacting the roles stipulated.  

You may argue that according to modern Physics, there exists a kind of fundamental randomness in this universe and this will upset the scheme of Raju’s predictions.

But does this give you solace?  I doubt, for in this world in the lives of ordinary people when someone does something unpredictably we question it and raise doubts whether he or she had acted freely and responsibly. In other words the so called free will looks incompatible with randomness and casual determination taking us back to our initial argument that no one does anything freely and responsibly.

Now let us take the following stanzas from Bhagavad Gita. 

‘yad ahamkaaram aas’ritya   Na yotsya iti manyase

Mithyai’sa vyavasayas te   Prakrits twam niyoksyat’

(Gita 18-59)

‘If indulging in self-conceit, you think and resolve “I will not fight”, vain is this resolve of yours. Your nature will compel you (to fight)’  Gita 18-59)

“mayai’ vai’ te nihatah purvam eva

Nimittamatram bhava savyasachin”

(Gita 11-33)

‘By me alone have these (opponents lined up in front) been killed already. O Savyasachin (Arjuna) you be merely an instrument’.

Isn’t it the same argument we were struggling to put forward, explained vividly in this great Book.

So we can now say with confidence that immediately after the “Big Bang” when the “Srishti Kalpa” began, Brahman (Raju?) existed. There was no time Brahman (Raju) did not exist.  In fact the worlds existed in him.

Once again taking up our hypothesis about Raju whom we now can call the Brahman “possessed unlimited intelligence and memory, knew all scientific laws that governs this universe and all the properties of the particles that existed  and all these laws and principles were his and all those particles existed and existing are his creations. Existence of any free will is impossibility”.

Here I quote a famous French Mathematician  Pierre Simon Laplace, who said:

 “ An intellect which at a given instant knew all the forces acting in nature, and the position of  all things of which the world consists-supposing the said intellect were vast enough to subject these data to analysis- would embrace in the same formula the motions of the greatest bodies in the universe and those of the slightest atoms; nothing would be uncertain for it, and the future, like the past, would be present to its eyes”  

“prakritim yanti bhutani, nigraha kim karishyati”

“Actions flow inevitably of the working of the Prakriti, No restrains what so ever hence can avail”

None of us ever do anything in our free will and responsibly. Only the very vein and ignorant does think that he is the doer.

Let us now conclude. I am sure that many of you will not agree fully with the above line of presentation. Some may totally disagree and rubbish it and you have all the rights to do so. My only request is; when you reject any conclusion kindly find the true reason for doing so. Kindly diagnose where tha argument has gone wrong.

This at least gives us permission to put every thing in the correct perspective.  There may be surprises still existing. One thing is certain; even when our common sense is remaining in tact; our understanding is widended.

Finally let me quote Eliot;

  “........the end of exploring,

Will be to arrive where we started,

And know the place for the first time.”

And see what the Zen master Daito told his disciple Emperor Godaigo.

We were parted many thousands of kalpas ago, yet we have not been separated even for a moment. We are facing each other all day long, yet we have never met”

 *also see

http://ypmusing.blogspot.in/2012/02/moral-dilemma.html

http://ypmusing.blogspot.in/2012/03/moral-dilemma-more-thoughts.html

Kaumudi’s Sacrifice

It was on 13^th January 1934. Gandhiji was on a visit to Badakara. He was addressing a gathering there. Immediately after his address he requested the crowd to make contributions to the cause they were fighting for. Kaumudi, a 16 year old girl slowly and hesitantly walked towards the dais. She removed a bangle from her hand and placed it before Gandhiji and requested for his autograph. 

While he was obliging her with his signature she offered him her second bangle as well. To this Gandhiji suggested “you don’t need to do this; just give me one bangle and I shall give you my autograph”  Kaumudi responded to this by removing and offering her gold chain also. Seeing her determination Gandhiji asked the girl whether she has the permission to do so from her parents and elders. Silence was her response.

Subsequently Kaumudi offered her ear-rings. Gandhiji reminded her that she should not be making any new ornaments in replacement to those she had donated.  Kaumudi promised that she will be not be wearing any sort of ornaments in her life anymore and also will never pester her parents for that. Handing over her the autograph Gandhiji commented “The sacrifice you are making is very much superior than the ornaments that you have discarded now”. 

Post Script. 

I saw this story in today’s Mathrubhumi daily. I call this sacrifice a mammoth one; much much greater than a million dollar contribution. If you understand the psychology of a normal Indian rustic girl of sixteen and her equation with ornaments you will appreciate it. I do understand it and the story moistened my eyes.

We are celebrating the birth Day of that great man today.  I am dedicating this blog to the memory of that unknown girl from Badakara. Kindly try to tell your children about Kaumudi and her sacrifice. I strongly feel that the present generation should know it.   

Hen-Pecked

There are two kinds of husbands in this world, it is said; "One those who are hen-pecked and the other those who pretend that they are not".  Even after undergoing about thirty nine eventful years of matrimonial bliss I am still not sure about that truism.

Someone advised me when I was about to take the plunge.

Son, he said,

 Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right and the other is the husband.

On the hindsight I can say that to a great extend he may be right. It depends on what you want. Take my advice; play safe.

They always say that don’t marry the person you want to live with, marry the one you cannot live without. Or in other words marry someone who loves you and not the other way round. But this aphorism also comes with a caveat and that is; whatever you do, you'll still regret it later.

 Such fatalism is inbuilt in all such advises.

Recently I came across a funny story. It goes as follows.

A funeral procession was on and a lone man with his dog was following the coffin.  Behind him after a gap there was a long queue of men in an orderly fashion following them.

The man with the dog had lost his wife and it was her coffin he was following.

A passer-by went up to the man to offer his condolences.

He politely asked, “What happened; how did she die?”

 “The dog bit her”; he replied stoically. 

 “Oh I am terribly sorry”, the passerby responded

 “And err... by the way can I loan your dog?” he asked hesitantly.

The husband looked up and said pointing the people following them

“Join the queue”

When cracked in a stag party (no one who desire peace at home will dare to crack this at a regular party) it was highly appreciated. A majority could empathize with the grieving husband and those hapless ones who formed the queue behind him because someone told me the following tale to substantiate mine.

 Narrated in first person it is as follows.  

"When our lawn mower broke down and wouldn't run, my wife kept on suggesting that I should get it fixed...But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first;  the shed, the car, making beer etc, always something more important to me.

 Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.

When I arrived home one day, I found her seated among the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors.

I watched silently for a moment and then went inside and came out again and handed her a toothbrush.

I said, 'When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.'

The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp".

Poor chap, my sympathies. But then he asked for it.

 For I know how much some wives suffer. They even pray to God,

"Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to understand my man;

Love to forgive him;   and Patience for his moods;

I do not pray for Strength;

Because Lord, if I do, I'll beat him to death."

As a matter of fact wives are rather an enigma. Look at this incident.
He was attending a party and had one too many and staggered home at the wee hours. As soon as he got in he threw up making a mess of his dress and the floor and the carpet; before finally passing out.
 Next day morning to his astonishment he found himself in his bed neatly tucked in wearing a new pair of pajamas and the whole house tidied up. He went down tentatively to the dining hall.
 No trace of yesterday’s commotion at all. Moreover, waiting for him on the dining table was his favorite breakfast and a nice note from his wife before she left for work.
 He was really surprised for he expected hell after all that he did yesterday
He saw his teenage son in his room and asked him about yesterday as he did not remember anything after he threw-up.
“Oh yesterday you were really a heap of mess dad”. His son explained disgustingly.
“Mom was furious for spoiling her newly polished floor and the new carpet.
It was funny as well, for in your delirium you were pleading mom, ‘oh please don’t I am married ‘while she was trying to remove your trousers”!


You might have spent a lifetime of togetherness; still you need not be wiser.

Little Tribal Girls who made India Proud.

After a long hiatus I am here again  Blogging. This time I am keying this as a very proud Indian. Though I am sharing a mail -a forward I received from a friend of mine- I feel very proud and happy in sharing it with you.This is one of those very proud moments we seldom get.Our media some how find little time for such "trivia"even in their sports section. While handling the avalanche of so-called sensational "Sarita news" and "Shah Rukh hugging Salman" they are very reluctant to spend precious newsprint or prime time for such 'trivial' items. 
Now here is the item . Please read on.

 Some really big sports news

 

  Kusum Kumari (left) and Rinky Kumari (Captain)
How the hell is this not big news to be proud of, how did it go under the radar? Instead of this we have news of Salman n Shah Rukh huggin..grrr
Few days back, as a billion plus India slept, a handful of tribal girls proudly held aloft a trophy they won in their maiden entry in a football tournament in far-flung Spain.

It was the night of July 13. Hundreds of fire crackers lit the skies as the girls screamed Vande Mataram – their battle cry – for being placed third in the Gasteiz Cup, the world’s best testing ground for teenager football in Victoria Gastiez, also popular as Europe’s Green Capital.

They were the same girls who were slapped, kicked and made to sweep floors by arrogant bureaucrats in Jharkhand when the girls asked for birth certificates, a necessity to apply for passports.

But they eventually managed their passports, thanks to a strapping American, Franz Gastler, who pushed the cases of the girls with mandarins of the Ministry of External Affairs in the Indian Capital.

He was a lone ranger in his efforts.

The girls were lovingly titled the Supergoats by the organizers in Spain the moment they saw the girls playing barefoot in practice matches on arrival.
Why?

The girls had limited football gear and could not take the risk of tampering it before the tournament. They were overawed by international teams in the first tournament, the Donosti Cup, but came to their own in the second tournament.

Offering a consolation prize for the third team – winner of a match between losing semi-finalists – was a mere formality for the organizers.

But for the girls, it was a giant leap into global soccer from their impoverished Rukka village near Ranchi, considered one of the world’s epicenters of child marriage and human trafficking.

As soon as the announcement was made for the prize distribution ceremony, the girls rushed into their dressing room and returned, some barefoot, wearing red-bordered white saris, their traditional festive dress. Many had their plastic flowers in their hairs.

And when they huddled together after the mandatory photo session, some wept inconsolably because they had almost given up their hopes to participate in this tournament.

“They were over the moon. It was their night,” said Gastler of the girls, who subsist on less than a dollar a day.

For a country low on soccer, this was - arguably - good news for the mandarins of the game. But no one cared. All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel was not aware of the girls’ superlative achievement, nor was the country’s new sports minister Jitendra Singh.

“We could not sleep that night (July 13),” says Rinky Kumari, 13, captain, Supergoats. Once she bunked her school helped her mother do household chores. Today, thanks to football, everyone knows her name in the village.

She says she remembered the days she was slapped and sweep floors when she went to the Panchayat Office get birth certificates for her passport.

“That is the pain of being a tribal girl in India. I do not remember the slap, I remember the Cup,” says Rinky.

For her, and her teammates, it means a lot.

Catch-22

Joseph Heller (1923-1999) American satirical novelist, short story writer and playwright when wrote a satirical novel based on this subject he never might have realized that the Queen’s English would adopt the title of his famous novel Catch-22 as a word to refer to logical paradoxes. But that was what precisely happened. Catch-22 became a more popular synonym for a situation in which either way you lose.

Now some background material for the un-initiated. This word in the modern dictionaries is defined as “an attempt to escape a predicament makes the escape impossible.” How can you explain this? Let me try.

Let us assume that you are put in to a situation in which the authorities forced you to undertake something which is very dangerous by your own assessments. The mission might be as suicidal as of now-a-day’s human-bomb situation in which you are the bomb. You want to wriggle out of this assignment and the only way out is to “declare yourself insane” because as per law governing you an insane man does not have to take up the mission. Now it is obvious -even to your authorities- that no sane person will undertake such a mission. So if you declare yourself insane in order to avoid that mission you are proving yourself to be sane enough to undertake the mission!!!

Let me explain the story line to drive home the aspect more vividly. Captain Yossarian is an American bombardier stationed off the Italian coast during the final months of World War II. Paranoid and odd, Yossarian believes that everyone around him is trying to kill him. All Yossarian wants is to complete his tour of duty and be sent home. However, glory-seeking Colonel Cathcart has other plans.

Yossarin finds during a discussion with the unit Doctor Dr. Daneeka that his colleague Orr can escape from undertaking the mission because according to the Doctor Orr is insane. But still he is undertaking the mission because again he is insane. Confused? Let us see the conversation (an excerpt) from the famous novel itself to clear the confusion. This conversation is between the Doctor and the main protagonist Yossarin.

“Yossarian looked at him soberly and tried another approach. "Is Orr crazy?"
"He sure is," Doc Daneeka said.
"Can you ground him?"
"I sure can. But first he has to ask me to. That's part of the rule."
"Then why doesn't he ask you to?"
"Because he's crazy," Doc Daneeka said. "He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all the close calls he's had. Sure, I can ground Orr. But first he has to ask me to."
"That's all he has to do to be grounded?"
"That's all. Let him ask me."
"And then you can ground him?" Yossarian asked.
"No. Then I can't ground him."
"You mean there's a catch?"
"Sure there's a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be considered crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.”

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leadership in Kerala was in such a Catch-22 situation when they were facing the last assembly election. The CPI (M) leadership in Kerala wanted to deny Chief Minister Achuthanandan a party ticket for the election as they felt that evidently he was growing larger to his shoes. The party leadership wanted to clip his wings as they apprehended that it will be harmful for them if they allow a person like VS to lead the election and take away all the lime-light. But they also knew that denying a party ticket to VS will provide a cakewalk to the opposition at the election and that was the catch; the catch-22.

Writing about Joseph Heller and his masterpiece; the article will not be complete if I don’t give you a poem written by Kurt Vonnegut. It was his obituary in memory of his dear friend. It gives us the true picture of the kind of person Joseph Heller was.

1923-1999

“Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter island.
I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel 'Catch-22'
has earned in its entire history?"
And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have."
And I said, "What on earth could that be, Joe?"
And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."
Not bad! Rest in peace!”

The greatest having is to have ENOUGH; How profound; hats-off to you Joseph.

The day after Shivarathri.

Today, the day after the great Shivarathri, I was on my way back from my usual constitutional and was passing by the famous Shiva temple of Thrissur.

It was quite early in the morning and many of the regular crowd visiting the temple was somehow missing.  May be the devotees were taking it laid-back  after being hectically in a festive mood yesterday.

The temple premises were bearing all the signs of the aftermath of yesterday’s festivities. You look around and find discarded paper tea cups and different kinds of pamphlets of different trading organisations etc. used paper bags and also elephant droppings strewn all around. Looking at them, I was wondering how much time and energy will it be needed to bring back a semblance of tidiness back to the usual serine atmosphere of the temple.

But as I reached the main entrance of the temple a heart-warming sight welcomed me. There was a lone figure, the sweeper woman (of course the paid employee of the temple) who was hectically sweeping the front courtyard of the temple trying her best to get rid of the whole mess. She was at it in the morning and I know that it is her assigned duty. She was just attending to her work as it is expected of, by her employer, who so ever it may be.

The point is not whether this lady is doing her duty or not. It is also not being argued whether that she should be complimented for doing something of what is expected of her. The point is that how many of us recognise her? Many of us visit this temple most of the day. But how many of us know her, or can recall her name. Will any one of us care to share a cup of coffee with that woman? 

Mother Teresa once said that you can love a person; you can also hate a person; but when you ignore a person; you are doing the greatest injustice to that person.

I know that just a word of appreciation or just an acknowledgement of her task and its difficulties by us will make her day. You may ask, how do I know that?

 I know because I just did that and saw her reaction.

Her face lit up and her eyes sparkled with that shine you can find rarely in people when they are extremely happy.

The feeling is infectious and it left me also a very very Happy Man.