Is God hugely egotist?

As soon as I stepped out of the Golden Temple, Vellore, I had to immediately switch on my laptop and type my thoughts into this word doc, before they escape the feeble confines of my mind. For those of you who are unaware of this temple, it is a somewhat new temple which has risen in fame to almost rival that of the Tirupati temple, at least in the temple goers circuit.

I have not seen a temple as grand as this one, yet. It reminded me of the Ramoji Film City. That is how grand it is. I was a little disappointed at this as I am a man of simple tastes. Initially, my thoughts turned in the negative with this display of unnecessary grandeur. Then as I walked to the main temple, it got me thinking. And I had a lot of time to do that owing to the long around the temple route that you have to take to reach the main temple.

The first question that popped up into my head was, ‘Is God really this egotist, that he will be pleased by this grandeur in his name?’ I just could not digest this revelation and was actually terrified that the answer to that might just be a yes. But then I recalled the Ramayana that I have read and knew for certain that my Ram was not. But the moment I thought of Ram, Krishna popped up into my head and though they are supposedly different avatars of the same God, they are so different. Somehow I could imagine Nitish Bharadwaj (the guy who played Krishna in BR Chopra’s Mahabharata) giving that smile of his on seeing this temple.

This led me to another question, ‘How could the same God have two such different and opposing characteristics attached to itself?’ And I think the answer to this lies in the simple fact that God understood the complexity and the diversity of man best. He knew there would be men like me, of simple taste. And he knew of the existence of men who would worship grandeur. If a touch of grandeur helps man to stray towards the good and curb evil even if in a very minimal amount, what’s wrong in it? In fact, statistics show that currently there are more men who believe in grand gestures than simple ones. Just compare the devotee traffic of Tirupati or this Golden Temple to that of say Hampi or the Shore temple.

Of course, whether God exists or not is a completely different debate for a different piece, but something commonly called God definitely is worshipped and does help somewhat in taming the evil within.

Educated India, are we ready?

How many of you reading this believe that good, quality education is a basic right of every human being? My guess is, there will only be one in a hundred who will disagree. Well, my argument is kind of in support of that one person. I know the thought is pretty pathetic, but humour me.

Before you judge me, let me be clear that this is just a thought and not my belief.

Now consider this, you live in a world where you don’t have auto/taxi/bus drivers on the roads; where you will have to clean the roads outside your house yourself. You live in a world where there is no labour to construct your home and you have to do it yourself; where there are no truck drivers to transport your favourite soap, shoe, grains or deodorant from the factories to the store next door. You live in a world where there are no road side eateries and you don’t get your cutting chais and hot, simmering vada pavs anymore; where there is no labour available to work in the various factories producing all your necessities. You live in a world where you have to completely lift your own load and do your own work – from scratch. Get the picture?

These are jobs that no well educated man/woman will choose to do (except in desperate need). Now, some of the points I have mentioned above might sound to you like luxuries, but nonetheless, they are luxuries that we have taken for granted. So will we be comfortable without these luxuries?

Like I said earlier, I am not proposing that we keep the uneducated uneducated. I am merely pointing out that are we ready, and do we understand the radical change that this will result in? Of course, every self righteous person will answer to that in the affirmative. Even I did. But as the famous saying goes, ‘we don’t really know what we have, till it’s gone.’

You might argue that the westerners live life the way I have pointed out above. But, there are two points I think that differentiate us from them. One, our economy is not strong enough yet to create job opportunities for every additional person that will get educated (we are not even able to provide for the current number). Two, (and this is an assumption, mostly based on Hollywood flicks) the westerners have a good amount of immigrants to do the somewhat lower level jobs. Are our relationships with our neighbours like Pakistan and China good enough for that? Do we want them to immigrate into our country?

It’s just a thought. Think about it.

Our contribution to History - Indifference!

As a kid, I was extremely attentive during our history lessons. It was one of my favourite subjects. (besides the fact that my history teacher was a looker) I have always been fascinated with the heroic stories of those times. The various times when kings, commanders laid their lives on the line for their nations, the millions of heroes who fought the firangs and won us our freedom. (and I’m not just talking about the famous ones) All along I used to picture myself to be one of them, in my childish ways tell myself that in my previous birth I was definitely one of them. Or wishing that I would get an opportunity to show my country the love and respect it so deserves and does not get. And sometimes even regretting that I cannot remember anything about that previous birth, so maybe I was not a freedom fighter after all. Dejected.

Now, when such an opportunity is knocking at our doors, what are we doing? Busy building our careers? Seriously? So when the generations after us study history, they will still only study what we have studied. Our contribution to history will be indifference. Maybe we need to pat ourselves on the back for this.

Of course, this is in relation to the Anna uprising that the country is witnessing. I am not saying that his methods or demands are justified or not. I am not saying whether he is clean or not. But how does that make a difference? It is not what a man thinks that defines him, it is his actions. He is fighting to eradicate a powerful and dangerous disease that has taken over our country, Corruption. That is all that matters. They say he is the Gandhi of our age. If you do not agree with his ways, then why don’t you become the Bhagat Singh? What is stopping you?

The issue is not Lokpal Bill or Jan Lokpal Bill. These are just methods, the first steps to achieve what is rightfully ours, what should have been rightfully ours ages ago. I know the seeds of corruption are sown deep, deeper than the oldest standing tree probably. It is a vicious circle, but somewhere it has to be broken.

I have often wondered at how can one not feel the love for your country. How? I somehow blame Manmohan Singh for this. No, no...not because he is the PM now. Because he brought in Globalization. I think maybe that is where the descent of patriotism was initiated. Of course I have no data to back this, but isn’t globalization the exact opposite of patriotism? Strictly literally speaking.

I know what your answer is going to be, ‘Kuch nahi badlega yaar’. I am not going to go on about how things can change if you want it to change, etc etc, blah blah. Just answer this question honestly and you might even feel ashamed at your attitude. If our forefathers could bring about a monumental change after hundreds of years of British Rule, we don’t have the balls to bring about a relatively minor change after just 65 years.