I love my country!!

                                                      

I love my country. I love India and can die for my country. These are the phrases one hear from many people during independence or republic day. We can also see this on people's facebook status, during chit chats, etc. But I wonder whether one has any idea of what a nation is & what constitutes it (although nation is a very abstract concept). I would like to ask what a person mean when he says that he loves his country & can die for it. What is this nation & whom does he love? Is love to our nation only limited to our territory & national security. Doesn't nation mean our people, our forests, our animals, our water, our air, etc. But no, that doesn't strike us. That is not what we love, we only love our country, nothing else.

I think the reason for this is very deep. Sometimes I feel this society is a big hypocrisy. All show that they are very virtuous, loving and caring, but all care nothing but about themselves. Lip service is the rule. Lovers (or rather so called lovers) seek love instead of giving love. Parents want their children to become good doctors or engineers (rather than good human beings), so that their children can fill their expectation shoes & earn them a reputation. A woman looks for a husband who is rich (as if she is incapable or physically handicapped to earn a living for herself). A man looks for a beautiful wife and objectifies her in the process. If this is the attitude of a person towards his close ones, one can imagine his attitude towards others. These 'others' for him are nothing but sick bastards born to annoy him.

So for me, if you want to change the society, then first change yourself. Start loving yourself so that you can realize that whats inside you, is the same inside others. This is the only way through which you can start loving others. And note that, selfishness (which I discussed above) and self-love are two extremely different things.

To sum up, these so called phrases like, I love my country, are a big lie. My message is that either don't say it, or if you do say, then mean it. The next time you see a girl with torn clothes begging around streets, don't be indifferent towards her. She deserves the same privileges, if not more, as you have, of basic education, health & food.

Our farmers are dying, to hell with the World Cup

 A very good article written by Narendra Shekhawat in The Hindu's Open Page(articles written by readers).

Yes, you read it right; to hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players. How can I jump, scream, have gallons of beer and cheer for the nation when a few kilometres away the farmers and feeders of my country are taking their own lives in hordes?

Do you know that, on average, 47 farmers have been committing suicide every single day in the past 16 years in our shining India — the next economic power, progressive with nine per cent growth?

Last month, on March 5, Friday evening, when Bangalore's watering holes were getting filled up, when all the DJs were blaring out deafening music, when we were busy discussing India's chances at the World Cup, sitting in CCDs and Baristas — just 100 km away from Bangalore, Swamy Gowda and Vasanthamma, a young farmer couple, hanged themselves, leaving their three very young children to fend for themselves or, most likely, die of malnutrition.

Why did they do it? Were they fighting? No. Were they drunkards? No. Did they have incurable diseases? No! Then WHY? Because they were unable to repay a loan of Rs 80,000 (a working IT couple's one month salary? 2-3 months EMI?) for years, which had gradually increased to Rs. 1.2 lakh. Because they knew that now they would never be able to pay it back. Because they were hurt. Hurt by our government which announced a huge reduction in import duty for silk in this year's budget (from 30 per cent to 5 per cent).They were struggling silk farmers and instead of help from the government, they get this! Decrease in import duty means the markets will now be flooded with cheap Chinese silk (as everything else!) and our own farmers will be left in the lurch.

On average, 17,000 farmers have been committing suicide every year, for the past 15 years on the trot. Can you believe it? Most of us wouldn't know this fact. Why? Because, our great Indian media, the world's biggest media, are not interested in reporting this! Why? Because they are more interested in covering fashion week extravaganzas. They are more interested in ‘why team India was not practising when Pakistanis were sweating it out in stadium on the eve of the match?' They are more interested in Poonam Pandey.The media are supposed to be the third eye of democracy and also called the fourth estate, but now they have become real estate. Pure business.

So any attention from the media is out of the question. Who is left then? The government? But we all know how it works. The other day, I was passing by Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore and happened to read the slogan written at the entrance, “Government work is god's work”. Now I know why our government has left all its work to god! Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa announced plots for all the players. But land? In Bangalore? You must be kidding, Mr. C.M.. So he retracts and now wants to give money. But where will it come from? Taxes, yours and mine. Don't the poor farmers need the land or money more than those players who are already earning in crores?

A government-owned bank will give you loan at six per cent interest rate if you are buying a Mercedes but if a poor farmer wants to buy a tractor, do you know how much it is charging him? Fifteen per cent! Look at the depths of inequality. Water is Rs. 15 a litre and a SIM card is for free! For how long can we bite the hand that is feeding us? The recent onion price fiasco was just a trailer. Picture abhi baaki hai doston!

In 2008, Lakme India fashion show venue was in a Mumbai five-star hotel and was covered by 500 journalists and the theme was ‘Cotton'. A few hours drive from there, cotton farmers were committing suicide, 4 or 5, everyday! How many TV journalists covered this? Zero!

Sixty-seventy per cent of India's population is living on less than Rs. 20 a day. A bottle of Diet coke for us? The electricity used in a day-night match could help a farmer irrigate his fields for more than a few weeks! Do you know that loadshedding is also class dependent? Two hours in metros, 4 in towns and 8 in villages. Now, who needs electricity more? A farmer to look after his crop day and night, irrigate, pump water and use machines or a few bored, young professionals with disposable incomes, to log on to Facebook and watch IPL?

How can we splurge thousands on our birthday parties and zoom past in our AC vehicles and sit in cushy chairs in our AC offices and plan a weekend trip to Coorg when on the way, in those small villages, just a few minutes' walk from the roads, someone might be consuming pesticide or hanging himself from a tree for just Rs.10, 000? How can we?

There was much panic when there was swine flu. Every single death in the country was reported second by second, minute by minute. Why? Because it directly affected our salaried, ambitious, tech-savvy, middle-class. So there were masks, special relief centres, enquiry centres set up by government to please this section. On the other hand, 47 people are dying, every single day for the past 15 years. Anybody cared to do anything?

It has been observed that within months of a farmer taking his life, his wife follows, either by poisoning the kids first or leaving them on their own. In Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, a distressed woman farmer went to the government seed shop, bought a bottle of pesticide, on credit, went home and drank it. She was under debt for most of her life and now — even her death was on credit!

Centuries ago, there was a Roman emperor, called Nero. He was a strong ruler and also very fond of parties, art, poetry, drinking and a life full of pleasures. Once he decided to organise a grand party and invited all poets, writers, dancers, painters, artists, intellectuals and thinkers of society. Everybody was having a great time eating, drinking, laughing, and socialising. The party was at its peak when it started getting dark. Nero wanted the party to go on. So he ordered and got all the arrested criminals, who were in his jails, around the garden and put them on fire! Burnt them alive, so that there was enough light for the guests to keep on enjoying! The guests had a gala time though they knew the cost of their enjoyment. Now, what kind of conscience those guests had?

Nero's guests
What is happening in our country is not different from Nero's party. We, the middle-class-young-well-earning-mall-hopping-IPL-watching and celebrating-junta are Nero's guests enjoying at the cost of our farmers. Every budget favours the already rich. More exemptions are being given to them at the cost of grabbing the land of our farmers in the name of SEZs, decrease in import duties in the name of neo-liberal policies, increase in the loan interest rates if the product is not worth lakhs and crores. Yes, that's what we are, Nero's guests!

I'm not against celebrations. I'm not against cricket. I'm not against World Cup. I would be the first person to scream, celebrate and feel proud of any of India's achievements but, only if all fellow countrymen, farmers, villagers also stand with me and cheer; only if they do not take their own lives ruthlessly, only if there is no difference between interest rates for a Mercedes and a tractor. That would be the day I also zoom past on a bike, post-Indian win, with an Indian Flag in hand and screaming Bharat Mata Ki Jai. But no, not today. Not at the cost of my feeders. Until then, this is what I say. To hell with your malls. To hell with your IPL. To hell with your World Cup. And to hell with your celebrations.

Irom Sharmila

While Anna Hazare has done a commendable work bringing government to its knees after he went for a fast unto death for passage of a strong anti corruption law, I would like to mention about a similar person championing for a cause. Irom Sharmila is also on a fast unto death since last 10 years against AFSPA(Armed Forces Special Powers Act) in Manipur.

Her fast against this act started in 2000 when several civilians were allegedly killed by security forces in Manipur. She wants revocation of this law. Since the central government could not relent due to cessation activities still present & Irom Sharmila wont budge too, she is presently under house arrest and is given liquid food through nose by government to keep her alive. Imagine this for 10 years & she is still continuing. She is really an inspiration for me to keep fighting against all odds.

To make things clear I will write some provisions of AFSPA, which is currently in operation in J&K and states of North East.
-Permits army to fire at a suspected insurgent (even to causing of death) without any fear of punishment.
-Empowers armed forces to search & arrest without a formal warrant.
-Prohibits the prosecution of soldier accused of misusing the provisions of the act until the central govt grants sanction.
(Imagine all these provisions operating in Delhi or Mumbai!!!)

Here my point is not to debate for or against this law, but to show the determination of this iron lady. The night she learned of the massacre, Sharmila had scribbled on a piece of paper: "What is the origin of peace and what will be the end." The next day, she ate a meal her mother had prepared and told her of the killings at the bus stop. Sharmila has not eaten since.

Some Quotes

This is my first post on my blog and I have no idea what to write. So let me share a set of some good quotes which I have been collecting since I started preparing for civil services. I really like good quotes right from my childhood but started collecting them only few years back. These are arranged in random fashion some good, some bad, some in which I don't believe but still good to hear & some in which I have unwavering conviction. Although quotes are nothing but jugglery of words they can be a source of inspiration & knowledge. After all, they emanate from the experiences of life. Few among them are written by me. If you go through them properly there will be a bit of revelation for you.

QUOTES

I love.

Cogito ergo sum.

Life is calling. Where are you?

Truth alone triumphs.

Is equality a dream?

When I discover who I am, I shall be free.

Love is a verb, not a noun.
Osho

India, a multitude of mutinies.
V.S Naipaul

If winter comes, can spring be far behind.

I was leading a life in darkness, until I realized the light was within me.
Bhagwad Geeta

Live and help live.

We have created India. Now all we need is to create Indians.

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven.
Wordsworth

How happy is blameless vestal's lot?
The world is forgetting by the world forgot,
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Each prayer accepted and each wish resigned.

When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.
Shakespeare

According to aerodynamic laws, the bumblebee cannot fly. Its body
weight is not in the right proportion to its wingspan. Unknown to
these laws, the bee flies anyway.

Sometimes in order to see the light, you have to risk the dark.

Property is theft.

P.J Proudhon
 

Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and the world laugh louder.

Sometimes the journey becomes the destination.

No one behind, no one ahead. The path the ancients cleared has closed. And the other  path, everyone's path, easy & wide, goes nowhere. I am alone and find my way. 

Dharmakirti

When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.

Men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.
Machiavelli

Arise, awake and rest not until the goal is achieved.
Vivekananda  

I am the center of my universe.

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

Money, if it doesn’t bring you happiness will at least help you be
miserable in comfort.

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the
point, however, is to change it.
Marx

If I can love myself despite my infinite faults, how can I hate
somebody at the glimpse of few faults?

Great men are almost always bad men.
Lord Acton

If someone gets something for free, someone else must be paying for it.

Recall the face of the poorest & the weakest man, and ask yourself, if
the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.
Gandhi

When in doubt, listen to your heart. You wont regret it.

It's not a question of being in love with someone it's a question of
just being in love. Love in its entirety is not addressed to some
body. It's a state of mind.

If voting changed anything they'd abolish it.
Ken Livingstone

Stupidity produces anti-bodies.

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
Mao Zedong

Where you stand depends on where you sit.

You are that and that is you.

Love me, and the world is mine.
David Reed

Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong.
Hitler

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be
slaves.

Thoreau

Love as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Gandhi

The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates.
Tacitus

As a woman I have no country.
Virginia Woolf

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
Socrates

Always forgive your enemies-nothing annoys them so much.
Oscar Wilde

When you lose, dont lose the lesson.

All that is solid melts into air.
Marx

I hate democracy because I love freedom..

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
Einstein

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

Ever experienced uvajed
-what a trip
-it's dejavu backward

I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.
Henry W Beecher

There is no remedy to love but to love more.
Thoreau

It is not simply that there are rich and poor. It is rather that some
are rich because some are poor.
J.C Kincaid

From everything One is made and from One everything.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a
heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium
of the people.
Marx

Is it India rising at 8 per cent or 8 per cent of India rising at 8 per cent.
M.J Akbar

The Muslim of India never voted for development. They voted for fear.
M.J Akbar

The more man puts into god, the less he retains of himself.
Marx

People can be more human than their society permits.
Fischman
 

The British introduced red tape, but we have perfected it.

We have fears because we have a self. When we do not regard that self
as self, what have we to fear?
Lao-Tse

It's déjà vu all over again.

It's easy to spot a fool unless he's hiding in you.

The key to happiness has nothing to do with what you do or don't have.
It's all about what you decide to do with what is already yours.
Linda Blair

Whoever blushes is already guilty. True innocence is ashamed of nothing.
Rousseau

If no one heeds your call, walk alone, walk alone.
Gandhi

The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe
every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there
are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.
Nehru

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes
when we shall redeem our pledge.
Nehru

Colonialists like Churchill said India can't govern itself. Our elite
is bent upon proving them correct.
Arum Kimar (JNU)

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
Marx-Engels

Women are made, they are not born.
Simone de Beauvoir

History is, and always will be, a graveyard of aristocracies.

Poverty is expensive.

Man makes religion, religion does not make man.

Marx

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.

Justice is the interest of the stronger.
Thrasymachus

It is better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
J.S Mill

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Gandhi

Most of us waiting for something dramatic to happen in our lives do
not realize that it has already happened.
Shekhar Kapur

They say winning isn't everything, and I've decided to take their word for it.

Be kind to mother Earth. We don't have a spare in the trunk.

Is it the society according to human nature or the human nature
according to the society.
Marx

History is a set of lies agreed upon.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Integrity of the process always determines the quality of the product
that comes out of it.

Truth realized, god is forever caught.

Social change is a hard, slow & painful task and all I can say is that
I will not give up.

The dominant media are not pro-corporates. They are corporates.

Bullets, guns, curfews and check posts. Welcome to Kashmir.

A man who loves himself has no rivals.

Smile, it increases your face value.

Work for free or for full price. Never for cheap.

Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.

Difference between optimists and pessimists is that the optimists have more fun.

Patriotism cannot be a final spiritual shelter. My refuge is humanity.
Tagore

Your life does not change when your boss, friends, partner or job
changes. It solely changes when "you" change.

May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions.
Joey Adams

The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.

Social solidarity is the first human law. Freedom is the second law.
Bakunin

Math tells us 3 cool love stories: Of parallel lines, who are never meant to meet. Of tangent lines, who were together once then parted forever. And of asymptotes, who could only get closer and closer, but could never be together.

Patriotism should not be limited to a sense of reverence towards the
abstract notion of a nation. It is also love towards fellow
countrymen.
Sikander Khan (a reader of The Hindu newspaper)

Did god create us or did we create god?

Life laughs at you when you are unhappy. Life smiles at you when you
are unhappy. But life salutes you when you make others happy.
Charlie Chaplin

In India, backward is forward.

The difficult can be done immediately,
the impossible takes a little longer.
The Army Corps of Engineers

Two roads diverged in a wood,
And I, I took the less one travelled by,
And that has made all the difference
Robert Frost

Success is a journey, not a destination.
Ben Sweetland

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
Chinese Proverb

Ability is what will get you to the top if the boss has no daughter.

How many yards of buttermilk are required to make a pair of shorts for
a black bull?

When you see what some girls marry, you realize how much they must
hate to work for a living.
Helen Rowland

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of
improving, and that's your own self.

He who fears you present, will hate you absent.

One need to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be
defended against the heaviest odds.
Gandhi

Character, not brain will count at the crucial moment.
Tagore

Life is tough. But I am tougher.

एक ही परिचय, अपना परिचय.  

Osho

 

P.S: These are only selected few from my collection. ;)