You are beautiful

I am not liking the new blog. Typing here doesn't feel as good as the previous one. But then, that was not free.

I was having a discussion today and someone asked me, 'Are there ugly actresses in Indian movies?'. I was at a loss of words. I could not understand what notion of beauty she was talking about. Perhaps, my Indian notion of beauty is different from hers. This led my thoughts back to the protagonist of the Bollywood movie Aankho Dekhi, which was released recently. The protagonist, played by Sanjay Mishra, had decided that he won't believe in anything that the world has taught him. He would rely on his senses for all his beliefs. Once he imbibes that in, he starts finding every person beautiful. Perhaps, our senses have been corrupted by the beliefs that the world wants us to follow.

It seems there are two kinds of truth. One, which we learn from our senses and the other, which the world teaches us. I think it is increasingly becoming important to distinguish between the two. At least for me, majority of my knowledge is formed by reading about the outside world on the online medium. Since, these online information sources have all sorts of bias, I am tending towards some biased view of the world. It seems, its time to start segregating the beliefs that the world/society has put in me and to start giving more preference to my own experiences, the ones that my senses experience.

I find the notion of beauty strange. Indian mythology is full of dark-skinned people and many of our Gods are known to be dark skinned. And yet, fairness creams in India are selling products worth billions of dollars. Does the notion of fairer beauty arise out of the European supremacy that India was subjected to? Does it propagate just to satiate the needs of the few? It is definitely not a universal notion to associate skin color with beauty. Moreover, different cultures seem to have different perceptions of beauty. My Lebanese friends tell me that they do not associate beauty with skin color while the Egyptians do. Is any standard of beauty, then, just being propagated as a myth? Should we not allow people to follow their own definitions of beauty instead?

Perhaps, we should start thinking outside the chains that these norms have put us in. Perhaps, beauty does lie in the eyes of the beholder.

Back to Blogger

This is not an interesting blog post, but an announcement of sorts. My old blog thelazy.info went down as we could no longer afford the time and energy to maintain it, so I am back to the free service maintained by Google. We realised the blog has been down, three months after our blog hosting had expired and so I lost all my posts. I tried to pull most of them from web-archives, but still could not get: From the poor, at MIT. That was one of my favorites and if you have a copy, please let me know. I am going through the process of reformatting the blog posts on this blog. Please bear with any broken links and formatting for the time being.

Mela (Fair): Stories from Sambhaavnaa-1

Originally posted: December 31, 2012

देखिये हम ज्यादा इकोनॉमिक्स नहीं समझते। बस इतना जानते हैं कि अगर घर में एक बच्चा भूखा होगा, एक की स्कूल की फीस भरनी होगी और एक को मेला देखना होगा, तो हम पहले क्या करेंगे।

[Translation: Look, I do not understand a lot of economics. But I know, if I had three children, one of them hungry, the other illiterate and the third wanting to go to a fair, then what my first priority would be.]

This is how Kulbhushan Upmanyu, a veteran environment activist summed up his views on development at Sambhaavnaa Institute in the Winter School on Rethinking Development, at Kandbari, near Palampur, Himachal Pradesh.

When I had first told my friends about my intended visit to the place, they were all sceptical about its value addition and they even had a gig about how I was wasting my winter vacations. I had my own share of doubts. Somehow, I felt that such workshops tend to get preachy, tend to become emotional and move away from analytical thought, that I believed was so often required. Luckily, none of these doubts proved right. Over a span of 7 days, working from 8am to 10pm, we met academics, activists and others; and none of them preached. Nor were they a group of people who could endlessly attribute all ills of the nation to corruption or people who were frustrated with the system because they failed the system.

Instead, they were a bunch of people who had ‘won’ the system (an IITD-IIMA alumnus who had given up his career to settle down in a village near Bhopal to propose an alternative development model, a Rhodes scholar who was rethinking development, a couple who held PhD in Engineering and who left a well settled life in US to come to Himachal, another couple who had decided that they won’t let their child grow up away from nature) and still found that the system had something missing. They never preached. They presented the situation, as it is. And they were analytical. It becomes easy to be emotional when you had seen so much around you, it becomes easy to be proud of having left such lavish lives, but what struck me down was their humility and their zeal to learn more and create social change (as opposed to doing ‘social work’). They were so analytical, that when one of us pointed out that she had feared that they may try to brainwash her before the workshop and had found all her fears wrong; they were quick to accept that it might be the case that she had been brain washed perfectly by them.

We, among ourselves, were a group of 30 people. We had this desire to change things around, but never understood where to start, and if change was possible at all. We had come with questions, lots of them. Sambhaavnaa never promised any answers, rather motivated us to ask more. All the workshop did, was to provide a language to frame those questions.

There is much to be said about those 7 days, about the place, about the group(a bright-eyed cheerful Punjaban, a witty Afghan, the girl with the 1000-watt smile, a person who had ‘friends’, and many others) about our hangouts at night, our discussions during the day, about our visit to a local hydro power plant, about our morning walks, about the optional meditation sessions, about the dinner dates, about the sweet kids we met and lot more. But that will come up in subsequent parts (if I write them, that is).

For now, let me leave you with this from the Afghanistan guy: No person should be able to buy anyone and no one should be forced to sell himself.

P.S: Visit Sambhaavnaa’s website or the facebook page for more details about Sambhaavnaa.

[Edit] P.P.S: Sambhaavnaa has come up with an opportunity for all of you to experience this. Here is a link for the Facebook event page of the summer schools on similar lines.

And I am back.. With Kejriwal

Originally posted: 3 October, 2012

 

Well, I have been away from the blog for a while now. No, I haven’t got a girlfriend who doesn’t like my blog. I started lots of drafts lately with hope that I can be back, but never completed any. I cannot pinpoint a reason though. Let us get serious now.

When the anti-corruption movement started, I was a skeptic (read this ). I did not believe in the methods that the movement adopted. Although they were legal, it somehow did not feel right. I felt anyone could cause a stir and ask the parliament to bend to their demands. It was disrespect for the democracy that we are proud of. Even if Team Anna had won, I would not have enjoyed the victory. I would have been worried about what might follow. That said, I had never hoped that the movement failed. I had been helpless (and choice less) in my support for the movement as I mention in that article. Somehow, Congress (and even others) did not bend to the demands and created a farce in the Rajya Sabha (which was even more humiliating for the democracy). The movement soon lost steam with low turnouts and a failure seemed inevitable. As I point out later, all was not lost though.

An important reason that had added to my disbelief in the methods was the realization that the practical implications of a system are not very well understood by people outside the system. Even if Team Anna had a draft of the Lokpal bill that seemed perfect, it might not have been implementable even by a government that had good intent, just because it was drafted by people who were not governing. I have neither the authority, nor knowledge or understanding to point flaws; but everyone around seemed to believe in the bill without knowing the bill. Like me, the mob had neither knowledge nor understanding to back the bill. The mob was motivated by the will to end corruption and not the bill itself. This made it kind of hard for me not to question the methods.

But, things have changed now. Arvind Kejriwal is all set to form a party. He has decided to enter the system to clean it up. His intent seems clear and well-defined. He will soon face all the practical challenges that (I felt) might have been missing in his understanding. This will definitely give him a deeper understanding of the problem and of their extent. There are still disbelievers(it is strange how the mob which backed him as an activist is questioning him as a politician), but if people assume that his intent is clear and show little trust in him, he looks like the man who can take India through, initiate a transformation that can lead us to a better future. He can set examples for political parties to follow. He has set high ideals for himself and higher goals. The goals might not be achievable by him. He too would know that, but if he can transform words into actions or at least show the intent to do that, he can achieve a lot.

What should we do now? TRUST. For once, let us put faith in a politician. Let us define politics the way it is supposed to be and believe that not all politicians are bad. Why should we trust him? Because no one else has shown the courage to say ‘Challenge accepted’ when repeatedly asked ‘Why don’t you enter politics if you want to change the system?’. Social activists have often decided to ask politicians to change themselves, rather than replacing them. Some, who presented us a choice, failed because we could not trust them enough. Let us not wear those shady goggles anymore and for once, learn to believe in the goodness of people. Now is the time for change and let us make sure when the harbinger of change faces tough challenges on the road ahead, he doesn’t feel alone.

Disclaimer: All the comments made in this post are my feelings and thoughts and might not always be based on facts. Feel free to point out and debate in comments.

P.S: The post somehow seems incomplete, but I did not want a really long comeback post just to make sure that people read it.

Apples

Originally Posted: May 14, 2012

This blog has been so dormant of late, that I fear that no one might read this post… but sometimes, you have such a strong urge to express yourself that you don’t care if someone reads your blog or not… I am so confused about the title of this blog… I wish we could have two titles… the confusion is between ‘the world is so unfair’ and ‘levels of unfairness’. While the former will attract more readers, the latter is more apt. Let us start talking then.

This post has been borne out of recent discussions. I was talking to a friend who commented that IIT system is so unfair and then we had a discussion about how assignments are not graded fairly as there are scant measures to check plagiarism and how the students do not mind plagiarism and are open to it, how exams can be highly unfair and how the system has been unfair to her. I agreed with her on most of this. I agree that the system is unfair. The incentives mechanism is flawed and people do not always get their effort’s worth. Her was a different voice, different from the ones you regularly hear at IITD and that made me think. I started thinking about this unfairness and went on.

But then, how could thoughts be restricted. I moved from one level of unfairness to another. IIT system doesn’t do justice (in terms of grades) to students, but then is it fair to judge student’s efforts by his/her grade. And then how fair is it for people from certain departments (read ‘CS’) to get better jobs than others. And this is not it. The level of teaching and opportunities available at IITs  is a lot different from the other state and regional colleges. How is that justified? Just because you had better luck on a day and you could solve certain kinds of questions better than others, you get to have lot more opportunities, even if you don’t enjoy solving those questions anymore.

And there is more to it. These ‘question solving’ techniques were imparted by some coaching institute which not even 5% in India can afford or some ‘hi-fi’ school which limits its services to certain section of the society (exceptions exist). So, the life you will live is a function of, among other things,  how rich and/or influential your parents were.

And education is not the only thing unfairly distributed, let us get to other stuff. For instance, how unfair is it for a girl to be born poor? She has negligible chances of getting education and there are high chances that she will be working throughout her life, will  be abused at all levels, at all times and will not have two full meals on any day in her life(again, exceptions exist). You can easily see kids,at some signal close to DPS RK Puram, begging for food and this would be another example of unfairness. And yes, I have never been there, and I am still so sure about the kids because this is what the pattern is. With every well-fed establishment, there is a hungry hutment.

Finally, when I put all this in perspective, I find unfairness is inherent and there are levels of it. I cannot be angry with my life or be unhappy with it. I cannot be angry at getting 40% of the apple and the other guy getting 60% of it, when there were hundreds thousands waiting for the apple. I have had a bite of the apple. I don’t really know how big the bite was. But yes, the fact that I could have a bite should make me happy. There are people who couldn’t even see the apple, leave alone tasting it. This unfairness of 40-60 will be dealt with, when there are sufficient apples to be shared. Let us focus on getting those apples first.

P.S:

1.I found the idea of apples so interesting that I am changing the title.

2. I can visualize writing the entire post using the apple image, but read the title of the blog.. we are lazy folks. 

Deepavali

Originally posted: October 26, 2011

I haven’t written anything for long. I am not writing anything new either. Just felt like sharing an old  poem, which some of you might have already heard.

फिर आ गयी है दीपावली

जगमग है हर घर, जगमग है हर गली|

इतनी रोशनी देखकर, रोशनी इतरा उठी

और बोली अंधेरे से, कि

ए अंधेरे अब बता, तेरा वजूद है कहाँ

अंधेरे ने कहा, “ए रोशनी, मत इतनी इतरा

मै हूँ यहाँ, मैं हूँ वहां|

जरा देख उस अनाथ मासूम कि आँखों में,

उसके आँखों के अंधेरे को इस रोशनी से मतलब है क्या?

जरा देख उन बेघर भूखों को,

उनकी पेट की आग इन पटाखों से कम है क्या?

और अब देख इन रोशनी करने वाले दिलों में,

घृणा, द्वेष और ईर्ष्या, सब ही तो है यहाँ,

फिर कहाँ है इनमे रोशनी कीजगह|

अब बता ए रोशनी, तू है कहाँ?

मै हूँ यहाँ, मैं हूँ वहां|

तू है कहाँ, तू है कहाँ?”

तुमने तो जलाये पटाखे, इनकी दीपक की औकात ना थी|

क्या गुनाह है आखिर उनका, जिनके चूल्हों में भी आग ना थी||

Time for a Corruption Free India?

Originally Posted: August 14, 2011

Anna Hazare is set to take up his struggle against corruption this Tuesday. This is a historic moment for all of us. We have a chance to be a part of a change, a change that we all have dreamt of. But we all have apprehensions. A few people raise voices against the approach that Anna has adopted. I am one of them. Some believe it amounts to demeaning the parliament. Some others feel that same tactics could be used for some faction to  demand a separate state or reservation (But I don’t know how those movements will gather the support that Anna has managed to get.)

But here is a fact. All criticism that has come from civilised people is about the way of getting this done. No one has a single doubt about the aim. So, I assume everyone believes that we want a corruption free India and the Jan Lokpal is a good way for achieveing it. Now, the question is whether we speak up or remain silent, because we don’t believe in Anna’s way of doing things. I wrote this post to explain what I feel about this question.

What if we speak up? We will then be giving full support to Anna Hazare. There is no way to covey that we don’t believe in his ways but his goals. Your speaking up at this moment will mean you are a part of the movement Anna plans to start. It will mean you want the jan lokpal bill passed now. You will then be responsible (in part) for all the consequences of taking up this approach.

What if we remain silent? You will then be hurting the movement. You will be against Anna and his aims. This hurts me more. If you stay silent, everyone assumes you are on the side that rules. This means you support the government on the issue, and the government’s ways. If you stay silent and the movement fails, just because many of us chose to stay silent, the inspiration behind the movement dies down. The fire that keeps the likes of Arvind Kejriwal ticking, will be extinguished. They have invested all they had (including their life) in this. Believe me, it feels really ugly, when your loved ones back out support when you are fighting for them. When you stand up for such a fight, it really kills if you see no one backing up when you turn around to look for support. If Anna fails now, no one in civil society will be able to cause such a stir in the years to come. No one will dare to try. This will be a big loss for the people working for a cause. And I don’t want that to happen.

I know Anna’s aims are my wishes. I know his ways are debatable. But it’s not the time to discuss ways to get things done. We want results. And Anna’s ways are by no means, criminal. His ways also find favour with a large fraction. If I stay silent now, I will be on the other side. It’s time to take sides. You can’t be neutral.You have one day too decide ‘ Which side are you on?’