We shall overcome some day
Most of us have a tendency to shrink away from our responsibilities by blaming the society, the politics, the trade unions, the leaders and so on. Rightly enough corruption is there everywhere because it is there in human beings. Is it not there in business, in corporate world, in education, in religion, in family, in relations and even in ourselves? Yes it there. But that does not mean we can do shun the government because we are part of it and we are responsible for it and we know well enough that we cannot do without it. Can workers uphold their rights, their grievances, the problems without trade unions? Unity is the only strength of the proletariat to fight against the powerful giants of the world who can ruin the world if it satisfy their whims. Can we imagine a society without the government, law and order? Do we shun education, religions, relations and even ourselves because of the dirt that exist in them? If not why is there this hypocrisy? To shrink ourselves of responsibilities, to be aware, to live and to be awake, to be of worth, to be useful, to find a meaning to life.
I have seen the youths trying to find happiness or rather create it in its many different useless forms which keeps varying, changing, rotating, just to pass the time. To roam about uselessly without a purpose in life except for earning a good salary or rising high to a powerful position. We do not have any purpose, purpose for which a whole life can be given, dedicated, sacrificed without the minimal of regret. So we try to find out the meaning in useless pursuits after addictions, temptations, infatuations, etc ignoring our very responsibilities towards our society which could have given a real meaning to life, meaning which could have yield limitless passions to live, to succeed and to contribute. I hope we find that passion some day in our responsibilities and thus find true joy which crosses beyond boundaries and limits in to the vast ocean of courage. Courage which come up automatically when we the importance of situations and the consequences. I still hope “we shall overcome some day”
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Labour system in India
Come, workmen, all, both great and small,
Pay attention to my ditty,
‘Tis something interests you all
That labour in this city.
Be wide awake,
An interest take–
Don’t wait for legislation;
The greatest aim of all mankind,
It is self-preservation.
CHORUS.
Whack row-de-row,
How are you, eight-hour system;
Whack row-de-row,
We are bound to put it through.
Our claims are just– we know they’re right,
As honest men will all agree;
We wage no war on capital,
That every one can see.
If you want to know,
We can soon show,
Without any exaggeration,
We’ll do as much in eight now
With a little more exertion.
CHORUS. Whack row-de-row, &c.
We will take the hours of the day,
And divide them up by three;
First, take eight for labour, say,
Which we’ll do honestly;
Eight for rest,
Which, at the best,
Gives our strength time to recover;
And eight more to attend the wants
Of our distressed worthy brothers.
CHORUS. Whack, row-de-row, &c.
You may talk about your heroes,
But where is one so grand,
Who kindness to his fellows shows,
And rightly understands.
One of this kind
You’re sure to find,
If the trouble you will take, sirs.
At twenty-seven Julia street,
Is the prince of boiler-makers.
CHORUS. Whack row-de-row, &c.
Here the honest sons of Vulcan
In their glory you may find;
Their hammers click, the time flies quick,
They never are behind.
The secret’s one
That all my own,
It will cost you but the trial,
The eight-hour system is the thing–
It’s a fact, and there’s no denial.
And now let me continue the poem in this way:
“And yet today, even though
implemented in the Labour law
Hardly do they follow
Decades after the May Day
As the struggle of our fore-fathers decay
Under the grave of fear
Listen listen, oh brothers
There is nobody to hear
People even donot know
There exist such a law
Its illegal to make one work
Beyond the hour eight
That minimum pay do exist
In law book the Great
Yet rarely implemented in our people’s fate
This is such as much shame
That people are numb and maimed
In the grave of fear
There is nobody to hear
The death silence still prevail
In the Hippocratic cultural veil
As our nation derail
In the pomp and show of glamour
The Have-nots do clamor
And it goes to deaf ear
In the realm of fear
Of ignornance, which reign
In the rat-race of the world
What did we do gain
It is only shame
Oh brother please hear
There is only a small life
Please do not fear” – Saswati
This is the condition of India today.
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Terrorism
Its indeed unfortunate that many people think that the retaliation of the richest country in the world in response to the act of terrorism, by bombing and killing people in Afghanistan and Iraq and letting double the number of soldiers (double of how many people died in September 11) die for the ego of the nation is a commendable act.
The people who are killed by such acts of violence are not the people who support Al Qaeda, nor are the people killed in the Twin towers are responsible for the despair of the terrorists and economic imperialistic ambitions of powerful nations. The people who are killed by the acts of violence are ordinary people whose lives perhaps doesn’t change with whoever governs or rules the world. They are ones too much pre-occupied to make a living which is often even not possible for them. They are the ones who build buildings, factories, automobiles. They are the constructors of the civilization whose lives are destroyed just in a second by a bomb. They are the one who grows rice, corps, wheat and yet often sleeps hungry all night. They are the weakest sections of the people who are targeted first in this war of the ego.
They are as much less of the Al-Qaeda’s as of the American Government’s. Neither of them has ever done anything good for these people except killing them or their near and dear ones. Truely enough the only power the proletariats have is the power of unity if they are aware of it. Will they know their supreme power one day ? Will they rise in revolution one day to destroy the empires who have always destroyed their life? Nobody knows. On a second thought perhaps it is inevitable.
Filed under: society | 1 Comment
Aesthetics
Since a long time, I have been a supporter of aestheticism perhaps due to cultural prejudices as I may call it now or influence of some books, until recently I came upon ‘Marriage and Morals’ by Russel. It occured upon me, aesthetics perhaps have been given too much importance in theory which is not or cannot be practised in real world. After all, what is the use of those preachings which are respected only by lip services. Sri Ramakrishna said -’Shun woman and wealth’. In today’s world where money is the most important factor of survival, it is not feasible to shun it. As in case of woman, even though it may be useful to shun it in student life, it is no more applicable once someone marries and settles down in life. I have seen many people to read Kothamrito almost every day and yet refrain to follow them in real time by saying that those principles are above human-capacities.
The theory of aesthetics may have originated at those times when nature was a wonder and people have not known the laws which governs it. They have seen that any useful thing requires work and self-control. They need to collect woods to build fire for warmth and for cooking. They need to build a house to live. That is to say they need to work which was mostly routine manual labour at that time with minimal of pleasure in doing them. Eventually they came to think that any good thing requires painful work and self-abnegation of all the pleasures of relaxation. They thought of some super-power governing every actions which they could not define scientifically and to please that super-power is the means to protect themselves from all natural disasters. Consequently just like other useful rewards, the way to please the super-power is perhaps self-abnegation, austerity and depriving oneself of all pleasures. As such anything pleasureable was looked down upon by the moralists. In some religious text, mostly in the Afghanisation side, even singing romantic songs, watching romantic movies was considered immoral. So was the case in ‘Adarshwadi’ era in India when any literature which incorporated romanticism was frowned upon by the virtuous people.
Another reason is perhaps that most of the people were not educated during that time. As such it was not possible for them to judge the right from the wrong and the only way, the relatively wise people of the then period could bring the society into order was by introducing fear and laws. The self-control which was necessary for any fruitful work needed to be brought about by restrictions without the light of knowledge being spreaded among the common mass. However today with spread of knowledge and education, we realise that progress can be brought about not by prohibition and restriction but by education. I support Russel when he says that instinct needs to be trained and not thwarted. The prohibition of alcohol led to more of black markets rather than anything useful. The prohibition of fornifications lead to prostitutions. Moreover as Chomsky observes, the addictions to drugs are more among the less educated people than the well-to-do educated ones.
Hence the answer today to any progress in the society is not laws but awareness, not restriction but freedom, not fear but knowledge.
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International Government
Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Palentine and India-Pakistan war….. all these examples once again reminds us the need of an international government. UNO has little power on its own. Plus the veto power given to only 5 nations makes it impossible to pass any bill of international peace which deprives any of these 5 powerful nations from its millitary or economic imperialistic ambitions. Moreover International Criminal Court being a voluntary and not a mandatory organisation with the crime of aggression not being included rarely serves its purpose. In such a situation, it becomes necessary to have an international government voted democratically where each nation has equal power and right and an international court of law mandatory to be abided by all the countries of the world in our to keep world peace and refrain the powerful nations from interfering with the freedom and sovereignity the weaker ones.
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You just did your bachelors. Your eyes might be full of dreams and your heart a bit anxious. You plan to go to an unknown land to pursue your ambitions to be someone in this world. You might have heard the grass is greener on the other side but you know not what lies beyond the horizon. Soon you find yourself busy with the rigorous application process. Among all the exhaustive details of the application, the most crucial ones is perhaps the selection of universities. For it is perhaps the most important things which decides your future. So here I provide some guidelines which might help you realize your dreams. 
You might have heard, US is the land of opportunities. Yes, it is. But you need to be careful where you land.
If you are not from a very good college like the IITs with a very good academic records, it is always wise to apply for mid-ranking universities if you want assistantship.
You might get into a top ranked university without being an IITian if you have a very good academic record and good relevant work experience but you may not get funding.
If you want assistantship you need to find out those mid-ranking universitities which have good funds. The only way to find the funding scenerio is perhaps to talk with the students of those universities.
If you are not targetting the top universities, it is always advisable to apply to those universities which are near the industrial areas which will help you find a job in your field of study/interest after your MS. For Electrical Engineering, it is perhaps best to apply to those universities which are near Boston, Texas or California.
If you choose a university near the industrial area, it is necessary that you enquire and make sure that the universities have good opportunities of on-campus jobs since the living expenses of those locations are also usually high.
Unless your are from a very affluent and rich family, it is always wise not to run into huge debts through educational loan by getting into a costly university without funding. For after your MS, you will be left with no choice but to find a job immediately to repay your loan and maintain your living expenses since your on-campus job will also not be there. In such a situation, if you also do not have good relevant work experience of several years then, out of financial need you might have to land up with a job which is not in your field and not in your area of interest. This might even nullify the very purpose of your coming to the land of opportunities.
Be cautious and yet dare to take reasonal risk. You will definitely reach your goal. All the best.
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Religion
There is only 2 things necessary to shake the basis of religion: courage and intelligence.
No wonder religions does not encourage/praise these 2 traits.
Bertrand Russel have rightly said there is not a single line praising intellengence in Bible even though lack of intelligence have resulted in so much misery of the mankind right from religious riots to brainwashed people, rumors, practicing cruelty in the name of rituals, political mispropaganda, undue morality and persecution of its violators and the like. Most importantly, unlike IQ which is necessary for academics, emotional intelligence (EQ) is not based on hereditary or so called God-gifted. It lies in our conscious effort to see things in proper light without being influenced by cultural practices, public opinion and emotions. It depends on our effort to reach conclusions by processing data objectively. Unlike want is popularly believed, pschologists say maturity can be acquired by any adult when they want to do so yet we lack it so much in the present world.
Another thing which our religion and also our culture wants to incorporate in us is fear. Fear God, say the Bible. Hinduism also has several stories about hell and its punishments for people who violates the moral conducts propagated by saints and creators of religion. Right from the birth we are asked to obey the parents and elders, – a sense of timidity in incorporated in us. The teacher used the rod to terrify the children and the children follow them not out of respect but out of fear. The result is that the society produce many hypocrated and cowards rather than fearless and upright individuals. While some form of discipline is necessary among children, the disciple should not be incorporated by fear from the powerful authorities but by encouragement and inspiration, by examples and custom. Our society has failed to do it due to lack of tolerence and also lack of time on the part of parents, teachers and guardians. The obedience has produced among us a lot of thoughtless individuals who refrain from defying the society and culture in the fear of being outcasted by others and most of the population.
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Individual and Society
Most people are as much progressive as the society is, only few think ahead of their time. The reason our society is so much inert wrt to changes is because it believes more on icon, custom, trends, rather than reasoning. Some generations ago, some influential person (influential due to money, status, education, power or caste) believed and propagated that there is God, that we hardly ever think to delve deep to find the truth. Moreover, people who just wants to be themselves are generally disregarded as crazy and weird. Some eras ago, drinking alcohol was a taboo, today it is not. Did our modern young generation stopped to think why (please read about addictions as written by noam chomsky in this regard). As regards to custom and trends too, we are too cliched and homogeneous in our notions. Let us try to analyse our believes all the time with what is called by the pschologists- our adult ego.
Progressive and un-progressive attitude is thus a relative term, relative to the society. As such, we may say that a person is not un-progressive if he discriminates people on the basis of complexion while in India. But a person is definitely un-progressive when he does the same while in US where majority of the people have elected a dark-skinned person as the representative of their nation.
As such it is necessary that we think with an unprejudiced and unbiased mind free from custom and culture to decide what is worthwhile and what is not.
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Parental or cultural prejudice is so much strong in human beings that they often cannot get rid of it, even though their rational thoughts says them something else. And that is why casteism still exist in our notions.
Here I would attempt to beat the caste-discremination through rationality.
Caste system initially divided the people according to the work they do. At that time, the means of livelihood was hereditary and so caste system existed and flourished. However with renaissance and introduction of ideas like freedom, equality, justice, democracy, etc., education, work, business and skills got distributed among the mass irrespective of caste and creed. With money being only way to procure everything, caste system has now transformed to class system- the rich class, the middle class, and the poor class
Today even a shudra gets educated to at atleast a bachelor’s degree if he is financially capable of doing so. A brahmin can go for business if he has interest in it and has money to sustain it and he sometimes also have to work as a servant in someone’s house if he is financially not sound enough. A vaishya can join the army if he chose to do so. With caste system being shattered through generations, it has become quite irrelevant. Yet our cultural prejudice endorses it. We should be aware to recognise that if some generations back someone’s ancestors have been into manual labour for livelihood, it is not at all degrading that person if he is educated enough today. After all we all had been monkeys or stone man some more generation ago and so our roots was once the same when this casteism did not exist.
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Break-it-off
Like death and taxes break off is also an envitable truth which most people can’t escape in today’s world. Here I provide a survival guide for a quick recovery:
1) DO: Think and analyse and cry it out. Its necessary. You will feel better when you cry it out. Analysing the situation does help you find some truth you never had thought of. It helps you to grow. Eventually you will realize the joy of freedom, freedom from a bad relationship.
2) DON’T: Overanalyse. The post break-off period is considered a period when people are too much overwhelmed to make a rational or logical judgement of things. So overanalysing things won’t work much in this case. As they say, time is the best healer, give yourself some time.
3) DO: Throw away everything, even all the minute details which makes you remember the past. The post break-off syndrome lasts as long as you want it to last. It is upto us when we want to get over. A change of residence and places also helps you to forget old memories.
4) DON’T: Indulge in any rebound relationship. By doing so, you not only do an injustice upon yourself but also upon your new beloved. Donot get into a new relationship unless you have got over the past.
5) DO: Get involved into things you are passionate about which can engross you for hours at a stretch. Love is a sort of adddiction and perhaps can be cured by another which is equally or more engrossing. Keep yourself busy.
6) DO: Read some books on relationships. I would recommend reading ‘Catch him and keep him’ by Christan Carter and the newsletters of ‘Dating without Drama’ by Paige Parker which is available online. This will help you know the psychology of love between man and woman and realize how the dating world operates. Knowledge does emancipate.
7) DO: Love yourself. ‘Nobody else deserve as much of your love and attention as yourself’. Have new haircut. Buy new dresses. Go out with friends and have fun.
DON’T: Ponder over the good old past. Everytime you remember the great times about the past, remember also the times when you were treated badly and not given the respect which you always deserved. Thinking good about your ex is a great thing, however it won’t help you to get over. When you know you have already got over, you can definitely show your broadmindedness by giving a good recommendation of him to his present/prospective lover… 
Break off gives us a opportunity to grow strong and come to reality. It teaches us to value true love, like the love of parents, brothers and sisters and true friends and distinguishes it from false love which ends eventually.
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