Hi folks!
I went on a really good weekend trip to Peak District, known to be one of the most beautiful places to be visited in the UK, organised by the Indian YMCA. It was a fantastic tour and we covered the Chatsworth house and Heights of Abraham on Saturday.
Both these places are located in Derbyshire. Chatsworth house is the residence of the Dukes of Devonsire and their families, of whom the most prominent ones are the scientist Henry Cavendish and Deborah Mitford. The family owned a lot of land in the London city including the most famous Portsman Square. The Chatsworth house is as old as sixteenth century but has undergone many modification with changing times. The house is a spectacular display of ornate decorations and has a large collection of artefacts. It also has some of the most beautiful sculptures in addition to the cascade and water fountain. More details about Chatsworth house is available on WIki.
Heights of Abraham is in Mattlock. It is from the Victorian times. There is a cable car service that leads to a beautiful scenic point and to the cavern where miners have mined limestone in the earlier centuries. More information is available on Wiki.
Photos uploaded on Facebook and Picasa. Have a look; these places are simply mind blowing!
Cheers!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The Great Indian Novel of Thuvakudipuram and Garnet Society
Hey folks! This is Captain Shyam Krishnan from Dwarakpur! Today I will be meeting my cousins with whom I spent my childhood. I have five cousins- Dharmashanky, Bheem Nagi, Abhyarjun, Sabanakul and Vijaysahadev. My brother Balrachit and I have spent many of our childhood days in their company and even teamed up with them for a grand fight with the most despised DOTA gang (Sathyo´D´hana, Karnaditya, Kravindan and Somanatham). Today I will tell you about that story.
Dharmashanky was the eldest among us and a natural philanthropist. Naturally he was the leader. Bheem Nagi on the other hand was the gentle giant of the gang. Now the first one thought with his heart and the second with his limbs, who would think with his brain? Abhyarjun; he was the gang´s strategist. A six feet package of shrewd and clever ideas, he was also the most handsome among us. Naturally the only one behind whom the girls of the village flocked! The twins Sabanakul and Vijaysahadev are inseparable individuals with very identical thoughts and opinions. It was speculated that no one had ever seen one of them without the other. Sabanakul had a craze for collecting KPN bus tickets and was an active KayPeeNatelist (something like Philatelist) and Vijaysahadev was crazy about English music! I dont know how much time has changed these people, and I am very excited to see them today! My brother Balarachit is also arriving tonight from the USA!
Coming back to our story... Once for vacation all of us had come over to my place at Thuvakudipuram . Our family owns a house in the Garnet society there and since it was unoccupied we thought it would be the ideal place to spend our vacation. But only after we reached there did we realise that Sathyo´D´hana´s parents had purchased the adjacent house to ours and he had come over with his DoTA gang to spend the vacation there. I really dont understand why, but our gangs never got along well with each other. Some small issue or the other cropped up and Dharmashanky had to act as mediator and settle it every time.
Now in Thuvakudipuram lived a beautiful girl called Pragnya. She was so beautiful that people from around 60 countries fought against each other to win her! Pragnya was a shy girl and never spoke to anyone in the village. She used to spend most of her time in the ´Surya Computer Centre´ at the village junction where Sathyo´D´hana and his DoTA gang used to practise DoTA. While they were there Sathyo´D´hana fell for Pragnya´s beauty and wanted to propose to her. He made KRAravindan write a blog post about her beauty and himself got her a brand new wrist watch from Tux Vendors.
Meanwhile Pragnya happened to see Abhyarjun with us at the Shakthi Tea And Fruit Faloodaa (STAFF) canteen in the village when she was there with her friends. She whispered to her close friend Festy that Abhyarjun looked so much the ´chocolate boy´ types like fimstar Madhavan and that she had fallen for him. In matter of no time she became a good friend of all of us and a very special friend of Abhyarjun. He used to tell us how he fell for her smile. Yes, her smile did win many a hearts! Hmmm...
Anyway, so when Sathyo´D´hana was all set to propose to Pragnya after doing all the preparation, he was shattered to know that Pragnya was already committed to Abhyarjun and he challenged us for a game of DoTA. Though none of us except Vijaysahadev knew anything about the game (and Vij was no better actually!) Dharmashanky and Bheem Nagi felt that it would be cowardly to turn our face away. So we accepted the challenge for Pragnya and Abhyarjun.
Vij tried teaching us the game and told us about the game strategies. Dharmashanky vowed to play the game only if it was linux compatible and the complexity demanded a 32GB computer. He felt anything less than that was below his level. Bheem Nagi wanted to incorporate networking protocol algorithms into our game strategy (and was naturally hushed off! ). Abhyarjun wanted to put to use his Hindu paper memorising talent into the game strategy. He wanted us to follow the pattern established by the Polyester Prince. That was his contribution to the game plan. Sabanakul wanted us to use the KPN hard algorithm for ´traveling sabarish´ problem for deciding the game strategy. My brother wanted to incorporate the patterns of Ragas in music (I still dont understand what he meant, but he used to be obsessed with this Raga thing those days). I had only one opinion, it must be economically efficient!
Well, as u could see we had no idea of DoTA and naturally we lost the game against Sathyo´D´hana and his pro-team. Sathyo´D´hana was a computer wizard. His best friend from ´B section´ in school Karnaditya was a smart and pious chap. He used to help people get employed through his contacts but himself preferred to be a farmer. Somanatham and KRAravindan were twins who got their diplomas in manufacting. Both were smart workers who knew how to put in least effort and yet make maximum profit!
Since Abhyarjun and Pragnya were already in a relation, they did not bother to ask her out now. Instead they asked us to shoo off from the place for 14 days so that they can have the society playground all to themselves for these days. So we (along with Pragnya) went to our uncle Shakunan´s place. He is believed to be the most crooked one in our family having made himself infamous in the most popular Banana scandal that rocked Thuvakudipuram administration.
Uncle Shakunan told us a master plan to get even with these guys and save our reputation in the society. He told us to seek support from his friend´s son Ashwatnami. So we brought Ashwatnami into our group and told him about what all had happened. We had just one day in hand before the commencement of school and we had to settle scores. After our defeat at the game of DoTA Pragnya was also upset. She told Abhyarjun that she would be his girl only if he defeated and humiliated Sathyo´D´hana.
So we decided to use Ashwatnami´s gulti-friendship with Sathyo´D´hana to bring him alongwith his gang to the Garnet society pond where we will launch surprise attacks at them. Since they will be unarmed for the fight, they will be caught by surprise and we will be able to defeat them easily in public.
On the fifteenth day when we got back to Garnet society, we positioned ourselves as planned and sent Ashwatnami to Sathyo´D´hana. When he and his friends reached, we launched water missiles at them and made them lie flat on the ground. Bheen Nagi´s strength, Abhyarjun´s sharpness and Dharmashanky´s wisom were our strengths. But things went out of hands after a while. Sathyo´D´han and his gang were mighty strong compared to ours. They soon got back on their feet and started attacking us with water missiles. It was a closely fought battle with neither team conceding defeat.
At last I thought of an idea. I discussed it with Abhyarjun and he was happy with it. We asked Ahwatnami to stay outside for a while and made Dharmashanky to inform Sathyo´D´hana that his gulti-firend was not feeling well. On hearing it he dropped his missile and Bheem Nagi got him on his knees with one strong one on his legs. His clothes were torn and he was humiliated in public. The happiness on the face of Pragnya who was witnessing all this was shining like a bright sun.
With Sathyo´D´hana out of the battle, the others could easily be brought down by my songs! All I had to do was sing a few lines and the rest of their gang surrendered their weapons and conceded defeat!
And thus we won the great battle of Thuvakudipuram. Abhyarjun proposed to Pragnya and she happily accepted. They were bonded into an everlasting relationship. Dharmashanky and I decided to be the best men on their wedding. Meanwhile my brother had gone off before the fight to continue his research work on Morning Ragas and so he could not be a part of it.
After we parted ways then, there has never been a vacation we were together. And today all of us are going back to Garnet society to spend a week there. And guess what, I just heard from Karnaditya that Sathyo´D´hana and his friends are also going to be there. Lets see what is in store this time!
:-)
Cheers!
(L to R): Bheem Nagi, Somanatham, Vijaysahadev, Shyam Krishnan, KRAravindan, Dharmashanky, Karnaditya, Abhyarjun, Sathyo´D´hana.
Missing : Balarachit and Ashwatnami.
Dharmashanky was the eldest among us and a natural philanthropist. Naturally he was the leader. Bheem Nagi on the other hand was the gentle giant of the gang. Now the first one thought with his heart and the second with his limbs, who would think with his brain? Abhyarjun; he was the gang´s strategist. A six feet package of shrewd and clever ideas, he was also the most handsome among us. Naturally the only one behind whom the girls of the village flocked! The twins Sabanakul and Vijaysahadev are inseparable individuals with very identical thoughts and opinions. It was speculated that no one had ever seen one of them without the other. Sabanakul had a craze for collecting KPN bus tickets and was an active KayPeeNatelist (something like Philatelist) and Vijaysahadev was crazy about English music! I dont know how much time has changed these people, and I am very excited to see them today! My brother Balarachit is also arriving tonight from the USA!
Coming back to our story... Once for vacation all of us had come over to my place at Thuvakudipuram . Our family owns a house in the Garnet society there and since it was unoccupied we thought it would be the ideal place to spend our vacation. But only after we reached there did we realise that Sathyo´D´hana´s parents had purchased the adjacent house to ours and he had come over with his DoTA gang to spend the vacation there. I really dont understand why, but our gangs never got along well with each other. Some small issue or the other cropped up and Dharmashanky had to act as mediator and settle it every time.
Now in Thuvakudipuram lived a beautiful girl called Pragnya. She was so beautiful that people from around 60 countries fought against each other to win her! Pragnya was a shy girl and never spoke to anyone in the village. She used to spend most of her time in the ´Surya Computer Centre´ at the village junction where Sathyo´D´hana and his DoTA gang used to practise DoTA. While they were there Sathyo´D´hana fell for Pragnya´s beauty and wanted to propose to her. He made KRAravindan write a blog post about her beauty and himself got her a brand new wrist watch from Tux Vendors.
Meanwhile Pragnya happened to see Abhyarjun with us at the Shakthi Tea And Fruit Faloodaa (STAFF) canteen in the village when she was there with her friends. She whispered to her close friend Festy that Abhyarjun looked so much the ´chocolate boy´ types like fimstar Madhavan and that she had fallen for him. In matter of no time she became a good friend of all of us and a very special friend of Abhyarjun. He used to tell us how he fell for her smile. Yes, her smile did win many a hearts! Hmmm...
Anyway, so when Sathyo´D´hana was all set to propose to Pragnya after doing all the preparation, he was shattered to know that Pragnya was already committed to Abhyarjun and he challenged us for a game of DoTA. Though none of us except Vijaysahadev knew anything about the game (and Vij was no better actually!) Dharmashanky and Bheem Nagi felt that it would be cowardly to turn our face away. So we accepted the challenge for Pragnya and Abhyarjun.
Vij tried teaching us the game and told us about the game strategies. Dharmashanky vowed to play the game only if it was linux compatible and the complexity demanded a 32GB computer. He felt anything less than that was below his level. Bheem Nagi wanted to incorporate networking protocol algorithms into our game strategy (and was naturally hushed off! ). Abhyarjun wanted to put to use his Hindu paper memorising talent into the game strategy. He wanted us to follow the pattern established by the Polyester Prince. That was his contribution to the game plan. Sabanakul wanted us to use the KPN hard algorithm for ´traveling sabarish´ problem for deciding the game strategy. My brother wanted to incorporate the patterns of Ragas in music (I still dont understand what he meant, but he used to be obsessed with this Raga thing those days). I had only one opinion, it must be economically efficient!
Well, as u could see we had no idea of DoTA and naturally we lost the game against Sathyo´D´hana and his pro-team. Sathyo´D´hana was a computer wizard. His best friend from ´B section´ in school Karnaditya was a smart and pious chap. He used to help people get employed through his contacts but himself preferred to be a farmer. Somanatham and KRAravindan were twins who got their diplomas in manufacting. Both were smart workers who knew how to put in least effort and yet make maximum profit!
Since Abhyarjun and Pragnya were already in a relation, they did not bother to ask her out now. Instead they asked us to shoo off from the place for 14 days so that they can have the society playground all to themselves for these days. So we (along with Pragnya) went to our uncle Shakunan´s place. He is believed to be the most crooked one in our family having made himself infamous in the most popular Banana scandal that rocked Thuvakudipuram administration.
Uncle Shakunan told us a master plan to get even with these guys and save our reputation in the society. He told us to seek support from his friend´s son Ashwatnami. So we brought Ashwatnami into our group and told him about what all had happened. We had just one day in hand before the commencement of school and we had to settle scores. After our defeat at the game of DoTA Pragnya was also upset. She told Abhyarjun that she would be his girl only if he defeated and humiliated Sathyo´D´hana.
So we decided to use Ashwatnami´s gulti-friendship with Sathyo´D´hana to bring him alongwith his gang to the Garnet society pond where we will launch surprise attacks at them. Since they will be unarmed for the fight, they will be caught by surprise and we will be able to defeat them easily in public.
On the fifteenth day when we got back to Garnet society, we positioned ourselves as planned and sent Ashwatnami to Sathyo´D´hana. When he and his friends reached, we launched water missiles at them and made them lie flat on the ground. Bheen Nagi´s strength, Abhyarjun´s sharpness and Dharmashanky´s wisom were our strengths. But things went out of hands after a while. Sathyo´D´han and his gang were mighty strong compared to ours. They soon got back on their feet and started attacking us with water missiles. It was a closely fought battle with neither team conceding defeat.
At last I thought of an idea. I discussed it with Abhyarjun and he was happy with it. We asked Ahwatnami to stay outside for a while and made Dharmashanky to inform Sathyo´D´hana that his gulti-firend was not feeling well. On hearing it he dropped his missile and Bheem Nagi got him on his knees with one strong one on his legs. His clothes were torn and he was humiliated in public. The happiness on the face of Pragnya who was witnessing all this was shining like a bright sun.
With Sathyo´D´hana out of the battle, the others could easily be brought down by my songs! All I had to do was sing a few lines and the rest of their gang surrendered their weapons and conceded defeat!
And thus we won the great battle of Thuvakudipuram. Abhyarjun proposed to Pragnya and she happily accepted. They were bonded into an everlasting relationship. Dharmashanky and I decided to be the best men on their wedding. Meanwhile my brother had gone off before the fight to continue his research work on Morning Ragas and so he could not be a part of it.
After we parted ways then, there has never been a vacation we were together. And today all of us are going back to Garnet society to spend a week there. And guess what, I just heard from Karnaditya that Sathyo´D´hana and his friends are also going to be there. Lets see what is in store this time!
:-)
Cheers!
(L to R): Bheem Nagi, Somanatham, Vijaysahadev, Shyam Krishnan, KRAravindan, Dharmashanky, Karnaditya, Abhyarjun, Sathyo´D´hana.
Missing : Balarachit and Ashwatnami.
Disclaimer- This is purely a work of fiction. Any resemblance to living or dead beings, or locations is simply coincidence! :P And a special word to conspirators of NITT- please do not try to decipher unintented meaning out of any part of the story. It is entirely meant for fun! So hav fun!!! :-)
Residual Colonialism in the British Media
I have been traveling in and out of the UK for the last two years and one of the first instructions that I received when I arrived here from India was that words like ´Blacks´ etc. are considered highly racist and any use of these words, however unintentional, is considered an insult.
However I was shocked to find the word ´Black´ being used by the most prestigious media corporation in the UK-BBC. During the pre-match discussion (or the news report, I fail to recollect), the reporter said that football in South Africa is considered predominantly to be a sport of the ´Black´ people! Also offending was the way they focused on African teams in the pre-match session.
The BBC reporter remarked how South Africa must try to make it to the best 16 teams in order to avoid becoming the first host team to be eliminated in round one. This would not have been considered offensive had they not followed it up with a special analysis of all the African nations that are playing the tournament and what were their possibilities of making to the next level.
After the match, BBC showed the reaction in a room packed with South African fans for 1. The South African goal, 2. The Mexican goal and 3. The Mphela miss in the 90th minute. All this, while the Mexican fans´ reactions were completely neglected and ignored. To me personally, it looked identical to an experiment where you take footage of the reaction of mice and guinea pigs to certain stimuli.
While it is understandable and justified to encourage new teams into the game and have special coverage of the host country and the enthusiasm there, it must not occur as the Big Brother´s arrogance that says ´See, this is where I am better and you have a long way to catch up kid! ´ or isolation of any ethnic group.
BBC is a leader in world media that sets very high standard for other new channels. As someone who has been a fan of the news channel for the last fifteen years, it was shocking to me that such things were observed in their World Cup coverage. Hope the English World Cup spirit does not take the better over their responsibilities to their global audience!
However I was shocked to find the word ´Black´ being used by the most prestigious media corporation in the UK-BBC. During the pre-match discussion (or the news report, I fail to recollect), the reporter said that football in South Africa is considered predominantly to be a sport of the ´Black´ people! Also offending was the way they focused on African teams in the pre-match session.
The BBC reporter remarked how South Africa must try to make it to the best 16 teams in order to avoid becoming the first host team to be eliminated in round one. This would not have been considered offensive had they not followed it up with a special analysis of all the African nations that are playing the tournament and what were their possibilities of making to the next level.
After the match, BBC showed the reaction in a room packed with South African fans for 1. The South African goal, 2. The Mexican goal and 3. The Mphela miss in the 90th minute. All this, while the Mexican fans´ reactions were completely neglected and ignored. To me personally, it looked identical to an experiment where you take footage of the reaction of mice and guinea pigs to certain stimuli.
While it is understandable and justified to encourage new teams into the game and have special coverage of the host country and the enthusiasm there, it must not occur as the Big Brother´s arrogance that says ´See, this is where I am better and you have a long way to catch up kid! ´ or isolation of any ethnic group.
BBC is a leader in world media that sets very high standard for other new channels. As someone who has been a fan of the news channel for the last fifteen years, it was shocking to me that such things were observed in their World Cup coverage. Hope the English World Cup spirit does not take the better over their responsibilities to their global audience!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Tweeting Celebrities
Discussion From Deccan Chronicle.
¨
¨
The twitterverse is brimming with not just the 'aam aadmi' but with everyone from politicians like Shashi Tharoor to celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar. The 140 character update has been the source of not just popularity but scandals too. Do you think it's self-obsession or a need to just expand their popularity online that is making celebs tweet away?
¨
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My comment:
Twitter is the latest medium for communication with large number of people. Its short micro-blogging nature (140 characters only), simple privacy settings and open nature encourage people to follow/ be followed by a large number of people.
As politicians, twitter is a medium by which they can break the red tape-ism in our political setup, The people of the country can be in touch with their elected representatives at all time and this will definitely induce a new confidence in them. All politicians must be encouraged to join twitter and be in touch with the people they represent as it will boost the strength of our democracy.
In India, film stars have a voice that probably no one else has. It is no coincidence that filmstars like NTR, MGR, Jayalalitha have become mass leaders. Twitter is an active medium by which they can contribute to grooming the society. It is a platform where they can address tens of thousands of fans. However it must not become what I would say a medium for mutual competition among celebrities in terms of fans and their support.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your comments and opinions are welcome!
Twitter is the latest medium for communication with large number of people. Its short micro-blogging nature (140 characters only), simple privacy settings and open nature encourage people to follow/ be followed by a large number of people.
As politicians, twitter is a medium by which they can break the red tape-ism in our political setup, The people of the country can be in touch with their elected representatives at all time and this will definitely induce a new confidence in them. All politicians must be encouraged to join twitter and be in touch with the people they represent as it will boost the strength of our democracy.
In India, film stars have a voice that probably no one else has. It is no coincidence that filmstars like NTR, MGR, Jayalalitha have become mass leaders. Twitter is an active medium by which they can contribute to grooming the society. It is a platform where they can address tens of thousands of fans. However it must not become what I would say a medium for mutual competition among celebrities in terms of fans and their support.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your comments and opinions are welcome!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Of Trust and Social Value System- An opportunity for India to lead the world
Former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord Bingham once said that his father never made use of his office phone for making personal phone calls. Today more than a century later, we can hardly differentiate our conversations as official and personal. Our life is a bundle consisting of family, friends, work and leisure, spearheading towards the ultimate objective of survival in this competitive world at a pace unknown in those times! In this transition from one generation to the other, have we left behind our ethics and values?
The society that we live in today is built on the foundation of trust. This trust is present in various stages.
GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
At the primary level, it was the trust that we had in our leaders that helped them raise their voice against the oppression of foreign power and ultimately win us the freedom for self governance. The whole constitution and political system is built on the principles of fairness and faith. The faith that- you (the administration consisting politicians, bureaucrats and the defence service that takes care of the security of the people) do your work while I do mine, so that together we can build our nation.
However, with the growing avenues of new media and the irresistible temptation in the public to not just mind their own business, we have had a series of exposes of our politicians, bureaucrats and defence personnels. Beginning from 1990s- Bofors scandal, Hawala scandal, the most popular Tehelka expose; the list is endless. So when our own elected representatives who adorn the highest offices in our society fail to exhibit citizen ethics, what can be done to restore the lost values and ethics in our society? And how important it is to revisit the core principles of citizen ethics and redraft them to suit the modern society?
THE SERVICE SECTOR
At the next level of trust comes service sector like banks, postal department, electricity, water etc. Corruption and poor incentive for employees in these fields (except banks) have resulted in the vanishing of the service element in their business. In the case of banks, what happened due to recession in the west has violated all trust we had in allowing them retain and handle our money. Thankfully due to the strict regulatory system imposed by RBI, the Indian banks were quite safe. Again, risk is a matter of trust. To multiply money, banks must take risks for which they will need the complete trust of their customers.
SPIRITUALITY
When all that we trust fails us, we turn to religious gurus who are in abundance in the society today. That is the next level of trust, when we submit ourselves to these gurus in whom we trust to help us in the process of revival through God´s chosen means. That is what Bhagwan Rajnish (Osho), Sri Aurbindo, Sri RamkrishnaParamahamsa and Sathya Sai Baba did, and they were leaders in bringing out the concepts of meditation and yoga to benefit the common man. It was later taken forward by Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdev and others to be tailored to the needs of the stressed man from today´s society. However in this period, opening an ashram has turned into a viable business opportunity thanks to the exponential increase in the number of victims of stress and tension in our country and abroad. To name some of the recently exposed spiritual gurus Swami Nityananda and Swami Amritachaitanya. Again we are at a point when some of the highest order of trust is violated and vulnerable people are exploited.
However I do not wish to conclude that we are living in a society in which the administration, service sector as well as religious gurus are all not worthy of trust and hence we have lost all foundations to uphold our value system and ethics. Its all business and profit making now!
A VALUE SYSTEM FOR THE NEW GENERATION
It is required is to revamp the value system to suit the new generation. For instance the age old principle, ´Love thy neighbour as you love thyself´ has lost all significance in todays world when all concepts of neighbours and space sharing have lost their meaning. Privacy and personal freedom have gained an importance that was never there. Todays value system and ethics should be built on a platform of equality, of mutual inter-dependence and transparency. Accessibility to public information is the first step to building trust and reviving the principles of values and ethics on the lines of trust.
In this information age, it is up to India to set an example and lead the world on building citizen ethics and a moral society, because it will play a key role in determining the global capital for this century. And the time could never be better than now when the west is battered by the financial and social meltdown in the last two years, and is seeking out assistance in rebuilding the society.
Jaago India, for tomorrow is ours!
The society that we live in today is built on the foundation of trust. This trust is present in various stages.
GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
At the primary level, it was the trust that we had in our leaders that helped them raise their voice against the oppression of foreign power and ultimately win us the freedom for self governance. The whole constitution and political system is built on the principles of fairness and faith. The faith that- you (the administration consisting politicians, bureaucrats and the defence service that takes care of the security of the people) do your work while I do mine, so that together we can build our nation.
However, with the growing avenues of new media and the irresistible temptation in the public to not just mind their own business, we have had a series of exposes of our politicians, bureaucrats and defence personnels. Beginning from 1990s- Bofors scandal, Hawala scandal, the most popular Tehelka expose; the list is endless. So when our own elected representatives who adorn the highest offices in our society fail to exhibit citizen ethics, what can be done to restore the lost values and ethics in our society? And how important it is to revisit the core principles of citizen ethics and redraft them to suit the modern society?
THE SERVICE SECTOR
At the next level of trust comes service sector like banks, postal department, electricity, water etc. Corruption and poor incentive for employees in these fields (except banks) have resulted in the vanishing of the service element in their business. In the case of banks, what happened due to recession in the west has violated all trust we had in allowing them retain and handle our money. Thankfully due to the strict regulatory system imposed by RBI, the Indian banks were quite safe. Again, risk is a matter of trust. To multiply money, banks must take risks for which they will need the complete trust of their customers.
SPIRITUALITY
When all that we trust fails us, we turn to religious gurus who are in abundance in the society today. That is the next level of trust, when we submit ourselves to these gurus in whom we trust to help us in the process of revival through God´s chosen means. That is what Bhagwan Rajnish (Osho), Sri Aurbindo, Sri RamkrishnaParamahamsa and Sathya Sai Baba did, and they were leaders in bringing out the concepts of meditation and yoga to benefit the common man. It was later taken forward by Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdev and others to be tailored to the needs of the stressed man from today´s society. However in this period, opening an ashram has turned into a viable business opportunity thanks to the exponential increase in the number of victims of stress and tension in our country and abroad. To name some of the recently exposed spiritual gurus Swami Nityananda and Swami Amritachaitanya. Again we are at a point when some of the highest order of trust is violated and vulnerable people are exploited.
However I do not wish to conclude that we are living in a society in which the administration, service sector as well as religious gurus are all not worthy of trust and hence we have lost all foundations to uphold our value system and ethics. Its all business and profit making now!
A VALUE SYSTEM FOR THE NEW GENERATION
It is required is to revamp the value system to suit the new generation. For instance the age old principle, ´Love thy neighbour as you love thyself´ has lost all significance in todays world when all concepts of neighbours and space sharing have lost their meaning. Privacy and personal freedom have gained an importance that was never there. Todays value system and ethics should be built on a platform of equality, of mutual inter-dependence and transparency. Accessibility to public information is the first step to building trust and reviving the principles of values and ethics on the lines of trust.
In this information age, it is up to India to set an example and lead the world on building citizen ethics and a moral society, because it will play a key role in determining the global capital for this century. And the time could never be better than now when the west is battered by the financial and social meltdown in the last two years, and is seeking out assistance in rebuilding the society.
Jaago India, for tomorrow is ours!
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