India’s success is special, incomparable..

Among many factors said about India, a few remains undisputed. A few striking features are its diversity and uniqueness. More than one billion population with such a kind of smooth flow (yes, it is!despite some glitches of course) is unparalleled in the world. With the level of diversity, no country would ever have existed or would exist. Author Gregory Roberts says through one of his characters in his novel Shantaram “India is about six times the size of France. But it has almost twenty times the population. Twenty times! Believe me, if there were a billion Frenchmen living in such a crowded space, there would be rivers of blood. Rivers of blood! And, as everyone knows, we French are the most civilized people in Europe. Indeed, in the whole world” There is something which ties all Indians together despite its unending differences and diversities.

Among civilizations, India is the oldest (undisputedly over 5000 years old) civilization of the world. There have been many great civilizations in the past but all have vanished with time. Indian civilization is the only living civilization among them. There should be something immense and profound in it if it has stood the test of time and innumerable onslaughts & invasions.

There can be no doubt that India is a complex nation. No wonder it is called a sub-continent. Two striking diversities are its religion and language. All the major religions of the world have their presence in India. Four of the world’s great religions were born in India. India always has sheltered the persecuted ones (the Zoroastrians, the Tibetans). Besides the religions, there are innumerable cults, sub-cults each practicing their own practices and interpretation of religion.

Among languages, no country in the world houses as many languages as India does. There are easily over hundred languages in India (if dialects are included the number easily surpasses one thousand). In food habits, clothing there exist a radical diversity among many parts of the country. Many say for every hundred kilometer that one travels in India, the food habits, the language significantly change.

As India has a multi-party system, there are innumerable political parties. All the parties profess their own ideologies. There is no single ideology in the country: there are parties which are left-leaning, right-leaning, language based, religion based (of course the main ideologies of all the parties are money and power, all others are secondary details!).

India of course is tormented by vast arrays of problems. Some problems like rampant corruption, red-tapism can be detrimental for economic growth of any country. Despite the host of problems, India’s economic progress has been impressive over the years. Many economists could not come to terms with it and have comfortably labeled India as ‘Magic Economy’!

A country which is not diverse, which has one common language and many other commonalities, it is easy for them to march in the direction of progress than a country which is as diverse as India. It’s like the wheels of a vehicle: if there are ten wheels and all are oriented towards a single direction it is easy to reach the destination than the situation where all the wheals are disoriented. In India, the later situation prevails. Among many other reasons, the main reason for ascendance of Soviet Union was its people’s devotion to a single ideology. It ascended to greater heights and reminded sole challenger to the U.S for a long time. (Of course the direction where people are oriented is also of immense importance. Even in Iran, the population is uniform, but to no use.)

So, these factors make India incomparable with any other country because it is too unique. Many yardsticks, parameters which measure certain attributes of India don’t do justice and seldom give complete picture of the nation.

Difficulty of being an individual

You were born original, don’t die a duplicate said one philosopher. It was Voltaire who said man is born free but is chained by society as he grows up. Well, they both were right. A child is fed with many unnecessary things by many circles like parents, societies, religions etc. If a child is not fed with anything, it may flower into a completely different person with many possibilities but all those potential possibilities are greatly compromised by these circles who want the child to be in a certain way.

Whether it is society or religion which wants a person to be in a certain way is moved primarily by one thing: continuity. The society wants to continue through an individual, so does the religion. If an individual is really an individual in the real sense, the whole structure of society or religion will collapse. Therefore, no society or no organized religion will like any individuals to develop freely. They sense a real individual as a threat. All they want is a person who can join the gang so that he aids the continuity. That is one of the main reasons why reasoning is not encouraged in many societies or religions.

Having said all these, the idea of individuality if not properly handled can go loony. The idea of collectivism has the comfort of group. It always finds solace in the group but individuality doesn’t have anything to fall back on. So, extreme individuality can be a disease as well. Some great philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche who advocated individualism went berserk in their lives. It’s very hard to explain that. Individuality which aids in breaking all walls created by the society is great but if it creates more walls, it is worse.

Among the societies, traditionally the western societies especially after the renaissance have supported the idea of individualism whereas the Japanese and Indian cultures have always believed in collectivism. Both have succeeded in their own ways. It’s probably a unique combination of individualism and collectivism that can do well.

The year that’s gone by 2011- the best, worst and the rest

When I bid adieu to the year 2011, many memories spring up: good ones, bad ones, inconsequential ones and many more. In many ways, 2011 was a fulfilling and memorable one. It would have been more memorable had I landed up in a good job. That’s the only pain that I had to endure all through the year. Except for that, everything else was fine. I did end my post graduation and thus my academic life with a decent percentage, had met some of my old cronies, had been to quite a few historical places, and as any other years, seen a few good movies and read a few good books. 

The year began with a tour to North Karnataka with the family. I’d never seen Northern side of Karnataka. It ended to be a great tour to witness historical places like Bijapur, Koodalasangama, Badami, Eihole, Pattadakal all which were reminiscent of the glorious days of our state. Then somewhere in the year we did visit the fort of Chitradurga. All the People of Karnataka should watch this fort which stands as a testimony to the history of our state.

I always wanted to learn yoga kriya by a master. Although I’d learnt something, it was never proper, disciplined. I considered it was a great opportunity when I came to know that Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev would be conducting inner engineering program in Mysore in the month of April. Without hesitation I along with my father registered to the program and we did attend for two and a half days. I guess those two and a half days were the best, worthy two and half days of my life which was lush with life, experience, intensity and knowledge. The name of the kriya that was taught was ‘Shambhavi Maha Mudra’ which is from distilled repertoire of ancient yogic science. I’ve been regular in my practice till date and I have seen significant improvement in my well-being and my experience of life.

The arena of stock market: In the stock market I actively participated at least for a few days and made some peanut money not out of my knowledge but due to the fluctuations of market. For the very first time, I did day trading. Though the profit made was in a few hundreds, the thrill that it gives is priceless. But one has to be wary about it not to overindulge.

A few of my childhood friends got married. It’s sort of funny to attend the marriages of a few friends who were kiddos once and now with assumed maturity are getting married. It’ll always be a great feeling to meet some of the oldest friends after a long time and to get drenched in the memories of good old days.

This year I read exactly 25 books from various genres. Somewhere I read this fact about Osho Rajaneesh : he was an avid reader. In his lifetime, he’d read more than hundred thousand books. He calculated till that point and after crossing that mark, he left calculating. I was amazed by the fact. I thought I should at least do 10% of what he had done. The number came to be 10000 and seemed impossible and then I decided at least 1% of the number i.e. 1000. So, thus I began calculating from the year 2011. Hopefully, i will cross that mark sometime. Some of the best books I read are: Wings of fire by Abdul Kalam, Rich dad poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki, Stay hungry stay foolish by Rashmi Bansal, Autobiography of Michael Jackson (Moonwalk), The natural state of U.G. Krishnamurthy, Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Enlightenment-Life the way it is of Sadhguru, Aavarana(Kannada) by S.L. Bhairappa, Many lives many masters by Brian Weiss, Negationism in India by Koenraad Elst and finally Shantaram by Gregory Roberts.

As I was jobless most of the times, I saw quite a few movies (114 to be exact!) in 2011. A few good ones: The passion of Christ, Inception, The last seduction, The social Network, Source Code, Raging Bull, The silence of the lambs, Aviator, Copycat, Battle of Algiers, Schindler’s list, Manchurian Candidate, Minority Report, Full metal jacket, 12 angry men, Saving private Ryan, Die hard, Good will hunting, The shining, The kid, Downfall, Sleuth, Seven, Avatar, Infernal Affairs, The pianist, The sting, Das boot, Shutter Island, Braveheart, District 13 Ultimatum and Papillon.

As I bid adieu to 2011 and welcome 2012, the year that is supposed to be the end of the world I hope all positive things come in abundance and the negatives shall become scarce or nil. If the world comes to an end, which would be the end of all non-senses in one shot that man has done. Both are fine with me.

My Books Review: December '11

        Shantaram- Written by Gregory David Roberts, this novel is an account of the author’s life spanning over a decade. Gregory Roberts, an Australian was a heroin addict and to satiate his need for heroin, he indulged in many crimes in Australia and then was sentenced to nineteen years of imprisonment. After serving two years in jail, he along with another escaped form the prison and thus became Australia’s one of the most wanted men. 

His journey after he escaped from jail took him to many countries and continents. Finally he lands in India and India becomes his home for many years. Soon after he enters India, he assumes a fake name (Lindsay a.k.a Linbaba) and identity. He develops a deep friendship with his guide in Bombay, Prabhakar who is not well educated but very lively and honest person. After a few days Prabhakar takes Lin to his native and his parents name Lin as Shantaram (that is where the title of the novel comes from) In the meantime Lin falls in love with an American, Karla. 

After a few months, Lin shifts his location to the slum and begins to stay there. With a preliminary medicine training he had, he serves in the slum as their doctor and rescues many during the break of cholera epidemic. Lin gets accustomed to the way of life of the slum and earns respect and love of the people of the slum. Lin is jailed for an unknown reason (which he later finds out) and is tortured for a few months. The person who gets him out of jail is Khader Khan, a mafia don.

After he gets back from jail he joins the mafia of Khaderbhai and learns many tricks like black money trading, drug trafficking, making of fake passports and begins to earn a decent income form the mafia. The brotherhood of mafia is stronger and he begins to see Khader as a father figure and Khader sees Lin as his own son. The mafia had people from many nations like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt etc.

In the meantime Khader, an Afghanistani decides to fight the soviets who have intruded his country. So, they decide to take part in the war and all including Lin leave for Afghanistan. What happens in the war, how Lin comes to know about the betrayal from his lover and the man he revered, what he does after returning to Bombay forms the later part of the story. 

The way in which the author has expressed himself is simply brilliant. The narration is witty, humorous, poetic at times, philosophical, replete with witty one-liners. Unlike many foreign authors, he is able to see the Indian life without any prejudices. The author has more or less succeeded in capturing the essence of India and Indians. His immense love for India, Bombay in particular is expressed in many ways. The book is huge of over 900 pages but it's worth every page.The sad thing is that this is the only novel he’s written so far. I wish he’d written more.

This provides a brilliant material for a potential Hollywood blockbuster. It has all the qualities of being made into a great movie. Someone should seriously try this. This book is easily one of the best novels I’ve ever read, a recommended read indeed.