This is something by the President that was in the TOI editorial yesterday............love the man.......

Conscience is the light of the soul that burns within the chambers of our psychological heart. It raises its voice in protest whenever anything is thought of or done contrary to righteousness. Conscience is a form of truth that has been transferred through our genetic stock in the form of knowledge of our own acts and feelings as right or wrong. It threatens, promises, rewards and registers. Conscience is an unbiased witness. If conscience stings once, it is an admonition, if twice, it is a condemnation. Why have we become deaf to its voice? Insensitive to its pricks? Callous to its criticism? The answer is corruption. Corruption is an assault on consciousness. The corrupt pretend that everything is all right. Do they not have the idea of the law of action and reaction? Have they forgotten how impressions of the sub-conscious mind and their force work? If you take bribes, your thoughts and actions are registered in the subconscious mind. Will you not be carrying forward your dishonesty to your next generations causing them great suffering? It is a painful reality that corruption has become a way of life, affecting all aspects of living personal and social. It is not merely pecuniary corruption but other forms of corruption as well such as female foeticide that is cause for great concern. If you perform wrong actions and sinful deeds and treat them lightly today, you will not hesitate to commit serious crimes tomorrow. If you allow one sin to enter and dwell in your conscience, you pave the way for the entry of a thousand sins. Your conscience will become blunt and lose its sensitivity. The habit of performing evil deeds will pervade the body like the poison of a scorpion. I would like to share with you the experience of D M Sinha, a retired civil servant now settled in Meerut, in promoting spiritual values in society. Sinha has designed a model for individuals, their families and their dear ones. The model nurtures a spiritual mindset out of which arises ethical conduct. In this model, love and affection are combined with spiritual knowledge in transforming the individual, families and other people coming in contact with the group. The Sinha household emphasises two para-meters. First, repetition and chanting the name of God as a regular practice and daily study of scriptures by family members collectively. Sinha also promotes joint family system. These two tasks enrich and empower human life for working with dedication as an agent of God for attainment of perfection at home, in the work place and in society. He also says that the thumb rule for practical ethics is: desist from doing to others what you would not like to be done to you. Every religion has a central component spirituality that is driven by compassion and love. Rationality and logic are intrinsic to science and spiri- tuality. A spiritual experience is the goal of a deeply religious person whereas a major dis-covery or an invention is the goal of a scientific mind. If both the aspects are unified, amalgamated in our own patterns, we can transcend to that level of thinking, in which unity is a cohesive aspect. For this environment the two major components science and spirituality have to interact.

IITians Turn Politicians!! That's the way I Like It....But How Do The Parents Feel???

The recent news piece on 4 IIT-ians fighting elections sent my heart soaring........finally, somebody's doing what others keep talking about! We need to increase that '4' about a 1000 times to make some impact. Will that be possible?

Maybe a few more movies will do the trick going by how we are influenced by them!!!! Though I don't understand why Yuva failed to "rise the youth" the way Rang De Basanti did. Maybe, because Rang De showed the easy way out while preaching the harder way, while Yuva went for the harder route in the first go.........

Anyhow, the point is that these IIT-ians confessed to have faced a lot of opposition from their parents. Understandable, considering the fact that parents want the best for their children and want to ensure a smooth existence for them. But, I thought we were the youth.....it was upto us to make a difference in this world........you can't always escape what really needs to be done.......what is the point of such a smooth existence?

It is like a vicious cycle.....the educated and aware people don't join politics or other such professions, and those who join already have a history of corrupt guys before them.........all they do is carry out the tradition!

It's hard convincing parents do take anything other than the straight, non-controversial route. For instance, I tried to tell them that I wanted to take a sabbatical for a year and work in an NGO. The reaction was......er.........fairly justified had I told them that I wanted to join the Lashkar or the Hizb..............but for an NGO??? A little bit too strong!!

Still, there is hope. The IIT-ians have shown us that. So has Vikram Akula who is doing brilliant work for poverty eradication............the youth is waking up.........the next thing to do is to decide how each of us can make a difference.....

Vadodra = Godhra 2 ???

Gujarat is burning again.......another part of it actually.

The reason : The demolition of a 350 year old Mosque deemed an "illegal constructuion".

The result: Riots and an obvious Anti-Muslim stance by the government.

It is ridiculous.........how can a 350 year old structure suddenly become illegal? It was there way before the city was even planned as it is today........way before the laws came up!!! A gentleman on the 'Big Fight' put it beautifully - " If today you decide to build a flyover that needs to cross the Rashtrapati Bhawan.....will you declare the Prez's House illegal??"

According to the spokesperson for the government, 20 temples have also been demolished.....Now, either the media, obsessed with its Anti-Modi stance, is deliberately keeping the temples out of this, or the official is lying. Any how, biased media reports are only adding fuel to the fire.

Whatever may be the scenario, the leadership definitely needs to act more responsibly.......a mob is made up of mindless jerks who can be swayed with the slightest of incentives and made to do terrible things.........it is independent of religion,caste,community.........the only thing common is lack of brains..........India has suffered in the past because of this....... why does it not learn from its mistakes?

NBA and Celebrity Activism

NBA for me was all about basketball.....no longer.

Today, it brings to mind an obviously ill Medha Patkar, a mocking Narendra Modi, and a whole lot of "celebrity activism". The Narmada Bachao Aandolan has probably never been the recipient of so much attention before. Getting celebrities to support a cause does work to an extent, especially if they are the respectable sorts. I mean...... Govinda would definitely not have the same impact as an Aamir or Rahul Bose would, right?

But how serious are these people?

Rahul Bose is usually involved in such things. Aamir Khan and Atul Kulkarni were probably trying to show that they can live up to their movies.

But the real star was Medha Patkar...........it amazes me that a person can sacrifice to such an extent for a cause....a cause that will not affect her personal life per se. I almost feel envious of people who believe in something so strongly.....they are on fire for something much bigger than themselves.

And so it's even more irritating to see people like Narendra Modi take up fake fasts just to make fun. If he can't do anything right, he should refrain from doing anything at all.

Agreed it is a matter of benefitting crores of people vs a few thousands..........but those thousands are as much a part of India as anyone else.......you can't just ignore them..........

Indian idle??

The junta has decided. Sandeep Acharya got to wear the crown..................disheartening for anyone with an ear for music. It wasn't Sandeep, but multiple voting that defeated Karunya. Anyhow, it is evident he'll make it much bigger than Sandeep.

Event after event is witnessing this menace...........isn't it high time that things were changed. For instance, why can't they give 65% weightage to the votes of the judges, and leave 35% for the public? They obvoiusly can't rule out "multiple voting"..............that is what's keeping the show alive.

Indian idol is actually becoming a show for the "idle"..............which sane person who has anything better to do will vote day and night...............this decision wasn't reflective of the voice of India.........it was the voice of the "idle". Down with the Idle Indian.

Reactions to ….Death??

“ 15 killed in Iraq”

“ Over 60 Dead in Meerut Mishap”

“10 Miners Found Dead in China”

“ Over a 100 killed as Ferry sinks”…………..

The list is endless. Each day as I open the morning newspaper, I seem to be bombarded with statistics of people dead around the globe. What bothers me more than the deaths themselves is the fact that I no longer get shocked by them. It is…..well…….just another piece of news. Worse, it’s not just me. Nobody seems to be unduly perturbed by tragedies till they directly affect them.

But, on the other hand, Bangalore has been rocked by riots in the last few days, ever since Raj Kumar died of a …….heart attack. Going by the reactions of the mobs and their anger against the police, one would think it was a case of death-in-custody.

This irony had been captured morbidly by Stalin ages ago when he said:

" A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

Amen.