Venky's

My life at MDI -Key learnings (To be Published on Dec-2011)

2011-05-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon-Marketing-Brand mangement

2011-05-08T23:53:00.000-07:00

Friends

2010-02-02T22:43:00.001-08:00

What would our life be without friends? It would be morose, monotonous, dreary, blue, deserted and meaningless. Friends are there for you always, through thick and thin. They do not gauge you. You can be yourself without having to worry about what they will think or say. They accept you for what you are and even condone you for the mistakes you make. You can have long inane confabulations with them. They do not trample you; they tread with you. They fill ho-hum moments with fun and laughter. If you are feeling down or low, they lift your spirits.
They are by your side in times of exigency. Friends are special people who like us inspite of our flaws.

Even if you are taciturn or cantankerous, they allow you to be so and in fact are helpful in shaking the dysphoria. Friends are the greatest boon in life.

India

2009-08-21T02:07:00.000-07:00

India is a melting pot. People from across the world visit our country but are often here for too fleeting a time to grasp the complex nature of the nation. Some believe that we are not a progressive people, and still call it a third world country. Many foreigners still harbour the illusion that our country is backward, poverty stricken and a land of snake charmers and cart drivers. It is a little disconcerting to think that outsiders may have such a skewed image of a country which is really too diverse to fit into a mould. That is probably why there were many who were not particularly happy when a rather dismal and squalid portrayal of our very own Mumbai slum-dwellers found a global viewership through the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. Personally however, I was euphoric and over the moon when the movie won accolades from across the world. The riveting and sweeping Slumdog Millionaire is truly a classic.

If you ask me, India is a multi-religious, secular, cosmopolitan and enterprising country. Indians are doing phenomenally well in all areas, be it education, management, business, music, films, science, or even the pageant industry. Any discerning world citizen, irrespective of where he hails from and takes more than a passing interest in world affairs will know that we are ready to join the list of superpowers of this century. Jai ho!

Phases of Life

2009-08-21T02:04:00.000-07:00

Phases of Life

Perhaps the happiest days of our life are those during infancy – days of unbridled joy and insouciance. You don’t have to worry about work, or responsibility, or anything at all. You are mollycoddled and taken care of. You are so naïve and oblivious to your surroundings and can get away with the most outrageous of activities. To me, a timeworn, tired adult, childhood seems to be a phase when I was perpetually dazed, not bothered about anything and leading a perfectly placid life.

As we reach our teens, peer pressure catches up with us. Some even give in to this pressure because they want to be liked and feel coerced to change their attitude and follow the herd.

And finally when you reach adulthood life’s complexity overwhelms us completely. We wish we could go back to the simplicity that we enjoyed as children. We look in vain for what we never lost in the first place but which simply got obscured by the concerns of the present. And sometimes we forget that all we have to do is ask.

2009-07-06T00:21:00.000-07:00

LIFE LESSONS FROM SATYAM

2009-02-28T22:08:00.000-08:00

A Life Driven with blinkers in search of popular defiantion namely money,fame and power begets cancereous Greed that can potentially invade the basic moral values,enslave us to peer pressure and leave us with permanent sence of insecurity .
The dogged pursuit of sucha success largely governed by external paramteres largely governed by happiness.
Much has bee return about the Satyam saga since the day MR Raju pulished the sensational story about the tigers tail.
Does this event raise an alaram much of something much deeper engulfing our socitey given the increasing number of corporate scandals acroos the world? Are We to blame ?The fundamental attibutes that governed his actions involved the desire to maximise wealth and power not only for himself and for his family too with scant regard for other stakeholders not minding the dishonest and unethical means to achieve above purpose.
Although the full extent of financial activities that went behind the scenes are unearthed , it apperas that they constitue one or more of the following :funeeling out cash from parent company ,establishing a shady nexus between with politicians keeping up bogus numbers to keep performance in line with leading peers and gradually reducing personal shareholding .Investing company wealth in personal real estate holdings,patronising the son's firm at the cost of parent.
lets take the atttribute Hoarding of personal wealth and gaining precendence over all else
Aren't most of our lives driven by thios shallow goal .As employees howm many of us really care about the long term goals of the company what we are really intrested is in our salary bonus or stock options and most money for ourselve in matter few time period.
It is these attitudes that led to the collapse of wall street and borught the global finacial market to its Knees.
CEOs and staff in leading investment banks acted ina way that would maximise their year end bonus with little regard fotr how their actions would haunt the company in mere future and now th same guys crying for their jobs and shouting out slogans against the companies .What an Irnoy.
What is Necessary for a strong economy is that the employees and promoter should be driven by passion and not by greed.A passion to love your job and not only your title,networth ,salaries or perks.

2008-12-03T02:48:00.001-08:00

A letter I got it from one of my colleague please read it and you can observe the frustration

A PERFECT LETTER TO PM.

LETTER TO PRIMEMINISTER

Dear Mr. Prime minister

I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.

Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bolywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India .

Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima .

We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.

Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?

I am born and bought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar . Look at all the politician, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next time terrorist can comfortably live in those house , enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.

Recently I had to purchase house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your finance minister are not aware of it.. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.

If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politician has converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste only what I am not is INDIAN. You politician have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule.

Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such a intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politician didn't even spare him. Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politician feels they are supreme and there is no place for good person.

Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent person, most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politician. Ask Swiss bank to give name of all Indian account holder. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us.. There will be political upheaval but that will better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day. Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.

Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?

2007-08-30T02:12:00.000-07:00

2007-08-30T02:10:00.001-07:00

THE SPIRIT OF THE NATION

2007-03-04T00:07:00.000-08:00

The spiritual resurgence in India was the moving force behind the country's freedom struggle that ultimately led to independence

WHAT HISTORY DOESN'T TELL US The history that we are taught doesn't always tell the truth. I realized this many years after I had left school and college. I came to this conclusion in two ways. First, I began to arrive at my own understanding of how history works. Secondly, my readings in the philosophy of history revealed that histories are governed as much by the underlying ideologies of those who write them as they are by 'facts'. In fact, there are no such things as 'plain facts'. Everything in history is constructed from a particular viewpoint. Now, the dominant viewpoint from which history is written is materialistic. The whole discipline of history is grounded upon the assumption that human life is shaped by political, economic, social, and cultural forces. By understanding the latter, the course of national events may be understood. Yet even by such a token, there will be many different versions of the 'same' events, many histories instead of one History. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in the manner in which the recent history of India is being written. There are, of course, various schools of Indian history. First, there was the imperial school, which dominated. The British wrote our history, partly to understand us and partly to justify their rule. Both ends were, of course, related. As opposed to this was born the nationalist school of history, which tried to recapture the Indian past and thereby earn the authority to reshape India's future. Later, there were other schools of history, notably the Marxist and, more recently, the subaltern studies enterprise. Despite the plurality that is built into these historiographies, all of them tend to de-emphasize, downplay or underestimate the force of spirituality in shaping India's past, present, and future. In fact, the prevalent belief even among spiritual people is that India needed to be free so that she could progress spiritually.
While this last viewpoint is valid, it is only partially correct. The problem with it is that it subordinates the spiritual to the political, as indeed most histories do. Does the spiritual depend on the material? That is like asking whether consciousness depends on the body. In both cases, if we were to view the issue from a spiritual point of view, we would have to reverse the relationships. As a matter of fact, it is the body which requires consciousness for it to exist and not vice-versa.
Similarly, it is spirituality that controls the material conditions of our life. That is because the spirit includes and exceeds matter and is not apart from it. To view them dichotomously is, therefore, misleading. So, one may as well reverse the question. It is not that the growth in spirituality was a result of our political freedom, but that the birth of political freedom was an outcome of our spiritual expansion and self-apprehension. It is this that our history books do not tell us. They see political freedom as the all-important, all-subsuming goal, the master-narrative of which there are many other smaller stories, including that of India's spiritual awakening. The emergence from slumber is seen as a contributory factor to permanent freedom. OF SPIRITUALITY AND HISTORY What, then, from a spiritual point of view might be the truth behind the recent history of India, particularly its independence? To answer this question, we will have to peep behind the veil of politics, economics, and culture. These are only the exoteric coverings of world events, the esoteric kernel of whose inner significance is usually hidden from most people. Writing more than 100 years ago, Swami Vivekananda explained what this hidden truth about India was: "Here in this blessed land, the foundation, the backbone, the life-center is religion and religion alone. In India religious life forms the center, the keynote of the whole music of nation." In other words, in India, religion forms the base, politics and economics, the superstructure. To change the latter, you have to act on the former. This is what revolutionaries in India have recognized down the ages. The greatest impact could be made by those who altered the religious and spiritual organization of society. Any number of examples can be cited: the Buddha, Shankaracharya, Basava, Nanak, Kabir, Chaitanya, and in more recent times, Ramakrishna, Aurobindo, Gandhi, and even Ambedkar.
The importance of dharma in Indian life has been summed up well by Sri Aurobindo in his famous Uttarpara speech in 1909: "When it is said that India shall be great, it is the Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism) that shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world. It is for the Dharma and by the Dharma that India exists. To magnify the religion means to magnify the country." When Aurobindo was in jail, the Divine actually spoke to him, giving him the following message: "Since long ago I have been preparing this uprising and now the time has come and it is I who will lead it to its fulfillment." At the end of this historic speech, Aurobindo repeated his main contention: "I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is Sanatan Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatan Dharma, with it, it moves and with it, it grows. When Sanatan Dharma declines, then the nation declines " Of course, it needs to be stressed that by Sanatan Dharma, Aurobindo meant the eternal, universal religion, not any particular sect or creed: "If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose." Swami Vivekananda, too, believed that India had a special mission to fulfill in the larger course of human civilization. It was for this that our civilization had survived the ravages of the centuries: "This is the theme of Indian lifework, the burden of her eternal songs, the backbone of her existence, the foundations of her being, the raison d'etre of her very existence—the spiritualization of the human race. In this, her life course, she has never deviated, whether the Tartar ruled or the Turk, whether the Moghul ruled or the English." Vivekananda believed that India had made the choice long ago to live and die by her faith: "For good or for evil, our vitality is concentrated in our religion. You cannot change it. Your cannot destroy it and put in its place another." It is obvious, then, that there is a completely different way of studying and understanding our history. In this way, the political, the economic, and the social are all epiphenomenal; what is beneath but anterior to them is the life of the spirit, the underlying religious reality of life as it unfolds, acting upon the external events and being shaped by them in turn. The Indian awakening of the 19th century was, thus, in keeping with an older pattern of cyclic upheaval and renewal, which Indian society had witnessed many a time. The only difference this time was the external challenge: British imperialism, which was also the carrier of a modern, technological, materialistic civilization. The freedom struggle was only a part of a larger, ongoing response to this onslaught on India of a modern, mechanized civilization. Earlier, during the long centuries of Muslim rule in the subcontinent, India had responded not only by providing a hospitable environment for the Sufi traditions within Islam, but developed newer, syncretic forms of devotion so as to allow for the coexistence of such contradictory faiths as Hinduism and Islam. What is more, it had responded with a new religion, Sikhism, which combined features from both these major religions.
Similarly, subsequent to the British conquest of India, several new religious movements were born here. These movements played a major role in our freedom movement. In fact, it might not be an exaggeration to claim that Sri Ramakrishna gave birth to a new religious tradition, a tradition that was able to cut across conventional religious boundaries so as to reach out to people of different faiths. This interfaith movement found its greatest apostle in Mahatma Gandhi, who changed Hinduism more radically than any reformer in the past 200 years.FREEDOM FIRST From such a perspective, it becomes clear that we shall have to seek the origins of the freedom movement in the religious ideas prevailing in the 19th century. By the early part of this century, Indians were gradually beginning to understand that the challenge posed by British power extended far beyond political subjugation. India would have to contend with a totally different civilization, with modern science and technology, with an altogether new philosophy and culture. The idea that the British could be overthrown by sheer force of weaponry received a setback with the failure of the Great Revolt of 1857. Feudal aristocrats, who constituted the ruling native elite, found themselves dislodged and defeated. The new response would come from the newly emerging native bourgeoisie, which was actually a product of colonialism. A remarkable man rose from this class, a man who initiated a large-scale reform of Indian society. Rammohun Roy was not only a scholar, educationist, social reformer and journalist, but the founder of a new religious movement, the Brahmo Samaj. Founded in 1828, the Samaj tried to reform and rationalize Hinduism, going back to the Upanishads, on the one hand, and drawing from modern European ideas, on the other. Roy was among those prominent Indians who helped found the Hindu College in Calcutta, which later became the Presidency College. The Samaj attracted many young men of its time, among them Dwarkanath Tagore, the grandfather of Rabindranath. Dwarkanath's son Debendranath took over the mantle from Rammohun, but the Samaj split, with Keshub Chandra Sen leading the breakaway faction. There were similar societies in Bombay, Madras and Lahore. The Samaj, though restricted to the educated middle classes, was very influential in its day. It inaugurated a liberalism which had not only religious, but political implications as well. Within decades of its formation, however, the Samaj lost its initiative because a greater, more authentic religious force descended on the Indian soil. The advent of Ramakrishna was an event of far-reaching consequence for Indian nationalism. Although he was, to all appearances, the illiterate priest of the Kali temple in Dakshineshwar, outside Calcutta, Ramakrishna was actually a spiritual dynamo. He had mastered all the available sadhanas of his time, including yoga, tantra, mantra vidya, Saivaite, Vaishnavaite, and Shakti traditions. Furthermore, he was also familiar with Islam and Christianity. Ramakrishna stressed the plurality of religious endeavor, encouraging his disciples to accept all paths as legitimate ways to reach the Divine.
Ramakrishna did not act directly on society, but raised a band of dedicated sanyasis who spread his message and teachings. Of these Vivekananda was easily the most influential. He not only founded the Ramakrishna Mission, but toured the US and England extensively, taking Indian ideas beyond our shores. The impact of Vivekananda on the Indian youth of his time was incalculable. He urged and inspired them to rise to shoulder the responsibility of a new India. Vivekananda, was, thus, one of the greatest motivators of the Indian struggle for independence. A few other movements of that time also need special mention. One of them was the Arya Samaj, which Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded in 1875. The Arya Samaj propagated what it considered to be a pure Vedic religion. It was rational and reformist in its outlook. The Arya Samaj played an important role in rousing the dormant conscience of the Hindu society against idol worship, caste system, and many other social evils of that time. The Samaj gave many prominent leaders to the Indian independence movement, perhaps the most famous being Lala Lajpat Rai. Another important movement had its origins in the West. The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 by Madame H.P. Blavatsky. They believed that the ancient wisdom of the East contained the answers to the world's problems. They shifted the headquarters of their society to Adyar, near Madras. Theosophy, which means divine wisdom, was able to synthesize the spiritual core of all faiths. It played an extremely important role in the Indian awakening. During the tenure of its dynamic president, Annie Besant, Theosophy touched nearly every aspect of India's social and cultural life. Along with Madan Mohan Malaviya, Besant founded the Central Hindu College, which later became the Benaras Hindu University. She started the Home Rule League in 1915 and also became the president of the Indian National Congress. It was no accident that the founder of the Congress, Alan Octavian Hume, was himself a Theosophist, as were many of its members.Even in the Indian Muslim community, political aspirations were closely linked with religious reform. The Wahabis of Patna and Moradabad appealed for a return to the simplicity of early Islam. The heterodox Ahmadiya movement of Punjab had affinities with the Baha'ism of Iran. Members of the Ismaili sect regarded their leader, the Aga Khan, as an incarnation of Vishnu. But the most influential of these reformers was Sayyid Ahmad Khan, who founded the Anglo-Arabic College in Aligarh in 1875. This later became the Aligarh Muslim University and played an active role in the creation of Pakistan. In western India, too, the growth of political ideas was linked to religious reform. The names of Ranade, Gokhale, Agarkar, and Tilak readily come to mind. All of them were deeply religious people, though their work was socially oriented. The same pattern of religion affecting political developments was observed among the backward castes and classes. Jotiba Phule was, first and foremost, a religious reformer, a critic of traditional, caste-based Hinduism. Similarly in the south, Narayana Guru established several new temples for untouchables. A Sanskrit scholar and Vedantist, he helped to give the anti-caste movement in the south a spiritual dimension. Even Ambedkar, by converting to Buddhism, sought to strike at the heart of the caste problem: the Hindu religion itself. However, Ambedkarite Buddhism, which is less spiritual and religious than it is political and social, has created a confrontationist and separatist politics. All these movements, including the atheist, anti-Aryan Dravida Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, were religious (or anti-religious) in their outlook. All of them sought to reform society by reforming religion. In most cases, the result was a revival of Indian spirituality, while in some cases it was the rejection of these spiritual traditions.
VANDE MATARAM Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's famous novel, Anandmath (1882) begins at an apocalyptic moment. There is a famine in Bengal—Mohendra Singha and his beautiful wife, Kalyani, are leaving their ancestral homestead to tread the broad road to Calcutta. Though Mohendra is a rich landlord, he and his family are starving. Everywhere men, women, children and cattle are dying of hunger. Famished and angry, the impoverished villagers have taken to dacoity. Yet the tax collectors of the Government are unrelenting. Clearly, the British rule has reduced India to beggary. Mohendra is separated from his wife and is taken to a clearing in the forest where a group of sanyasis, called the Children, are organizing a revolt against British rule. Mohendra's escorts burst into the famous song 'Vande Mataram':
Mother, I bow to thee! Rich with thy hurrying streams, Bright with thy orchard gleams, Cold with thy winds of delight Dark fields waving, Mother of might Mother free! (Sri Aurobindo's translation)
Later, the master of Anandmath (the Abbey of Bliss), Satyananda, shows Mohendra the image of Jagaddhatri, the protector of the world. This is the image of the Mother as she was. In contrast, he is shown another image, "enveloped in darkness, full of blackness and gloom". It is an image of Kali, "stripped of all, therefore naked". Satyananda explains: "The whole country is a burial ground, therefore is the Mother garlanded with skulls." Finally, Satyananda shows Mohendra "a beautifully fashioned image of the ten-armed goddess, made in gold, laughing and radiant in the light of the early sun". Satyananda explains that "this is the Mother as she shall be". What Bankim does here is to identify India as Mother herself, the consort and energy of Vishnu, the sustainer of the Universe. Such a deification of the country as we know was to inspire many millions of Indians throughout the freedom struggle. Vande Mataram, the anthem, was banned as was Anandmath. Yet the worship of Mother India or Bharat Mata once instituted was here to stay. Across the Indian political spectrum, regardless of ideological differences, the idea of the sacredness of the Motherland was widely accepted. Bankim's novel inspired many revolutionaries who gave up their lives for their Motherland. Aurobindo himself considered to be a prophet of Indian nationalism, during his revolutionary phase wanted a Bharat Mata Mandir to be established in every province of India. These temples were to be the nucleus of revolutionaries who like Bankim's sanyasis would dedicate their lives to the freedom of the country. Thus the Indian revolutionaries, who were an important part of the struggle for freedom, also derived their inspiration from spirituality and religious sources. Of course such patriotism, taken to its extreme, may breed chauvinistic nationalism.
THE DESTINY OF THE NAKED FAKIR Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was, in many ways, India's man of destiny. More than anyone else, he came to embody the hopes and aspirations of the Indian people. Not only was he the most popular and powerful leader of the freedom movement, but he also was for most Indians a figure of reverence, even worship. He was the Mahatma, the great soul, sort of a national guru. More than a politician, he was cast in the mould of a religious leader. Indeed, a close examination of Gandhi's life shows that spirituality was its keynote. He said clearly: "For me, even the effort for attaining swaraj (self rule) is a part of the effort for moksha (liberation)." Throughout his life, much like a yogi or sadhak (ascetic), he tried to attain perfect control over his body and his senses. He wished to perfect the instrument with which he strove to work for the uplift of the masses and for India's freedom. It would be erroneous to consider Gandhi to be merely a faddist or eccentric moralist. All the institutions that he established were on religious lines. The Sabarmati Ashram, for instance, had 11 rules of conduct, which included traditional injunctions such as truth, nonviolence, chastity, non-stealing, non-possession, and so on. To these he added his own unique innovations such as khadi (hand spinning) and the removal of untouchability. Gandhi declared that his politics was merely a part of his religious life: "For me there is no politics devoid of religion. They subserve religion. Politics bereft of religion are a deathtrap because they kill the soul." However, Gandhi's religion was not such that it necessitated a withdrawal from this world: "For me the road to salvation lies through incessant toil in the service of my country and therefore of humanity. I want to identity myself with everything that lives. In the language of the Gita I want to live at peace with both friend and foe." The question whether Gandhi was a saint or a politician has been around for a long time. In fact, Gandhi himself had to answer it. Though he disclaimed being either, he asserted that "the politician in me has never dominated a single decision of mine". Gandhi's experiments with truth and his advocacy of ahimsa (nonviolence) indicate that his central preoccupation was to bring spiritual values to bear on political life. He said that his political guru, Gokhale, had taught him that "the dream of every Indian...should be...to spiritualize the political life of the country, and the political institutions of the country".
Further, Gandhi goes on to ask: "What is the meaning of spiritualizing the political life of the country? What is the meaning of spiritualizing myself?" He answers these two difficult questions quite simply: "I think political life must be an echo of private life and that there cannot be a divorce between the two." Gandhi repeatedly said that he was in politics only because "politics encircle us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries". For Gandhi, ahimsa was not the weapon of the weak, but the best way in which people could strive for legitimate political and social ends. It is no accident, then, that Gandhi was born in a century that also produced the atom bomb. It was as if these two paths before humankind were offered simultaneously. The 20th century that has witnessed bloodletting on an unprecedented scale—the two world wars, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the partition of India and the carnage that followed, the concentration camps in the former Soviet Union and China, the genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda—all these and much more are the legacy of this century. Gandhi believed that only an active ahimsa would be an antidote; only ahimsa could safeguard the future of the human race. And this gift of ahimsa was, Gandhi believed, India's greatest contribution to the world.Gandhi accepted all religions, but declared himself to be a Hindu. Hinduism, for him "is the religion of humanity and includes the best of all the religions known to me". Obviously, what he meant by Hinduism was Sanatan Dharma, the Eternal Dharma, not any particular creed or cult. Further, he defined his religion as "the religion of Truth. Of late, instead of saying God is Truth I have been saying Truth is God..."Gandhi gave India and the world some invaluable weapons to fight against injustice and oppression. Besides Truth and Non-violence, he also gave us the slogans of swaraj, sarvodaya, and swadeshi—self-rule, the uplift of all, and the use of locally manufactured goods. These ideals are not merely political or economic, but deeply rooted in India's spiritual traditions. Swaraj, then, does not stand merely for political independence, but for a certain ideal of society: It is at once a term that signifies personal and political perfection.
THE UNFINISHED AGENDA In the preceding account, I may have left out the names of several other men and women who played a notable role in India's struggle for independence. Whether it is Jawaharlal Nehru or Subhas Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore or Subramaniam Bharati, Maulana Azad or Sardar Patel, it is my contention that all these, in one way or another, believed in India's special destiny. Even Nehru, the most scientific and secular of these leaders in his temperament and attitude, wished to reconcile the values of science with those of spirituality. As he clearly said: "Secular philosophy itself must have some background, some objective, other than merely material well-being. It must essentially have spiritual values and certain standards of behavior, and, when we consider these, immediately we enter into the realm of what has been called religion." It is only when we thus reflect upon the larger objectives of the freedom movement and its deepest sources of inspiration that we realize that the 50th anniversary of India's independence is the occasion for as much somber introspection as it is of joyous celebration. Political independence is certainly not India's goal or ideal, though it is a necessary step. Nothing short of complete inner and outer perfection can suffice for those who are spiritual. Spirituality does not mean a withdrawal from the world, but an action in the world that is transformative. We saw that was possible on a massive scale during the freedom movement. Luckily, we have many examples of it in action even today. The most notable of these is the Swadhyay movement, inspired by Pandurang Shastri Athavale. Embracing over 80,000 villages, this movement has brought about an unprecedented transformation in the lives of millions of people. What is more, Swadhyay, as the name suggests, is primarily about transforming the self, by self-study and voluntary action. Once again, we see how spiritual forces, when properly awakened and harnessed, can bring about large-scale social changes.
INVINCIBLE INDIA I reiterate that spirituality is not secondary to the material, but includes and supersedes it. This is by no means accepted by the majority of the people today, let alone by the dominant, culture-defining elite which rule our world. So what is the way out? Will different ideologies fight for supremacy, violently attacking and destroying one another? That is one way. The other way is to consider the point of view presented here as an invitation. That, ultimately, is how India operates. It invites you to examine life from a certain perspective. If this perspective is appealing, satisfying, and enriching, you may wish to accept it. Otherwise, nothing is lost. All of us need to come to our own conclusions, to our own understanding of history. I, for one, believe that the true significance of India can be summed up beautifully in Vivekananda's words: "Our sacred motherland is a land of religion and philosophy... where and where alone, from the most ancient to the most modern times, there has been the highest ideal of life open to man." Vivekananda warns us: "Religion and religion alone is the life of India, and when that goes India will die..." Indeed, that is what the secularists and modernists of all types might wish for, but luckily that has still not happened. I would like to end, once again, with Vivekananda's words: "Indian nation cannot be killed. Deathless it stands, and it will stand so long as that spirit shall remain as the background, so long as her people do not give up their spirituality."

playing with maths

2007-01-25T09:49:00.000-08:00

lets play with maths for those who think calculations are pretty harder
some tricks involved in solving the square of a number& cube of number
eg:-
1)26^2=25^2+26th odd no=625+(2*26-1)=625+51=676
2)sly for, 36^2=35^2+(2*36-1)=1225+71=1296(and the trend continues for no. of the form x6^2)
3)21^2=20^2+21st odd no.=400+41=441
4)29^2=30^2-30thodd no.=900-(2*30-1)=900-59=841
5)34^2=35^2-35th odd no.=1225-69=1156
6)for 23^2=25^2-4*24=625-96=529
7)32^2=30^2+4*31=900+124=1024
cubes:-
1)ex:-103^3=the formula says (100+3x/3x^2/x^3)=100+9/27/27=1092727
sly
2) 16^3=the base is 10 here not 100 so evaluating for this we get=10+3*6/3*6^2/6^3=28/108/216=add 21 the second left u get 28/108+21/6=28/129/6=now add 12 to the left most u get 4096 steps seems to bebig when doing it becomes easier...........

quotes for the day

2007-01-25T09:42:00.001-08:00

It is easy to dodge a spear that comes in front of you but hard to keep harms away from an arrow shot from behind.
An inch of time is an inch of gold but you can't buy that inch of time with an inch of gold.

How to fail your Driving Test

2007-01-24T09:41:00.000-08:00

1. Turn the radio on. When the tester goes to turn it off slap his/her hand.
2. Rev the car really high, turn to the tester, and say with an evil look, "Buckle up!"
3. Knock over every cone while doing manoeuvrability. In the middle of it, get out and check to see if you have hit every one.
4. Come dressed in a suit. Before the examiner gets in the car, ask him/her to put a piece of plastic wrap down so he doesn't dirty the seat.
5. When the examiner tells you to stop, step on the gas. Tell him/her that you thought it was the brake.
6. When the examiner tells you to stop, pop the hood clutch and say "Oops."
7. Get in the car, look down at the pedals, and say, "Now which one is the gas again?"
8. After the examiner gets in the car, pop the hood, and get out and check the oil.
9. Fill your car with beer bottles.
10. The whole time driving, talk about how Aunt Gertrude smells like mothballs.
11. Tell the registrar that you are taking the remedial test.
12. In the middle of driving, put your arm around the examiner.
13. Swear at everybody on the road.
14. When you stop at a light, start revving the engine while looking back and forth between the person next to you and the light.
15. Beep your horn at everything.
16. Break off your rear-view mirror and then ask the examiner to hold it up.

Psychology of penalty kicks

2007-01-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

An academic paper looks at the statistics of penalty shoot-outs, and concludes that the psychological pressure plays a pretty prominent role. Before you go "D'oh!", read this summary which discusses some of the implications of this finding:
For the first kick, when the pressure is relatively low, an average of 87% of kicks were successful. But the rates of success then start to drop, down to 73% for a fourth shot, when the pressure is often higher. The success rates could be partly influenced by coaches picking their best players to shoot at certain times. But that can't account for all the difference, Jordet says.
The results are even more dramatic for the highest-pressure situations. When missing a kick means defeat for the entire team, the success rate plummets to 52%. But when a successful kick guarantees a win, 93% of attempts go in

quotes of the day

2007-01-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

Nothing changes your opinion of a friend so surely as success - yours or his
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The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.
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all about marxism

2007-01-23T08:36:00.000-08:00

Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marx's work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marx's time, communist parties and later states). Marxism identifies the race towards communism in a number of stages. The first stage being feudalism, second one being capitalism, which is then followed by socialism. The closing stages result in communism. Marx, a 19th century socialist philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, often in collaboration with Friedrich Engels, developed a critique of society which he claimed was both scientific and revolutionary. This critique achieved its most systematic (albeit unfinished) expression in his most famous work, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, more commonly known as Das Kapital (1867). Nevertheless, there have been numerous debates among Marxists over how to interpret Marx's writings and how to apply his concepts to current events and conditions. The legacy of Marx's thought is bitterly contested among proponents of numerous viewpoints who claim to be Marx's most accurate interpreters. There have been many academic theories, social movements, political parties and governments that lay claim to being founded on Marxist principles. Indeed, academic theorising on Marxism is so widespread that there are a number of different schools of Marxism in addition to the classical Marxism of Marx and Engels. Similarly, the use of Marxist theory in politics, including the social democratic movements in 20th century Europe, the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries, Mao and other revolutionaries in agrarian developing countries have added new ideas to Marx and otherwise transmuted Marxism so much that it is difficult to define its core.
FUTURE OF MARXISM
Has Marxism a future, now that communism has collapsed throughoutEastern Europe and is in crisis everywhere else? It is oftensaid that Marxism is discredited and refuted by these events:they signify the triumph of capitalism and the free market, the`end of history'. At the other extreme, some Marxists in theWest would like to believe that history has not yet begun. Forthem, socialism is still a distant dream. The old regimes of theSoviet Union and Eastern Europe had nothing to do with truesocialism. Their demise, therefore, has no bearing on Marxism:no rethinking is required. Neither of these responses is satisfactory. It is clearthat the momentous changes that have occurred cast doubt on manyaspects of Marxism, and necessitate a fundamental rethinking ofsome of its most basic ideas. Dramatic as these events havebeen, however, they do not signify the end of Marxism. This iswhat I shall argue. First, I will briefly explain why, in myview, it is wrong to think that Marxism has been entirelyrefuted; and then I will discuss some of the issues on which, Ibelieve, rethinking is necessary.Marxism and CapitalismMarx's work is focused primarily on the analysis and explanationof capitalist society. Capitalism, he shows, is a system whichinvolves ineliminable contradictions. For this reason, it is notthe `end of history'. It is a particular stage of historicaldevelopment, which is eventually destined to pass away and besuperseded by further stages. Marx's elaboration of this theory,though now more that 100 years old, continues to provide by farthe most comprehensive and powerful account of the capitalistsystem. This is not to suggest that Marx's account of capitalism canany longer be accepted in its entirety. In some respects, it hasclearly been refuted by the actual course of history during thelast 100 years. The advanced capitalist societies have provedfar more durable, economically successful and politicallydemocratic, than Marx or other early socialists ever envisagedpossible. Contrary to Marx's expectations, the working class inthese societies has not been impoverished, nor has it become arevolutionary force. The Marxist account of capitalism must berevised to take account of these facts, if it is to continue tohave application to the modern world. In other respects, however, Marx's account of the nature anddevelopment of capitalism has proved remarkably accurate. WhenMarx was writing, in the 19th century, capitalism wasunchallenged; socialism was not a significant force anywhere inthe world. Since then, capitalism has been overthrown byrevolutionary movements in large areas of the world, andsocialism has become a major political force almost everywhereelse. Moreover, the economic and social conditions which, in thepast, drove capitalism into crisis have not ceased to exist. Thecontradictions which, Marx argues, are inherent in capitalism arestill present. These are most evident in the Third World, wheremany still live below subsistence level and where the conditionsfor revolution are ever present. And, it must be remembered, thecapitalist system includes much of the Third World. Those whotalk of the triumph of capitalism tend to forget this, and thinkonly of advanced capitalist societies. Even in advanced capitalist societies, class divisions andconflicts persist; and the cycle of boom and depression has notbeen eliminated (though it is now more controlled thanpreviously). No doubt, the nature of the classes which make upmodern capitalist society has changed significantly since the19th century, and this is another aspect of Marxism that needsbasic rethinking; but there is no good reason to believe thatclass division has ceased to be a fundamental feature ofcapitalist society. In short, the contradictions of capitalism,which Marx describes, still exist. And, while they continue todo so, there is no reason to believe that capitalism constitutesthe `end of history', or that the basic ideas of Marxism havebeen refuted.The Socialist WorldHowever, what gives plausibility to the view that Marxism hasbeen refuted is not its account of capitalism, but rather thecrisis in the socialist world. It is these events which castdoubt on traditional ideas of socialism, and necessitate a basicreassessment of Marxism. Before describing some of the areas in which suchreassessment is needed, however, it is also important to see thatthe socialist experience has not been entirely negative, at leastin those countries where socialism has come about through arevolutionary, and not by external imposition. Thus the Russianrevolution was an epoch-making historical achievement; a turningpoint not only in Russian but in world history. As a result ofit, Russia emerged out of the chaos and disintegration ofCzarism. Despite civil war and a devastating world war, it hasdeveloped from semi-feudal backwardness, into an industrialnation and a world power. In the process, the health, educationand material well-being of the Russian people have improved verygreatly. Similar things can be said of China. This indicatesthat there is some validity in the ideas of socialism, and thatthey should not be entirely rejected on the basis of the currentcrisis. This is not to deny still less to excuse or condone theterrible human cost of these developments for the Russian people. Nor is it to deny the acuteness of the crisis which has nowengulfed the communist world. This crisis necessitates afundamental rethinking of traditional ideas of socialism. Andthe issues go deep: they involve some of the most basic tenets ofthe theory of Marxism itself. I will focus particularly on twomain areas where such rethinking is needed (without wishing tosuggest these are the only problematic areas).DemocracyThe relation of socialism and democracy is the main _political_issue raised by the crisis of communism. Socialism is supposedto be a democratic form of society; but actually existingcommunist regimes have not been so. In the Marxist traditionthere has been a disastrous tendency to reject the liberal andpluralistic idea of democracy. The state, Marx argues, is a mereinstrument of class rule. In capitalist society, the state is abourgeois state; and the existence of parliamentary institutionsand individual legal rights does not alter this fact. HenceMarxists have often dismissed parliamentary democracy as acharade which hides the true character of the state, andpresented `socialist democracy' as an alternative to it. Socialists have rightly insisted that there is more to fulland genuine democracy than the existence of the rule of law and apluralistic political system. These can coexist with very greatreal inequalities of power and influence, as experience in theWest shows. Nevertheless, the central political lesson of 1989is that a pluralistic political framework is a necessarycondition for democracy. Socialist democracy must not,therefore, be regarded as an alternative to liberal democracy. Rather, it should be seen as a continuation and furtherdevelopment of liberal democracy, involving the extension ofdemocratic rights from the political to social and economicareas. A pluralistic system is needed when there are differentclasses or interest groups in society, each demanding politicalrepresentation. This is certainly the case in capitalistsocieties, where different classes and interest groups exist. However, it is also the case in communist societies. Animportant lesson of recent events is that different andcontending social groups continue to exist in these societies. The Marxist picture of socialism portrays it as a classlesssociety, and denies the very possibility of this. According toMarx, socialism is a `transitional' stage, `between capitalismand communism'; and he believed that this transition would berelatively brief and painless. Once private property in themeans of production is abolished, the material basis for classdifferences is, supposedly, eliminated. Class divisions, andeventually the state as well, should `wither away' more or lessautomatically. Unfortunately, nothing like this has happened inany actual communist society. Moreover, it is evident that national, regional and racialsocial differences persist under socialism. The traditionalMarxist view is that such differences, and the conflicts theygenerate, should lessen automatically as economic development andintegration proceed; and liberals have often shared this view. However, experience has shown that these differences andconflicts are far stronger and more persistent than thesetheories suggest. They have been re-emerging, strongly anddangerously, in the Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe. There are two important lessons for Marxism in all this. First, if socialism is, indeed, a `transitional' stage, then theprocess is going to be far lengthier and more problematic thanenvisaged by Marx. Second, during this period, socialistsocieties will continue to be divided into conflicting groups,and socialism must involve a political system in which theirdifferent interests can be effectively represented. If Marxismis to be of any use as a theory of socialism, then it must tacklethese issues, rather than functioning as a form of statepropaganda which denies them.The Role of the MarketThe crisis in the communist world has been as much economic aspolitical. Traditionally, socialism has been conceived as asystem of state ownership and central planning; while privateownership and the free market have been seen as definitive ofcapitalism. The socialist economies which were set up accordingto these principles in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, hadhighly centralised `command' structures, with very little scopefor private enterprise or the free market. These economies allsuffered from crippling problems of stagnation, waste andinefficiency. The clear lesson from this is that state ownership andcentral planning are not efficient in many areas of the economy. This is particularly the case with small scale enterprises andservices. It is essential to question the hostility to themarket and to private ownership which runs through the wholesocialist tradition, and to recognise that there is an essentialrole for private enterprise, even in socialist societies. Such views are often taken to imply that state ownership andeconomic planning cannot work, and that the free market is theonly possible basis for an industrial economy. This does notfollow. On the contrary, the pure free market is a myth: it doesnot operate anywhere in the world. In all the main capitalistcountries, major sectors of the economy are controlled andregulated by the state. These include basic agriculture,railways, roads, housing, health, education, and often majorareas of industry as well. In fact, all economies in the worldtoday are `mixed' economies, which combine public and privatesectors (although, of course, the specific sectors in public andprivate ownership vary greatly in different countries). Market forces are not an automatic recipe for economicdevelopment, as experience shows. Thus, in Britain, it isdoubtful whether Mrs Thatcher's programme has resulted in anyreal economic growth. If the market results in the developmentof some regions, it also leads to the impoverishment andexploitation of others. It produces stagnation and crisis, aswell as enterprise and growth. The free market is neither a puregood nor a pure evil. Rather, it must be judged according towhether or not it is effective in promoting economic development. The introduction of the market into previously socialisedareas of the economy inevitably increases inequalities and socialdivisions. This has been the experience in Britain, whereunemployment, poverty and social tension have all increasedsharply. The same effects are now appearing in Eastern Europe asfree market policies begin to operate. Regrettably, the euphoriaof liberation has been short-lived, and the negative aspects ofthe market are beginning to emerge. These are precisely theproblems inherent in capitalism, which Marx so powerfullyanalyses and criticises. As they intensify, it will becomeincreasingly clear that we have not reached the `end of history',and that Marxism not in its old dogmatic form, but rethoughtand renewed still has much to offer as a theory forinterpreting the modern world and changing it.