What If...

Theoretically, there are a few things that happen by chance in our lives (we have no control over them) and there are some that happen because of our choices (we can control them).

But, may be, there is nothing called chances and choices! The choices we make are based on chance events.

I might choose to study engineering. But, my choice is influenced by other chance events, say, the attitude of my peers and the advice given to me by others. And, the attitude of my peers in turn depends on other chance events as well. Funny thought, really.

Perhaps, destiny is the word. May be, everything happens for a reason, and all our acts, irrespective of what we think, fall-in-line with some divine plan.

Everything we do have far reaching consequences. I recently read a fantastic novel, "The 5 people you meet in heaven". It is a different genre of short story that conveys the thought with great effect.

The way the world is inter-connected is fascinating. My decision today will affect the decision someone makes tomorrow. So, what if I took a different action today? We really have no idea.

With the decision I take at this moment, I am effectively, influencing the actions that many will take in future. An eerie thought, isn't it.

Steve Jobs, in one of the most motivational speeches recorded in history, said that life is all about connecting the dots. In the speech, Jobs shared 3 stories from his life to drive home this perception of life. For those of you, who haven't seen that video, make sure you see it because it is something that changes your attitude.

Here is a small excerpt from his inspiring speech:

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

Connecting the dots simply mean that, all the events are inter-related and nothing happens without a reason. Once that belief sinks in, our perspective changes and we can learn more and understand life a bit more.

Now, applying this same thought to my life, I made a few discoveries. And I loved the exercise, because it was really comforting (:P). It might be fun (though meaningless) if you look at certain pivotal moments in your life and think of what would have happened had the decision been different.

Think of this-

• If you hadn't gone that particular way; you wouldn't have met that person.
• If you hadn't been there, it wouldn't have happened.
• If you had sat with a different person on the first day of your school/college, you would never have had that great friend.
• If you had marked that answer correctly in the entrance exam, you would probably have got admission in a different college

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These are thoughts on some of the seemingly minute incidents which would have shaped us into becoming what we are now.

You can also apply the same idea to a larger scale, to events since stone age or even earlier.

What could be the reason behind all those massacres and bombings and killings? What could be the 'reason' behind all the atrocities committed by the IS? What reason could there be behind Holocaust? These are questions which no one can find an answer to.

Connecting the dots at a macroscopic level would be impossible considering all the variables involved. However, at a microscopic, that is, personal level, one can always apply this and see how our life has been shaped by chance events or choice whatever one calls it.

There are other aspects to this line of thought. We read daily of unfortunate accidents taking away the lives of many. The fact that we are still living is a miracle, when we think about it. We just don't appreciate that fact enough.

The fact that I was born into this world is another miracle, given the chances of my parents finding each other. Why didn't Hitler get killed in a road accident or suffer a heart attack while they were young? Or, what would have happened if Einsteins dad had married someone else - would Einstein have happened?

If I had been born and brought up in the ecosystem like that in Afghanistan or Iraq, would I have become another Ajmal Kasab? What would have happened if Bin Laden was born here in India - would he have become a terrorist?

Likewise, am I what my ecosystem has made me? Why am I here? Is there someone out there controlling everything, moving the pieces as in a chessboard, planning my life and my future?

Life is full of questions; questions without answers. That is what makes it so exciting to many. No one can ever know what could have happened, had one made a different choice or if something else had happened. Again, the truth is that, nothing is in my control, but the present. That too, only partially.

We might have no idea as to how our decisions are influencing that of others'. We will be clueless as to why certain things have happened in our lives. But, we can take comfort in the thought that it is happening for a reason, whatever that reason might be.

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If you believe in God, great! Because, the belief that God is in-charge and that whatever happens is for my best, is the best that can ever happen. Nothing else makes sense.

The belief that I am here not without reason stems from the fact that there is too much mystery and too many coincidences to believe otherwise. I didn't just happen to be here. I was 'placed' here, among these people, in this part of the world and at this point of time.

My life is the product of the choices man has been taking since his creation in response to all the chance events.

Whatever it may be, believe. Believe that nothing is a coincidence.

The word coincidence is not found in the dictionary of believers. There is a reason for everything. There is a reason why you are reading this.

Believe.

An Incredible Tale of Names, Namesakes and Opportunists...

Last week my relative returned from the US to attend his elder brother's marriage. And the day before the marriage, there is a tradition existing in our part of the world, or rather our community. All the close relatives of the bride would gather together and each one had to narrate a funny incident which happened in their lives in the past year. And, if they fail to make everyone laugh, he/she would have to do a 'dare' others demanded.

It was a fun occasion and a lot of funny incidents were discussed and a few funny dares were also done. But, being a recent passout, the incident that my cousin from US narrated appeared incredibly funny, ridiculous and amusing.

I would rather narrate the incident in his own words, with a few explanatory sentences added so you get to know him better.

"After four long years studying electrical engineering, 3 years in an IT Company and another two years of MBA, I decided I had seen enough of India. I went to the US of A (my parents live there) searching for jobs.

I applied for several openings and tasted success only in my 13th attempt. The job application process and the nature of interview are so different from that over here in India. And I still remember one such interview, my 9th attempt. The interviewer was a charming young lady with a pleasing personality and a warm smile.

After the preliminary pleasantries we started talking about my academics. She asked me from which university I graduated (apparently, the westerners don't refer to college name. They only inquire about the university we belong to). So, I said, 'Mam, I graduated from the Mahatma Gandhi University, which is one of the pioneers in engineering education in our country'.

What happened next came as a surprise to me. She said, "Oh.. Mahatma Gandhi University!! Wow, that's nice.. I am a huge admirer of Gandhi, though I didn't know a university existed in his name. Must have been a great place to study, eh". She also showed me Gandhiji's talisman as well as Gandhiji's portrait which she had hung on the walls of her office.

Surprised that I was, I didn't show any of it outside (atleast I think so). To think that the name of my university would have such a profound impact on the interviewer was unimaginable.

I had heard tales of how names of people make interviewers ask questions in a particular direction. I had a friend named Minesh Happy. Whenever he went for an interview, during introduction he would say, 'My name is Minesh Happy. People call me Happy.'  Inevitably, interviewers would then ask him about his intriguing, strange, funny and amusing name. And the interview would go along nicely in that direction. He always made the interviewers ask the questions he wanted them to ask and he was often successful in doing so because of his 'good name'.

However, I was not blessed with any such fancy names to play with and here was an opportunity that I could never possibly imagine. I decided to impress her further. Somehow, an urge for creativity grew inside me. An idea came to my mind suddenly (dimag ki bathi jala di)..

I told her, "As a matter of fact, this university was founded by Gandhiji himself in 1937 and it is one of the biggest in India. Some even call it modern Takshashila......." and so I went.

For the first time in my life I felt good for studying in such a 'great' university which provided me the opportunity to exploit its great name. The creative genius in me dished out even more fantabulous tales about it. I congratulated myself for not overdoing it.

The interviewer was clearly impressed with my academic background and the whole interview was going on very nicely. I thought I had nailed a job at last and I felt great about myself.

But, as it happens, what happened next was something I didn't foresee. The ardent fan that she was, she couldn't resist learning more about this great university. She opened her laptop and Googled to know more about my great university..... "

The rest, I leave to your imagination. :D

100 not out and counting...

I am speaking about our new BJP govt, and in particular the captain of the team Narendra Modi here.

I was among the many who were quite anxious as to how the new govt would treat different religions and to what extent saffronisation would be done. So far, it has been so good.

The first 100 days were amazing with a lot of new energy and direction coming in. At least, that is what I felt as an outsider interested in these things..

Positives:

A lot of factors have worked in favour of BJP at the moment. The US economy is reviving. So it has triggered an early recovery and growth in our economy as well. The govt has not faced any major crisis in the past 100 days- No scams, No natural disasters and No major allegations against the govt. They have been helped further by the fact that the Congress party is now weaker and no one has been able to rise to the position of the opposition party. Also, they control most of the seats in the Lok Sabha which means that need not depend on coalition politics to get bills passed.

Less Talk and More Work- That is what Modi has been doing in the past 3 months. He vowed not to interact with the Media until atleast 3 months in the office was over. According to newspaper reports, the secretariat is working more punctually and more systematically now. Ministers are working late and coming quite early. Modi appears to be a no nonsense man and I have begun to respect him enormously.

Policy wise, I think this govt is going to achieve a lot more than the previous UPA govts. This govt has set apart a significant amount for the development of the MSME sector and in particular the export industry. Modi said in his highly acclaimed independence speech that the youngsters must look at each items that are being imported into the country and see how they can be manufactured here. There is a lot of encouragement given to aspiring entrepreneurs and our economy has exceeded expectations in the last quarter as far as GDP is concerned, reaching a 10 quarter high of 5.7% while the prediction was 5.5%.

The new govt is also likely to bring in the Goods and Services Tax policy which would imply that exporters/manufacturers would need to pay only one single tax instead of around 12 different indirect taxes in different categories. The UPA govt had tried to implement that Tax system but BJP had opposed it then. But now, the BJP are the ones trying to implement it. One might wonder why this change of heart now. Politics is something which only the politicians can understand. Whatever it be, if the GST is implemented it would augur well for our country.

So far apart from a few isolated instances where Party members tried to impose/proclaim Hindutva, there has been nothing to worry. Modi send a strong message against communal politics in his independence day speech, which was a very good thing.

Negatives:

If there is anything to criticise, I think it would be the resignation of non-BJP (affiliated) governors in different states of the country. That could have been avoided or better managed.

Also, there is no Leader of Opposition or an Opposition Party at the moment. This could mean that democratic discussions may not be as effective as it should be. Whether the Congress Party deserved to hold the Leader of Opposition post is another question. However, it is my opinion that Congress Party could have been given that post, even though it is impossible considering the political mileage the BJP can get if the Congress doesn't hold that post.

Another issue would be the appointment of Amit Shah as the BJP President. I strongly feel that it sends the wrong signal. Amit Shah was arrested a few years ago and even recently action was taken against him for hate speech. Appointing such a person is not the right thing to do, isn't it? That is what I feel about it.

Lastly, there is the Modi-fication of BJP with senior veterans being left out of the mix. Is BJP becoming a one man army? If so, is that a good thing? Democracy should mean distribution of power. If power gets concentrated in one man's hands, it can turn bad. Will Modi become a Dictator in a Democracy? Both his Party and Government has been completely Modi-fied. It is the attribute of the strong leader that Modi is. However, the question is will other opinions be shut out?

A thin line separates Strong leadership and Dictatorship.

Is it fair?

Back to blogging...

Okay, so this will be about the Israel Palestine Conflict. This is one of the most interesting issues at hand. It is a very complicated case and I myself don't know what to conclude or what is just.

The question is, is it fair to get back what belonged to you a long time ago?

Think of this. You own some property, say, xyz hectares of land. This property means everything to you. The property obviously belonged to someone else initially. But, you bought (conquered) it. Centuries later, your family members still occupy the land. But, then someone comes and steals it from you. No one could stop them. There was no United Nations and everyone minded their own business. You conceded defeat. Now after several generations, centuries later, you are in a position to get it back. But, the current occupants won't give it to you. In the meantime, the world has changed. All world is one nation. Your business is everyone's business. They interfere. War is Humanitarian Crisis today and rightly so. Everyone wants it to stop. Yet, when the place was invaded and annexed from your possession centuries ago, it was private matter. No one interfered. It was your business to protect your land and failing to do so, you yield it to your enemy. That was the rule back then. So, is it fair if you try to win it back again, using the same brute force that your opponents used to take it away from you?

This is in essence the simplified story of Palestine or Israel. Palestine used to belong to Israel for several until 7th Century when the Islamic Empire conquered it. Israel used to own the land for several centuries prior to that. And yeah, in the very beginning the land belonged to no one, right. :-P

Look at the two images below. Pay attention to the timeline given.

I will add to your confusion. Add religion into the mix. Jerusalem is the holy place of both Jews and the Arabs, not to mention the Christians. Both the countries seek control over it. And, it is the capital of both Israel and Palestine.

Jerusalem Temple was the most important place of worship of the Jews. It was destroyed twice (after it got destroyed once, Israel rebuilt the temple again because it meant the world to them) and now on the same site stands the Dome erected by the Islamic Empire. So, what should be done about it? Who is to blame? Blame History!

To make matters worse, both Palestine and Israel want control over each other's location because only then can they be fully satisfied.

Now, coming back to the original question. Is it fair to annex what belonged to you long ago? Should Israel forget all about it? This goes in circles, like a dog trying to bite its tail. This war will not stop. It cannot, i.e, unless either Israel or Palestine yields ground. And that will never happen voluntarily. So, brute force and classic invasion tactics will continue to be used.

Prophecies in the Bible and Quran are very much interesting in this case. For the time being, let us stop here.

Hope I have made your day!

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PS: I have ignored a lot of facts in this brief write-up. There are a lot of questions that needs to be asked. For example, Why can't neither countries agree to a ceasefire? Who violated the ceasefire first? Who started the war first? Who ousted whom first? Who inhabited the land first? Who is the rightful owner of the land? You will have to do your own research to find out answers to these.

Here are a few links that will help you:

1. Temple in Jerusalem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_in_Jerusalem

2. https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100607174314AAKjRUx

3. https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090224192028AAIQY1y

4. Wikipedia pages of Palestine, Israel, Jerusalem and Israeli Palestine Conflict

Divide and Rule

This seems to be the motto for the BJP today. Dividing the country on the basis of caste, creed and religion. Creating vote banks. Creating divides. Polarising the society. It is saddening.

The BJP accused the UPA II for being a puppet government, run by Sonia Gandhi. I think that if BJP comes to power, the NDA will more or less be the puppet of RSS.

Today, even unrelated comments are tied to caste and secularism. Recently, Priyanka Vadra accused Modi of playing low level politics and Modi retorted claiming that Prinyanka was referring to his (inferior) caste. Modiji, you should never have stooped to such a low level. After all, you are most likely going to be our next P.M. We know that you are a charismatic person and that you have a way with words. But, Manmohan Singh is much better than you in this regard. Atleast he keeps "quiet"!

This election was fought more on the basis of castes and secularism than for anything related to development. Even the BJP election manifesto was all about protecting Hinduism, driving out the "illegal" immigrants from Bangladesh, stripping "Kashmir" of its special status, implementing the uniform civil code, and doing everything in its power to build a Ram Mandir. Now, where is development in that? There are many other points in the manifesto, but no one is speaking about them in their campaigns.Why? It is disheartening to see so much focus being placed on caste and secularism.

And the media. You too brutus! You have failed to sensitize the public on what the BJP election manifesto really means. Take the uniform civil code for instance. I wonder if anyone who has voted for the BJP really knows what it actually means and the kind of implications it can have in a diverse society like ours.

Truth be told, whatever happens, we have no one to blame. One of the good things about living in a democracy. You elect someone as your leader and you hope that he doesn't let you down. And if he does, well... you watch and pay the price for the decision that you took. But, on any given day, I would prefer Corruption over Communalism.

But, all is not lost. Hopefully these are only election gimmicks. If BJP sticks to the tradition of parties never implementing anything in their manifesto when they come to power, I will happy. For the first time, I am looking forward to a government which forgets the promises it gave during its election campaign! :P

I remember reading the classic, 'The Count of Monte Cristo', long back when I was a kid. The book concludes on an optimistic note.

"Wait 'n' Hope"!



A/N: I found another article along the same lines, but much more detailed and more specific. You might want to check it out. It is really good. Here is the link: http://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/minds-modi-myth