"All men are created equal"........REALLY?

And they were created equal to all men?

Prologue: In Season 1 Episode 2 House MD, Dr. House berates his fellow Dr. Cameron:

"Would that upset you, really, to think that you were hired because of some genetic gift of beauty not some genetic gift of intelligence?" 

Some are born beautiful, some intelligent, some skilled, some brave, and some just normal!

The human brain is designed to learn skills and reproduce them accurately with practice! Have you noticed the ease with which you can drive your car today as compared to when you started? You wouldn't be as alert, as tense and as consciously aware, as you were the first week, you laid hands on the steering wheel. And yet, you'd be driving more accurately absorbing all the visual cues like traffic, routes, signals and pedestrians without  exercising your grey cells even a bit. 

So is the tale for any academic activity.  If you read a lot, read comprehensively and practice regularly then you are bound to develop finesse and improve (although the degree of improvement varies). Lawyers, doctors, engineers, actors, accountants........take any profession; you work diligently, your skills improve----and that is no secret!

The great Indian saint  Kabir quoted in one of his couplets:

करत करत अभ्यास के जड़मति होत सुजान,

रसरी आवत जात ते सिल पर पड़त निसान।

 (Karat karat abhyaas ke jardamati hot sujaan 

 Rasari aavat jaat te sill par pardat nisaan.)

Roughly translated it means that with constant practice even a fool becomes wise, just as the soft rope can leave a mark on a stone if it passes to and fro over it repeatedly. 

That goes for IQ tests, too. IQ tests are never representative! Given adequate practice, any average Joe can ace any number of IQ tests!

But what is genius then?

In the words of Arthur Schopenhauer:

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see." 

Yup! A genius thinks out of the box, defies convention, improves the possible and achieves the impossible. 

Take any great composer (and no, I am not talking of "music directors" who are "inspired" by other musicians to create verbatim copies that are conveniently passed off as their own work!) of the yesteryears -- Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Vivaldi, Strauss or Saint Thyagaraja; years of training cannot make a musician create the magic today, that those greats wrote. Was it divine providence, or was it unique neurochemistry that they could create what they did? Who knows? But it certainly cannot be attributed to learning! Mozart could play the piano flawlessly by age 4 and started composing at the age of 5! Most kids these days learn the alphabet at this age! Beethoven started losing his sense of hearing by age 26 and was profoundly deaf for the next 30 odd years that he lived, yet, the volume of his compositions speaks for itself! How could he still compose? Again who knows? 

Within his short lifespan of 32 years, high school educated Srinivasa Ramanujan,  (Yes, you read that right! Ramanujan never graduated from college.), had compiled over 3900 theorems and identities that most doctoral candidates wouldn't dream of in those days. And he started off as a  poverty stricken clerk in Madras Port office.

SN Bose majored in mathematics at the graduate and postgraduate level but his pioneering work was in physics (not his primary area of training). His work on quantum statistics was so profound that initially it was  not understood by many and was denied publication. It took another genius - Albert Einstein - to recognize its importance and thus its subsequent publication. That we have recently discovered the hitherto theoretical Boson attributed to Bose is known to all, but the fact that Bose was a polymath who ventured into and made pathbreaking discoveries in a subject other than what he was taught is not common knowledge.

When Tesla first proposed AC or alternating current as the mode of choice for mass distribution of electrical energy, he was scoffed at and forever undermined by Edison his contemporary and rival (whose widely accepted DC or direct current was the convention initially). The advances that human society has made since the acceptance of AC as the standard of power generation and distribution is common knowledge! Not every engineer had the will to defy Edison and convention; Tesla did! His discoveries were groundbreaking to say the least.

Opinions vary, but I guess most of you would agree, that it would not be inappropriate, to call Sachin Tendulkar, a genius! You have his contemporary great Rahul Dravid - pure talent - who worked hard to achieve his great laurels and was textbook perfection personified! But even then he is no Tendulkar - the sheer presence riled the opposing team. Many a match one has felt -- "so long as Tendulkar is there on the wicket, the Indian team still has a chance!" Sachin started out with a bang, right from his school days when he blasted a then world record partnership with Vinod Kambli. He could play every stroke in the book; rewrite many of the textbook shots and make them his own. Screw the records, majority thronged the stadiums just to watch him bat irrespective of the result! Many of his contemporaries have better averages, better win-loss ratios, better technique even -- but you'd still pay money to see the maestro!

(So let us cut to the chase!)

The point here is that if all men are really created equal then where do these prodigies come from? Where do these exceptional talents come from? Maybe God, maybe karma, maybe genetics! There is nothing concrete known to this effect! Religions preach that God created all men equal. This only quells the unrest that would otherwise pervade if the realization struck everybody, that men really are not all that equal in all respects.

Intelligence is overrated. Every man with an above average intelligence is deemed a genius by his peers. So if a nerd (no offense) pores over his books 18 hours a day, without a social life (or any life for that matter) besides his books, and manages to score the highest marks in a standardized test, it does not make him/her a genius! It is just that he/she is well read! On the other hand, another kid lives a normal life - nurtures his hobby, leads an active social life, has a creative side, is in to sports and other extra-curricular activities, studies an average 3-4 hours and still manages to score the highest or next to that---there you have the makings of a gifted child, a talent for that matter! And if he/she produces something remarkable academic or otherwise for his/her age--you have a genius in your hand!

And if indeed genius is a genetic inheritance, what is the scary aspect? Eugenics on a mass scale! Breeding of individuals with the ideal traits would further a generation of individuals with ideal traits, or so it would seem! The Nazis did it, right? Everybody vilifies them for that; but each civilization has practised the same at one time or the other! Hey! We do it selectively on a daily basis in our lives. Each time an arranged marriage is convened, the families of both the bride and groom look for family history of disease, addictions, and talent besides wealth and status (with the automatic assumption that a wealthy family of high status is likely to have individuals with better health and consequently better genes?) "Survival of the fittest" is nothing but the Darwinian approach to eugenics that occurs in nature.

But if genetic inheritance alone could explain it, where do geniuses born in ordinary households come from? (Pretty confusing as is this tirade!)

To really get an understanding of what the active practice of eugenics, if advocated, would lead to, watch the movie GATTACA (*ing Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman). It is a decent thriller with a deep philosophical message; and yes, a great soundtrack to go along as well!

Endgame: "All men are created equal, but some are more equal than others!" - George Orwell

Fourth instalment of digressing beyond the point of sanity!

(With inputs from Danish Ahmad!)

Prologue
The ABO blood grouping system was discovered by Karl Landsteiner an Austrian Physician in 1902 and classified in 1909. Now you might think what is so important about this discovery? For what is commonplace to know these days was an important breakthrough in transfusion medicine that revolutionized wartime medical care; which was then prone to the vagaries of trial and error where transfusion was concerned. In a nutshell the ABO blood grouping involves two major antigens [3 major ones, if you include H antigen actually, but let us try to keep this one simple!] The AB blood group is unique in the fact that it is not that there are some cells expressing A antigen and others expressing B; it is not a mixture of two types of red cells. Both A and B antigens are expressed simultaneously by the RBCs of the person inheriting this blood group. Hence creating a new identity of AB.
Such a person is referred to as a universal recipient for he can accept blood from both groups A and B as well as AB and O.
Aah! I just can't resist disseminating some knowledge in the process! So here goes!

Blood groups are inherited from both parents. The ABO blood type is controlled by a single gene with three alleles: i, I^A, and I^B. The gene encodes a glycosyltransferase—that is, an enzyme that modifies the carbohydrate content of the red blood cell antigens. The gene is located on the long arm of the ninth chromosome (9q34).

I^A allele gives type A, I^B gives type B, and i gives type O. I^A and I^B are dominant over i, so ii people have type O, I^AI^A or I^Ai have A, and I^BI^B or I^Bi have type B. I^AI^B people have both phenotypes because A and B express a special dominance relationship: codominance, which means that type A and B parents can have an AB child. A type A and a type B couple can also have a type O child if they are both heterozygous (I^Bi,I^Ai) The cis-AB phenotype has a single enzyme that creates both A and B antigens. The resulting red blood cells do not usually express A or B antigen at the same level that would be expected on common group A₁ or B red blood cells. Hence as I said, a new blood group with a distinct identity despite having both antigens!

Simply put, AB is not simply A + B.

So much for the Biology lesson!

Coming to the focus of our topic:



Marriage: A license for sex or an institution of social security?


Marriages are made in heaven or so they say in fables, huh?

Real life is pretty darn different!

With live-in relations, perpetual friends and those with benefits mushrooming up, are marriages passè these days?
Does the modern generation view marriage in the traditional sense? What do you think has changed and why?
With divorce rates in the US and other developed nations skyrocketing, is the institution failing?

Although I may not know all the answers (and I don't certainly claim to know any, if at all), this is my take on the issue!

The evolution of mankind from nomadic tribal savages to a "civilized" society is often attributed to the social hierarchy and organization that has evolved through the years. The considerations for forming a family as a unit has evolved from a matter of survival for the prehistoric man (wherein the survival of his people depended on the ability to bear and rear offspring in a protective environment); to a matter of economics and religion in the 20th century to a matter of choice and defiance in the 21st!

Marriage has always been the "right" thing to do! All other forms of relationships have been frowned upon by the society irrespective of the cheerful exterior that the so-called liberal societies may want to put up with the changing times! It has enjoyed social, legal and religious sanctions since times immemorial!

Socially, it is encouraged for the formation of a family unit, for the sustenance of a community; the social security afforded is too hard to give a miss! Legally, the legitimacy conferred on any relationship is unparalleled to that granted to a marriage: there are a whole set of legal eagles specializing in all the aspects related to it! And religion, (how can one ignore that?), has always given canonical decrees as to why it is the primary goal of every human being. There are a large number of "sins" associated with all other forms of human interaction with the opposite sex! It is the holy duty of every man to marry and populate the earth with people of his religion; without a man, a woman is incomplete and vice-versa; and it is through this man attains salvation, and so on and so forth!

The considerations for marriage have changed with time as well: just cohabitation; to union of two families, clans, tribes and nations; to meeting of two minds, as the modern day Bohemian might say!

Old timers would swear by their traditional practices in preserving the social order and that it is the right thing for the gen-x to emulate!

What surprises me the most is the fact despite modern science highlighting the dangers of consanguineous marriages, the practice has social and legal sanction in many parts of the world! People would rather marry their own cousins rather than marry outside their caste, creed, religion, class, color and race! [And they call this the 21st century!] These very people would cry fate, curse doctors and bitch about their lot when genetic diseases come calling; but fail to see the folly in their actions and continue to defend their actions on the pretext of preserving "culture and religion".

And should a couple decide to challenge the social norms in a legal manner, the vigilantes come in hordes to unleash tribal justice in an effort to make their case exemplary to the would-be couples who might ever dare to follow suit! From social boycotting, to religious discrimination, to the extremes of honor killings in the most feudal of societies, anything to "preserve tradition": family pride if you will!

Not that I have anything against the institution of arranged marriages (so long as it gives the couple the choice to opt out during courtship, if the need arises), the notion that parents alone know what's best is difficult for me to stomach, if it is to be applied at all junctures!

Let's face it, it is you and your better half that has to live out the days to the end (for your parents aren't going to be around forever), so lest you both are compatible at an intellectual level, the marriage is a sham! And unless there is intellectual fulfillment and growth in a union, the union fails once the physical attraction fades ( and that it does!). Each partner then craves for and looks towards other sources and thence begins the final dissolution!
It is one thing in life wherein if you compromise, you'll have only yourself to blame later on!

But this is not to say that all marriages borne out of "love" are successful! For "love" (blinding lust, more often than naught, actually) literally is blind; the challenges of living a real marriage and the trials it throws up in your face require more resilience than one imagines during the "love phase"! So unless the attraction is greater than skin deep and the compatibility quotient is as high, the love fizzles out to lead to chaos!

What mature adults fail to realize despite their "maturity" and "years of experience" is that a successful marriage requires the couple to work hard at it! There is no star-crossed partner or soulmate in the real world and things never are really perfect (far from it, actually!)

One of the primary reasons for marriage in the earlier times (even today in many cases) was: (you guessed it!) Sex! Whether it be through the arranged route or otherwise, the social sanction for sex that it affords, was the prime motivator in most cases, as premarital sex was a taboo (and still is in many parts of the world!). So, in this process, couples hastily entered into a union without anticipating the future of the same once sex became a routine and the interest dwindled away!
The social structure till the better part of the 20th century focused on a conservative household where the parents were never contradicted and "family prestige" kept failing marriages together. However, the marital asphyxia that slowly built up never left anybody really happy (despite the claims to the contrary), such that the marriage lasted only because of social needs rather than a personal or an intellectual need for it!
(The old timers would still count this as a merit of their way of life and in some ways, it was! At least it left fewer kids with broken households!)

A related quote goes something like this: The saddest words in life begin with "I should have..." (Related or not, I just wanted to stuff it in!)

With the erosion of the conservative mindset from many parts of the society and greater awareness triggered by greater exposure to education and the media (or failing value system as the elders would put it), the ability to tolerate the marital asphyxia waned away faster than expected in many communities around the world and the "family prestige" factor failed miserably to keep families together! The result: 1 in 2 marriages in "civilized" nations end up knocking the doors of a legal eagle!

But with an increasingly liberal society allowing for social experimentation, the trend now is to test the Ferrari before you invest a great deal in it!

(Isn't that the most crass comparison you have ever heard?)

The new age social norm of live-in relationships, friends with benefits are the gen-x's way of trying to make the right choice! The USP is that if you live together, cohabit together and assess each other for compatibility, the road ahead is paved smooth and slick for a long term commitment. Sounds perfect on paper, right? In many ways, it is! But the flaw lies in the assumption that a marriage is very much like the above! Suffice to say, any intimate relationship other than a marriage is usually a situation of power without accountability or partnership without commitment! (Some idiots treat even a marriage the same way!)

Now even in this scenario, people are driven by the primeval instincts instead of weighing certain facts in context!

A good marriage begins as a good and lasting friendship instead of good sex (although a good fling begins with the latter!). A friendship wherein both the partners are matched at a resonating frequency at the level of their minds; where each one not only understands the needs (emotional, intellectual or otherwise) of the other, but knows how to meet them and knows what to do, if one can't, at some or the other point in life! When you can trust your spouse as your confidante instead of keeping secrets from them (to keep them happy), you know you are in for the long haul!

The ritual of the "first night" needs to be put in the cold storage for eternity! You should get to be friends first and leave the physical part for a later date! The perception of pleasure and satisfaction is a function of the brain; so if your minds resonate, the sex shall be good (whether adequate or not)! But the extreme levels of enthusiasm, lack of anatomical knowledge and understanding of human physiology, prevalence of myths perpetuated by friends and the media, the numerous taboos associated and the inexplicable levels of "non-communication" that persist between couples leads them to indulge in the ritual anyway!
And consequently, the coffers of quacks and self-proclaimed "sexologists" (or a genuine medical doctor, if at all) are filled by anxious and distraught couples over a myriad of issues ranging from performance anxiety, frigidity, vaginismus, dyspareunia, impotence, to frankly bad sex! And another legal eagle may find new clients suddenly citing "irreconcilable differences"!

Whereas in a good marriage, the couple ought to be comfortable enough with each other to frankly discuss the above issues and reach decisions to iron them out emotionally, medically or surgically as the case maybe! But majority of the people love the sweet taste of denial and procrastinate till hell freezes over and then one fine day reach to the conclusion that they'd rather cry over spilt milk!

Kids can soothe a burnt marriage! There are many cases where the family rejuvenates with the birth of a child who ushers in a new wave of change; and more seriously a new ray of hope in a family on the brink! Many a couple have stayed together for the sake of their kids and rediscovered the bond that drew them closer in the first place and made newer ones in the process!

If you know and realize that you have kids for your desire of parenting and not for the kid's sake, you shall always put their interests first! And in the process stay together; for no child deserves a broken home whatever the reason that either spouse may state as a lame defense! Any child when born is equal to every other one out there and deserves to have a complete home with a caring mother and a loving father; so why should he/she bear the brunt of the follies of his/her parents?
No matter what the new-age "gurus" and the "relationship experts" (who know nothing better than to make small talk on every other gasbag of a daytime talk-show) might claim, the impact of a good divorce is not necessarily better than a bad marriage once the family unit involves children!

Broken homes scar children for life! They end up growing without a complete family unit to fall back on. (Although single parenting is en vogue in the west these days, the concept is still not a hit so far as the child's perspective is concerned!) Having seen their parents (who every child looks up to as the role models in the beginning) fail miserably in a relationship, their take on relationships in life is very skewed from the onset! The emotional needs of every child require the presence of both parents, individually and together, at different stages of life! The positive influence that parents can have on their kids diminishes in broken homes, as part of it is derived from the authority that a parent gains from the child when he perceives them to be an ideal! When a kid perceives his parents to be a failure in social relationships, the tendency to rebel and defiance follows suit!

(Jeez! I should be discussing that in another post; here I go rambling again out of context!)





Epilogue

So how does the lengthy and irrelevant biology lesson figure in this Valium of a discussion?

As discussed the AB-blood type is not simply a mixture of A and B type cells but entirely new entity that retains both the antigens and thus has characteristics of both and yet a completely unique identity emerges. The marrow in this case propagates further cells bearing the distinct dual antigens
Similarly, the key essence of a marriage is the evolution of a common ego from the merging of two distinct ones without either of them losing their individual identity in the new entity that takes shape in the process! The success of the family then lies in the defense, nurturing and progress of this common ego that represents the family!

However as the complexities of human relationships increase, the basic factors that define a marriage are being ignored and superficial factors are being flouted as causes for togetherness as well as for separation!

The real truth is that whenever one ego overshadows the other there is darkness cast over the landscape of a marriage!

Problem of the Week

You have grown up in an everyday neighborhood nothing out of the ordinary. You have grown up with the same friends that you have known from your childhood. Many of them are still your best buds. One of them is your best mate, who'd give the shirt off his back to help you out if the need arises! You grow in to adulthood, find different spheres of the work and well, lose track of each other over time and then meet up one day out of the blue!


Scenario 1: Your friend is slightly apprehensive of meeting you. Your inquiry of his sudden bashfulness reveals that his preferences in life have changed! And that he tells you that he is gay and has known this for some time now. Although he has no attraction towards you and regards you as his brother, he has a tough time telling you all this. He has not revealed the same to his family and doubts if he'd ever find the courage to do that! For the rest, he is still your old prankster of a friend whose company gladdens your heart!

Now,

1) Having heard the innermost secret of your friend, do you look at him in a different light?
2) Would you consider that nothing has changed as far as you and he are concerned? Would your behavior change in any way?
3) Given that he has trouble confronting his family about this, would you help him through this and in the process ease his fears or would you let sleeping dogs lie and let him deal with it of his own accord? Which of the above two actions do you think would actually help him?

Scenario 2: Your friend is slightly apprehensive of meeting you. Your inquiry of his sudden bashfulness reveals that he has contracted HIV-AIDS. He has not revealed this to anyone else!

Now,

1) What would be your first reaction?
2) What are the chances that you'd judge him even before hearing his side of the story?
3) Would the mode through which he contracted the deadly disease affect your response?

4) Let us say he is straight and he contracted the disease through a casual one-night-stand,
or let us say he is gay and he contracted the disease through a blood transfusion during surgery. Would your response in both the situations be the same or different? What it had been the other way around in both the situations?
5) How would you help him cope up with this situation? More importantly, would you?

Life isn't fair, get used to it!

Bill Gates wasn't far from the truth when he spoke the above!

Failures are real and one must learn to live with them!

When Edison was on his way to invent the light bulb he did meet with considerable failure in the beginning to which his apparent retort was: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Expectations are natural and inborn into the human psyche! They may weigh you down, more often than naught they actually do!

But learn to rise above them! For they are actually meant to fire up the hibernating greatness that is embodied within every individual and not result in the contrary!

3 months into my Medical School, my biochemistry professor took me to task for scoring badly in one of the internal tests that was taken; he warned me not to score less than the highest possible in the University exams that year! It seemed far-fetched for a new kid who had just screwed up an internal test!

Eventually, by the end of the year I did manage that, and then not I but he was beaming with pride!

Now, the same situation or something similar must have happened to each one of us! Now what is pertinent is how one takes it! One could easily feel weighed down by the occasion, falter and curse the concerned for expecting too much when the present points to the contrary! Or one could acknowledge the potential that some one else has seen in them and work to realize the same! The results shall speak for themselves but it is the effort that matters!

One of my maternal uncles constantly bitches about my academic performance whatever it might be: good or bad! But once when I had hit rock bottom (by my standards!), his words were: "The result is immaterial, so long as you gave it your best shot!"

Those proved more comforting than any other words that I had heard that day!

Take constructive criticism positively; this approach shall turn your depressive episodes into sparks of creativity and greater enthusiasm.

However, recognize the situation when it gets you really down and confront the one who expects, with your realistic goals and abilities! Although it might let him down, but in the end he will be happy if you reach the goal you set for yourself, (but do try to outdo yourself by just a little bit!)

On another note,

it is inherent nature of parents to expect the world of their kids, more so in the Third World that we live in where success in life is directly proportional to the no. of days it buys you good food (for most, it actually is so!) Try living life through their eyes to understand their psyche and empathize with them. But when things go out of hand as regards to your personal decisions, you have to make a stand and tell them your decision and that you are willing to own up to it and face the consequences as they come, (you may even let your parents know that they conceived you for their sake and not yours!) It shall earn you some respect in their eyes for accepting and speaking the truth! [Although, that's easier said than done!] But, in any case, always respect them!

It is important to realize what you want from life and what you want or see yourself to be!

If you realize that you shall start viewing failures as stepping stones to success instead of potholes of misery! For the fact is, if you are able to achieve the goals that you set for yourself you are a success, no matter what one thinks! (Please don't misconstrue this as a vote for vagrancy!)

I am just highlighting the fact that the standards of defining success are very subjective! You might turn out to be a fantastic lawyer, doctor or a CEO, but at the end of the day, no matter what others might say, if that doesn't bring you the very same levels of peace that a content farmer or a grocer or any other person has, you are not half as successful as them!

I personally would define failure as the instance when the will to work for a goal fades away! Till then, any number of attempts you might take to achieve the same don't make you any less of a person than the one who got it at the first shot!

Believe me (or not) when I say, half of mankind is existing and not living! The cricketers and the media have a phrase for it: "going through the motions". Life has become so mechanical that nobody bothers to reflect! And the ones that do are termed Bohemian and ignored!

And this vexation, this feeling of suffocation builds up over time! And the ones that are too timid to handle it or do not have a good enough support base to fall back on, either end up committing suicide or fill the coffers of new age lifestyle gurus, counselors, (or a genuine psychiatrist if at all!)

So, "coping with failures and realistic assessment of one's abilities and formation of goals based on them" should be an essential talk that every set of human beings should have, whether it be parent-child, teacher-student, between spouses or friends!

How many of us actually do that?

The recent spate of youth suicides in urban India make me shudder at the fact that somewhere down the line this essential communication is being shied away from by both parents and their wards in the name of generation gap or the classic: "it cannot happen to our families!"

It is time people wake up from their complacent states and face the truth!

Escapism is better left to Houdini the great! Suicide is a permanent and incorrect solution to an ephemeral life problem!

Self-respect within limits fosters respect for the sanctity of life per se! So one wouldn't throw away the life nurtured by one's caregivers in a fit of madness! Grooming a positive sense of self-worth allows one to appraise one's potential in a realistic manner and hence take steps to realize the same! This also helps one tide over situations which might otherwise seem hopeless where one would have a tendency to cower into a state of helplessness and vulnerability!

Well, here I go digressing again; for this is the topic of one of my future discussions! So I shall leave it at that!

Epilogue: To those of you who might pass this one off as a tirade of a successful doc; here is some news, I have seen my share of academic hiccups at instances where the world would expect me to come out trumps! Hey, the fact that I got into a medical school was a big hiccup when I was aiming for an Engineering Physics major! And this is just one of the many "ones" anointing my list!

[To this day I still believe that my topping my classes at both High school and Medical school have more to do with others performing under par than my own performance being better than theirs! No offense!]

And a third dose of ...... YAWN!!!!

Sorry for the month long sabbatical, but who, other than me, is reading this blog anyway?

And all this time, I found more stuff to add to the discussion I had started the last time around!

Swami Vivekananda, who advocated the harmony of all religions, taught that although the concept of "chosen people" is not ultimately true, it is a stage of growth and evolution that many religions must go through before they reach the higher truth of oneness. Vivekananda explained:

Religions naturally believe in a Personal God who is purely anthropomorphic, who like a great potentate in this world is pleased with some and displeased with others. He is arbitrarily pleased with some people or races and showers blessings upon them. You will find that in almost every religion is the idea: "We are the favorites of God, and only by believing as we do, can you be taken into favor with Him." And, therefore, in the nature of things, religions are bound to fight and quarrel with each other.

Little wonder that he was chastised by the right wing American media for stating the same!

The Dalai Lama once said, when posed with a question as to when shall there be eternal peace, "As long as there is man there can never be eternal peace, but we can strive to achieve moments of peace in this eternal strife, and that should be the goal that mankind should work towards!" (This is not quoted verbatim, but this is the gist of what he said approximately.)

The glorification of war has found various sanctions and justifications in the course of time:

1.Economic: to feed the starving populace of the attacking nation

2.Religious: to spread the "real message" of God amongst "the infidels", to save "brethren of our religion" from the "oppression" of the non-believers, to "free the land that God chose for our people"

3.Social: to liberate and bring about social justice in a supposed tyrannical anarchy!

4.Sovereign: to expand the regal majesty of our head of state!

5.Commerce: to protect the overseas interests of our upcoming industries and trade routes!

6.Power: to project the power that the state wields over the nations far and beyond!

7.Civilization: to populate uncharted territory and civilize the "savage tribals" who would "apparently perish" but for the timely intervention of "the civilized."

8.Global Policing: the age old mantra: "for the greater good" and to maintain "peace."

9.Territorial integrity: to safeguard the nation from invaders and prevent secession!

But for the last reason mentioned, the consequences of war have always been disastrous for any side concerned!

War is not always a question of who is right, but who is left at the end! As Stalin had once said that history shall remember him as a benevolent man for he intended to write it!

Sitting in our living rooms in our cosy homes we can give countless reasons just and unjust for going to war but put yourself in the shoes of the soldier who is risking his life to safeguard our "interests" or for that matter his family or that of the opposing soldiers (I would rather not use the term enemy soldier!) and their families who lose their dear ones at the small flinch of a trigger; or the savage treatment meted out by the shell-shocked, war weary soldiers on the populace of the country they attack!

And yet, the populace would count the number of victories and the defeats in terms of statistics!

Stalin wasn't too far from the truth when he said,"the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic!"

So numb have we become that there is no outrage at the mindless loss of human life; that war and war-games are now treated as a sport, what with the stupendous media coverage that it receives, the common man can enjoy the ghastly sights from the comforts of his living room while sipping on some ice cold beverage with buttered popcorn to whet his palate!

Given this sanction from the society as a whole, why do we then blame our leaders for leading us into a battle, when we as a populace have not uttered any word of dissent or disgust?

Here is where I ponder: Where has the religion of humanity gone amidst all the religions and factions that exist today?

'Schadenfreude'

Since times immemorial, the inherent nature of man has been to feel secure, gloat and find happiness in others' misfortune! And now they have a word for that!

One of the most poignant dialogues that I have heard comes from the movie As Good As It Gets, when Melvin Udal the character portrayed by Jack Nicholson exclaims:

".. and that's what makes it hard.

Not that you had it bad but being that pissed that so many had it good."

(This is an approximate version of what I heard in the movie!)

I guess that says it all, doesn't it?

Now for the expected torment that comes along with the other stuff that I have dished out:

Problem of the week!
(Now this one was conjured up as I was writing this piece above, so forgive me if it is not as polished; it is off the top of my head!)

You are an elderly gentleman! You have lived a life of contentment: a happy marriage, a good career, a good reputation, a good bank balance, a good wife, a good son (or daughter) who respects and loves you no end and who is a success in life as well! You are well respected, admired by your peers and have nothing more that you would rather want from life! And you love your son and you are truly proud of him in the good sense!

Everything sounds rosy, huh? Here is the treat:

You somehow, due to some concrete evidence that you stumble upon, find out that your son of 30 or so years is in fact not your own!

Now here are the questions:

1. Would you love your son any less? (Or would it be any different if it were a daughter?)
2.How would your son react when he finds this out? Would you let anybody find this out in the first place?
3. What would your response be to his (or her) reaction?

4. Scenario 1: And for one brief period of foolishness or passion or what you will, say your wife was disloyal or so it seems! You confront your wife, and she admits to one brief physical encounter in her youth, apologizes earnestly for that and yet she professes her undying love and loyalty to you (and you haven't seen or heard anything to suggest otherwise in these 4 or so decades of wedded bliss), how would you react?

5. Scenario 2: Your wife has been loyal and has never cheated, but say there was a mix-up in the nursery where your kid was born and you ended up having the wrong baby and you had no clue for all these 3 or so decades!

a. Would you accept fate and go along with the hand dealt to you?

b. Would you seek out your "real" offspring? And/or sue the medical center (where the baby was born) in the process and open a whole can of worms?

c. Or would you be content in the fact that you have raised someone else's baby as your own, and, that it is only natural to have your true offspring raised by someone else; and hence do nothing to spoil the situation for the true offspring that you have never met? Would you let status quo remain for that offspring and not spoil his ideal family?

There is really no point to this article!

Baz Luhrmann, the Australian moviemaker who gave DiCaprio his first major breakthrough in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet puts it very succinctly as he mouthed Mary Schmich's essay "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" as a thought provoking song aptly titled "Everybody's free to wear sunscreen" to never read beauty magazines for they only make you feel ugly!

(Do listen to this song if you can, it makes a lot of sense! And read the article if you don't follow the accent here!)

Here is the video for the song! And here is the link to watch it on Youtube, if you want to watch it there!

Well, extrapolate that to our discussion: every religion, religious book, self-help book that you might read preaches that their way, their approach to life is the right way, when there is nothing of that sort! We all choose our destinies of our own free will! One can bring the cattle to hay, but one can't chew the cud for them! Similarly, there are a million right paths, it is for us to choose the one that feels right for us and walk on it! We have been given the grand power as one may call it to compare and contrast; it is imperative that we make use of it in first knowing all the paths, comparing the pros and cons of each and choosing the one that suit us the best! Remembering that what might work for one may not necessarily do so for the other!

Which brings me to another similar point: it is inherent human nature to act as guides, as leaders, (as the eternal sunshine illuminating the path for others), to help others find the "bliss" that we have supposedly attained! It is here that we impose our thoughts, and our way of life on others; or to put it more poignantly we impose our religion on others! Convinced that our way of life is the right one and that others not adhering to it are heretics who need to be brought back (through sermons, legislation or force) into the realm of our conceived notion of reality, we act the way we do! And here is where we blur the distinction between faith and religion, assuming that religion or way of living supersedes faith or belief in the Almighty!

It is our innate self-righteousness that sows the seeds of strife in the first place!

Every religion preaches the gospel of love thy neighbor, but how many of us actually follow it? (in the sense that it is meant, of course!) We end up creating these innumerable walls around ourselves for no known reason, and end up worrying our days to the end that someday these walls might collapse; always forgetting the fact that we have always existed even before these walls were made in the first place!

We all tend to consider ourselves better than others in whatever spans the canvas of human activity!

Although we might ostentatiously claim that all men are born equal, the inherent feeling that some men are more equal than others is a universal phenomenon!

It is an inherent flaw in human beings to give a human face to God! Aren't we pompous in assuming that, the creator of all beings has a human form? For that matter, if we go by our beliefs that God created the entire physical world;

1.Are we to assume that if God has to have a human form, only the inhabitants of earth fall in his domain; that there is no possibility of life beyond the confines of our little planet?

2.Or that, if we indeed do accept that there is life beyond this planet, that we humans are the supreme creations of the Almighty and hence it is only natural that we give him a human face in the first place?

Problem of the Week!

Here is an interesting one that came to my mind a few days back!

Consider a filthy rich millionaire starts a family and has a son (or daughter, for that matter!)! Ever since childhood this boy is kept unaware of his father's fortunes! He pretends to be a blue-collared everyday man earning just about to maintain a family. The boy is brought up in an average working class neighborhood like any other ordinary boy, with very limited allowances and luxuries, as can be afforded in everyday sense, in that income bracket! The kid is put through the same tests and trials of everyday life! He is sent off to a boarding school where he makes it through on his merit and not riding his father's pocketbook! He clears school, gets into a prestigious college again, on his merit! 26 years since his birth, the kid returns home a strapping lad, educated, qualified and successful, a man of his own making!

And it is now that his father breaks the news to him that he is, after all, rich as they come and gives him his due share of inheritance!

Now, the questions:

1.What would be the consequence of this scenario?

2.What would be the reaction of the son in this scenario? Would he be (a) happy and grateful, (b) angry and betrayed?

3.What would be the reaction of the father be to the reaction of his son?

4.Would there be a difference had it been a daughter in this case and not a son?

I don't know how to write a blog!

So they tell me blogging is in! It is one way to get your voice heard when it is drowned out in a background of pervasive noise! Or to put it in simpler terms, it is your ticket to your own 15 minutes of fame! Why, they have begun promoting blogging in the media, in print journalism, even blogging websites would rather that you blog! They have brought it to your palms on your mobile phones, "Mobile Blogging" if you will!

But how does it really matter anyway? Does a good blog really make a difference? Can you really affect somebody's life, even if it is, just for a moment, a moment that they might take out of their daily mechanical lives to read what you have to say; to lend an ear to your thoughts!

I don't know! You tell me!

Opinions have always found a mouthpiece one way or another! Don't get me wrong when I say that more than half of the world is opinionated, the rest are indifferent to begin with! But why don't 3 billion voices make a difference, then? Why is it that we still continue to cling to our eternal demons then?

Well, let us just say that albeit half of mankind is opinionated, we are too afraid to make our voices heard fearing retribution in one form or the other!

And then there are those who speak aloud just to invite retribution in one form or other; for in chaos and disarray they thrive! Great that such voices fall on deaf ears most of the time or else we would miss the moments of peace in this eternal continuum of strife!

You are still reading this? I told you I don't know how to write a blog! But if you have stuck around and suffered all this while, might as well see it through, huh!

Freedom of speech is a cliche' to begin with! For the very idea of freedom is very limited! There can be never be a truly neutral voice to begin with! Any opinion expressed has its share of detractors and acceptors! There will always be someone whose sentiments you might hurt when you are expressing something, however impartial, logical and "politically correct" you might try to be! So is one really free to do that in terms of free speech? If you have got the courage and conviction to stand by your view (or simply, if you've the balls to pull it off!)

But it is an oft repeated saying: Your right to stretch your arm stops where the tip of my nose begins!

Does democracy imply freedom of speech? To most people it does! But let us not forget the awful truth that a single sane view might be lost if the majority are insane! For like it or not, that is the inherent core of democracy, that the majority, however mistaken they are in the end, have it their way one way or another!

Nicholas Copernicus was burnt alive on a stake, because the majority "knew" that the universe revolved around the earth; the great Galileo Galilei was excommunicated when his peers in the "scientific community" felt that his heliocentric universe conflicted with their "accepted common view" of a geocentric world!

So much for democracy, huh? Well, we cannot make democracy a scapegoat for our own inertia! But, if there is a poll to choose the best between an army of fools, whom can you pick? (Me, I guess!) At least, you get the power to make that choice, however insignificant that choice might be!

Einstein once said: Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen! Democracy and free speech have always fallen prey to common sense. (Hey! You have psephologists to analyze the impact of this common sense on democracy!) So think again, before you make a judgment call based on this ever accepted common sense!

So, I guess, no check that, I know based (on common sense) that this blog as it is would not fetch me a great readership (God knows I might turn out to be the only reader every week!), but at least it gives me a medium to vent my steam! And that is one benefit of democracy, I am willing to experiment with! Although I haven't an iota of a clue as to what the content matter is going to be! It should rattle your gray matter though, one way or another!

[And before you go booing this piece, let me highlight the fact that I am doing so even as I write this! So I guess, I beat you to this one!]

So you are still reading? I admire your powers of tolerance!

Here is adding to your predicament:

Problem of the Week!

(Now this one is for doctors like me, Sorry! But have a shot anyway!)

When confronted with a patient with a mysterious illness that no one, not even your famous seniors are able to get a clue of; say, due to some sudden stroke of genius, you are able to diagnose it correctly and it is confirmed by your peers and "the lab"! (Wait, here is the treat!) You find out that the strange illness that you Sherlock Holme'd is terminal and that there is pretty much nothing you or any one in the medical fraternity can do about it!

At the end of the day,

do you pat yourself on the back for your deeds, for beating your peers and solving that mystery

or,

do you wish that your hitherto improbable but fatal diagnosis, for the patient's sake, wasn't true in the first place?

Endgame: So does that convince you that I don't know how to write a blog!