Thursday, December 25, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
LET ‘MERIT’ RACE WITH ‘MIGHT’ AND WIN...
WHAT..?
This is an article I have written in response to a heated debate held in Sydney, through the pages of a literary magazine, about Racism:
This is an article I have written in response to a heated debate held in Sydney, through the pages of a literary magazine, about Racism:
WHY..?
I couldn’t be reticent. Therefore, this is simply a reflection based on my personal experience living in Australia since my arrival in 1977, beseeching the response of some of the enthusiastic participants of the debate, who hailed from India.
I couldn’t be reticent. Therefore, this is simply a reflection based on my personal experience living in Australia since my arrival in 1977, beseeching the response of some of the enthusiastic participants of the debate, who hailed from India.
LET ‘MERIT’ RACE WITH ‘MIGHT’ AND WIN...
“Do not ask to have your life’s load lightened, but
for courage to endure.
Do not ask for fulfilment in all your life, but for patience to accept frustration.
Do not ask for perfection in all you do, but for the wisdom not to repeat mistakes.
And finally,
Do not ask for more before saying “Thank You” for what you have already received.”
-BRENDA SHORT
Dear Brenda Short, I do imbibe a few drops of elixir for my life’s sanctity from your sage words and am prompted to say a hearty ‘Thank you’ to Australia for welcoming and facilitating me to build an independent and secured life.
I felt my human spirit replenished yet again when I noticed the Kerala Nadam bestowing its lovely tribute to the late Leelamony by dedicating the latest issue of its literary publication. Notwithstanding, its vitality suddenly drained off when I saw a debate on racism that was incongruous with the context.
I have been however curious enough to read an inviting statement from the debate: “Australia is not completely devoid of racism and that though mostly concealed it is still alive and active in the minds of a few people....”
Several decades ago, being an immigrant starting to learn about this part of the world almost from a blank slate I began my life in Australia. Like anyone else in the olden days I had a broad range of issues to grapple with in order to adapt myself to the environment and get accustomed with the people living in this country. So much I have learnt from a new chapter of my life by keeping my inquisitive mind transparent and the passageway to it wide open. Setting out without further ado, I can readily gather that Australia, once a colossal murky island used for dumping the extradited culprits by British emperors, now a proud country of renaissance is determinedly continuing its endeavour to become a multicultural nation free of racism locally as well as globally. In every letter its national policy is spelt with high acumen in this respect.
‘A few people’ that’s referred to in the aforesaid statement are the remnants of once transgressed generation- progeny of a huge bunch of felonies with youthful street-culture that existed rampantly in the olden days mainly in the uncivilised working class suburbs. Those few people, now in isolation, perhaps give vents to their ungainly frustrations by typically divulging their inner demons just like the Shiva Sena fanatics do in Maharashtra, one of the Indian States. There are many lunatic sectarians who still continue demonstrations of their vacuous brainstorming nationally and globally. Should we care?
Kerala Nadam supposedly heralds the literary voice of Kerala. Ironically the voice took a sudden crackling twist and brought forth a journalistic debate on a rather sensitive issue even though its own readers have stealthily acquired natural immunity from their home-brewed contamination of infectious communal anarchy. More often than not we tend to question the other fellow citizens’ integrity while deliberately masking the abominable convictions of our own native land in this sensational topic. In anyone’s term it should simply spell: HYPOCRISY.
Abysmally, we are still struggling to escape from the slavery of false pride. We deny our moral responsibilities towards other fellow human beings and hence discreetly put the onus on the latter ones perhaps owing to our well assumed, self-centred, lofty expectations. Having become the citizens or the permanent residents of this nation, I reckon, we ought to pledge our sincere attachment to this country first. We can’t wipe our hands and walk away when adversities occur. We have abiding moral duties to accept our obligations, and necessarily show empathy and tolerance towards the misgivings of other compatriots. Irrespective of what we perceived, whether it’s right or wrong, as young Chris Alwin James opined, “We all have to get to know people and experience and appreciate different cultures; and that’s surely an experience that Australia offers.”
He couldn’t be clearer than what he put in a nutshell. Isn’t it time we all start getting into the crux of the point and move on?
What I could decipher just as an overview of all the comments written by various writers was a sort of ‘racist slur’ clearly aiming at some white Australians. As I attempted to scan through the contemporary social fabrics of other nations including that of our own nation of origin I couldn’t help translating the whole debate into a mere gossip in the window. Those so-called white people’s hospitality towards nonwhites is being laconically described as bland and un-welcome. To me it looks like a talk about an investment in which we lost our shirts. Isn’t it going to be an augmented reality to the onlookers?
Which silvery shores we are intending to make our headway to for our next heavenly destination, I wonder!
If you chisel the lumpy crusts off the conglomerated human population settled on these shores of this little continent, there you will find appearing the oblivious underlay of socially common and predominantly sustainable mono-cultural behaviour of individuals. With a typical tribal affiliation they will be found to have clustered inseparably within their comfort zones. There are invisible barbed wire fences too erected between different community groups forging on all the unwanted social inhibitions. Delusive grandiose has prompted to create ornate human dimensions in order to secure undue advantage. Such rigid confinements in effect sever the body of mankind making it fragmental and socially enervated. You can call it as racism, or tribalism, or feudalism, or whatever you like to name.
If we look back to the reality the question verily will arise as to why we have left all our beloved kith and kin to settle in a new continent of entirely different culture and lingo for the sake of financial freedom having given up the seemingly divine social freedom that we claim to have enjoyed in our country of origin. Before we migrated to this country did we bother to be aware of these potentially adverse situation and supposedly unsettling experiences, which we now denounce and are fraught with? Sure we haven’t suddenly reached an island without a cause or reason. We all talk about our great experience, knowledge and wisdom but without the actual size and scale of its dimension. We discuss in full volume about the ethnicity but we are disinclined to modify our culture to embrace gainfully with that of others. The reason being our dogmatic perceptions and religious beliefs are never redeemable. We fear to redefine or attune with our moral views even in this rapidly changing clime and conditions. On the contrary our traditional practice or customary rituals are often found to have turned to be absurd to the Western culture. We set our domain within the four walls of our home. We write assays by quoting others’ sage opinions on racial discriminations but paradoxically we don’t even go to attend our own community meetings and mass celebrations. Therefore, in effect, we utterly fail to be socially interactive even with the very oriental communities, let alone with that of the occidental counterparts. The situation being so, how on earth will we be able to reorient and blend our oriental culture with that of completely different occidental one?
Contrary to what we speak here about, the governments in our country of origin still want the citizens to fill up the names of their respective castes and sub-castes in addition to respective religion in most of its formal submissions. I do not know what form of discrimination this practice implies.
When we advertise seeking suitable alliance for our sons or daughters in a marriage bureau we stipulate the caste and sub-caste of the required partners in order to match strictly with that of ours. Seldom, we go for mixed marriages. More often than not, we have our family names (surnames) named after our respective castes. I am as yet to know what this practice implies.
I am glad that Thomas Jacob has shared some sensible thoughts about the causes of systemic imposition of social hierarchy levels by the imperialistic and feudalistic activists and the subsequent changes in human behaviour. He rightly identifies the egocentric prejudice as the root cause of the malicious behaviour of the so-called racists.
Whatever the case may be, the human race needs equity. This can be achieved only through mutual acceptance of humanity. For this to happen we need to have better understanding about each other. As an educator Dr. Ann Benjamin stated, education is the key to attaining a prolific outcome in bringing up the egalitarian feeling in our conscience. Education is not merely for academic knowledge but for the intellectual and spiritual knowledge, which has to be taught right from Kindergarten, she clarifies.
Twelve years on, I vividly remember an indigenous woman carrying the flame representing Australia, the host nation, to light the Olympic cauldron at a park named after her- Cathy Freeman Park- in Sydney. Days later when she finished her gold-medal run of 400metre race the whole nation seemed to have lost a couple of heartbeats. In irresistible jubilation the deafening voice of the crowd rose up in the stadium. Punching hands in the air they chanted: “Aussie.., Aussie.., Oi, Oi...” Filled with patriotism the enchanting voice of millions resonated in the heart of a proud nation for a long while...
Australia now in my view is fairer and an open sanctuary for better life for millions of people from various regions of the world. Ironically though, in the history books it was placed as a remotely situated continental island with murky prison-cells. So, let us now use our yardsticks to truly measure its enormous progress and the status.
Do not ask for fulfilment in all your life, but for patience to accept frustration.
Do not ask for perfection in all you do, but for the wisdom not to repeat mistakes.
And finally,
Do not ask for more before saying “Thank You” for what you have already received.”
-BRENDA SHORT
Dear Brenda Short, I do imbibe a few drops of elixir for my life’s sanctity from your sage words and am prompted to say a hearty ‘Thank you’ to Australia for welcoming and facilitating me to build an independent and secured life.
I felt my human spirit replenished yet again when I noticed the Kerala Nadam bestowing its lovely tribute to the late Leelamony by dedicating the latest issue of its literary publication. Notwithstanding, its vitality suddenly drained off when I saw a debate on racism that was incongruous with the context.
I have been however curious enough to read an inviting statement from the debate: “Australia is not completely devoid of racism and that though mostly concealed it is still alive and active in the minds of a few people....”
Several decades ago, being an immigrant starting to learn about this part of the world almost from a blank slate I began my life in Australia. Like anyone else in the olden days I had a broad range of issues to grapple with in order to adapt myself to the environment and get accustomed with the people living in this country. So much I have learnt from a new chapter of my life by keeping my inquisitive mind transparent and the passageway to it wide open. Setting out without further ado, I can readily gather that Australia, once a colossal murky island used for dumping the extradited culprits by British emperors, now a proud country of renaissance is determinedly continuing its endeavour to become a multicultural nation free of racism locally as well as globally. In every letter its national policy is spelt with high acumen in this respect.
‘A few people’ that’s referred to in the aforesaid statement are the remnants of once transgressed generation- progeny of a huge bunch of felonies with youthful street-culture that existed rampantly in the olden days mainly in the uncivilised working class suburbs. Those few people, now in isolation, perhaps give vents to their ungainly frustrations by typically divulging their inner demons just like the Shiva Sena fanatics do in Maharashtra, one of the Indian States. There are many lunatic sectarians who still continue demonstrations of their vacuous brainstorming nationally and globally. Should we care?
Kerala Nadam supposedly heralds the literary voice of Kerala. Ironically the voice took a sudden crackling twist and brought forth a journalistic debate on a rather sensitive issue even though its own readers have stealthily acquired natural immunity from their home-brewed contamination of infectious communal anarchy. More often than not we tend to question the other fellow citizens’ integrity while deliberately masking the abominable convictions of our own native land in this sensational topic. In anyone’s term it should simply spell: HYPOCRISY.
Abysmally, we are still struggling to escape from the slavery of false pride. We deny our moral responsibilities towards other fellow human beings and hence discreetly put the onus on the latter ones perhaps owing to our well assumed, self-centred, lofty expectations. Having become the citizens or the permanent residents of this nation, I reckon, we ought to pledge our sincere attachment to this country first. We can’t wipe our hands and walk away when adversities occur. We have abiding moral duties to accept our obligations, and necessarily show empathy and tolerance towards the misgivings of other compatriots. Irrespective of what we perceived, whether it’s right or wrong, as young Chris Alwin James opined, “We all have to get to know people and experience and appreciate different cultures; and that’s surely an experience that Australia offers.”
He couldn’t be clearer than what he put in a nutshell. Isn’t it time we all start getting into the crux of the point and move on?
What I could decipher just as an overview of all the comments written by various writers was a sort of ‘racist slur’ clearly aiming at some white Australians. As I attempted to scan through the contemporary social fabrics of other nations including that of our own nation of origin I couldn’t help translating the whole debate into a mere gossip in the window. Those so-called white people’s hospitality towards nonwhites is being laconically described as bland and un-welcome. To me it looks like a talk about an investment in which we lost our shirts. Isn’t it going to be an augmented reality to the onlookers?
Which silvery shores we are intending to make our headway to for our next heavenly destination, I wonder!
If you chisel the lumpy crusts off the conglomerated human population settled on these shores of this little continent, there you will find appearing the oblivious underlay of socially common and predominantly sustainable mono-cultural behaviour of individuals. With a typical tribal affiliation they will be found to have clustered inseparably within their comfort zones. There are invisible barbed wire fences too erected between different community groups forging on all the unwanted social inhibitions. Delusive grandiose has prompted to create ornate human dimensions in order to secure undue advantage. Such rigid confinements in effect sever the body of mankind making it fragmental and socially enervated. You can call it as racism, or tribalism, or feudalism, or whatever you like to name.
If we look back to the reality the question verily will arise as to why we have left all our beloved kith and kin to settle in a new continent of entirely different culture and lingo for the sake of financial freedom having given up the seemingly divine social freedom that we claim to have enjoyed in our country of origin. Before we migrated to this country did we bother to be aware of these potentially adverse situation and supposedly unsettling experiences, which we now denounce and are fraught with? Sure we haven’t suddenly reached an island without a cause or reason. We all talk about our great experience, knowledge and wisdom but without the actual size and scale of its dimension. We discuss in full volume about the ethnicity but we are disinclined to modify our culture to embrace gainfully with that of others. The reason being our dogmatic perceptions and religious beliefs are never redeemable. We fear to redefine or attune with our moral views even in this rapidly changing clime and conditions. On the contrary our traditional practice or customary rituals are often found to have turned to be absurd to the Western culture. We set our domain within the four walls of our home. We write assays by quoting others’ sage opinions on racial discriminations but paradoxically we don’t even go to attend our own community meetings and mass celebrations. Therefore, in effect, we utterly fail to be socially interactive even with the very oriental communities, let alone with that of the occidental counterparts. The situation being so, how on earth will we be able to reorient and blend our oriental culture with that of completely different occidental one?
Contrary to what we speak here about, the governments in our country of origin still want the citizens to fill up the names of their respective castes and sub-castes in addition to respective religion in most of its formal submissions. I do not know what form of discrimination this practice implies.
When we advertise seeking suitable alliance for our sons or daughters in a marriage bureau we stipulate the caste and sub-caste of the required partners in order to match strictly with that of ours. Seldom, we go for mixed marriages. More often than not, we have our family names (surnames) named after our respective castes. I am as yet to know what this practice implies.
I am glad that Thomas Jacob has shared some sensible thoughts about the causes of systemic imposition of social hierarchy levels by the imperialistic and feudalistic activists and the subsequent changes in human behaviour. He rightly identifies the egocentric prejudice as the root cause of the malicious behaviour of the so-called racists.
Whatever the case may be, the human race needs equity. This can be achieved only through mutual acceptance of humanity. For this to happen we need to have better understanding about each other. As an educator Dr. Ann Benjamin stated, education is the key to attaining a prolific outcome in bringing up the egalitarian feeling in our conscience. Education is not merely for academic knowledge but for the intellectual and spiritual knowledge, which has to be taught right from Kindergarten, she clarifies.
Twelve years on, I vividly remember an indigenous woman carrying the flame representing Australia, the host nation, to light the Olympic cauldron at a park named after her- Cathy Freeman Park- in Sydney. Days later when she finished her gold-medal run of 400metre race the whole nation seemed to have lost a couple of heartbeats. In irresistible jubilation the deafening voice of the crowd rose up in the stadium. Punching hands in the air they chanted: “Aussie.., Aussie.., Oi, Oi...” Filled with patriotism the enchanting voice of millions resonated in the heart of a proud nation for a long while...
Australia now in my view is fairer and an open sanctuary for better life for millions of people from various regions of the world. Ironically though, in the history books it was placed as a remotely situated continental island with murky prison-cells. So, let us now use our yardsticks to truly measure its enormous progress and the status.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Monday, May 14, 2012
Horoscope Turned into Horrid-scope
A
Match made to the Horoscope
....?
Though belated, Sukanya has now got the resolve.
Match made to the Horoscope
....?Though belated, Sukanya has now got the resolve.
Over twenty-odd years she has been going through consuming angst that welled up in profoundly bitter tears which trickled down into oblivion – the tears that once held out an eloquent testimony of a girl’s fate rewritten! A combination of fear and loathing provoked a blind rage in her, eventually drying up every drop of those tears. Emotional feelings being materially parched, a schism opened up between her sentiments and obligations to the familial root. Perhaps cursing her own imbrued fate that was predestined by the crass bigotry of her conceited custodians ultimately she decided to stomp off the fold.
Humanly suppressing all the innate cravings of a full-fledged youth she has been all the while asking for only one favour, justice to the rule of nature- virtual beggary to the social fairness. Time and again she desperately pleaded to lift the heavily hanging mantle coerced upon her having been deprived of a matrimonial companionship. Any endeavour for emancipation was inexorably precluded by the hide-bound society virtually stalling a thriving youth in the rigid confines of conventional fetters for she happened to be born amidst a bunch of fundamentalists.
No less than four well-regarded marriage proposals she had received with sated consent, the latest one being from an Adonis. He too was ruthlessly discarded from the wed lock proposition by her fanatic father.
You ask: Why, anything wrong with the boy?
Not at all! He is a beau ideal with an immaculate background overall, has a Doctorate in Psychology, practises in Ireland having established his own clinic.
You wouldn’t wait for the next query: Did he like the girl?
Indeed, he did.
What then is the fuss all about, you wonder!
The answer is simple: Horoscope!
You must be kidding, you retort.
Not, at all.
Well, then please unravel the conundrum, you shout.
After a long pause you are told: Apparently he has ‘Chovva dosham’
So what?
Stigma!
The proposed girl became the victim again. Her fanatic parents blatantly rejected the proposal. Her mother couldn’t be blamed since she had no educational background nor had much exposure to the outside world. But her father was well versed in academia. He had been a Dean of faculty of Sociology, in Ottawa University. The paradox of the whole myth is that his eldest son, chip off the old block, a prodigy of Harvard University, had been engaged in wedlock with a girl of a perfect horoscope. The young wife, an embodiment of her passionate husband, died of brain cancer. His second wife, another discovery with a perfect match of horoscope won after a relentless search, abandoned him after little more than a year leaving behind a mentally retarded progeny. The child was born in immaculate astrological conditions claimed to have ideally belonged to a perfect star.
Having gone through a series of nightmarish events of her adulthood she grew weary and often licked her wilted lips. Her lips trembled when she recollected those lines she once read somewhere:
‘Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday... If you spend your life hopelessly waiting for the blue bird of happiness to fly over you....’
And she was now starting to think she had had enough. She was determined to venture out of the murky corridors of her past. Summoning all courage she took a daunting decision to pick her pen, and started writing on her father’s letter pad with tremulous hands... As she finished the last sentence, the tears she had been struggling to hold back suddenly trickled, wetting the page....
Leaving the written letter-pad open under the lamp-shade, with tears in the eye and solo bidding wordless goodbye at the gate as ears shut against the yelping dog’s unanswerable plea behind the corroded iron bars of the squeaky gate, she strode briskly from a colossal pulpit of dogma devoid of sanctity....
Dear Mum and Dad,
Kill me, I am beckoning you... Here I am, still lamenting at the inevitable intersection on the road of life not knowing which way to turn, after a bloody long, perturbed, wait. I am drained out with life. I need to seek some stimulus to my tired soul, brain and the body. Whimsical tales of days gone by with lot of teeth-gnashing and hand-wriggling will now remain just as worthless memories to me.
At last, I reckon, I have found my way... I know I have to break away the unwieldy shackles once and for all before I continue my journey. I know I have to hurt your feelings by doing just that, but forgive me. Nonetheless I need your blessings all the way through my pursuit of self-effacingly simple but a meaningful life that I yearn to capture...
Before I write anything further, let me ask those who took the spiteful decisions to reject all those marriage proposals brought forth by many a fond lover in the light of Horoscope match, the enigmatic practice of foretelling future events by looking at the stars and planets. Given that the practice well agrees with the logic of all related science, be it of Yesterday or Today, being a victim who carries a mutilated soul I dissent with might and main:
Who has prepared this diagram of the heavens? And what accuracy can one claim and expect from the person or persons who originally drew this?
To draw this supposedly most complex diagram and related charts, what were the basics of extremely complex calculations and conditional criteria that are directly applied in those predictable (may it be probable) outcomes in real life? How was it possible to contrive such precise benchmarks in order to predict all the future events in one’s life, presumably due to the influence of the particular star’s position to the planet and their interactions at the time of one’s birth? Is there, by any chance, an involvement of divine power?
Given the optimum accuracy of the position and the calculations of the Star and the Planet measured at the ancient time and the resultant conclusions being derived at that clime and condition of the aeon, how one can so positively place full faith at the present context? More so when we find ourselves in a new era that has lost the continuity of close and constant trace of movements of stars and the planets extant up there in the orbital paths of almost infinitely boundless galaxies?
Does it not necessitate that we now trace precisely where the current position of that particular star is in the constellation to reassess the absolute causes imparted on the life of the one who is said to have been subjected to bear this impact by the sheer timing of his/her birth?
The light emitted from a star, as it is scientifically established, takes millions of light-years to reach the earth where we are born and survive, not to mention the impossibility of defining the length of that time within the tolerance of even 100 years. This being the globally accepted absolute reality how on earth, by any logic, can one relate the period of one’s birth within a matter of hours to the star to be able to construe the effects that are induced to one’s life so convincingly by that particular star, hence precisely corroborate the person’s destiny?
Then again taking everything that astrology claims for granted, what guarantee do you have that the one who wrote the horoscope was authoritative and truthful, and what he/she wrote was alright in the first place? Why are his/her analyses or the interpretations and the subsequent conclusions not questionable?
What if there happened to be a blunder in the originally written horoscope that was found to be impossible to trace back? Doesn’t this mean due to the bungle the subject person is forbidden from getting married to a girl of his choice - an act devoid of pragmatic consolation that can inevitably mount to be a disgraceful act against God’s wish?
I am not agnostic nor a nihilist. I don’t dare to totally denounce the mythical follies of ancient customs and the ardent followings of the millions. But I do attempt to analyse the pros and cons of that ancient social system and its relevance in this contemporary social infrastructure. While I try to hold the whole story in a positive light, keeping all the objectives firmly in mind I fail utterly to find an answer. When I look at the outcome everything seems to be placed in a total imbroglio.
I don’t want to proselytise you at all by unfolding my perceptions and the views I hold in relation to our religious beliefs and practice. I am only trying to highlight the potentially harmful elements of our otherwise theologically enriched religion. Whatever may be the case, the effects of your beliefs were implosive. They have irreparably devastated my life....
And, I do ask standing upright on this mother-earth for a convincing answer to my earnest queries from someone in society who is capable to honestly do so.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Utopian dreams
Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could;
some blunders and absurdities have crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day;
you shall begin it serenely and with too high
a spirit to be encumbered
with your old nonsense.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
And in the end it's not the years in your life that count.
It's the life in your years.
-Abraham Lincoln
Life isn't about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself.
-George Bernard Shaw
Change is not merely necessary to life,
it is life.
-Alvin Toffler
And, let’s keep our eyes peeled
To witness the world break away
From sinful behaviour
To begin a new chapter-
Altruism, unity and utopia
Writ large in it....
2011 - 2012
Merry Christmas
&
A Happy New Year
From Sydney
Monday, December 27, 2010
Season's Greetings 2011
Sydnyan who just scraped in an entry to the Bloggers' domain, wishes all those fellow Bloggers and their families a prosperous and peaceful New Year!
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