The Arguments within

Telltales of a fundamentalist : 1. He is really a Chauvinist who strongly holds that his culture, society, country, religion or his people are greatest. 2. He continually tries to absorb ‘ only what is good in other cultures and countries’. Thus he puts lots of focus on demarcating the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’. 3. He is poor in his communication skills in any language, and may even admit that though he cannot put his thoughts in right words but his thoughts are still ‘right.’ 4. He is superficially a very ‘secular’ person who ‘respects other religions also’. 5. He also continues to assert that is being humane in his ways 6. He assures that ‘excessive’ freedom is bad. And so the freedom of Press should is most essential to be put in control. The Sting Operations are the obvious proof of it where personal areas have been intruded. 7. He instantly feels offended whenever anything critical of his goodies emerges. He tries to suppress it there and then. Thus...

Negatives of Lucknow’s ‘Aap’-culture . “ Pehale aap .” “ Nehin, pehale aap .” And the train sets away rolling. This is the most vivid picture that comes to our mind, the moment we talk about the Awadh’s (formerly, for Lucknow) ‘ Aap-aap’ . And even when the train is missed out in surmounting one’s ‘pehale aap’ (‘you first, please’) on the other, Lucknowites are still proud of it. For, now this is seen as the symbol of the city’s greatest patronage to two popular language of the country at their distinction, the Urdu and the Hindustani. Javed Akhtar, Naushad, K.P. Saxena, -- don’t know how many noted literati have taken routes to fame through the streets of Lucknow. But, like we keep one-track thinking for most of our subjects, so do we do here. Because we consider only ‘aap’ to be pure and the best, and the rest to be sub-standard-- ‘Tum’ is more of plebeians. The two are never evaluated against their merits and demerits— formal or informal, stressful or comfortable. All ruled out—it h...

Our misplaced obsession about Bhagwad Geeta Thousands of years, and this scripture is still so current. This has been the guide of the Hindu lifestyle, and may I propose- the Indian lifestyle, since time immemorial. And amazingly enough the ancient philosophy finds its relevance in our lifestyle even on this day, despite so many social and technology-driven changes. I was mesmerized to see the rock sculpture of Shree Krisna and Arjun on their chariot, on the battlefield, with Krisna’s forefinger stretched outwards (to the enemies) at the entrance of IIM-Lucknow. Perhaps this is the first and most classic case of war-management, wherein the Advisor—or the manager, in the seat of the chariot pilot, changes the ordained outcome of a war, the Mahabharata. The holy Shlok(the Verse) associated with this famous scene read: ‘ Yadaa yadaa hee adhramasya, glaanir bhavati bharatah, abhyuthanam dharmaya, tadaatmaanam shrijaamayham’ Meaning: Whenever shall the Adharm (the evil) humiliate this land,...