chaotic order

Judicial Pardon - A perspective in the light of Sanjay dutt’s pending imprisonment I have been watching with avid interest the proceedings of the impending imprisonment of Sanjay Dutt, for his alleged involvement in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. While it is true, that Mr. Dutt is sentenced to five years minimum sentencing by the Supreme court, one needs to examine the nature of Jurisprudence and its role in regulating human behavior; as against, a mere factual interpretation and rendering of law . Whether pardon in this case should be granted or not, is something that I am not competent to assert, but as a student of History and the evolution of Human society, I do believe that no system of justice is static and inviolable. Laws are meant to evolve and adapt itself to changing times, and its principal task to keep the wheels of society well-oiled and moving within the embankments of civilized behavior. Laws are not meant only to punish, but also to reform, correct and integrate

The perils of democracy - The origins of Conflict in Srilanka - a perspective and a background “ What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?”     -- -Mahatma Gandhi   Any kind of civil war has its roots in the way communities have lived and worked together within a given geographical area, and is often the result of a long history of slow rot, discontent and dissent accumulating over a period of time.   The origins of the Sinhalese – Tamil conflict is interesting principally in this context because for centuries, both these communities have lived, worked, produced great works of art and literature, shared common religious dogmas and myths; despite having the same ethnic differences, that are being bandied about so much over the last three decades. So my question is: what has changed in this century that resulted in this brutal civil

Chinua Achebe - The true Voice of Africa - A humble tribute to this extraordinary author; and an understanding of the times he epitomized and immortalized in his works . I have been reading Chinua Achebe’s works over the last two months and it is with great sadness that I noted that this vibrant old man of eighty two years is no more. I am not sure how many of us even noticed the mention of his death in the media. Or even if we had, how many of us understood that in his passing away, we have a lost a voice that has helped in bringing our attention to the plight and devastation of Africa caused by Colonialism. I have written this tribute to a writer whose work reminds us that literature is always born out of a deep sense of passion and connect with the world and its surroundings, should always be as a conduit for the flow of life, with all its joys and calamities…….. Great Works of Literary fiction are often born out of the crucible of   a society that is in the process of ch

An essay on divisive Faith -   A Background for the layman The virulent hatred that splits the Islamic community into Shia’s and Sunni’s is something that questions that edifice of Institutionalized religions. I have been doing some reading and research into the origins and structure of mass belief’s and faith; and I was taken aback to find that the fault line that exists between the two major sects of Islam ,is so completely based upon choices that have nothing to do with Islam or its fundamental tenets. The entire course of Islamic history would have been different if Prophet Mohammed had had a Male child. Despite the fact that the he married ten times during his lifetime, not one of his myriad wives could give him a male progeny. His first wife, Khadija, gave birth to two sons in quick succession, only to lose them in their infancy. It was almost as life had destined that Mohammed (the quintessential Arab) would not have a son to carry his spiritual destiny forward, and r

I have always wondered why religion has been so divisive and self defeating in its purpose. Is it because we have hypnotized ourselves into believing in a divinity that really does not exist, or is it possible, that religion essentially is so private, yet so universal, that it cannot be institutionalized ? . I am more inclined to believe in the latter. Every spiritual journey begins as a cataclysmic movement in the psyche of an individual, that bursts through the ramparts of thought encrusted cerebrum; and then by strange vicissitudes of propaganda and belief become the lingua franca of a community : codified and framed. What then essentially is a metamorphoses of awareness called "enlightenment", becomes in society, a peripheral cosmetic makeover clothed in the garb of ethics , customs and morals, that reeks of artificiality and staticity. The point is : What is true and real for a Jesus, a Mohammad, a Adi Sankara , a Buddha or a you and me can never be communicated , no

The experience of "Who we are" - A few thoughts One of the things that has always fascinated me over the years is this habitual and compulsive need of Man to confirm to patterns of thinking that we have acquired over a period time -  either through the rigor of chronological education, or from acquired social indoctrination : resulting in a tacit conspiracy ( a mighty taboo) to ignore who, or what,we really are. Though every once in a while, we tend to question the Universe and Man's place in it, the mysterious center of experience which we call "I myself", the problems of life and love, pain and death, and the whole question of whether existence has any meaning in any sense of the word : - we are immediately pulled back into the humdrum of  daily mechanical life, and those brief moments of clarity fade away without any great impact on us. Sometimes however, a personal catastrophe; or a near brush with death, can jolt us to a newer dimension of life. The en

"The thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" by David Mitchell. There are books that one reads in one sitting; some, a few chapters; and very select few, that can be read only in small doses of few pages at a time. The thousand Autumns of Jacob de joet is a masterpiece that  falls in the third category . A book that can only be relished, enjoyed and appreciated in small quantities; not because that story line is complex or the style of writing complicated:  its just the sheer beauty of the prose and the fragrance of the period that it invokes, that desires it to be read slowly - pausing a little to allow - the earthy fragrance of rural Japan in the eighteenth century, the intricate customs and codes of its inhabitants , the stench of the Dutch and English colonization and exploitation; the slow blossoming of love, passion and forbidden relationships : to seep into our being reluctantly, at first, and then slowly but assuredly making us a integral part of the story as it unfolds

Musings on a Birthday . Alan Watts - an influential philosopher once commented " We are not born into this world; we are born out of it". Again Stephen Jay Gould - an eminent evolutionary biologist of the twentieth century wrote in the preface of his wonderful study of Burgess shale - "if one were to rewind the tape of evolution and play it; chances of any species even closely resembling a  human is as remote as a leaf growing on a twig on the branch of a tree" As a human race , we simple cannot accept the simple fact the existence is essentially meaningless. Our attempt throughout the ages has been to anthropomorphize life. The fiction that Charles Darwin erected in the eighteenth century that Human beings are the pinnacle of creation has steadily been eroded and reconstructed by every known scientific discipline since then . The more we push the frontiers of knowledge the less it seems probable that Man holds a special place in this universe. A collective human h

Talaash - an Exorcism Over the years, I have come to admire Amir khan not only for his talented acting but also the choice of his story lines. I liked his work in "Dhobhi Ghat", where I felt he transcended the traditional boundaries of film making and made an inward descent in exploring his psyche. All acclaimed actors and directors have expressed themselves through their films. The foreboding ma liciousness of a Roman Polanski; the twisted psyche of Hitchcock; the blood and gore of a Quentin Tarantino; the stark realism of a Kurosawa or satyajit ray - reveals the need of an inward fulfillment through their work. Amir khan belongs to that bracket. "Talaash" attempts to answer some fundamental questions of life : Can we live without the burden of the past; Could we had made choices that were more appropriate in a given circumference of circumstances; Do we have to live a meaningless existence to the point of alienating everything and everybody around us; and finally

Zen and the art of getting a driver's licence - a personal odyssey.  One can be enlightened in so many different ways. Here is an interesting example. Getting a driver's licence can be a pretty nerving wrecking experience in India if we dont got through a driving school. The last time i took a driving test was in 1991, when me instructor pushed a dilapidated ambassador car down a slope and I wa s issued a licence for twenty years :) with no effort on my part whatsoever. Luckily, I did learn to drive afterwards and to the best of my knowledge did not knock down anybody fatally. I stopped driving sometime in the late nineties for various reasons. It was a couple of months ago that I bought a car in Bangalore and found that my licence had expired in 2010. So began the arduous task of acquiring a new one. To cut a long story short, after having successfully crossed the hurdles of a Learner's licence , I landed today at at the test driving track to prove my abilities as an acco

To call "Skyfall" a disappointment would be an understatement. Half way down the movie I had the eerie feeling down the spine that I was watching an Akshay Kumar starrer sans a few scantily dressed damsels soaking up water in translucent (Transparent is vulgar :)) clothing. Daniel craig has this unusual talent of putting on a look of heightened constipation, when he has nothing better to do (whic h is for most in this film). Bereft of feminine companionship for most part of the film and a story line that borders on somnambulistic lullaby (what a turn of phrase :)) - I wonder what Ian fleming must be discussing with his creator about Skyfall. There was a ring of hushed silence among the packed audience; desperately trying to unravel the happenings on the screen. It is almost that their senses were betraying them. The exaggerated heights of expectations came tumbling down the precipice of reality banging into every conceivable protrusions along the way . This is not the Bond f

Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's children" - released in 1982 - despised and banned by Indira Gandhi - Won the Booker of Bookers. 15th September 2012 - I started reading the book and finished it in straight seven days. This fantastical tale told with mystical beauty ranks as one of the best works of allegorical fiction ever written. The literary flights of imagination seduced by a historical backd rop of an illusory freedom lifts one to those rarefied airs of pure delight and unadulterated joy. Over 650 odd pages , Rushdie holds the reader enthralled in a story that shuttles back and forth in time; almost a Beethovian symphony that moves from a high octave to a low note without a semblance of a break in continuity. The choice of words, the turn of phrase , a nonchalant touch of arrogance - reaches a spiraling climax that never ends, but merely pauses; before the next mercurial onslaught of words from a proverbial master. Book lovers - Read this. Its an effort worth a lif

"Jab Tak hai hum" - The final hurrah of Yash chopra. A bit of nostalgia seeped in as the movie ended. We have been entertained , titillated, and drawn into romantic fantasies of Yashji for nearly four decades now. His movies actualized the dormant desires inherent in the common man. Three hours of pure magic . Vibrant hues of nature mingled with variegated shades of romance and eroticism filled h is canvas. His heroines draped in sumptuous costumes, dancing in exotic locales, murmuring sultry platitudes - have redefined romance on the silver screen for ever. His story lines often brushed the edges of conservatism - probing into those areas of human relationships that have always been in the dark. Adultery, incest and all those taboos of society were presented to the audience with an empathy rarely achieved by an Indian director. An era has ended with this film but i am sure the soul of Yash chopra has left an indelible mark on Indian films and will continue to reverberate in

Life of Pi - Wonderful One of the most challenging and persistent existential question is this - What am I - stripped of my material comforts, emotional bootstrapping's; without belief,surviving with barely enough to assuage the pangs of physical needs, bereft of any kind of psychological anchor whatsoever in this whole wide world ? Do we really know ourselves?. What would happen to us if we a re uprooted from our comfort zones and bought to face complete annihilation of what we believe ourselves to be. Not many movies have attempted to answer this question at a very deep level. "Cast away" was one such film. The almost surreal performance of Tom hanks as an individual completely surrendering his identity, his persona - to merely stay alive and return to the world with a new perspective on life,living and priorities is a must-see for every youngster. In my opinion, it is one of the best movies that I have ever had the privilege to watch. "life of Pi" is a

The year 2012 has ended on a melancholy note for us. Democracy in India is now in the crossroads of world polity. The jubilation that we once had on achieving our independence has now become a faint memory. The greatest experiment of Parliamentary democracy anytime in history is now showing signs of septicemic decay ; which if left to rot may lead to disastrous consequences for generations that ye t to come. The founding fathers of our nation were men and women with uplifted vision and dreams in their eyes ; and when they to came to debate and codify the constitution : they did so with immense faith and belief in India and its inhabitants. They were optimistic that we as people of this country would be a beacon of light to other emerging nations on how a society that has roots that stretch long time backwards can adapt themselves to modern ideas, and be supple enough to accommodate new thoughts streams without forfeiting the basic rights and dignity of an individual which is the prima

Chess : Stray thoughts on a lazy Sunday evening: An quote from G.M Hartston's monograph on the Czech opening in the game of Chess " Chess doesn't drive people mad, it keeps mad people sane" A rather interesting thought crossed my mind yesterday as i sat musing with an old faded chess book in my balcony. NIIT's Brand ambassador is the legendary Chess wizard Vishwanathan Anand - a child prodigy whose supre macy in this game has virtually remained unchallenged for close to three decades now. In an age when products and services have come to be promoted by voluptuous curves of nubile ladies , six pack abs of moronic looking hunks or ludicrously juvenile pranks of aging Bollywood actors and sportsmen - the image of a young Anand showcasing "intellect" reinstates ones inherent belief in the sanity of selling an idea. Anand may not be in the league of the most sought after icons , but there is an element of composure and poise he brings to NIIT as a brand; whi

The hanging of a convicted terrorist - My opinion.  Death penalty is legalized crime. One of the fundamentals principles of Justice is that, no man, however malicious his acts may have been, can be committed to death by law in a democratic polity : unless it is the “rarest of the rare cases”. Around one hundred and ninety countries across the globe have abolished execution as a form a punishme nt. Since 1995, there have been only four instances when Death penalty has been imposed in India. Ironically, the last two sentences were carried out in a matter of last few months; of Kasab, and now Afzal Guru. I have no doubt in my mind that we cannot tolerate communal violence in any form, more so in the name of religious or racial fundamentalism and its scary manifestation: terrorism. We have to deal with these ugly weeds with appropriate measures of strength and justice. But the question that remains unanswered in me is this: Can a “hanging” moot out the cause of this psychological decay? M

Dark Zero thirty - the ramifications of 9/11 and the ugly globalization of torture.  What happened in those fateful moments between 8.30 and 10.00 A.M on eleventh of September 2001 , as the twin towers disintegrated ever so slowly into earth, with almost a billion people across the globe watching with disbelief the collapse of the symbol of financial power - will forever remain etched in hist ory, as the day when the political polarization of the globe was irrevocably and in many ways irredeemably changed and rewritten. America stood dumbfounded at this audacious act of terrorism. The collective psyche of its people were badly shaken out their reverie of being the most impregnable nation in the world. Amidst the ruins of the twin towers and innocent corpses, the nation found their identity rattled. And out of this cauldron of insult, embarrassment and deep wound, they unleashed upon the world a witch hunt for Al Qaeda and its various tributaries. The hunt for Obama bin Laden had began

The Union Budget - the heart beat of an economy. A few stray thoughts and reminiscences. I remember vividly sitting in the back rows of a packed lecture hall in Chennai a couple of decades ago, waiting for the arrival of Nani A Palkivala , the eminent lawyer, Jurist, ex ambassador to the USA - to deliver his yearly talks on the budget. I had just then read his remarkable book " We, the peopl e". a compendium of his speeches and writings on a wide range of topics of national interest; more importantly : the ones on the yearly Union budget. Nani walked in exactly at 6.30 P.M. A few minutes later, he started speaking extempore. His opening lines still resonate in my ears. Nani began  " This is not a budget to make you deliriously happy or to drive you to the verge of suicidal despair. It may be regarded as a good budget in bad times, though it might have ranked as a bad budget in good times ". So he went for nearly two hours; dissecting the budget, unraveling the hid