ARCANE ARGUMENTS

Stability of nature Vs Rights of animals

Being at the highest level of evolution, humans gifted with intelligence is currently  ruling the earth. And humans have taken it as their responsibility to maintain the stability of nature not just in the name of obligation to nature  but with the future in view. As a result we hear of conservation of endangered species.

It just passed through my ear without making any impact until I happened to be at the Zoo at Trivandrum.

Conservation for whose sake?How do a tiger benefit by having its family or genus conserved?The answer would be for the sake of entire nature,as the food chain would be affected.What caused this imbalance in food-chain?The thoughtless activities of humans.And the conservationists  admit with regret and with some pride that now they are correcting by conserving. In this name the hapless animals that happens to be caught spend their lifetime behind the bars.They are given food and water and some lucky animals even get an acre of land for themselves.But just a question-given all these facilities and the intelligence to end ones life what would you choose?Suppose after a 10000 years you gets caught by your successors far different from humans and if they treat you similarly what would be your reaction?And what if they force breed you?Will you endure it as a service to humankind,with that powerful longsighted brain of yours?Is nature more important that freedom of its children?It is better to be short-sighted and compassionate that to be an advocate of future.Life is just a matter of moments-be it the life of humans or birds.

Life is not a matter of masses.The life of a single individual and a 1000 individuals are  just the same.Future irrespective of its length is of lesser importance than the present moment.True that hierarchy exists in nature.But it is the only option behind nature.And every animal plays the role of predator and prey.Humans being at the highest level is exempted out of the role of prey. Humans may crush ants beneath the feet,but elephants can do the same to humans. Thus in a way nature ensures justice to all.But when humans starts playing the role of rulers of nature this simple rule is shamelessly violated.Just as it is an injustice to experiment on a human being it is an injustice to experiment on an animal.Intelligence and hierarchy may be justification for anything but never for taking away freedom without giving back even companionship.

A single peacocks or tigers freedom is far more important than the conservation of its own genus, the benefits of which, it is even unaware. Freedom is the rule of nature,it is the birth right of animals,and humans irrespective of the justification they may produce for denying the unlucky few of the same, is going against nature. Mother Nature would prefer getting destroyed or would device its own methods for self-protection rather than watching her kids being deprived of the basic rights.

(Dharma the bull,now seems to be standing on a single leg).

Secret Joys Of Solitude

I waded into myself

To pluck the lotus that has bloomed.

The pond was deep

And filth was around

My legs got stuck

And refused to take forward steps.

Crestfallen,I walked back

To meet Tagore-

The enlightened poet.

"Thee has still wonders

Left for me"

Said my heart

When he gave me a lotus.

As I sat in silence

In the air filled with its fragrance

Once again in my secret joy

I felt Thy gentle touch..

As Hunger Crept Back Into Me

At four in the evening
I sat at the hotel
Having ordered the first food of the day.
20 Rupees,wet with sweat
Laid close to my heart-
Beating with pride and joy.


Full of myself,as I sat there waiting
Came to me a boy of half my age-
With nothing in him but starvation
No pride,just hope
Hollow hope waiting to be filled with food.


My fast beating heart slowed down to think
Pride and joy looked at each other
My day,My labour,My sweat
The waiter placed the food in front
And I pushed the plate to him.


I stood up and walked back
With a stomach filled with satisfaction
What better breakfast can I have?
Love,care and compassion for humankind
For their betterment I should devote my life
For my little brothers and sisters.
As my thoughts touched the sky
To earth I was brought back
By the boy who was my brother
I saw him harshly push aside,
A girl nearly half his age
All because she tried to take a piece from his plate.


Shocked I was
And my dream palace came down
My lips went dry
And my heart stopped for a while
As hunger crept back into me
I stood there stunned
Knowing well that
My stomach will remain unfilled.

Gambler

With yesterdays gains
He started the game
A win and a loss
A loss and more loss
At the end-
With an empty heart he returned
No smiles won
No pleasures to drive him mad
But the game goes on
With borrowed pleasures
"Tomorrow may be my day"
He gambled with the night
And closed his eyes tight

Solitude-Quotes

“Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your won presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement.”

Alice Koller

“Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.”

Thomas Merton

“Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god”

Francis Bacon

“To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be.”

Anna Lousie Strong

“Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.”

Paul Tillich

“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.”

Einstein

“I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind”

Einstein

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.” Sidonie Gabrielle

“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the world, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” Ralph Waldo Emerson “When everyone leaves you it’s loneliness you feel, when you leave everyone else it’s solitude.” Alfred Polgar

In Defense Of suicide

   As per section 309 of Indian constitution suicide is a punishable offense. It says-"whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offense, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine or with both". Suicide as a law and order question is on the safer side-while killing others can disturb the balance of the society, killing oneself can't. A major argument raised by religion against suicide is that-since birth is not a person’s choice, death should not be self chosen. Ignoring this let us look into the other realities.

   Life is a duration of time during which "I" is valid. It is important that one remains in the state of mind that pleases him/her during this period. Happiness is desired by everyone, although unattainable at times. However it can't be sustained/attained in anarchy-it is from this realization that all the orderliness of society roots. Long- sightedness which extends for a lifetime is often carried further.

  Everything has an end, be it today or tomorrow .Thinking as a human being with a life span of few years, today and tomorrow makes a big difference. But not while thinking as a part of the universe whose origin and end is well beyond human reach. Living based on the fallacy that life is a duty roots from the concept of God-The best example of human creativity. God was not the product of a sudden stroke of imagination. It evolved as a necessity to put the distracted minds at ease-an axiom in the attempt to prove life.

  To explain life one need not jump into the past or future, the simple truth of life is the present seconds-these seconds with the vast potential to unfold ecstasies before us. A life can be said to be meaningful when the majority of the seconds are spent in a pleasant state of mind or in attempts to achieve the same. So when a person feels that future has nothing for him/her, he/she has a birth right to conclude life. Kanu Sanyal-The Naxalete leader ended his life recently and the news was highlighted in newspapers. Any interview explaining his state of mind before death would not have attracted even a 10th of this attention. Suicide is often treated with shock or sympathy. And this is what drives suicide that roots from short-sightedness.

To suicide is not cowardly, it is not bravery as well, it can be a sensible decision at times. At times the child has to be operated out.

  Irrespective of what drives a person to suicide it should not be treated as an offense. Section 309 of IPC gives an impression that Indian constitution is shallow. Existence of such a law will not prevent suicide. And the value of human life is to be upheld by living a life of quality, and not through a law. Law Commission report tabled in RajyaSabha last year recommended the removal of section 309 as it is a hindrance to provide psychological aid to people who attempts suicide. Mental disorders need to be cured. But the desire to bring about emotional stability should not stand in the way of differences in the same aspect. Take the case of Vincent Van Gogh-he suffered from bipolar mental disorder says description. How can one suffer from being oneself?

Once when a lady's husband died, she jumped into his funeral pyre as he was everything to her. Next when another lady's husband who was not everything to her died society pushed her into fire and called it sati. Years later it got reversed. Will the society that drags a woman back from her husband’s funeral pyre ensure her happiness for the rest of her life?  The question of lady's children remains. If they were something big enough to keep her alive she would not have attempted suicide. All living beings are selfish when it comes to matters of life and death.

Just because the heart and kidney of two persons function similarly mind can’t be expected to be. Thoughts can’t be confined to boundaries. The degree of passion varies from person to person and accordingly the definition of life. I don't intent to justify or to promote suicide that results from momentary emotional outbursts. Nor do I say that we should be indifferent to the pain of our fellow beings. Instead it is the opposite that I wish to convey. Life is not an endeavor that is to be accomplished for the sake of some unknown.

It is from out of complexities that simplicities arise. Many people fail to understand the simplicity of life as they fail to get over the complexities. Reluctance to accept suicide as something natural roots from the fear that it will increase its number. But it is the reverse that will happen. By accepting the simplicity of life, it is not anarchy but peace that is going to result.

MORALITY-A word of caution for women?

Last week I had been to library.
Since I couldn't find "The Prophet" by Gibran I asked the librarian to help.Librarian is a man who seems to be between 35 and 45.Since he is a friendly figure in library,I like having him there.Thinking of all these I stood waiting for him to be back with the book.
5 minutes or 10 minutes or more-More than what he usually takes to find a book he returned.
He handled the book to me after some odd gestures.While I searched for the second book I noticed that he was behaving strangely.He had positioned himself next to the lady librarian;so close that the lady was visibly inconvenient.He even attempted to fall over her and made it look like an accident.....
It was Sunday and only 3 of us were there at library 

I knew it all with The Prophet in hand.It had illustrations that could mislead a bad reader

Next time I went to library,he was NORMAL,the lady was there chatting with him and we talked as usual.Perhaps he had forgotten it all or he had read the book(though less likely)
But while walking back from library I thought- WHAT IF IT WAS A WOMAN????
An everlasting  black mark on her MORALITY,and the news would spread like a wildfire.

Men have the excuse of a larger hypothalamus;But then women have so many other excuses to make,Shortcomings-they call  and jeer at it all.
We are far more sensible to go and fall on a male librarian just by seeing some misleading illustrations
And the issue is not the one that starts and ends here.It has deeper roots that drains the source of female freedom.It has chained and locked a number of my sisters.The fear to talk,to walk and what is worse is that there are many who fear even to think

I have nothing against male folks
But it is high time Indian Women stood up and questioned this biased code of MORALITY.

Tapping The Teaching Talent

It is said that a mediocre teacher tells, a good teacher explains, a superior teacher demonstrates and that a great teacher inspires. Though the number in the last group may be limited there ought to be more in third and second. But unfortunately education sector has failed to attract them. As a result most of the young teachers of today are mere tellers who fail to get other glamorous  highly paid jobs. There was a time when even rank holders considered teaching as their first option. But today teaching is considered as a monotonous underpaid task by the majority. Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal recently announced media campaign to promote teaching. That is a right move, the success of which can determine the future of India.

Population is pointed out to be a problem in imparting quality education. The infrastructure requirement is high with population, but what is of greater importance is to tap the teaching talent that can be expected to be proportionally distributed in the increasing population. And it should be the government’s responsibility to find the  right teachers unlike the present scenario where people take it as their responsibility to find a job; and thereby degrading teaching, the noblest of all professions as one among several means to earn ones bread. My suggestion is simple-teachers should be recruited through campus interviews. Expert group consisting of senior professors and human resource developers can be formed in each state and different groups can be sent to different regions where they can camp and select the candidates. Cut-off can be fixed and the eligible candidates can be made to take seminars. It should be followed by an interview. Prizes and participation in debates speeches etc can be given weightage.

Degree level students can be interviewed for teaching up to 10^th and Post Graduation students for teaching up to 12^th. For teaching at the higher level, along with national level examinations that are conducted, teaching skills tested during the college days should be considered. The selected candidates should then be trained according to the classes allotted to them. Presently teachers at the degree level show flaws that can be attributed to the lack of proper understanding of student psychology.

By ensuring good living conditions and remuneration experts should be attracted first. It should not be a year long process for them. Again corruption should be avoided in the selection process. Firstly experts should be posted on a random basis. Secondly the expert group that selected a particular candidate should be a part of the educational history of the candidate, so that the group can be held responsible if the candidate is found to be unfit( Especially if several candidates selected by a particular group is found to be unfit).

Wipro  and Infosys takes the trouble to search for talent at the engineering colleges knowing well that it determines their overall performance. Such immediate results cannot be expected from the education sector. So the education ministers should be capable of looking beyond the next election. HRD ministry has an enthusiastic minister at its helm today. Selection of teachers should be done with the same seriousness with which candidates are selected into the armed forces. The process requires ten times the effort required today. But the result can be an India hundred times better than the present.