Perpetually Perplexed

We have all heard and seen social networks being used for assisting people, some times even spreading hate and violence. But here is a completely different case. Mumbai based Ram Subramanian wanted to do some thing about increasing intolerance in the society and spreading of hatred. He posted a message in facebook asking people to write a post it note and take a selfie with it saying they do not hate Pakistan and set it as profile picture. This went viral in both countries thousands of citizens in both countries joined the campaign and spread the message.   To participate, tag your love note selfie with #ProfileForPeace on social media. This proves that we are and will always be peace loving people. Hate politics will not work with us. 

He is living a peaceful life as a magistrate of a small town. His people are peaceful. He knows there are barbarians - or rather nomads beyond the lake some where in the woods. But they visit the town only once a year for trading their goods. But one day all these change. A colonel from the empire (name is not specified in the book. It could be any empire) comes with the news that barbarians are planning a revolt. And the colonel has come to arrest these barbarians and find out more about this revolt. Magistrate tries to convince him, that barbarians do not trouble them at all. And going in search of them in deep forests is very very difficult because nobody has the correct maps. Colonel does not listen and goes in search of barbarians. Thus starts the saga of cruelty, torture of barbarians and even fishermen by the soldiers of the empire. Magistrate is responsible for feeding and watching over the prisoners. He sees one barbarian woman who has lost her eye sight, whose foot has...

My dear fellow citizens, I have few questions and a request for you. The new government has come to power promising us of acche din and sabke saath sabka vikas. Should we not ask about these? We need proper support for the farmers, more so because of deficit rains. We also need electricity for all our work. We need good roads so that our backs are not broken driving on the pot holes. And we need roads in the rural areas. We need drinking water. We also need some control over inflation so that the thought of food does not bring tears instead of saliva. Why are we not asking questions about these? Why are we spending our energy fighting over things which come after the above mentioned things. And fighting over things which may cause more and more violence in the country. Which will certainly stop the growth of the country and individuals. Please friends, let us stop this madness. Or else we may go back to dark ages again. 

I do not remember reading much of world history in our school days. We read a lot about Indian history, even Indus valley civilization and about world wars. But nothing about Greek or Roman civilization, I think. So I am really finding the book "Glimpses of World history" by Nehru very very interesting. Imagine reading a history book, not out of compulsion! Not only has book tries to cover the history of different parts of the world, the insights of Nehru on various events make the book all the better. And the best part is it is in my phone. No, no, I am not one of the persons who buy kindle for reading. The book in pdf form is available for free download. Again his-story is a story of great empires and emperors and their invasions. And it is also a story of cruelty, war and killing. If only it were her-story instead of his-story. And along with my e-book, I need a physical book. After finishing Gold, I have brought "Waiting for Barbarians" by Coetzee - a s...

There was an emperor in China by the name Wang Teng. But he adapted another name - Shih Huang Ti, with the meaning "  The first emperor". He wanted himself to be recognized as first emperor. And he hated history. He made all the great books by philosophers like Confucius and history books to be burnt.  His edict read that "Anyone who uses antiquity to belittle  modern times will be put to death along with his relations." And he kept his word. Hundred of scholars who tried hiding their beloved books were buried alive. So today, our own people - though they like antiquity and our old culture and our old scientific inventions, do not like Gandhiji. They  find faults with him in history - their own version of history. They say - "Upliftment of dalits was an idea of Ambedkar. Tolerance has been our culture from very beginning. He, Gandhi in fact was against development and wanted people to remain in villages. His idea of non-violence was asking Jews to not prot...

There was a Bapu, who was fasting unto death to stop communal violence. And here are his children. All of us. Killing each other in the name of religion. And then using the murder for electoral gains. Bapu, it is good that you are not here to see all this.