Farewell

We end the year 2012 with sadness. Bidding farewell to Amanat, the young fighter who lost her life after being raped, but who has given us hope and inspiration. She represents the vast majority of women who are molested and abused in the country, which go unnoticed. Why did her story bring in such a strong reaction, one would never know. But the youth in Delhi and in other parts of country, bring within me a feeling of hope... Hope that they have a consciousness of knowing what is right and wrong irrespective of what a bunch of insensitive, arrogant and ineffective politicians say and do.... Hope that justice will prevail and the guys responsible will be dealt with capital punishment... Hope that such reactions will instill better behaviour and deter crime against women, children or even men in general... Hope that the power of common people will prevail ... Hope that the political system, police and judiciary will realise the power of people and act accordingly. I have always felt helpless and angry when similar instance happen before, but now I am hopeful that people like us do react angrily and can make our feelings felt... that we have not completely lost hope and are not helpless. I pray that the Youth of today, bring about a revolution, a change in our thinking, a change in our living in a positive way as only the Youth can bring... a feeling of freshness. I am disgusted with the vast majority of politicians who have appeared in the media and are clueless of what they are commenting. It shows how shallow they are in their thoughts and actions.  

I have seen the Youth take up cudgels when allegations of corruption had peaked. I dont know if the politicians have the sense to hear and acknowledge this voice, a voice which would reverberate and sound the death knell of their political career. And so my hope rises that we could see a revolution in the year ahead.

I felt sad that Sachin Tendulkar decided to call it quits in one day international. We will not be able to revel in those magnificent skills that he displayed. But I hope that he will continue to show his prowess and demonstrate to his detractors that he is still the indisputable God of Cricket, when he plays Test Cricket in the year ahead.

I feel hopeful that we will see more youngsters bring name and fame to our country as we won six medals in the London olympics. The competition is tough and in a large country as ours, we still have a far way to go to reach optimum performance, but it is a beginning as new heros/heroines in the world of sport rise in the horizon.

I hope and pray that the year ahead will bring in peace and prosperity to our country and to the world in general. I pray that we learn to love our fellow humans and nature and learn to co-exist with other living beings so that the world is a much better place to live and our children to get to enjoy all the beautiful things that God has to offer. Here is to Hope and Happiness! Wishes for a happy 2013.

Carl Sagan, Time Machine and the Need to Act Now.

Cosmos, the serial presented by the famous Carl Sagan, had been one of the most fascinating TV series which, I used to watch when I was a kid. He had a very simple way of explaining scientific facts. He explained the concept of artificial evolution by giving an example of the samurai faced crabs. Heikegani, is a species of crab, he said, found in Japan,which has a shell resembling the face of a samurai warrior. It is believed by the locals that these are spirits of the brave samurai warriors and the child Emperor of the Heike Empire, who opted to perish rather than surrender to the clan of Genji, in the war of Dan-un-ora. As a result,Sagan went on to explain, the fisher-flock who realises that people do not eat the samurai-face shell crabs, tend to throw them back to the sea. Thereby this species of crabs survived and multiplied. This was, Sagan pointed out, a situation of artificial evolution, as against natural selection of survival of the fittest - a theory propounded by Darwin. Time Machine, one of the oldest classic science fiction written by H G Wells presents another aspect of futuristic human beings. In the story, the protagonist, identified as the Time Traveller in the book, travels ahead of time to 802701 AD. The story talks about two types of beings, the Elois- the small and elegant adults, and second -the Morlocks, who live in darkness. He conjectures that the human race evolves into one class, which is weak but intelligent and other the downtrodden but brutish class. As I consider both these, I wonder, how our society would evolve over a period of time. I keep on remembering what one of ex-bosses used to say - "Nice people are just that... Nice!"... I used to think, he had a weird logic. But experience has taught me otherwise. A large section of our society, consists of nice people, people who are immersed in earning their own living and wouldn't want to interfere in anything unpleasant which does not directly affect their lives. So we remain within the confines of our shelter, refusing to act if strangers get murdered in the streets, if women get raped and children get assaulted, thinking that it is not happening to us and it is therefore happening to "others". We therefore, have brutish and corrupt politicians running the country more like the Morlocks. Politicians who dictate how and with whom you should party with, which movie you should see, how much money you should pay tax and how much they will take away in their pockets. The media and the law enforcers seem less effective. The day will not be far, when we like the Elois will stay in fear and possibly become extinct, because we continue to elect these corrupt politicians, who if the theory of artificial evolution has some basis, might rule the world. Scary but a probable scenario, if we dont take responsibility and act.