Truth vs. Fact

In India, we sometimes discuss, is this what we learn in school books is India's real history? The reason behind this doubt lies in the observed biases in history. This manipulation of  Medieval period history is much evident being closer to modern time. The history books consistently hide the misdeeds of invaders and their heirs in India and coronate them with all virtues. We learn about every generation of Mughal rulers, how they got power, and how they lost it -- without telling what they did to the people to get the power and even after getting the power. Not only that, the historical perspective of those who tried to preserve the Indian values is masked. The victories of Indian warriors against them are never highlighted. 

The school books present little about the Hindu and Buddist rulers, saints, philosophers, and scientists driving the knowledge-driven society before invaders spoilt it overall. There is a great lesson to learn there that knowledge and strength are not mutually exclusive. Tolerance is not unlimited; otherwise, it is self-destructive if not cowardice. 

In fact, whatever little we learn about these great people from India are mostly presented as a story in subjects like Hindi and English. The reason told is that there is not enough evidence to verify the facts. Facts about what? That exact year something happened, or how many people were present or the original manuscript is not there. Really! Isn't historical facts in many cases have been corrected when new evidence is obtained. 

To me, just like any other subject, history has a great purpose of serving mankind by preventing people from making the same mistake they did in the past. I don't mean that history should become a moral science book. But, it is more about the truth and not about fact. History should be presented as truth from which people can learn. The fact-checking on year, number of people, and the exact location can be done later, but the truth should not be hidden for that purpose. If at any point if a fact appears, it should be appended to the historical context. 

Door open, ears closed!

After a few weeks of office sharing with a friend of mine, who also joined with me, I was moved to the office of a "more experienced" colleague. Being in the same function, it was told that this will allow better interaction and performance. As a new joiner, all you got is trust in others and watchful eyes to learn and adapt quickly. In the previous office, we used to keep the door closed since that allowed us to focus without distractions from outside, and when we discuss something, others are not impacted as well. Quite honestly, being new, we talked and shared information and ideas all the time. So, others had more danger of getting distracting from us than we had from others. After all, we were new in the system. But in this new office, I was welcomed with a note, "I follow open door policy. This allows others to feel comfortable reaching out to me". I was not used to it, so I was struggling to keep my attention on work, but anyway, I must trust, and so did I.

While I struggled, I saw my colleague working without any impact from the noisy corridor. I thought it is because of being more used to it. My belief turned to a shock after a few weeks when I tried to say something, and with a focus like a yogi, my colleague could not hear that I asked something. Sitting in front, I waved big, and the colleague pulled thus far, not so visible earplugs behind the hairs. My trust in open-door policy shattered in pieces. What kind of open-door vision is that you cannot hear your own office colleague. Years passed since then. While the door remained open for others, the ears never opened for the next desk colleagues. When they opened, they opened for self-need. I reciprocated!

Many houses - One home

Ever since I left my home in Mau in 1998 after class 10th, I have lived in many places. Obviously, this led to live in many big and small houses so far. Some were consciously temporary like college hostels, while some were big enough as if I am going to live there life long. Honestly, every time I move to a house I get a feeling that this is going to last movement and now I am going to live here without a due date. Despite this intense feeling, two things happen all the time. First, every time life takes a turn and I get to move to a new place, to a new house eventually. With the same intense belief, we bought a house in Turnhout and it seems that life is ready with another turn and I am once again going to move out of this own created burden of belief. Anyway, with all these changes, there is a second thing which does not change. The home in my dream. Having lived so many cities across the world, lived in many more houses, still in my dreams, I find myself in my home in Mau. The stage of all good and bad things of the dream always happens to be in my home in Mau. I wonder does the same happen to others? What happens in the dream of people who has no home when a child? And, what happens to those whose childhood life is like my life after leaving home -- changing house very frequently?

Honest Opinion

We often come across people who all the time say, "Be honest, say what you feel!" but is that really possible in practice? Being an individual, we always have our opinion on people and matter of our interest. Sometimes this expression of view is just a release of instantaneous frustration, and the views keep on changing over time. In fact, it should keep on improving if you are a logical person. In the Netherlands, this expression of instantaneous opinion is the way of life. I really appreciated it, but most people called it rude. But for many others, if you express your honest opinion of a moment or they come to know about it, it allows them to act radical and even break the relationship on that ground. Now the question remains, how good is the be honest and say what you feel. I think it's all about how much you can think beyond the opinion to improve yourself and others.

Much needed intolerence

Indian civilization emerged and survived due to its belief on the fundamental, which says, ekum satya vipra bahuda vadanti, i.e. there is one truth, learned to say it in different ways! And, despite changes in the regime from favorable to most barbaric ones over the centuries, this value has prevailed. It's now 65 years of India's Independence, one political party has ruled most of the time, and we were observed tolerant country despite many religious riots and extremists act. But, now that power has changed to bring some fresh air of ordinary people rule in Indian democracy, entire discourse is being altered to create an opinion that India is getting intolerant. How a civilization of thousands of years can change from its fundamentals by a few months of a new person in government.

This whole debate is useless. If you replace PM Modi with some joker from Congress, with the chain kind of random events, all these discussions will evaporate. Those people who gained power and praise by manipulation during Congress time and now sitting in top positions through that are making these noises. It will take some time for them to accept that India is going to be the intolerant country to them here onwards, and they cannot stay self-severing now. India needs service and prosperity to all and not only to a bunch of people who kept us in the dream of tolerance and spend their holidays abroad while a big lot don't even have food.

Rediscovering vegetarianism

I am now in Europe for the last few years and one thing which I tried very intendedly in this period was to start eating nonvegetarian food without any second thought. To make it fancy to say, convert me from vegetarian to flexitarian. This wanted to avoid, myself look like an exception in the crowd for this reason, which I faced a lot in most of the social gatherings. This got a further boost by the fact that I was not a thoughtful vegetarian with some ethical feeling, but became so because I was grown in a strictly vegetarian brahmin family. Not to say, I had never tried eating anything which is termed non-vegetarian in my Hindu family.

Being in Europe, when need pushed me, I tried that. But, surprisingly, I found no taste in it. I was told that the taste has not developed as I never tasted such things as a child. It may appear if I try something closer to my familiar taste, they meant spicy :-). In this period, I got married, and my wife, a grown as non-vegetarian, claimed that when she cooks, it will be so tasty that I will like it. And, she was not the first and last one to claim so. However, everyone failed, so did she. Or, maybe they started passing.

I slowly started discovering that the childhood teaching that, giving pain to others for your pleasure is not good, is still sitting in my head. I try, or not my senses could feel that what I am eating is a product of a painful death of other life. People tried to convince me that plants too have life, but I know well that they don't have a brain to feel pain, nor they have others who feel an affinity with. Having this feeling, every time I try to break across, this wall gets higher and higher. Having a student hotel training to eat the worst kind of food, but nothing can bring a taste to me out of others' suffering.

Layers

Everyone has different roles to play in a single life, and all these roles require one to act in a certain way or at least require oneself to modify accordingly. But, there is no limit for number roles one has to play, which leads to a situation for one who wants to know you are, which one is really you? Where these different performances end to yield real you. I often encounter myself and my friend and family members through some of their old writing or images showing emotions, and I get surprised to think: is this the same me or the same person I know now! The role we play in life can simply not explain this, it will undoubtedly require several layers to construct something meaningful.

Work hard & Party harder, Really?

Ever since losing my childhood ignorance about the need for success (an overrated word), I have been listening somehow that work hard and party harder. But, with the experience so far, I feel this is a perfect example of perverted truth, another oversold quote to drain-out the imagination. In fact, they never fall together and broadly classify real-life people into two classes: the hard worker and hard-partying people. Similarly, from the productivity point of view, it is often said that "work smart, not hard. This is again a lazy quote far from reality, In fact, I agree entirely with John D. Cook, when he says, "Productivity tip: Work hard.", no other go, guys! At least I have not seen anyone.

Productivity tip: Work hard.

— John D. Cook (@JohnDCook) October 8, 2015

Keeping high to let you die

Among my friends and family, I am seen as someone not very tasteholic. This is to the level that I even had a bitter argument with a friend saying, we live and work hard to have good food. That good is undoubtedly the taste, not health. To me, it's animal characteristic, not for humans. But, I also see that whether people explicitly say this or not, most live it.
Anyway, point for me is that, while people are so much fond of tasty food, how long do they really enjoy the taste! Technically, what's the residence time, a few seconds max a few minutes, isn't it? And, then it's only after effect, which is mostly not the best thing. Alcohol and drugs have a more extended pleasure period and more side effects. All keeping you high for a period to ensure equally more substantial ill-effects. Seriously, look around, most good things taste poor, and most good tasting things have adverse effects on health. So, all races and chases for taste are for that happiness of a few mins.?! Think about it next time when you are dying for "good" taste, and also your purpose in life.

Tolerance limit

I read a nice post from Sundar Pichai on medium.com, about growing intolerance and Islamophobia in the new world.

Let’s not let fear defeat our values. My first medium post here https://t.co/JXt7qQFFNG

— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) December 12, 2015

He suggested that, let's not let fear defeat our values of coexistence. I think no sane person can disagree to this neither can support the American paranoia, but it cannot be denied that this fear is tangible. It is not a mere coincidence that thousands of youth across the world watch some propaganda videos by IS calling them on the name of the same book which is available everywhere and they leave the comfort of their lives to become terrorist. Is it difficult to identify that material which allows these youth to get attracted? No, and since people can identify this present around them, fear is obvious! People who bear this material have only two choices either they stop its misuse or give up the material. It's not they are all helpless, their religion has the biggest gathering every year in Mecca. They can all sit together to re-establish the correct and concrete meaning of Kuran which cannot be used for terror activities. Unless they do it, they will be seen as the carrier of "fear material" and the world cannot be tolerant to them.

भूख बड़ी या टमाटर दाल

कल भारत सरकार ने नए वेतन आयोग की सिफारिशें स्वीकृत करलीं। बड़ी ख़ुशी की बात है की कुछ टाइम से होना भी शुरू हुआ देश में। अर्थव्यवथा जानने वालों का कहना है की इससे बाजार में और पैसा आएगा क्यूंकि क्रय शक्ति बढ़ेगी, और सामान्य भाषा में मैं कहूँ तो अब सरकारी कर्मचारी ज्यादा दाल-टमाटर खा-खिला सकेंगे। जब ऐसी खबरें समाचार चैनलों पर उछाल लगाती होती तब मेरे मन ये सवाल अक्सर उथता है - उनका क्या जिनका टमाटर दाल की चिंता नहीं पर पेट भर खाना ही संघर्ष है।  मैं उनकी बात कर रहा हूँ जिनको देश की सहृदय जनता और कंपनिया सरकारी न्यूनतम मजदूरी तक देने से बचना चाहती हैं. क्या सरकार सिर्फ सरकारी कर्चारियों के टमाटर दाल का इंतजाम करने के लिए होती है? क्या जिनको जीवन की सामान्य जरूरतें पूरी करने भर भी पैसे नहीं मिल पा रहे पूरा दिन काम करने के बाद भी, उनकी परवाह कौन करेगा? 

Making a bigger line

In childhood, we often listen to this puzzle that how to make a larger line smaller without rubbing it off. And, the method is to make a larger line next to it. It seems people in Indian mass media have recalled this. They tried their level best to paint the current PM black when he was trying to be a candidate in the direction of their bosses. They failed miserably. He came to power and changed the entire discourse from daily debates on corruption and name-shaming to development. This was a shock for these people and they tried to align but neither they were accepted with the same glory as by the previous govt. nor they were capable of such alignment with development debate. To be critical of the agenda of development, one needs to have some knowledge of science, economics, history, etc. These guys with mediocre knowledge and jack-based uplifting found it very difficult, in fact absolutely unbearable. All they know is spoken English and who is their real boss. So, not knowing what to do brought them to their childhood lesson, Make A Bigger Line, i.e. inflate agendas of their scope bigger than the development issues. With the help of some of their likes, they have made the agenda of communal tension, beef, and freedom of speech. Wow, now no need to know the science, economics, and history, life can go on as before! But let's see, how long..let them try this as well!

Found a tweet with a very similar feeling...

विरोध और भड़ास में अंतर समझना चाहिए। विरोध करने के लिए उपयुक्त माहोल चाहिए, भड़ास निकालने के लिए माहोल बनाया जाता है। यह भी आजमा लीजिये

— Dr Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) October 29, 2015

Rational of rationalism

India is going through an enormous transition after the victory of PM Modi. People who occupied the mainstream to reap all fruits and favors of "democracy" and "secularism" in the past are now being sidelined. But, that's not easy because the money and positions they acquired over the years are now being used for repositioning to be a part of the race called "rationalist." And, the first step started with the blame that the voice of rationalist writers like Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare have been silenced by the new regime (although one was killed when the previous government was in power). Thus, it is crucial to see what is this so-called "rationalist" about and why this gang has chosen this title. In India, a rationalist is who "speaks/writes" about flaws of religion on different forums, write in English (damn the local reform, the world should know my liberation first) and often chased by some religious fringe (as most of the population doesn't care for religion). But, huh! There is a Taslima Nasreen with all these qualities, is she be included? No, not al all! She defies the essential requirement to be the rationalist by finding flaws of Islam, the religion of peace all over the world.

No Islam and Christianity, because then the majority of people will come to know that we are not the worse, we can also rise with our good deeds. The way this so-called rationalist community has kept this lady away from their community and maintained their anti-Hindu agenda made them the best-qualified group to join for people who left India suffering for the last 65 years despite independence. They know that the day India will come to know its identity and start feeling proud of its strength and not named by its weaknesses, it will work to restore its glory and remove the ills. This will make them out of business..no power, no slaves, no money! So, it's better to keep telling the majority of people you have got nothing good, it's better to be the rationalist.

Cleanliness drive and Indian reality

PM started his big cleanliness drive on Independence Day and everyone theoretically appreciated it. But, most of the Indians lack civic sense so much that they don't even realise what they are doing to their surrounding. They sit in clean place, litter around and walk out as if someone else should take care of all. They train their children the same. There were some people who do care about and exist like exception but as an old saying that a rotten fish is enough to make the whole pond dirty, their exception can't make any difference. What a filthy creatures, but we need to live with them!

Journey back

My flight from Brussels to Amsterdam on my way to Delhi got cancelled due to strike in Belgium. So, on an urgent notice I decided to come to Amsterdam to get flight to Delhi. Good from bad, brought me with lots of nice memories from the past. I'm living very close the place where I lived when I was living in Amsterdam. My friend Michael lives here to whom I am guest now. It is a great feeling now to go around see all the seen, and trying to recall how much I still remember. :-) We biked around the city center till quite late yesterday. The reflection of red lights in the canal, smell of Marijuana as much as all the time, and streets leading to next street till we were out of town all recalled.

Just for a like!

I started blogging in 2004 when blogging was still a new thing on the internet and a lot has changed since then on social media. Facebook and microblogging site Twitter has now taken most of web traffic and are being used for all civil to evil purposes. Those days internet was still accessed largely through PC's and laptops, and posting your thought was like doing something special. Now the game has completely changes with all these social media access on mobile devices. When it started it was a cool thing that people can share all the special moments as they are going through it and everything is archived like life. All the shades were bright and beautiful, but that didn't last long when people with the agenda conquered it. Now some use these apps in/as toilets and do the same thing both in real and virtual worlds. Also, some people not social at all as I know them from their real life social behaviour are all the time super active on social media. For what, just for a like or favourite?! Just like religious frenziedness is outcome of forgetting the fact that the man-made religion, not the religion made the man, new social media madness is result of the fact that many think now that technology is solution to social challenges. Sounds old school but, it's time to realise that if we are not robots, forget tweets, posts and chats, we need to talk more often!

Typical ...ian-ness

For God we believe, rest everyone needs to show data. That's an interesting saying I heard for someone. But, there is also the next step which happen with data. We all like to draw a frame with that..some will say they don't but, they do. Anyway, there is also very interesting cross -ianism between people where two different -ians use the same characteristics to identify eachother. I heard from some Belgian friends that Dutch are rude, while from Dutch friends I hear the contrary. They both agree agree Germans are dry, but then I found Germans very friendly. So, the message is that we all are are working with our own datasets. Ours or may be some more we know have the same experience, but life is too short to gather all datasets. So, try to avoid this -ianness if not for yourself, at lease for others. Bob Marley's saying.."Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for."

Subversioning truth!

"Who can reason with someone who does not wish to face the truth?" 

"The truth", what is that? Bhagwat Gita talks about the "Saswat Satya", the ultimate truth, but is there an ultimate truth? Everyone around is walking with his/her own version of it. And if you try to showcase your version, even before you present your version you have to face the ego. And the debate goes beyond the truth to an attempt that my ego is bigger than yours. What a shame! In such situation if you debate and win you loose (because the real debate was about truth and not ego) and if you loose you loose anyway.

Longway back to home

From Bangalore I went to my wife's place via Kolkata. I spent holiday working with her on PhD thesis comments and having lots of sweets. I can't recall more than this. After Khirpai together we went to my bother's place in Bokaro. The most remarkable thing about this journey was the finding of the borders and transition of regional cultures. It was a region from Medinipur to Purulia where temples were dominated by Goddess Kali and then came the region from Purulia to Bokaro where typical North Indian God Hanuman took over. It's magical in India how with millions of Gods we never find uncomfortable living with others with different one while rest of the world is still full of people who love n hate and even kill you for not believing theirs God. In Bokaro, I went to see a steel plant, a life time experience to see steel flowing like water! We stayed there for 2 days before we traveled to Mau via Varanasi by train. I was at home, place about which I can complain, but my no journey to india can be complete without.

Experiencing experiences

Back to the blogger after long time. Returned from India with lots of masala to write about but almost forgetting them now. But anyway, with some scratching of the head I can think of few. Let's start on the journey. First time I flew to India through Mumbai, not Delhi. I was travelling to Bangalore with my research group for attend PBM conference at IISc, before I could officially start my vacation. With foreigners with me I had few more critical eyes for things in India than mine, showing things that certainly need to change. I don't know how they liked it; least could be understood with their flat faces. But with many complaints there were also appreciations for something. We landed in Mumbai, and it was as new for me as for others. I could believe how it is business capital of India, be it airport, roads or general outlook. The city was covered with posters each having 50 faces for every corner and even if one is using Indian liberty (stupid habit of peeing at roadside) he will be wetting some of the many faces without missing. Well after a night stay in Mumbai, we started again, and it was a pleasant surprise to see the Bangalore. City was clean and beautiful at least near the airport where I was staying. First time I was feeling a bit relieved and told my colleague, what you saw in Mumbai is not all India; it can be worse, and can be better as well. We stayed in Bangalore for three days and with lots of talks a happening. beside the conference talk, once again some foreigner complaining about every little thing, others curious to know more and enjoying the difference of cultures. Can't say who was right, but I go by the later one as they did "paisa vassol" act, which was the need of time for all the trouble they faced for getting the Indian visa and getting there.