2011: An Epilogue

It is still a bit early to write an epilogue for the year 2011, but couldn't help taking out some time to pen my thoughts on this year. This year wasn't different from all other years since humanity started keeping track of time , but for me it was. It was beginning of a new phase of my life, a phase called fatherhood. I am not sure if I will ever feel that ecstatic or amazed, like I was when I had my son in my arms for the first time. I am not sure if I will ever see my wife so happy with tears of endless joy in her eyes, when she first looked at our son Narayan. Yeah we named our son Narayan, a sort of old fashioned name but that's the best we could do out of millions of male names of God. I am not sure if my son is going to like his name but then naming the kids is one of the rights of parents for which kids can't create fuss about, not for some time at-least.
Also, this year with its few more days still remaining, marks a new beginning for a number of my very good friends as they have got married or are going to get married before this year ends. I wish them loads of good luck for their married life and apologies for not being able to attend the marriage ceremony. There was a time when attending birthday parties of friends was the most cherished party of all but now everyone has multiple occasions to celebrate.
Slowly the year 2011 will also fade into history like all the other years. I still remember how 2011 seemed so much in distant future when I was in school, it is like time-travel into the future at an incredible speed. And amazingly I can also travel back into time whenever I want, remembering all those wonderful moments of school, college and childhood. A new year is staring us in the face, what all does it hold in its womb is unknown but I wish that it is extremely pleasant for everyone. Happy new year in advance and don't forget to enjoy this wonderful time-travel called life, to its hilt!!!

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

Seems the Norwegian Killer wanted Hindus in India to assist in his global war against Muslims. Well Mr. Breivik you are asking for help at the wrong place. The religion which calls for "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" which means that whole world is a single family, can't help in your flawed Europe for Europeans ideology. Did Mr. Breivik forget that a similar ideology was used by some Mr. Hitler, calling it Europe for Aryans and I am sure that Hitler's ideology didn't do any good for Europe or the so called Aryan race.

Moreover today you are asking help from Hindus to fight Muslims, when Hindus start growing in Europe, you will ask help from Muslims to fight Hindus. There is no end to hatred, it needs a cause to breed and a keen person can find plenty of causes for fanning his/her hatred. Yesterday it was Jews, today it is Muslims, tomorrow it could be Hindus or even Christians. Since homo-sapiens (name of our species) were born in a small part in Africa, aren't each one of us except a few Africans living in Africa, some sort of immigrant?

There is also a misconception that people who let other beliefs to thrive are weak. In-fact these are strong men and women, because they are confident about their own beliefs. Won't Earth be a better place if everyone respected other's beliefs and didn't try to force their beliefs down others throat? Yet I agree that some practices which are based on out of date beliefs must be stopped unless we don't want to change or grow. Evolution happens not just at level of species but also at intellectual level. It is time we humans evolve from the baser instincts that tie us to cave men trying to safeguard their hunt from other tribes or may be I am hoping a bit too much!!!

The real champion of freedom, liberty and values

The real champion of freedom, liberty and values: Watched a documentary about Tibet last weekend and I did a sort of RCA (Root Cause Analysis for non-tech guys) for the real reason of Tibet problem. What dawned upon me has been elaborated in the few lines below.

The real reason for TIbet's problem lies in the fact that Tibetians have taken refuge in India and they expected India to support them wholeheartedly against expansionist policies of China. Tibetans were wrong, in 1950's, India was proud of being the father of Non-aligned movement and any pride that was existing for being the only place in the world for providing refuge to people around the globe for thousand of years, was slowly slipping by. And in present times, India doesn't want to ruffle the feathers of China in a wrong way, lest it disrupts the economic boom that has been sweeping India despite all the bomb blasts, high inflation, crime and corruption. So what if we have given refuge to Tibetans and Dalai Lama, so what if we have a moral reason for supporting Tibet, so what if China attacked us and made us eat a humble pie in 1962, so what if China openly supports our neighbors against us with weapons, so what guys! Laws of economics don't understand all these reasons, isn't it?

Pardon me for wandering away from the actual topic in hand and going into bashing Indian policies, but that seems so very natural. Anyways, so what should Tibetans do now which helps them in achieving indepndence or gaining the middle path against the mighty China?

They should actually plead for help from the country which has been champion of freedom, liberty and values for last 60 or so years; no no you are wrong, it is not USA but our beloved neighbor Pakistan.

The list of Pakistan's contribution to the freedom and values of mankind is huge, absolutely huge. Pakistan has fought alongside Palistinians, Afghanis for their freedom from foreign occupation; have been in a state of war against India for last 60 continous years for the K in Pakistan that is Kashmir, have helped in carving out a completely new country named Bangladesh out of their land, and have been supporting an independent nation inside their boundry (named Azad Kashmir).

So your holyness Mr. Dalai Lama, now you know whom to contact for the liberation of Tibet. The icing on the cake is that Pakistan is a very very close friend of China and this friendship might help in gaining the freedom of Tibet.

Apart from helping Tibet in their freedom struggle morally and emotionally, which they do to Kashmiris (shhhh! they don't do anything else) Pakistan will also teach Tibetans the following, which will help in raising the plight of Tibet in useless international forums:-

1. How to create propaganda out of no where.

2. How to swell the number of 1.5 million Tibetans killed in freedom struggle to 150 million.

3. How to make bombs, use AK-47 and kill innocent Chinese. Oh come on Mr. Dalai Lama, this isn't violence, this is freedom struggle.

4. How to convert the beautiful Tibet into a god forsaken territory.

5. How to eat grass and still fight for 1000 years.

6. How to name the missiles which were secretly acquired from 3rd country.

7. How to make nuclear bombs.

All this and more, if you request the champion of freedom, liberty and values for helping you out. And still if Pakistan is not able to help Tibet out, then they will take a chunk of Azad Kashmir and present it to Mr. Dalai Lama for establishing a new Tibet. That is how Aksai Chin became part of China.

I firmly believe that there is light at the end of tunnel and may be the people of Tibet will one day have enough right to determine if they want to continue with China or go back to the dark ages of serfdom (as per Chinese propaganda man!). Good luck!

Indian fortune and Temple riches

Temple riches can be utilized for building schools, flyovers, education, curbing poverty blah blah blah? Oh, do you think temple riches will solve all of India's problems? Will it resolve all the poverty and problems in India? Come on wake up, its almost noon, don't be so naive!

If confiscated by government, temple riches will go into the pocket of selected few who will grow richer and rest of us will read stories about how the files related to the temple riches suddenly vanished in thin air. We will discuss on FB and all social sites about these riches and the vanished files, will curse the government and then will be back to ways of earning our livelihood. There will be some court cases which will drag for years without any end and finally will result in rebuke to the government, dismissal of some babus and everything will be back to square one.

Temple riches are not the solution to India's problems. What we need is good governance and accountability, we need awareness, education, love and understanding among everyone. We need to stop discriminating and fighting among ourselves on the lines of religion, caste, language, creed and state. We need to remember that "God helps those who help themselves". Awaiting the change of fortunes due to some magic will only lead to doom. Even if temple riches are distributed evenly among poor Indians, it will not last them for more than few days or months. Then what? Will we ask government to sell the stuff in museums or stop the Indian space research or dismantle the huge Indian army?

Lunches are not free unless you are in Google, or was it Apple; anyways the point is that assuming some 100 Billion or 1 Trillion dollars will solve all our problems is foolish because no amount of money can solve the problems once and for all. Problems will keep creeping up one after the other; what we need to distribute among Indians (and its true for every country, yes even for Pakistan) is the will and courage to face the problems, the necessary education and knowledge to solve the problems, the perseverance to stand stiff against the force of adversity and come out unscathed.

Remember Temple riches will come and go, the riches of heart and mind will live until you are alive and if channelized properly will reach your next generation as well.

So don't await any miracle, be the miracle (inspired from the movie Bruce Almighty)!

Do Lyrics speak more than Music???

Do Lyrics speak more than Music???: "Listening to Senorita song from 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara' (really nice song) and the thoughts about the degradation of lyrics in Hindi songs flashed my mind and I decided to write few lines for this song...Here is an excerpt from my creation...Just listen to the Snorita song from the You Tube link below and try to plug-in my lyrics mentioned below. Hope you enjoy it if not feel disgusted :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhSKDV3E1Yc


'Main jo chahe,
lyrics daaloon dhun pe,
Tum kya bigaad logi mera,
Senoreetaaa.
Bhagaoon DK Bose,
Chahe nachaoon Munni ko,
Tum kya bigaad logi mera,
Senoreetaaa.
Do chaar shabd,
agar daal doon angrezi ke ismein,
Ban jayega yeh hip gaana,
Senoreetaaa.
Aise hi gaane,
chalte hain aaj-kal,
Lyrics se aakhir,
kee farak hai padta,
Samjhi kya Senoreetaa!!!'

P.S: No offence meant to song writers all over the world :-)"

From a God fearing Atheistically Theist...

On the eve of the doomsday predictions of 21st May 2011 by Harold Camping I am pondering over all the nonsense humans can generate, thanks to the functioning brain. I am not sure if animals also have their own doomsday predictions? It would be great if God of Viruses decides to end the run of Viruses in this Universe....Humans will be surely benefited and specially the ones suffering from or in danger of AIDS.
The basic question I have to such doomsday predictors is, why would God like to ruin his own creation unless He is out of his mind? Can't the all knowing God think of better ways to change the bad habits of His creation. For example, by just removing few connections from the mind of all human beings that makes them evil or, just hard-code in every human gene tenets of universal brotherhood, peace, love etc. etc.?
Why is such a drastic action required for instilling your love, God....such actions only instill fear!
Anyways who am I to question your authority my Lord.
For the extremely fortunate people who believe that God will take them to heaven, they must be overjoyed and feeling really special. Pardon me for questioning You (I will be using Y in caps for such chosen souls) but my question to You guys is, what would You guys/gals do in heaven? If there is actually a Kingdom in heaven, will You guys strive for democracy? And all those guys and gals going to heaven please remember, do not eat the fruit of the Apple tree from the garden of Eden. Otherwise God will have to throw You all out and another useless cycle of creation-destruction will follow. Please behave well in heaven and let's meet You all on the Judgment Day!
Well, for the folks like me who will remain on Earth waiting for the final judgment, don't be sad because in the end nothing matters...does it?

Whose belief is the right one?

Death of Sathya Sai Baba has caused mourning among millions of his devotees. His followers have been flocking to have a last glimpse of his dead body and pay their last homage.

What makes me feel even more sad than actual death of Sathya Sai Baba, are the comments which people have been posting on TOI/Rediff/XYZ sites about Sathya Sai Baba's followers. Sathya Sai Baba had followers like Sachin and his wife, Sunil Gavaskar and his wife; and people have been commenting on how backward Sathya Sai Baba's followers are in this modern age etc. etc.

Guys, each of us believe someone or some faith. Even atheism is a belief, that has cost a lot to humanity (yes Stalin and Mao were Atheists) and that shouldn't deter a atheist from following his belief. Every belief has some good things and some not so good things.....it is the followers who sometimes are more inclined towards the not so good ones. It is the followers who twist and turn the not so good beliefs into demons which whole humanity has to deal with.

Let others believe what they want to and you believe what you think is the truth. Your belief, just because it sounds cool or doesn't sound old, is no better than others belief.

In a nutshell, please learn to respect everyone's belief because that's what the world needs right now; much much more than your coolness or modernity!

My first blog from my mobile device. Hope I keep writing more.

--Subeer
(Sent from my iPhone)

Weeding out Corruption

Anna Hazare has announced fast unto death for the Lokpal bill. I am also supporting Anna Hazare like many others on Facebook by clicking on some buttons. May be Mr. Hazare's fast and the support he is getting, could lead to Indian government accepting the Lokpal bill in the format Mr. Hazare wants. But what I really don't understand is, how is it going to weed out corruption in every strata of Indian society?
For me, what is convenient could be corruption for other and vice-versa. I don't see any effort by citizens of India to take this evil head on. But in any case we had to start some where, so let it be the Lokpal bill, politicians and government.
Hopefully we would be able to straighten the tail and may be then it would wag the rest of the body :-)

To Mr. Afridi

Dear Mr. Shahid Afridi,

Ref: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/cricket-world-cup-2011/news/Indians-not-as-large-hearted-as-Pakistanis-Afridi/articleshow/7861946.cms

Today morning I read this piece of news on TOI and was shocked to the core. Nothing can explain your comment except that your mental state has been disbalanced due to Indian win in World Cup finals. You are correct about Indian media but saying that Pakistani media is better, is extremely laughable. Oh come on, the conspiracy theories about 9/11 and 26/11 are something which makes Pakistani news channels the best comedies in the whole world.
I am sure most of the Pakistanis have large hearts, but by making such stupid comments you have in-fact proved yourself wrong.
Also Mr. Afridi a genuine request to you, please stop being the guiding light of Muslims all over the world...India has more Muslims than Pakistan and everyone knows what you did to Muslims in Bangladesh (East Pakistan before Dec 1971) when West Pakistani leaders couldn't accept the will of majority. And that was certainly a display of largehearted, more than perfect humans who roam on the earth.
Summing up the philosophy; "It is human tendency to make mistakes (Indians also did many)...to have large or small hearts is also human...nation, caste, religion, language can't generalize it..."
Better learn the above philosophy as you represent a great nation in the field of cricket, don't bring shame to your country by making such kind of stupid comments.

Thanks!
-- A halfhearted Indian.