The continuation of Blogs from archives - May 2005
"Neils Bohr, the famous physicist, is credited with the saying quote there are some things that are so serious that you have to laugh at them unquote. Many a time we avoid taking the right decisions at the right time and a time comes when one realises that they are too serious to be serious anymore and one can only laugh them off.
We must have all in our childhood, experienced the pain of removal of bandages and have fresh dressing-up of wounds. As the bandage is removed one experiences the pleasure of fresh air in the adjoining areas of the wound, till the stage comes when the strip of cotton guage which sticks to the wound has to be removed. Imagining the pain one can experience when this is done, the tendency is to postpone this; one quick pulling and it's done, but no sir, without exception this is prolonged!! See my point.
Likewise in politics and in corporate world, there are enough evidences which validate the full import of the quote. For instance India got independence in 1947, and very soon J&K was invaded by pak forces. The collective wisdom was: given 48hrs, the state would be liberated, but no, the then PM had just come across a word in dictionary - "plebicite". He was so thrilled with the word that he had to share it with the world!!. All including the UN just loved it. The result? After 57 years, the problem still haunts us.
In 1971, B'desh was born, and over 90000 pak troops surrendered. Indira had everything to gain, Kashmir issue was begging to be solved in our favor, till she realised that Bhutto was a classmate. Result? A watered down "simla agreement" which barring the old bandicoots of Indira congress, nobody remembers today.
Take the introduction of VAT; it took the whole of a decade to get introduced. For it find acceptance, the entire gamut of all taxes such as CST, entry tax etc needed to be either abolished or made eligible for input credit. The rates could have been uniform and to reduce the impact on the ultimate consumer, the excise rate on the final product could have been reduced. But what do we have? A belied perception that consumer will benifit and a disgruntled trade and a political dispensation which gives an impression that it need not bother to assuage feelings.
What is the term used for these by the intelligensia? "diplomacy" Can we do anything but laugh it off?
Let us take the corporate world; from the time of independence till 1991, every one of this genre suffered the ignomies of the license raj & the arrogance of the babudom which believed it had divine rights to such a behaviour. When any one had it in him not to succumb it was seldom appreciated. The truth was many of them loved it & were extremely happy to be in a position to be able to get licenses/permits etc, which were denied to others. Let any one tell you, how he managed a permit or how he broke a queue to get a ticket for a show, the response would invariably be one of "awe". Oh great, how did you? etc.....The common term for these attributes ? "enterprising".
Every one must have heard of the term "out of the box" thinking. But honestly how many of us will have the sincerity of accepting such ideas if one of our subordinates were to give us one. Vey often the chances of acceptance of any idea is dependent more on who is giving it rather than the merit of such advice. And if it is out of the box..... just forget it......
Even the almighty appears happy protect only those who help themselves; in today's world who would want to take their role models to be a Dharmaputra, or Rama, or a say a Mahathma Gandhi? Indeed the unanimous favourites would be Duryodhan, Ravan. And what do the Gods do? In one Upanishad to another the essence of teaching is that there really is "one" universal soul in which all individual soul merges. Once this happens you just "be". All experience cease. And when this Universal soul, (God, Paramatma, or what have you) wants to "experience" it creates thru "maya" innumerable souls. ( Walsch discribes them as God's dichotomy). My own term for this probably is "prarabdam". Once this sets in it takes it's own course, with even the Gods being unable to control.
Finally, a German moralist by name Nietsche, is credited with a quote "he who has a "why" to live, can bear with almost any "how". He also advocated a revolutionary change in christianity... from a slave morality and leading the society with a breed of supermen. Hitler ( the shishya) found a new meaning to this; he tested the Jewish capacity to endure the Nazi brutalities and justified his killings to create "supermen".
Where were the Gods?.......... Experiencing their game of "dichotomy"....? A surviving Jew gave a more profound interpretation to Nietsche; that every creation of God has a purpose to serve. Alas in today's TQM, one of the first requisite is to define one's role. Oh my God.... where do I go for salvation? ......... ALV"
PS: In 2005, there was the VAT issue, today it has been replaced by GST. License Raj has been replaced by free enterprise dominated by politicians/business & media tycoons/the rich where any news can be created and the gullible public so browbeaten as to either believe or be braiwashed to just accept such ballistic reportage as the "only truth". See the tamasha with the opening of MNIK ..... I anticipated a good rating for the film to be in sync with the publicity hype. Wow, I am more than impressed. TOI gives it 5 star rating and says that this film is a message for the whole world. I will be damned if I join the crowd and equally damned if I don't.
Peace, love and prosperity, and dawning of realisationASAP.
Vichu
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