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Showing posts from November, 2010

Ram and I

Frankly I am a bit amused at the way so much debate is taking place on whether Sri Ram was born or whether there is historical proof for the same or whether any evidence to satisfy modern evidence act is available. A nation wide presence of Ram in the hearts of millions humans, and the literature and songs and love going back to time immemorial , gets dismissed as illiterates' illusion or make believe. Treta Yuga and Kaliyuga separated by more than a hundred thousands of years, should make one wonder , why we try to be happy to place a time frame of 6 to 7 thousand years ago for the Ramayana. Cyclical time periods and eras described by ancients are much beyond the concept of single arrow of time and of late only, multi-verse and multiple arrows of time are beginning to become acceptable for the westerners and so to our educated, who in the same breath dismiss our ancients' description of time. The evidences can only in the form of geological aberrations-- time has a way of des

Economy, politics & diabetes

The weakness in pursuing clear cut paths and objectives is rampant in politics. It is the art of possible. So ethics, values and strong positions needed to be taken in war time crisis like situation will be thrown overboard when the going gets tough for the political party in power. Real war unites a nation and society. But the diabetic like disease, invisible, but deeply debilitating is deceptive and our financial system and economy are in the throes of such debilitating disease. It does not look like the black and white war situation which all can understand. But spreading hunger and depression with more and more joining the ranks of jobless, grievously hurts the society. But the enemy is invisible to the suffering population. If intellectuals and economists are able to unite and define the parameters in very scientific terms and indices and remedies too in as much clear cut terms, instead of leaving it to some long winding interpretations and widely differing approaches to attack

Sanskrit scholars - a vanishing species?

To my mind Sanskrit can be preserved more as as historical research facilitation language at some centers of excellence with the best of committed scholars provided with decent compensation and suitable environs with vistas of green and a quiet respectable campus with emphasis on learning and practicing daily the vedic practices. If it happens to be erudite brahmin families who have to do man this, our secular state should not mind. Support the same as an acivity to preserve an ancient culture and proper balanced true study of original vedic hymns. Advanced media storage of audio and video in an organised manner, with live webcasts to provide world wide networking among centers of such excellence, and also for on line learning for any one willing to learn, irrespective of caste or creed or nationality with award of diplomas must be planned. I would imagine India should have 5 such centers , each of about 1000 hectares area, a little away from bustle of urban areas, one in Himalayas, on

My take on 2G

What I find is we have crisis of leadership. If you start the serious probe too deep, like Adarsh Society and CWG case, almost every current leader and past leaders who held the positions to dispense favours, willl find places of honour in the list. The money trail will lead to homes of the backstage truly powerful leaders, who put up the puppet show of the so called Central/State Cabinets. Then we find that even the Supreme Court heads will find place on the honours list. CBI too having been only an extended arm of the PM, will find itself in compromised position. Over a period of time CAG was marginalised, and no one thought it was important to closely guard and control its functioning. In general perception management made them look like a negative force for dynamic executive style functioning for development. Actually that seemed to have allowed to work quietly and a person like Ms Rekha Gupta rose to important Dy CAG position. Such a courageous person normally the system tries to

Science & Religion Two sides of the same coin?

My friend Madhavan Nair who successfully launched our India's moon probe, visited Balaji before launching. His wife also accompanied. Religion is personal and let us leave it at that.Matters of faith be respected as the person's own private personality and mutually one may avoid treading on each other's feelings. Governor Narasimhan and his wife were photographed, doing full pranaamam on ground to Pedda Jiyyar Swamiji at Tirumala. There is a sense of humility and recognition of one's limitations as to what a human can do. It is not power that Satya Sai. shows.. it is love for humanity that pervades from him. Each human is capable of this love , if he is able to get own swarupa saashatkara. These are not matters of science which deals with material issues and concerns. The so called laws of science are getting modified or abandoned whenever some new fact is discovered. I feel science and religion are not to be confused with superstitious attitudes of certain practitione

Why can't I live and practice peacefully my religion in India?

I studied in Loyola and loved the fathers who taught me well and never for once tried to influence me to change my habits of prayer. They were respectful and did not hesitate to declare and give me the Best Student award ; and it was not a Bible they gave me as present, but Gitanjali of Tagore. In my High School as well as in college I had my best friends Sherrif and Abdullah and never felt a religious color in our relationship. We ate together played together. Even in working life, I was hosted by a Islamic family in Jordan, being land lord of the house we were staying, invited to dine with their families including lady folk . The teenage girls had so many questions about our marriage customs and were continuously giggling. They respected my vegetarian food habits and made sure I get what I need. In Damascus and Baghdad as MD, too when I delivered my lecture/presentations more than once, the picture which comes on my laptop as the first Screen happens to me Lord Venkateswara used to

A case for TERA- Technology Evaluation & Rating Agency

A case for TERA- Technology Evaluation & Rating Agency to allow intellectual capital to improve efficiency of our capital investments in logistics infrastructure . B.Rajaram FIE., FNAE Abstract: Mckenzie estimates $500 b as the funding needed for logistic infrastructure of India in next decade. Our PM mentions a figure of $ 1 trillion. The space of opportunity to innovate is huge. But surprisingly Mckenzie envisages the age old systems and solutions in use by other developed countries. When those countries created their infrastructure it was not from debt, but from capital free of any attached cost. Today we need debt to create. Old generation solutions remained mainly product centric and not based on totality of service. The modal splits and transfers queer the pitch. Individually each of the proucts like metro rail or high speed network, deliver well, but for the user the total point to point quick transit gets more often than not, denied. The intellectual capital and innovati

Adarsh Society-- only a symptom of deeper malaise

But why people are acting so surprised? Three years ago a NGO pointed out the same scam of Adarsh Society. No one cared. This time an innocent journalist put it on TImes Now, and for some reason seems to have escaped the usual editorial scrutiny preventing such major exposure. The storm caught every one by surprise. It is common knowledge that we are not too serious about ethics in governance. Till caught and exposed badly, you can do anything. The secret is not to get caught. The punishment follows for getting caught. It is tiresome to to see the hypocrites writing all kinds of essays expressing great surprise and shock. Today even high school student wryly dismisses these empty words, as I find in my chat with an youngster. After a few weeks, the news value is over and people return back to their normal business, just like we do in railways after an accident and a few deaths, express shock and announce inquiries and promise remedial solutions, start running trains as usual and forget