Some thoughts

Laying out my mind sometimes..

Monday 28 February 2011

My nation.. My knowledge..

How much do we know about our nation? Even if we don't know about history.. do we know about our own country in the present? 
The Tri-colour
Photo courtesy google images

Well somehow I think that I don't, here is a simple example, which was talked about in class today by Prof. Nishit Kumar. 

India is a secular and democratic country right? Okay, lets talk about our National Anthem.. its "Jan Gan Man" the second sentence of the anthem is "Adhinayak Jaya hai" which means praise to the ruler. I myself did not know this till today. The reason for this is that, when Rabindranath Tagore wrote this song, India was ruled by the British and any songs which were written to oppose the British raj were banned. Thus, it could not be sung and therefore it was essential to written in such a way.

A little search by me brought me to this website http://www.sikhsangat.com/index.php?/topic/38358-did-you-know-meaning-of-indian-national-anthem/ where the meaning of our national anthem has been thoroughly given. I urge you to have a look at it.

The idea of this post is  not to say that I no longer respect our nation or our national anthem. And in no way do I want to encourage you to do so. Rather it is a shameful situation for us as citizens of India to not know this.

Friday 25 February 2011

A special relationship..

Photo Courtesy: Google images
It is often said that the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren is one of affection and love and that today it is changing because of urbanization. It is being said that today the families are adopting the culture of DISK (double income single kid) and DINK (double income no kid) and are largely converting to nuclear families, thus the children are not able to experience the same affectionate relationship with their grandparents any more... 

How true is the above mentioned statement? Can it be 100% true or are their other factors which are leading to this deterioration in the relationship of children and grandparents? 

Well I know of one such factor..

It is not always true that children do not like their grandparents, or parents do not let children go to them. It might also be true in some cases that grandparents behave rudely with the child, they do not care for them at all. Even if the parent wants the child to get along with their grandparents, they are averse to the children. It might be true that the child goes to his/her grandparent and he/she is sent away and not bothered about at all. It could be that the child yearns for the affection of his/her grandparents but never gets it.

Have we ever thought about this side of the story? Or is it JUST too convenient to generalize things? 

Also, in cases where girl child is given less importance, thus less affection than the boy child.. wouldn't she feel the vacuum of that affection. Will she not want to be cared for as her own brother? Wouldn't it further lead to jealousy towards ones own brother? Doesn't this scenario need to change? I surely think it does. 



Thursday 24 February 2011

Inter-culture leads to new culture..??? true?? untrue??

Indian Culture..

Courtesy Prof Ramaa,  I now know many things related to our culture that I previously didn't and one of them is the concept of clothes in the Indian society.

Well I wold like to share my views with the example of Hariti.
Indian version of Hariti
Greek version of Hariti
Hariti is the goddess of protection of children. She has been followed since the Bactrians or from the time of Lord Buddha or the presence of Greeks (references given for better understanding of the reader). The sculptors which were made by the Greeks show Hariti in Hellenic clothes where the folds in the cloth can be distinctly identified. In contrast to her sculptor in Ajanta caves where she is shown to be wearing negligible clothes and a lot of jewelry. As shown in the images above..

On seeing this I asked my Professor if this was the case then why is the Indian society today so rigid about the concept of clothes and averse to nudity in comparison to the western countries. At this I was told that because of the Mughal invasion in India, this concept began, and is still being followed. Even today there are many tribes in India where both men and women wear clothes only to cover the lower genital parts of their body. Thus, proving  the above mentioned concept. 


It is in this way that inter-culture mingling leads to formation of new culture altogether. 

Photo courtesy google images

Wednesday 23 February 2011

H.O.P.E.

This is just something that our Professor Joel Xavier told us today in class,...

Do you know what is the full form of Hope?
If you don't here it is:
High order purpose for existence..

How true does this statement go.. doesn't it just tell us so much about our actions?? Well I think it sure does.. how else would you define it???

A sadhu was once found by a bunch of people who belonged to various nationalities at 15,000 feet. These men were mountaineering when they came across this semi naked dying man. But, their desire to cross a pass was much more than saving a man. Doesn't the HOPE for that Sadhu come to this???

Just some food for thought
Photo courtesy: shutter stock




Tuesday 22 February 2011

Just a while..


Photo Courtesy Ashish Chandra


It was all just some time ago when things seemed to be so simple. 
Life took a turn a while ago.
I couldn't understand where it went, just kept falling. 
How I want to dance, play, love, eat and talk endlessly. 
Only that now I can't. 

I wish to be healthier and better, to handle things the way I want to. 
How I yearn to play, just how I wish to show my happiness through my dance. 
How I want to go on talking as though I wouldn't ever get a chance. 
Troubles and responsibilities have overshadowed my desires. 
Please help me to get past through them now. 
Who knows when my end arrives it may be just a while from now....

Welcome Note

This is to all those people who are reading my blog for the first time. Welcome, I hope that you are fine. I sincerely pray that the content here helps you to improve your knowledge, even if it is by 0.01%. In-case that does happen I will get immense satisfaction and my little efforts would borne fruits :)

So Thank You and hope to see you again :)