Believe it or not!!

Wikipedia gives the following definition of exorcism:
Exorcism (from Late Latin exorcismus, from Greek ἐξορκισμός, exorkismos - binding by oath) is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed.


All religions are based on one concept: the victory of good over evil. Good is represented by God and his angelic forces, while evil is represented by the Demonic Lords and their minions. The mythology of any of the world's major religions is immersed in the perpetual fight between these two forces. And in all these stories, almost without fail, good must triumph over evil at the end. In the Ramayana, after facing years of hardships and losses, Lord Rama finally manages to defeat Ravana - the "king of demons", to reclaim his wife Sita. In Christianity, Judas betrays Lord Jesus Christ for his own ends.......but the good Lord returns from death to show humanity the 'right path to heaven'. Judas was demonified after that and his gospel was burned. Only recently, one of the last surviving copies of his gospel was found which tells the entire story from his perspective, but the Christians refused to accept the gospel as a true gospel and instead vilified it.


One of the things that we do know about history is that, only the victor writes the pages of history. We do not know anything else about the king of Lanka except from what is written in the Ramayana, which is basically an epic singing praises about the virtues of Lord Rama. Though the book does mention that Ravana was an intellectual and a true devotee of Lord Shiva, most of the population of the Hind came to vilify him. For most of us, he represents the embodiment of evil. He came to be known as the king of demons. But who is to tell the difference between the good side and the bad side in a battle that took place thousands of years ago. There is a small tribe in the the heartlands of Madhya Pradesh that worships Ravana as a deity, for reasons of kinship as well as him being an intellectual. True that Ravana had kidnapped Sita and held her against her will. So, he fancied her. Big deal! A man who kidnaps a woman who satisfy his love or lust cannot be rightfully vilified and portrayed as the personification of all evil. As I understand it, in those primitive days, things like this could not have been this uncommon. And to drive home my point that the victor is always 'right', let us look at more recent events, like during world war 2. During those times, two lines of thought existed. One led by Hitler's Germany and the other carved out by the allies. Each line of thought was 'right' in the country of their origin while the other line of thought was vilified. Hitler's view that Jews were traitors to the German cause and not to be trusted was widely supported by a lot of Germans. The Britons naturally and rightly so vilified that way of thinking(Aryan supremacy) but on the other hand it was all right for them to exploit Asians and Africans because they were 'inferior' to the white skinned powerful imperialists that the Brits were. Double standards? Now who was in the right here? Or were both sides in the the right and also in the wrong in their own way. The end of the war  brought Germany's defeat and also Japan's. Anyone who was a Nazi was now demonified to an extent that even their own people came to hate them.

The very interesting Chinese concept of yin-yang talks about how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn. Many natural dualities—e.g. dark and light, female and male, low and high, cold and hot, water and fire, air and earth— are thought of as manifestations of yin and yang (respectively). In reference to my point, I can say that good and evil are not two separate forces, but two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other. And good and evil actions are also defined by the perceptions in a society. What is considered good and honorable in one society might be considered evil and barbaric in the other. The Japanese samurai believe that their heads must be cut off if they have lost in battle and have hence dissapointed their masters. The yakuza(Japanese mafia) still cut their fingers off if they bring dishonor to their boss in any way. In the west, these acts are considered barbaric but are accepted as norm and expected behavior in Japanese society.

So I must wrap up this article by concluding that there is no good or evil - only a societies perceptions of what is considered a good deed and what is considered an evil deed. I also feel that these perceptions should not be defined by events that happened thousands of years ago and when the only account that we have of these events are probably exaggerated tales. A human being is a complex creature. The yin-yang philosophy talks of a balance that must be maintained between any two opposing forces that make up who we are. This balance is highly important to lead a stress free life. Anyone more interested in reading about this may please google yin-yang, the Taoist philosophies provide for wonderful reading. In any case, these two opposing forces can't be objectively classified as good and evil, according to me. Even Taoist philosophy denounces this idea. 

Which brings me back to the starting point. If good and evil can't be objectively classified as two opposing forces, then by my viewpoint, there can be no God and no Devil. Maybe there is an all powerful being watching over us, or maybe there is no one! But that debate is for another day. But the exorcisms? and the 100's of people throughout history who swear by the process? Maybe, our religious orders had managed to brainwash them so much that they actually thought that they were possessed by the Devil himself and the only thing that could save them was an exorcism performed by a holy man - a priest.  Our human mind works in complicated ways. It sees what it believes to be real. Have you ever seen a horror movie late at night in a cinema house all alone, and got completely spooked on the long walk home along dark alleyways. An innocent cat shadow might have scared you to death at those times. And here we are talking about individuals who might in the first case not be mentally stable and then on top of that they may have been brainwashed into believing something that may not even exist. And after all, fear of the Devil and his forces is what that make people keep believing in ideologies 1000's of years old. These fears are what modern day religions feed on in order to stay alive. And propagating these fears is the principal aim of those few men who govern these religions. These few decide what is right and wrong, what constitutes good and evil. And those, like me, who refuse to adhere to their edicts may be branded as evil heretics, or more gently as 'lost souls'. But i really don't mind. I refuse to have people tell me right from wrong and I choose to stand by own beliefs. 

Worrying Indeed!!!

Year after year, we are witness to a disturbing precedent. The nation has been a victim to a rising number of terrorist attacks organized by a motley of extremist groups supposedly based from our neighbouring countries. The precedent that I'm taliking about is the tendency of our political 'leaders' to put the entire blame for the fiasco on our neighbouring countries. By doing so, they try to take themselves out of the spotlight ignited by national anger. They try to cleverly use the deep rooted mistrust that Indians have for some of their neighbouring countries. They divert the national anger upon others. They cleverly play the blame game and accuse other countries as the cause of all of the nation's plights, while trying hard to hide their own inefficacies. The mob, which is in a fit of shock and rage at this point, readily gobbles up all this propoganda and they fall prey to hate politics.

I'm not trying to excuse our neighbouring countries from whatever crimes that they have committed against us. Terrorism is a heinous activity, and any person or organization that uses terrorism as his/it's policy deserve to rot in hell. What I'm trying to say is that instead of playing the blame game, our 'leaders' need to grow up and take steps to prevent future such disruptions in the healthy life of this nation. But sadly, this does not seem to be the case. Life is still very cheap in India. The issue of public security is still taken very lightly. The police is neigther propperly equipped nor propperly trained to face the challenge of global terrorism. One would have thought that after the disasater of 26/11, the government of India would have learned its lesson. But the blasts which took place on 13/7 recently prove otherwise. What this shows us is that despite promises(never kept) to the people of India, promises meant to safeguard us, the terrorists can still strike at will in the financial capital of india. This city claims to be the nerve center of India. This is a city that is the global face of India, the producer of wealth in our country. In short, this city can be said to be the global face of India, and if terrorists can strike here with such ease, this raises a serious question about the security preparedness of the entire nation.

Why am I here?

What I feel when I sit in a boring lecture.....I am guessing that this holds true for a majority of people....:

Trapped in a big hall, I got bored.

Hours on the bench, my backside was sore.

Greek and Latin to me were the writings on the board

Good at neither was I, my eyes were on the door.

I dreamt of the lilies, I dreamt of the butterflies,

I dreamt of a beautiful girl, waving at me to my utmost surprise.

The world was full of possibilities, if I could only find

A way to leave the hall, leave the dreary place behind.

The teacher droned on in a monotonous voice.

Alas! That I was here out of my own sad choice.

Anna's campaign

Anna Hazare may be the best thing to happen to this country this century. Coming out of relative obscurity, he has completely transformed the fight against corruption and brought it from the innards of our self-conscience and out into the open and right into Delhi, and other centers of power across India. Many wrote him off. The corrupt babu's who currently hold power would never give in to his 'outrageous' demands. Of course, why should they return the money which they had worked so hard to steal in the first place. And so, a battle of will, and of wit and tact began. Baba Ramdev was honoured by no less than 4 cabinet ministers in an effort to sideline the more suave and less dramatic Anna Hazare. But on seeing the kind of mass support that the famed yoga guru had, and because the Swami was in no mood to put a stop to his 'hooliganism and other outrageous activities', those honorable ministers were forced to take police action against him. Of course, the police action was peaceful, but the Baba claims that he narrowly escaped with his life.
(At this point, those who fail to notice the sarcasm in my tone, you are super dumb :P)
So, one person disposed of, the government thought that Anna, the suave, soft spoken, leader of only the elite with no mass appeal cannot possibly be more troublesome than the Baba. There was probably champagne being served at 10 Janpath  that day.
Alas! The celebration was short lived. Beacuse, soo after the episode with Baba Ramdev came to a close, Anna Hazare suddenly became a rock star. He was the new poster boy of the media. Move over all the Rakhi Sawants and Mika Singhs of the world, because Annaji is here to stay. Even India TV, aired exclusives on him. How could a dull social worker from the interiors of Maharashtra without even one scandal to his name could occupy so much prime time, was simply beyond the understanding of all the well fed babu's. But our great leaders, the masters of public administration knew how to cut short a revolution. Cut off the head and the snake dies. So, they went and arrested Anna Hazare. BIG MISTAKE!! :D
The arrest of Anna sparked simultaneous protests in every nook and corner of the country, of the scale probably not seen since independence. The government was aghast. None of the tricks they had up their sleeve seemed to work. They tried mud slinging.....but Anna Hazare's image was immaculately clean. In fact, it seems that all the mud just bounced off him to hit Digvijay Singh splat in the face. They tried negotiating, but Anna Hazare was determined that his demands should be met in totality. In fact, he began his hunger strike write from his jail cell, reminiscent of the freedom struggle. Keeping in tune wit the masses, he declared this movement to be the second freedom struggle. Arresting Anna Hazare provided him with support from virtually every segment of society, be it rich or poor, save for the occasional uncalled for tirade by Arundhati Roy. Rickshaw drivers, and IT professionals marched side by side, chanting slogans in one voice. Celebrities, politicians and Swami's all came down to support Annaji. The government was left with no option but to release him, hoping that the wave of displeasure created by his arrest would eventually die down after his release. As we all know, nothing of the sort happened. Once he was rleased, Annaji smartly used all the new weapons of mass approval in his arsenal and periodically kept on bombing the congress leadership with them. Even Digvijay Singh was now forced to shut up. As a last desperate measure, the age old foreign hand (read USA) card was played. That too failed. The opposition parties made life none the easier for the ruling UPA. The odd remarks of disapproval of Anna's campaign by the odd Lalu Prasad Yadav was drowned out by the development that had happened in a Lalu free Bihar. Good news! Lalu is gone from Bihar, but the samosa still has aaloo in it. And it's probably fried in a lot more hygienic oil now and in a much more peaceful environment, not while staring down the double barrels of a world war 2 vintage rifle. In the midst of all this, leaders like mayawati, for reasons only known to her found it to her benefit to support Anna. Maybe she believes that she can't be caught. How can the future PM of India be put behind bars. The very idea is ridiculou to her. But maybe she should have a chat with Kanimozhi to this effect.
Faced with increasing domestic pressure on account of Annaji's failing health, the ruling government finally had to concede to most of Anna's demands. Brand Anna had won the day. The government had promised to introduce Anna's Jan-lokbal bill in the parliament. But as expected of it, the congress is again taking half hearted steps towards the implementation of this bill. A lot of politicians are probably running scared of this bill, as this bill gives enough power to a committee to investigate any MP found indulging in fraud. As and when that happens, we'll start to have an increasingly empty parliament. Good! At least, that way there will be less ruckus and more work will get done. Maybe it's now time to kick the congress out of office and hope that the NDA under either Narendre Modi or Nitish Kumar can do a better job. If they fail too, we'll kick them out too, and reelect......who? Maybe Annaji should float a party of the educated people of India who can legitimately get elected and work for the country. The masses of this country have been fooled for too long by the shrewed babu's, whose favorite passtime is preying on the hapless civilian and draiing them of their life energy. The people in power today are soul sucking vampires. Maybe that's why, we can't see them in their provinces apart the time when they are campaigning for reelection. Maybe, reelection time is their night and the interim period is their day, it spoils their health to visit their constituencies any other time. That's probably it.....how else can one explain the long absences if they are as honest and efficient as they all claim to be.

This one is for all my college mates! Had an awesome 3 years with all u ppl.........learned many things in BITS....most of all- how 2 take lite...lol :D

How the years rolled on by,

Faster than we hoped they could,

Slower than we hoped they would.

Oh! How the years rolled on by.

In the first, we came here full of expectation,

In the second, we ha a merry time.

The third year brought with it desperation,

The fourth one is heavenly sublime.

I will indeed cherish these times,

I do not wish to say goodbye.

I will remember the laughs we had,

Oh! How the years rolled on by.

But a time must come for us to part,

Until we meet again, once more.

That day, shall merry fanfare renew our young hearts.

As we recount the tales of old.

Where is the moderate Pakistan?

Even as I write this, the US government is leveling serious accusations against the Pakistani government. They are now openly accusing the Pakistani state of supporting terrorist organizations. In fact, their statements are now sounding increasingly familiar, aren't they? Indian government, anyone?
So, USA, and in short, the 'civilized/western' world is now just short of formally declaring a fact long understood and said before only in hushed tones-'Pakistan is a terrorist state'. And as long as we speak of the people who really are in charge of Pakistan, i.e. the army, ISI, and various 'mujaheddin' groups, Pakistan can be declared a terrorist state. But, what about their civilian government, which the army uses as a front to meet various dignitaries from abroad while making all the core decisions without consulting with the same leaders. To me, Pakistani civilian leaders hold the same respect and admiration as the Indian politicians-none at all. They are just as corrupt and inefficient as the Indian leaders. But what they are not are supporters of terrorism. Terrorism is a state of mind born of extreme brainwashing and also an ignorance of world affairs and inability to understand them in a coherent manner. The Pakistani civilian leadership, if anything is well educated, and is well aware of the plight that their country is in.
But their voice has been silenced by the radicals and the army. They don't have enough power to change the official national policy on major issues like Kashmir and terrorism, on which the uneducated Pakistani(sadly,a vast majority) doesn't want to compromise. Most of you would be aware of the Asia Bibi case(regarding Pakistan's medieval blasphemy law) wherein 2 moderate voices of Pakistan, the governor of the Punjab province Salman Taseer, and the minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti were assassinated. All they did was speak out against the draconian blasphemy law which is highly unfair to the minorities as it can be used unfairly by a muslim party against a non-muslim and the advantage of doubt would go to the muslim person.
My thoughts may appear to be a bit muddled up by now, but I will now make my point. Now, I address all Indians. Our leaders spew just as much hatred as the Pakistani leaders. Groups like the Shiv Sena, RSS, and MNS generate a lot of unwarranted hatred against the Pakistani state in particular and against all Pakistanis in general through the medium of their fiery and provocative speeches. Again, it is the uneducated Indian(sadly a vast majority of the total population) who gets incited to resort to violence. The result of this would be the recently found Hindu hand in the Malegaon blast case. What I want to say is, that not all Pakistani's are bad, nor are all Indians. Among the vast majority who sit for the fiery speeches being delivered by the hate mongers of the respective countries, thankfully only a small minority is incited enough to act rather than just spew words. In the others, I would like to believe, better sense prevails.
Coming back to the point that I want to make, as one can see from the recent assassinations of the moderate voices of Pakistan , that more moderates are fearful of coming out and speaking their minds. As a result of which, a lot of Indians wrongly accuse all Pakistanis of harboring terrorists. Nothing can be further from the truth. But one has to only visit the discussions in various forums on ties between the two countries to get an idea of what I'm talking about. In order to remove this lack of understanding between our two people's, inter-population interaction needs to be increased on the lines of the TOI-Jang group 'Aman ki Asha' initiative. I believe that only by increasing such interaction can we truly understand each others world views and put a stop to this never ending conflict.

Where's the debate????

Over the years there has been a lot of debate on India's foreign policy. Since India is no longer a sluggard and decisions made by India affects a lot of non-Indians, many actors are giving voice to their opinions about Indian foreign policy. One of these opinions refers to Gandhian philosophy. Many people are of the opinion that a country which is the birthplace of the Mahatma should not be flexing its military muscle the way it is doing now. They question India spending Billions of dollars on a space programme when more than 37% of India is below poverty line and most of the population do not have basic sanitation facilities.

At this point I would like to present my view that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was not born a Mahatma. In fact in his earlier days he was what we can call a subject of the british crown. He was a barrister and even went to South Africa to practice law. What made the man great were his experiences and his unique way of viewing these experiences. The turning point was probably when he was thrown out of a first class compartment despite possessing a ticket, just on the basis that he was an Indian. There was a sign saying thus: "Dogs and Indians not allowed". Gandhiji returned home to India a changed man. The times were different. There was no way that the Indians would be able to win an armed conflict against the strongest empire in the world. It had been tried before in 1857, and we had failed. The Mahatma probably saw civil disobedience and non-violence as the only effective way to oust the British from India.

But today the times are different. India is present in a very volatile neighbourhood. To our south the LTTE continues to forment trouble in Sri Lanka. They were also responsible for the assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi. To the west, Pakistan is becoming increasingly unstable. Its tribal areas have now been completely talibanized. Pakistan also happens to be nuclear state with the ability to cover most of the Indian sub-continent with its North Korea supplied ballistic missiles. They are said to be building fissile material at an extremely fast pace and will soon possess more than a hundred WMD's. To our east, China is emerging as the next superpower and the relationship between our governments is not exactly cheerful. Nepal has been taken over by communists and Bangladesh has become a hub for naxalites targetting the Indian north-east.

In this kind of a neighbourhood India cannot afford to not increase its military strength. India is now the largest importer of  military goods. As far as investing in high cost research areas like space goes, I don't really see the point of any debate here. India's recently acquired global clout can attribute some of its success to successful research by India in the high-tech sector. The chandryaan mission is a result of this. In addition, India's space programme costs a fraction of what the US or the European programme costs. In addition, this programme is a revenue generator and also helps in various fields such as agriculture. More than 705 of Indian population depends on agriculture to sustain themselves.