Wisdom of the Buddha!

Read this while browsing randomly...Simply beautiful!

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

The Buddha

Inverse paranoid?! - What the hell is that?

"I have always been the opposite of paranoid. I operate as if everyone is part of a plot to enhance my well-being". - Stan Dale - founder of the Human Awareness Institute.

I had never heard about this Stan Dale till I read this quote by him in a great book that I am reading right now called "The Success Principles" by Jack Canfield, co-author of the Chicken Soup series of book.

But WHAT A THOUGHT!!

Pranab's faux pas

Several articles have been written in newspapers in connection with the release of Kashmir Singh, who languished in Pakistani jails for 35 years. I read one such article in Deccan Chronicle that talked about other people who could still be imprisoned in jails across the border and the attempts made by their families to get them released.

Turns out, some members of these long-suffering families met External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee to submit a petition. In response, the Congress veteran is supposed to have asked, "Do you really believe they are still alive?" A lady, whose husband went missing during the 1971 war, is reported to have tersely said, "But Minister, you are still alive." (The missing man is around the same age as the minister.)

And they gave this man the Padma Vibhushan this year!!

Sham of the Year!

My knowledge about Economics was fuzzy for a long time and even today, consider myself no expert. But even I was shocked by the absurdity of the sham that was the Budget 2008!

P. Chidambaram says "the budget will stimulate growth and investment" and his boss, the honourable Dr. Manmohan Singh calls it an "outstanding budget". The latter has a doctorate in Economics, so I guess the ordinary man is not supposed to question his credentials. But how does one manage to say such things with conviction after deciding to simply write off an incredible Rs. 60,000 crore?!! Either these men must be geniuses who deserve this year's Nobel Prize for Economics or, simply, people who are willing to sell the country down the river just for the sake of remaining in power.

I am tired of hearing people say what a nice gentleman our Prime Minister is, how he shines through in a Cabinet dominated by petty politicians etc. But a leader and, more importantly a patriot, is someone who has not only knowledge, but the vision and the strength to go against the flow and take tough decisions irrespective of electoral gains. Not someone willing to so shamelessly pander to the wishes of an ignorant and power-hungry bunch of colleagues and political allies!

A man has to be judged by his actions and not by reputation. History, in all probability, will judge Manmohan Singh as the man who presided over a government that presented a Budget that was shocking for the sheer audacity with which it has attempted to fool the people of this country! It will be ironical for a man who was instrumental in liberalising the economy and putting the country on the growth path.

Only in India....

Find out why students went on a rampage in Bihar recently. Amazing!

The Archbishops' gaffe

The head of the Roman Catholic church in Chennai, Archbishop Chinnappa came up with a shocker recently. Speaking on Christmas eve, he urged "all Christians to send their children to only Christian schools". Interestingly, another Archbishop (of Changanacherry in Kerala) issued a similar statement a few days earlier. Obviously this is not a coincidence and there is more to it than meets the eye.

If the statements made by these two men of cloth are not communal, then what is? How absurd can they get?! This, when progressive thinking warrants building an inclusive society. What next, similar statements exhorting Christians to eat only in restaurants run by fellow-Christians? Maybe a directive to all Christians that they should seek employment only in Christian organisations? (So goodbye to the Tatas, Reliance, Infosys, Wipro?) Where will these gentlemen draw a line, when it comes to this kind of thinking? What happens when every religious group starts thinking the same way?

Dangerous, regressive thinking. The sort that is not conducive for a secular society and one that needs to be condemned with the contempt it deserves!

Buddha's enlightenment!

Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment after meditating under a Bodhi Tree.

Looks like Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Chief Minister of W.Bengal, and a man named after the Enlightened One, too has attained some enlightenment of sorts! Only it is not clear whether he too meditated under a tree or just woke up from some Rip Van Winkle-kind-of slumber, only to see that the world looks and works differently than in the dreams he had been having!

He says "We have to accept capitalism; where is State capital? This is being realistic in a situation where there is no alternative.” Amazing isn't it? What a profound discovery!! What's next I wonder...a discovery that "people need to work, else they won't be able to earn money" or some such nugget of wisdom?

It's amusing, that when I googled for this, I found The Hindu, a leftist newspaper I no longer read, has reported this! Read the Economic Times article that talks about his predecessor's support for the same.

I think the government's job is to govern. Provide law & order, justice, good education, healthcare etc. Not to interfere with business or "provide" jobs! The latter simply won't work because there's no accountability with the government to run anything efficiently and profitably. We have seen wonderful examples of this in the last several decades and everytime we come in contact with those denizens occupying important positions in those Public Sector companies and government offices. If there is a bunch of more uncaring, corrupt and dehumanised species of humankind available anywhere in this planet, do let me know. This is what socialism ends up creating. Am not saying, that there are not any well-intentioned socialists who mean well, but the system just does not work. And if intentions are everything, then all men are Mahathma Gandhi and all women, Mother Teresa!

No, the yardstick for measuring a succesful state is to, well, see if it has succeeded, for God's sake!! If, after 30 years of ruling the state uninterruptedly, the Communists still haven't got their act together, I don't think they ever will. Hence all these noises about adopting capitalism etc., since all options are fast running out in the rapidly-changing world.

To put it in a nutshell, socialism does not create (or provide opportunities for) wealth-equity as well as capitalism does. Why else did the USSR and the left bloc collapse and not the USA, Germany, Japan and the rest? Mind you, capitalism is not a perfect system and has a lot of problems. But to borrow Churchill's views on democracy and use the same logic, "Capitalism is the worst form of economics except for all those that have been tried before".

Meanwhile, the show, for the CPI (M) and other like-minded political parties, must go on.