Hope

A question that has been bothering me for past some time is why do people give up sometimes? A question that has eluded me for long.


Sometimes you just feel that all you did for so long was all in vain. Sometimes you are at such a stage in life that you get so disappointed that you feel like not moving forward. The disappointment can be through an event or a person but sometimes it penetrates you so deep that it uproots the basic philosophy of your life and you become so fragile that you begin asking yourself weather what you
did was correct or more importantly worth it.

There is a way of doing things and everyone has their own way. Sometimes you adapt a way of working and looking at things and your philosophy gets formed around that way. You work hard always according to that philosophy and you never compromise with it. Though you do not get instant results but you surely get a satisfaction because you are always true to yourself. This truth further strengthens your belief into the philosophy that you have adopted and you keep moving forward. You face a lot of problems in your path. But you never give up because you believe in yourself. You believe that whatever you are doing is the right path and hence you tackle those problems head on. Though those problems sometimes take a lot of toll on you but you are able to manage cause you are strong inside, cause your beliefs are strong.


But then one day after you have prevailed over a lot of problems, something happens and you are forced to ask yourself was it really worth it. This time the question is very potent and the best part is that you cannot say this time that obviously it was worth it. Your inner self tells you yes it was but when you look outside in the face of that something which happened a short while ago it becomes evident that you were wrong. You see that something that happened some time back questioning the basic philosophy and in turn the way you adopted long back.


And then because you do not have an answer you get disappointed. Not over that something that happened sometime back but over yourself. You realize that this time you are not sure. This time you cannot deal with it. This time you are fragile. This is something that you could never take. And then something happens, your belief system breaks down which in turn increases your disappointment. After a lot of analysis you find out that you can fight everything else but not this. But then at the same moment comes the realization that the disappointment has made you so weak internally that you cannot fight even the smallest impulses forget solving problems.

There are times when you are going through all this that you hear somebody else's problem. You listen to them out and find out that it is nothing compared to what you yourself are going through. But then you see their sad faces and realize that you have to do something. So you keep your disappointment aside and become temporarily this new person who knows how to solve problems and never gives up. Let me tell you something about this new temporary person. He is really hollow inside. On the face of him he is strong, fearless and logical but if you start peeking inside that temporary man you realize he is just a man. A man who can be disappointed who can give up.

But then again since this man is temporary so it never gives the other person to know more about him. Hence the fragility of this man never becomes evident. All this man does is give a great advice and then disappear. And then something happens, the sad face that you were working on becomes somewhat better and you realize the temporary man has done his deal again. All this does not reduce your disappointment but there is an additional feeling of satisfaction. Not a very good juxtaposition but this is what happens none the less.

So what do you do. All you can do is hope that things will get better. Remember "HOPE is the best of things".

Caste

The recent news about honor killings prompted me to delve deeper into the issue. During my research I understood that these killings are a result of caste system. To know more about it it I had to know more about the caste system.

First thing that came to my mind was that if this system is prevalent for such  a long time then there must be some advantage of the system. Thus this post lists some pros of the system then some cons of the system and finally I  end with my own perspective on it. 

One thing that I must say at this point is that I am no expert in history or society. So there might be some mistakes in my references to history. I apologize beforehand for that. One thing I believe is that I have freedom to have and share  my own perspective.

To start off following are the Pros of the system: -

It is to be understood first that the divisions were according to the jobs that people did. It had nothing to do with birth and the group in which you belonged could be changed by changing the work you do. For example a kshatriya could become brahmin if he became an intellectual.

The advantage of the system was that there was a proper division of work. It made the society more organized and hence strong.  There were four divisions according to works done.

Brahmin was the first division. It means the one who has realized brahmaand. It means the person who has realized god.This group of people were intellectuals and were responsible for teaching people and advising kings on matters of kingdom. They did not have to care about how to earn money for they solely lived on donations.

Kshatriya(क्षत्रिय )is a word derived from Sanskrit work ( क्षत्र ) means a warrior. This was the second division. This can be thought of as the army.  They were people who protected the society from external attacks.

Vaishya was the third divison. The word derives roots from  word vish which means "to work". They were the most well to do and were merchants and traders and were meant to handle the economy. They also had the responsibility to support brahmins and kshatriyas as they were source of generation of wealth.

Sudra was the fourth division. The etymology of the word is not clear. This group did tasks like craftsmen ship and human labor. They were the support system as they did what was necessary to support the economy. Tasks like farming, pottery etc. were done by them. 

This division was highly effective because it resulted into distribution of work among the groups or varna. The people of a particular group became increasingly effective in the jobs assigned to them and caused the society to flourish.

Cons of the system: -

The system although very effective in nature resulted into the identification of a person according to the group he/she belonged to. The  grouping also became extremely rigid with time. People were not allowed to change the group in which they belonged because some groups expressed their supremacy over others. 

The one thing that lead to nadir of the society was that group or varna of a person was determined by birth and not by looking at the skills. The family in which you took birth determined your group and status in society.  

My Perspective: - 

The above mentioned divisions were created for the division of work and were very logical but they were not formed with the intention that one group takes the advantage of the other by declaring one as supreme and other as lowly. Also birth had nothing to do with the groupings and initially people had full right to change their groups based on their ability.

Manu Smriti is considered the basic book in which caste ism is codified. it was a book written by an intellectual named Manu. Manu Smriti literally means "a collection of what manu has remembered". All that manu did was to write down what is observed regarding castes around him. So he was not a creator of anything. He was just a codifier. Manu himself says that if there is anything in his Smriti which is not acceptable to the conscience of any person, that person should reject it and act according to his/her own conscience. Which means that it is not a law that must be followed as it is done now a days.

Manu smriti was presented as a religious code or law by Britishers to serve their own purposes. Sir William Jones was the person in british era who introduced this document as a law for Hindus. He duly accepts that the document was tampered with and the existing version of manu smiriti is a doctored version that suited the British. 

The point of taking this fact into consideration is that the varna system was supported by British since it caused a division of society. The system was in perfect line with their policy of divide and rule. This caused a deep penetration in society and finally made the society so blind that people are now ready to kill their own sons and daughter just because they love and/or marry somebody outside their own caste. The system and the status that comes with it has surpassed the love in the relationship between parents and their children.  Lately I have read a lot about honor killings and seen public statements of people justifying their actions after killing their own family members. This paints a very sombre picture of the future of the society.

According to me the fact that some system is followed since a long time does not qualifies it as correct. The roots of the system must be understood and care must be taken weather the sole purpose for which the system was created is satisfied or not. The caste system is another system which is no longer serving its purpose and is causing more harm than benefits and that too for centuries now. It is high time people should let it go and embrace humanity.

To emphasize once again this is just my perspective on the topic and as always is open for discussion..

BooK Review: Long Walk to Freedom

 Just finished reading the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. The book is named "Long Walk to Freedom "

Nelson Mandela is truly an epitome of inspiration and needs no introduction. He has sacrificed his life of the independence struggle of South Africa. He aspires people to become great. A person who truly believes that for a nation to flourish each individual must exceed their own expectation.

The book takes us through his childhood to the point of his appointment as the  president of a free county. The book clearly shows that all of us have choice. We are the creators of our own destiny. 

In the book he mentions that while he was in prison for 27 years there were some moments when he questioned himself weather he was correct in choosing his country over his family. His agony can be seen from the following lines in the book, " A mother's death causes a man to look back on and evaluate his own life. Her difficulties, her poverty, made me question once again whether I had taken the right path. That was always the conundrum: Had I made the right choice in putting people's welfare even before that of my own family? For a long time, my mother had not understood my commitment to the struggle. My family had not asked for or even wanted to be involved in the struggle, but my involvement penalized them."

The fact that inspired me the most is that ever after achieving independence he has not stopped and has involved himself into the daunting task of building a nation.

His involvement for the cause of nation building is evident from the last few lines of this 768 page book. He says toward the end " But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended."  

If you ever wondered what made a man great read this book and you will know for yourself.

Divorce

A lot of discussion is going around now a days based on the the introduction of the new marriage law. This post is my attempt to understand what it is all about and give my perspective on the same.

To start with marriages of hindus are registered under The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 . Under this act the reasons for divorce could be one of the following: -
1) Sexual Intercourse with a person other than their partner
2) Cruelty
3) A partner deserting the other for at least 2 years
4) Change in religion
5) Mental Disorder
6) Renunciation of world under some religious practice
7) Partner not found alive for 7 years
8) Mutual Consent: Both parties are not living together for at least one year and agree that marriage should be dissolved.

The latest news in is that "Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage" is approved by cabinet as a reason to grant divorce. Legally is means is that if both husband and wife agree that they are not willing to live together and there is no scope of their reconciliation then they can be granted divorce.

In simple terms in means that if one of husband or wife refuses to live together under any circumstances and there is not chance that he/she may support the marriage in the future then divorce can be granted. e.g. if wife in a marriage decides to desert the husband and refuses to live or support the marriage then the couple can be granted divorce because both husband and wife in this case cannot benefit from such a marriage.

Stating another example, sometime back a person filed for divorce stating that his wife was a source of constant quarrel in their home and was found to have affair with another person. In the court the wife also proved that her husband had a mistress. After reviewing such situation divorce was granted to the couple because court concluded that marriage was broken to such an extent that there is no point continuing it.

My Perspective:
According to me this makes divorce really easy and hence this privilege can be exploited. To express in more detail this gives power to both the partners to end the marriage whenever they want to. In case any of the partners realize that other partner would not like to have divorce the previous party would start blackmailing.

I feel our society does not accept divorce with as open mind as the western societies do. It is still a matter of shame for both families if the marriage results in divorce and it ruins the future prospects of marriage of both sides equally. This social pressure works fine till the time that both husband and wife experience it equally. In case one of them does not care about it then he/she becomes empowered to take advantage of the other person.

I am not saying that all cases will lead to this. There are some genuine cases that would be solved by this new amendment. All I am saying is that to me the repercussions outweigh the benefits.

Open to discussion on the same...

Delhi 6!!

Why am I writing on Delhi 6 of all things? This is what I asked myself while writing this. The only answer that I found was that "I liked it. So lets share with ppl what I liked about it". Thus this post is just my perspective on this movie.

To begin with it was short. It was not boring as things like kala bandar make sense when you yourself have seen news channels going mad (it actually happened!!) . Songs were situational deserved their respective places in the movie.

The thing I like was the fact that how the life of a person changes as when he starts relating to things around him. Here is the hero at the start of the movie coming to india with a tourist's perspective. He has nothing to loose. He enjoys everything. Then he develops attachments and when the things he is attached to starts going away he realises " What is this happening?". The real story starts thereafter when the hero decided that this is what he wants and he wil get it no matter what.

A nice blend of social message can also be seen. The final solution that the hero arrives upon to solve all problems at the same time is very intelligent and of course!! sonam kapoor is looking much hotter than the last time.

So if u havent watched it give it a shot. If u have I then I think this post is not entirely rubbish :)

Signing off,

Nitin

The Pilot

This marks my entry to the world of blogging. Sitting at my office and with no worthy thing to do I thought this is the right time to start it. My viewpoints towards this new phenomena is mixed with feeling lke boredom and not my type thing, but finally after a long thinking reading posts by RAHUL DASH(your posts are a delight to read man!!) i thought why not try it.

At this point I cannot say that my blog is going to be Interesting and blah-blah but one thing that i can assure is that my posts will not be borngly long or full of my own mood description. It will be something based on what I observe around me.

There is also a possibility that you will not see anything after this introductory speech sort of thing due to inherently lazy nature of IITians of which i am an integral part.

To me:- happy blogging
To you :- happy reading
NITIN KUMAR SINGH