The question of moderate Islam

In an interesting article on how Islamic scholars are now critically studying the Koran, Nicolas Kristoff suggests that Islam is fundamentally cool and non-MCP and promotes the equality of gender and faiths other than Islam. 

In a no-holds-barred reply (2nd from the top), Vijay S from Mumbai says that Islam was, is and will always be an intolerant and anti-equality of gender religion as proved by acts of Islamic kings since the rise of Islam. He cites examples of how reading Mein Kampf will not change the acts of Hitler, similarly reading and interpreting the Koran in a more moderate vein will not change the facts of the fundamentalists past actions and the nature of their future behavior.

I'm uncertain of which way the truth lies, being far less well read than either of the two gents. I hope Kristoff is right, but I fear that it may be Vijay who is closer to the truth. If that is the case, then Kristoff and the Islamic scholars efforts will be similar to Gandhi's when he asked India to stay as small villages. It was probably a fantastic idea, but unfortunately the industrial revolution was making rich people out of small people at the low price of the planet, which in any case was a long term issue, so it was hard to resist then, as it is hard to resist now.I need to go turn up the air conditioning now.

High on technology, Low on wisdom

Paul MacCready, back in 1998, made a compelling presentation about what a mess of our solitary planet we have made. 

His talk (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paul_maccready_on_nature_vs_humans.html) speaks of a nature vs. humans battle and very very sadly - Humans are defeating nature.Humans are not winning however. There can be no winners in this battle, save nature, and Save nature, is the one thing we will not do.

All the kings horses and all the kings men, however many PhDs they have between them, and however many compelling presentations they make, will not be able to turn around the disaster that the industrial revolution brought about. 

Mortality rates, world health and other such civilised issues are some of the prime examples of how "civilized" behavior will destroy our civilization. 

Perhaps I'm in a doomsday mood but all this information and knowledge that we all share globally is fairly worthless in the larger scheme of things. Its good to understand the eco-system with, but it works to destroy the very eco-system we exist in.

Since its all coming to a close, we might as well get in another drink - I'm buying.

Awesome quote!

Charles de Gaulle  - "The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs."

Dharma and Indian Elections

Ashok Bankers Ramayana leaves you evaluating every action under the dharma lense. A true soldier of dharma as defined in 2009, Arun Bhatia , is contesting the elections in Pune. 

If Rama was banished and faced many asuras, so has Mr. Bhatia. All we the Puneites can do is give this man what he deserves, more importantly what we need - A true leader and not a dirty vote-bank oriented playing the caste/religion/money card corrupt-to-the-core politician like a certain Suresh K (I am not referring my ex-boss, the dude, who is totally awesome and I believe would make an awesome Prime Minister!)

Most of the well meaning folks in India go to work for MNCs/themselves/anything else rather than get our hands dirty with the politics of India. Self included. What can 1 person do? Might as well take care of myself, country gets my taxes, which they dont deserve anyways. We all lack the stomach and/or the balls to get in the ring.

Arun Bhatia is the man. He gets in, fights the fair fight, even against dirty SOBs such as the aforementioned SOBS who will never fight the fair fight. I desperately hope he wins. I dont think we, the educated middle class, can do shit about it by merely casting our vote.

I propose that we bribe our househelp and close-by poor people to elect Arun Bhatia, just as other politicians are bribing their vote-banks (My talented cousin Kunal explains why here). Mr. Bhatia doesnt have money and has ideals, most of us are the opposite. So lets do this - Tell all the househelp, menial labor everybody we know that we will give them INR 100 or 200 or whatever if they go vote for the Nagara and then Arun Bhatia wins! So possibly they are encouraged to push others as well. Variable performance based compensation!!!!!

Bankers Ramayana - More than just a story

Ashok Bankers Ramayana is much much more than a retelling of an age old tale. All the books do exactly what the Ramayana is meant to do, teach the reader the path of dharma. Banker has done a great job of creating situations where the choice to path of righteousness is a hard one, and shown the reader that the choice is almost never the easy one, but Rama, a true soldier of dharma, will choose it nonetheless.

A couple of other things come across more saliently as I read Bridge of Rama. 

Firstly, the author uses the character of Lakshman to differentiate good from great. Lakshmans frustrations, anger and despondance depicted through this book are but natural for even the best of men in that situation. Lakshman is not a weak man, nor a bad one (Black and white are the colors of the Ramayana, for grey, we need to wait for Mba), but he is not a perfect man, he is not Rama. And this is the tale of Rama. Differences between the evil Ravana and Rama are not hard to find even in the childish depictions of the Ramayana that we are accustomed to. Although I am glad that Banker's Ramayana presents Ravana, lanka and rakshasas as truly evil, rather than the standard "Oh Ravana, the pious, the meditative, the ten-headed super-worshipper who just happened to kidnap Sita and even then, treated her nice, because he was all of the above". But I digress, showing a difference of opinion, and the high road choices of Rama as against Lakshman,  highlights to the reader how virtuous a man Rama truly was. 

Secondly, Rama's acts in the book can be interpreted in the context that one is presently in. Me, being the businessman, and thanks to Rajendra Upadhyay's wonderful class on lessons in leadership from world literature while at ISB, find learnings to be applied to everyday business life. I could state all the things that I see as key learnings from the books, but then, you might not read the books.

GO BUY THE BOOKS NOW!