Banana republic!!!

There is jubilation on one side. 'Corruption, rigging, horse-trading' cries another. The former says India will prosper with the deal. The latter screams that democracy is dead and that 22 July 2008 is the saddest day in the history of Indian Republic. Well, one group, unholy as it may seem, has won and the other, equally unholy if not worse, has lost. So much of talking and debating in the parliament for the last two days about who's right and wrong, about how many crores of rupees changed hands, if the price was okay considering the high rate of inflation, blah, blah, blah- and sadly no one really debated the nuclear issue - for the purpose the parliament was convened. What is the issue and whether it is useful or detrimental to the common man? Who knows and who cares? The common man is in the same place where he began -ignorant, confused, uncertain, undecided. Of course our leaders have decided for all of us, as always they have acted on our behalf, very responsibly. What perhaps will keep the common man going are the goings on in the parliament - the unruly scenes, wad of currency notes tauntingly shown to the public, the diction of our honorable parliamentarians, charges vociferously made without proof, stories of kalavathis and sashikalas - in short, there was no dearth of entertainment and it had all the making of a popular television serial. So much for democracy and so much for our banana republic.

We Know it All

Something that happened recently in college set me thinking hard first on the importance of context and took me on to a whole lot of other issues.
Context determines our actions, our behaviour, our language - everything that we say and do. Ironically, not many of us attach importance to this, particularly the young. An attitude almost bordering on arrogance ( they call it confidence) is most commonly exhibited by our youngsters which often results in complex /complicated situations they create for themselves. Worse, instead of attempting to wriggle out of those situations they generally aggravate them by their insensitive/ insensible words and actions. Why is it so? Why is this 'I-know-it-all' attitude? Why do we feign omniscience? Is it because the situation demands? Or may be because we live in a consumerist world today where marketing and selling yourself matters so much that you constantly have to wear the garb /mask of a 'super genius', 'a walking encyclopaedia', 'a living god'. I sometimes wonder whether to laugh or to cry when children as young as eighteen years speak of their understanding of the world in absolute terms - it certainly is a cause for concern. Sadly, the ability to be receptive to other perspectives/ possibilities is blatantly lacking. It is always "I do this, i do that, i have read this, i have read that- and therefore i know better". Life would be so simple, so peaceful if only understanding or enlightenment can happen after reading a couple of books, or for that matter doing some research on some specific area for only two years. I feel we all have become so engrossed in this rat race that each one wants to compete and excel in the 'art' of exhibitionism. Everywhere we go we carry huge placards boldly proclaiming our so called expertise, interests, knowledge areas and what not! Unfortunately that has not helped us to even understand / distinguish between situations, act maturely, act differntly in different situations. On the one hand we continue to claim knowledge, on the other our actions betray us and reveal our ignorance.