Topic : The ‘ism’ Concept.

The life of any Human Being is governed by some or the other concept. Talking about the Concept with respect to a Human Life would be similarly outlined beyond the superficial structure of the attributes and ways possessed by a human being when compared to any mathematical, statistical, or in a broader sense of the word, scientific definition, implementation and synthesis of any Concept. If we take a particular concept in Maths, the scope and variance of application depends upon the specified terms and conditions subjected to the repeated occurrence of the events or formulae. In the similar, but not the same fashion, the concept that any human being develops during his lifetime depends upon the time and kind of the experiences combined with the receptive power. Formulation of a Concept is completed by the normal observatory instances recorded into the sub-conscious mind by our daily behavioral patterns.
We come across several people during the span of our lifetime. Every person we meet to, or even get a glimpse of, will leave a kind of impression on our mind, thus helping us to form our ‘Concept of Life’. Looking around the world of today, we can derive an altogether new concept, i.e. “The ‘ism’ Concept”. When we talk about ‘ism’ Concept, it is referred to that word, or rather intention of the word, which is formed by appending these three letters at the end of any word. It would take me a book to explain all the words which end up in ‘ism’, and the related meaning-change due to modification. Therefore, we would be review the four most important words which would explain the ‘ism’ concept perfectly and also enlighten us with the 20th century rules, preferences, lifestyle, approach, or if we can call it, “The Concept of Life”.

Professionalism:-

It was only some days before that I used to think that Professionalism is a quality that you develop when you are exposed to any Professional setup. Being a part of such a setup for quite some time now, I can surely say that I have faced a miscarriage of sorts. When we talk of ‘Professional’, it indicates a person who is up-to-date, timely, sincere and dedicated in his efforts. But when we add the ‘ism’, a Professional is up-to-date, timely, sincere and dedicated only till the point after which he might face a danger to his job, or could be required to do more work without the increased pay. What I mean to say is, Professionalism is gradually becoming a synonym of what we call ’Matlabi’ in Hindi. As we tend towards getting higher on our career curve, we start increasing the ratings we have in Professionalism. So, according to the ‘ism’ concept, the better we get in Professionalism, the more we get away from the true Professional, who is sincere, ardent and ready to work.

Internationalism:-

This instance of ‘ism’ is another child of the global misrepresentation of the truly International standards and practices being degraded to a confined level. When we talk of ‘International’, the word radiates the feeling of something extra-ordinary that is accepted globally. We talk of International brands, cars, places, products and people. If any of these things from our country gets International acclamation, it brings proud to the country and its people. One example is A R Rahman getting Oscar for “Slumdog Millionaire”. Another example could be taken of Sachin Tendulkar completing 17000 runs in International Cricket. The ‘ism’ concept changes the picture substantially when it changes to Internationalism. In the generation which opened up its eyes around Laptops, Palmtops, Blackberries and what more, we consider imitation of the International approach or the way of Life to be Internationalism. This is the flavor of the GeNext where we watch shows like ‘Mtv Roadies’ which features the abusive content live on Television unnecessarily. The ‘beep’ sound which replaces the abuses is just to get a clean hit for the Censor Board. On the other hand, ‘LOC-Kargil’ receives criticism from several quarters for featuring the (necessary) abuses in the movie, though movie also had the same ‘beep’ sound which replaced the abuses. This happened due to the non- international appeal of the movie. It was not a Hollywood movie, you see. The ‘ism’ concept not only degrades the importance of the word International, but also leads us to an unacceptable degeneration of the attitude and character. This way, the closer we get to Internationalism of today, the farther we get from the truly International approach and the Concept of Life.

Nationalism:-

“Saare Jaahan Se Achcha Hindustan Hamara……”, I think you all remember the song at least, if not the feeling it usually carries. We had been talking about, criticizing and appreciating certain things about the National approach, or the National reaction to any particular incident. ‘National’, this word in itself represents something which links to our country. I read in our history books that it took about 200 years to get rid of the shackles of the British rule. Many people, somewhere in millions, turned up towards one goal, one aim and one and only one necessity of attaining the Freedom. Everyone from Ganges in the North and Kaveri in the South joined hands to make this unseemingly inevitable task possible. In those days, everyone’s heart was filled with the blood of Nationalism. Don’t get confused, my dear friends. The ‘ism’ concept comes into picture silently, thus bringing an unwavering and acronymical change in the word Nationalism.
When we talk about Nationalism of today, it is very sweet, short, simple and cut-to-size. What you need to do is enjoy a wonderful holiday somewhere in the hills of Khandala, or any nearby place, away from where you stay. It’s even better when 15th August or 26th January comes on Friday or Saturday. You get a long holiday, man. At the end of the day, we send some patriotic messages, or listen to some songs, or even better, watch a patriotic movie (if ever you don’t get a chance to go anywhere). This is how the ‘ism’ concept works, my dear friends. We want to criticize each and every move of the Government, but we do not want to go to caste our vote, just because you get another off from your work. “All the candidates are cunning buggers man, there’s no use voting for any of them anyways”, this is what we say to escape the cause. I would like you suggest You to stand and try getting elected. As this statement might seem a bit ‘filmy’ and over-emotionalistic statement or rather, over-patriotic statement, I would like to inform you that in every election a good percentage of Independents get selected beating the candidates from established parties. But, who cares man?? Let the ‘ism’ concept do its job and we would be fine not getting up into this mess.

Humanitarianism:-

Few days before, just flipping through the omnipresent and omnipotent crap in “Times”, I passed through news which said Salman Khan arranged a fashion show for raising a fund for his charity “Being Human”. Being in the shadowy world of Glamour from last twenty years, it seems to be a commendable initiation from Bollywood superstar, where he tries to “Being Human”. There was a huge pomp and show of splendor in the proceedings thereafter and the news moved out of newspapers gradually, as it happens with every “Baasi” stuff.
It was a bit surprising matter for me, though. According to me, Human life is the highest form of existence on this planet. If we go by our Vedas and Puranas, it takes millions of births to be born as a Human Being. On the sacred land of India, where we have taught Humanity to the World right from the times of Harappan civilization, it becomes a rather laughable point of instance when we try to “Being Human”. Though the initiation is commendable on the part of the actor, the ‘need for the initiation’ is condemnable on the part of this Human race. Humanitarian needs are required to be taken care of and this becomes the moral responsibility of all of us to help our brothers and sisters. Swami Vivekananda use to say, “give me five men like me and I will transform this universe”. Sometimes I wonder, what this great personality would have done, if he might have got five people like him. You must be wondering as to what the ‘ism’ concept has to do with the word Humanitarian. It is the whole and sole change-driver when we talk about ‘Humanitarianism’. Going by the actual meaning, it expresses the feeling of Humanitarian concerns.
But, when we talk about the ‘ism’ concept, Humanitarianism of today reflects the amount of money you spent in purchasing the golden ‘Singhasan’ for Sai-Baba or the variety of jewels you donate in the temple of Tirupati Balaji. Let us face this fact that it doesn’t matter how much you give back to Lord, because in a way you are returning the material things which you got from the Almighty. With an alarming rate of Poverty and increasing unemployment, we need to help our people in getting self-sufficient. The requirement is not of money, my frnds, what we require here is the unfathomable will to serve the fellow Human Beings. Please don’t misunderstand the statement as serving Hindus or Muslims or Indians or Asians or Americans. When we talk about Humanity, there is no such difference. Let us have the intent of helping those who can’t help themselves. Get out of your air-conditioned offices, get out of your hygienic homes, and look at the outside world. Have a look at Dharavi or just take a walk through the backward areas of you city. You will find many fellows who live a life miserable to the extremes. What a rich man spends on himself for a single day would be more than enough for about a week for our not-so-rich population. So, four days of your living pattern can make a month for them.
This must have been a truly ‘Gyan-related’ exposition of my views and thoughts. I admit the fact that I too don’t follow all the guidelines mentioned in this piece. But, it seemed necessary to me that I share my views with you guys. The ’ism’ Concept is not a newly derived concept by me. Instead, it has always existed in our 20th century approach. Just the case, that I have outlined the changes pertinent to the ‘ism’ Concept. It would be appreciable on our part, if we try to go beyond the ‘ism’ Concept and stick to the pure and true meanings and feelings that these words carry.

Let us try to use “Internationalism” in our”Professionalism” so that we get into the feeling of true “Nationalism”, just to support the cause of “Humanitarianism”.

Thank You.

Topic: Thinking in the Toilets............Have you tried it????

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope
For it".........

It was only the matter of reading this great sentence from Albert Einstein that I took the inference that many of my ideas are not hopeless It has been quite some time (some years, actually), which happened to be the time of weird ideas into my life. Philosophy says that weird people can't stop weirder ideas coming into their minds. It appears to be "the special case of significance" with some people like me.
Frankly speaking, the trash in the above Para is just to convince the reader that this particular article was the result of a Weird-idea-on-paper. Actually, it is difficult to digest something next-to-crap from a so-called intellectual and hitherto knowledge-based author. Hence, the explanation.
OK.........coming to the point. Have you ever tried Thinking in the Toilets???? Now, before your mind starts making the images of a superb shower and a Head-n-Shoulders into your hair, let me clarify that I am not talking about thinking in the bath room, infact, I am talking about thinking in the.......... I hope you got it....No.....Let me give it a sophisticated-kinda-try. Thinking in your "Fresh-hone-wala" area. OK. C'mon. Let's get real. It’s thinking in the Latrine. Sorry to my decent-sort-of readers. But, I think that this word really makes a connect with the topic.
Let us make a journey to what we usually call "Pakistan". You enter into the permit room (not of a bar, but a permit for farts) with the fragrance of Odonil [A question emerges into your mind that from which man's nose, Odonil has "Fragrance". I suppose it could be the comparative-smell-parameter which makes us feel so]. After sitting for a couple of minutes and completing the major part of your daily assignment, you wait for an overall satisfactory state to be achieved. For starters in Toilet Thinking, it is this time that needs to be focused. You can think of anything under the sun and believe me, it really works. The simple reason-There are no disturbances (until and unless, there's a waiting queue). According to my observation, the concentration levels in the Toilets are equal to or more than what we normally possess in the examination halls.
Gradually, as you tend to become perfect in Toilet Thinking, you can even start when you enter the venue and continue with the flow. Mobile phones also come handy when you want your thoughts to immediately take shape, but, hey guys, beware of the ever-dangerous pedder-hole. Toilet Thinking can cost you thousands of rupees if you are not enough careful about this particular thing. Trust me, until now, I have written about 40 SMS's as a result of the Toilet Thinking. The presentation and expression tactics of this and many other articles of mine are the product of Toilet Thinking. What to say about one of my friends, who recently wrote a book. He told me that throughout the life cycle of writing that book, it used to happen on many occasions that a mental blockage shown its face. It was the tool of Toilet Thinking which helped him cruise through the difficulties of Book-Writing. Another of my Engineering friends told me yet another implication. He used to go and sit into the Toilets whenever he felt drowsy at the time of Exam preparations. He says that resuming the studies after a "Trip-to-Pakistan" increased his concentration and he felt himself better equipped to deal with the upcoming problems. So, in this particular case, Toilet Thinking was more on the psychological side and instead turned on to become Thinking after Toilets.
So, after a long discussion on Toilet Thinking, we should wash out our hands and not only start thinking, but also implement those thoughts into our real Life. I am a hardcore supporter of Toilet Thinking and prescribe this to all of my readers and friends. I know very well that idea itself seems absurd, that’s why the topic goes.........

Thinking in the Toilets..............Have You tried It????

Religion : Developed by man, Dominating the society.

It was the time of post Godhra carnage. A couple of boys in my neighborhood were busy killing ants. I approached them, with a kind of curiosity to know this newly-invented game.

"Hey Rahul, what do you think you guys are upto?" I questioned one of them.

"We are killing the red ants who bite us." He replied proudly.

"But why, what's the problem with the red ants??" I asked for the explanation.

"As red ants bite us, they belong to Muslims, and being Hindus it becomes our moral responsibility to kill them." He answered me.

I was in a sense of shock with his revelation. I could not speak anything more to him and continued my walk towards my home. My mind, continuously thinking and raising a flurry of disturbing questions.

Is this, what we have taught our younger ones about the religion??
Is this what they would be teaching to their youngsters?
Have we lost our grip on the most basic fundamental of morality??
Is this, for which we follow any religion on this earth?? Or rather, was this, the objective of developing the religion?

Talking religion is not one of the very new things in this country. But, many a times, we overlook the complexities related to it's origin, development, destruction, modifications and many such things, and only focus on the customs and traditions followed by our family, or community members from past several decades.

Origin and Evolution of Religion:

When we talk about the origin of religion, two main questions need to be answered first,
'How did religion begin' and 'how did religion evolved'. The evolutionary approach was influenced by Darwin's 'On the origin of species', published in 1859. In terms of religion, two main theories, Animism and Naturism were advanced to account for it's origin.
Animism means the belief in spirits. To make sense of the events arising in dreams and visions, and to understand the difference between a living and a dead body, early philosophers invented the idea of the soul. The soul, according to them is a spirit being which leaves the body temporarily during dreams and visions and permanently at death. Broadly speaking, the idea of Animism was originated to satisfy man's intellectual nature, meet his need to make sense of death, dreams and visions.
Naturism, on the other hand, means the belief that the forces of nature have supernatural powers. According to F. Max Muller, Naturism arose from Man's experience of nature, in particular the effect of nature upon man's emotions. Awed by the power and wonder of nature, early man transformed abstract forces into personal agents. In effect, sun, water, wind and many other natural objects turned into natural spirits. Where Animism seeks the origin of religion in man's intellectual needs, Naturism seeks it in his emotional needs.
If we try to figure out the origin of Caste system (which is the most important part of religion) "It is said that caste originated when a white race, The Aryans, coming from the north-western direction, conquered the dark-colored races inhabiting India at that time, probably 5000 or so years ago." Says Markandey Katju, a judge of the Supreme court of India. There have been a number of theories with regard to origin of religion. But, if we look at today's scenario, it doesn’t look that a single theory or assumption has been followed purely.

Peeking into the evolution of religion provides us with the number of perspectives and raises a few questions too. Edward B. Tyler, a proponent of the Animism theory, believed that human society evolved through 5 major stages, beginning with simple hunting and gathering and ending with the complex nation state. He believed that each stage in the evolution of religion derived from preceding ones, and that the religion of modern man, 'is in a great measure only explicable as a developed product of an older and ruder system'. Talking about Naturism, the first indication of a possible belief in supernatural dates from about 60000 years ago. Evolutionists such as Tyler and Muller came up with plausible reasons for various beliefs which we re held by members of particular societies, but this does not explain why those beliefs originated in the first place. We also can't argue that all religions originated in the same way.

Development of the religion :

Tyler and Muller attempted to explain religion in terms of human needs be it intellectual or emotional. In a more general sense, we can say religion to be a dividing element between sacred and profane. According to a functionalist perspective, religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices related to sacred things. Now, as we say this, 'belief and practice' will change for sure with the change in geographical condition, purpose of worship and the mind make-up at the time of establishing the particular practice. This was one of the most important demarcating difference between the origin of different religions at different places in the world. In the course of time, they spread through the entire globe and several people adopted the religion which suited them to fulfill their needs and which was a more easier one on the compatibility front.

God : The supreme being

Every religion, be it Hinduism, Islam or Christianity, was developed with a central idea of 'God'. Proponents of different religions, proposed various ways, to reach to the almighty god. The ways and methods that they suggested was what made the peculiar difference between the ideology of one religion with the another. This difference of path must have arosen due the difference in thinking, analysis, implementation and most importantly, realization of the supreme being by the person(s) involved in the development of the particular ideology as 'Dharma'. But, with the gradual changes in the human societies, focus of man shifted from the god to the attainment of material desires. We started worshipping god, and following any particular religion for the sake of fulfillment of our petty wants. Symbols of religion transformed into a new 'avatar', where input was a particular custom, and at the place of output, you waited for your wish to be granted. In the process, many authorities related to different religions, claiming themselves to be the representatives of the specific religion (And even of God) and providing the public, a guarantee to solve all their problems. They devised different strategies and practices which promised people with a feasible solution to every problem that they faced in their daily lives. With the course of time, the objective of developing religion was lost, and we started deviating towards the material life and losing our grip on the more important inner self and values, which was, supposed to be the hallmark of the religion's origination.

Morality : The forgotten fundamental:-

Every religion carries in it, one of the most important asset for self-development as a human being i.e. Morality. It is the fundamental f every religion. Not a single religion has ever taught us to take a single life(especially human) n our own will. Right form childhood, it was this concept of morality that pushed our parents to enforce upon us, the customs, traditions and practices, taught to them by either their parents or religious books, which, in one or the other way, developed those hitherto unnoticed moral traits into our personality which went up to shape our 'character' in the most appropriate manner. But, the problem here was, the moral principles taught by any religion were also confined to the boundaries developed by that particular religion itself. Following this, what became 'moral' for a particular religion was not necessarily considered to be 'moral' for any other religion. As different religions firmed their feet in the later years, this distinction between 'moral for me and moral for you' increased dramatically like a wide valley of approach and consequently led to the conflicts between followers of various religions. It was also not the case that everything was different on the point of morality, many things seemed to be the same, but it was the things that didn't match which became the root cause of the problem. In the coming years, this was what led to the wrong interpretation of the religious text by several people.

Interpretation : The deciding element:-

As we had accepted different religions in our country, so was the case with religious text too. Every religion has one or more sacred books which teaches people about the philosophy and principles incorporated into the religion. These books prove to be a ready reference for performing various rituals at the time of marriages, family functions and at the death of any person who was the follower of that particular religion .They help us in understanding the ideology of the religion which we follow. What becomes crucial with respect to this religious literature is its correct, or we can say, appropriate Interpretation, which, in turn, will lead us to the path of self-realization, or, for the least, help us in understanding the basic and true cause of the development of the particular relegion. But, as we know, "Every coin has two sides". In the same way, the darker side of this coin is exposed when you move forward with the wrong interpretation of the same literature.
Terrorism, which is one of the topmost issue of concern in the world, in general and in our country, in particular, is the product of this wrong interpretation combined with an attitude of hatred in some individuals. As it is well known that none of the religions teach us or rather permit us to take the life of any other person. This happens only due to the wrong interpretation and than subsequent implementation of our religious teachings which leads some of the 'so-called' human beings to cause destruction and devastation of life and property. As explained above, these people take the wrong path because they have completely forgotten the most fundamental principle of morality.
Communal riots, one of those human-engineered calamities, which have come time and again and tried to break the unity of our country, but every single time we bounced back with more vigor and enthusiasm to combat this enemy of ours. But, if we try to analyze the issue of riots keeping in mind the above explanation, we reach to the conclusion that, at that time, 'religion', which was indeed developed by man, starts dominating the society and tries to finish off its originator itself. In those days, the original purpose takes a back seat and religion drives our actions, which , in some cases, turn to be very violent, cruel and inhuman. So, in every problem which initiates due to religion at its root, we need to look upon the perspective of wrong interpretation modify it accordingly to sort out the matters.

Let the Religion of Humanity prevail:-

Religion, as everyone knows, is one of the basic pillars of Indian culture. It doesn't matter at all if India has entered into the modernization era from medieval times. Religion was, and will continue to be the hallmark of India's identity on the globe. It will continue to attract people from around the world to make a visit and learn form its ever-rich culture. But if we carry on the destruction of our sacred religion(s) due to improper understanding and fractured implementation, than we will prove to be the 'destructors of our own creation'. Any religion, in our country or elsewhere, has taught us, or rather tried to teach us, the language of Humanity. This was, what always remained, the basis of forming communities and developing religion.
We should always remember that we belong to a class of living creatures called 'Human-Beings' in the first and foremost place. It doesn't matter which religion we follow, what practices we get involved in, which path we adopt to reach our realization, which sacred literature we read(or follow), but what matters is; that we should always try to be a human being before appending our religious identities. If we speak the language of humanity, than surely, we would be speaking the language of every religion on this earth.
So, Let the religion of Humanity prevail, and for following it, you don't have to change your religion, but what you need is to seek into your own religion(or maybe your heart), the feeling of humanity, which might have got suppressed under different feelings of various religious rituals. It becomes our moral duty to leave this earth in a better state than which we got it(at the time of birth), but if that seems difficult than at least we should try to maintain the state and not leave this earth in a worsened state. I suppose that is what every Religion expects from a human being. Right???