Needs and wants

When a man is poor, he has all that he needs and nothing that he wants.
When a man is rich, he has all that he wants and nothing that he needs.

Faith

Yesterday, when i was on the mountain looking at the beautiful lights scattered below, a thought came into my mind...

Sometimes faith is all that we have
And sometimes, faith is all that we need.

India Shining?

Off late, i was wondering what life is doing to us? Where is our country going to? What is it that we as humankind after? What is happening to our planet? The heat, the famine, global warming, poverty etc. Gandhi had once said that Development in the country is measured by the development in the cities. Ever since i heard tese words in Richard Attenbourgh's Gandhi, it had etched in my heart. I wanted to do something in rural india. Work with the farmers. I remember as a child, during my holidays, i used to help the workers in the adjoining fields when the bulls ploughed the fields. I was very happy sitting on the bulls and having tread in the fertile soil. When i go back into the same place, there is nobody to plough, the land has lost its fertility. That is when the issue of farmers came into my mind and i decided to prod in detail into this little thought.

I had decided quite early that at 45, i would leave everything and enter into politics. But when i think about it now, i think 45 is too late. I have to start NOW. Many of the lands have become infertile over a period of time. Many farmers are committing suicides. Many of them are quitting farming and coming to the cities in search of work, and in the entire bargain, our country needs to import foodgrain. How did this happen? What was the reason behind it?

I hve reason to believe that the countries are not run by Governments, they are led by multi-trillion multinationals, who control the world economy. Here is an example on how one sngle act of charity screws up our nation. Monsanto is a company that develops genetically altered seeds. This seed claims to be resistant to the deadly dendu illi. For its intial rounds Monsanto sold these seeds at a low price to excit the farmers. The seeds worked, and for an initial period of time, after which there were new pests. During these times they also increased the cost of the seeds. Farmers now used to these seeds started taking loans to buy seeds. And then one factor of the crop like rains, new pests etc, caome in and the crops are destroyed. The farmers had the seeds in stock, but what they did not know was that these seeds had a self termination gene which killed the seeds itself after one year. Hence, the farmer has to throw them and they have to take loan again for acquiring seeds. Soon the soil looses fertility. There is an age old tradition of farming which has survived many centuries, but suddenly how does the land become infertile. Obviously playing with nature, nature has the upper hand to deny productivity.

Crops fail. Farmers commit suicides. The agriculture production declines. India has to import. We become dependant on the multinationals who already have a surplus production in their commodity. They dump the surplus material into India and earn a handsome profit. We, sitting in India, buty them and make them rich. Is India really shining? I doubt so! Reliance has big expansion plans. Of late Reliance has bought out acres and acres of FERTILE Land, for what? Does the Ambanis know to lay seeds? I dont think so.

We sitting in the cities dont even know these problems. We get wheat, rice in the shops, we go and buy them. Who cares if it is imported? Who cares if some farmers have committed suicides for he cant grow crops? We have everything at the tip of our fingertips. Why care for that gauthi who doesnt know to speak English. We are much more learned than him, we have gone abroad, done our MBA and working at Call centres telling an American child information on salt water crocodiles, helping the american boy to do his home work!

I have decided to trudge on a difficult path. One day of my week to begn with, i am going to dedicate myself to the cause. I dont know how, but probably the first step would be to educate myself of the situation, then probably i will be in a better position to decide which way to walk....

Happy Honeymooning....

A cartton by Morparia which never made it to publication, obviously because of the political clout. But, unfortunately, forwards and blogs are more powerful now than the media! Happy Honeymooning to Abhishekh and Ash and .....

The Thakre's

Well, here is a piece of info I came across. Apparently Bal Thackeray or more popularly known as Balasaheb Thackeray has a British connection! Oops! Did I cause a mob to burn down my house, stamp over my car and create a bandh for two days in India. Probably it might be enough reason for such a thing to happen.

Well, I was browsing through some books in a book store and I came across a book called Vanity Fair, written by William Makepeace Thackarey. Yes, you heard it right WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKAREY! Read it again THACKAREY! THACKERAY. I blinked my eyes, it was THACKERAY. I rubbed my eyes! I banged myself into an iron column to see if I was dreaming. The name still shouted from the hardback cover. It said WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

So now that I was in my senses and not sleeping and at the same time not hallucinating, I decided to come home and check out certain details. Thakre is a Maharashtrian name. Apparently, Thackeray is an Anglicized name. Do a Google search and you will know!

But looking back, wasn’t it Bal, who wanted to abolish the British connection with India, by changing the names of the cities, stations, airports etc. How come it did not start from his home itself? How come this fact never came to the fore? No body, not even the Opposition could make a mention of! Secondly, why are we so negative about the fact that we were ruled for over a 100 years. We were ruled because, we allowed the British to rule us. We were ruled because, they knew how to rule us. Ruling a country for more than 100 years is no mean task. They were a country with a vision of expanding its boundaries and setting their flags on distant shore. They were quite apt and methodical in that. We, as Indians were sitting in our own crab basket, dreaming that our country is the best.

It is a fact that we all have to learn to respect and accept within ourselves. We were ruled because we allowed them to. We made them leave because of our sheer determination. History can never change, but what we can change is the present and the future. Changing names will only allow a huge bureaucratic changes and money spending but not in the progress of the nation. Let the money be spent elsewhere, so that we can turn our country into a more self reliant India.

Let us accept the past and dream about the future!!!
As for the Thackeray's in this link http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,838984-4,00.html it says it was indeed his fathers liking to Williams literature that the name of the family was anglicized. But with such a strong stance in changing names of various places in the country to get rid of the British shadow, how come he missed out on his own name?

Bal Thakre, you can only anglicize your name, not yourself…