Ode to a sonogram

Flutter, pulse, shake and tremble,
sound waves give a tiny body
to primeval yearning.
On a hazy, lazy, bright screen,
in a dark room somewhere,
New life just filled two other lives
with the gut wrenching power of miracles.

What are political boundaries good for?

1. Creating arbitrary divides and animosity between people who often share the same socio-cultural background and should in fact, be getting along quite well with each other otherwise. Political and media propaganda widens the divide by encouraging mistrust between neighbors and in extreme cases such as India and Pakistan, it creates hatred which benefits no one. If religion is cited as the biggest difference, again as in the case of India and Pakistan, it results in cross border terrorism.

2. Shifting focus from what people across borders have in common to what their differences are. The first thing that's sacrificed is thread of common humanity that binds all people on earth.

3. Allowing one country to nurture terrorists and hatch elaborate plots to create political and social instability in a sub continent while other countries have no powers to stop or prevent this from happening. Also, when the terrorists cross over borders and kill innocent people in cold blood in a neighboring country allegedly with the help of their home country's Intelligence Agency, adequate political and economic pressure cannot be brought on the guilty parties to arrest the culprits.

4. Wasting a lot of precious time sharing niceties and in maintaining diplomatic protocol in the hope that it will pacify voters on both sides of the border while in reality, it just makes people angrier and angrier by the day.

5. Wasting tax payers' money to guard borders which are porous and in case of maritime borders, practically impossible to guard anyway.

6. Creating a false sense of security.

7. Preventing right thinking people from working on what really matters: education, health, economic development and poverty allievation. Governments are known to divert attention to other issues when they want to shun resposibility for doing what they should be doing for their people.

8. Creating a false sense of pride and ownership as well as guilt and denial. When attacks like 9/11 and Mumbai 26/11 happen its time for all human beings to hang their heads in shame.

HOW CAN WE STAND BEHIND GEO-POLITICAL BOUNDARIES AND POINT FINGERS HERE AND THERE and not ask how could each one of us have contributed to creating such Frankensteins that wreck havoc on Humanity itself? When terrorists have minimal regard for geoplitical boundaries, why should we, the Sane, not start thinking beyond them as well and see how we can fix things?

Passing the buck around the world..

I was just watching an NDTV 24x7 live discussion on Mumbai 26/11 and was seriously disappointed by what Professor Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institute had to say. When asked by Barkha Dutt, what concrete measures could be taken to diffuse the mounting tension between Pakistan and India over the alleged ISI involvement in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Prof. Cohen said that he thought that an International commission should be created to collect evidence and implicate the resposible parties and that this commision and not the goverment of India should press for corrective action. He further said that the US should not be the only country involved. Western European countries should also play an important role in this process. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed by this opinion of his. Instead of taking the shortest route by identifying specific actors and ennumerating specific actions so that someone is made accountable for bringing those responsible for this horrible act of terrorism to justice at the earliest, Prof. Cohen beleives in complicating the process and passing the buck all around the world so that no one is ever accountable for anything. In short, his long winded , round about solution would serve no purpose rather than ensuring that no action is ever taken.

Why are people in power and intellectuals both so squeamish about calling a spade and spade? Why are they so reluctant to act? Surely if 183 innocent people were killed and 10 or 15 men were trained to do the killing, someone somewhere was responsible for sponsoring them? Why is it so difficult to apprehend them? Why is that if one man kills another man in cold blood on this planet, he faces the death sentence but when one man, with the help of others kills 20, an International commission is needed to play for time so that the guilty parties can go scot free?

Influence or nurture?

A freind posed an interesting question to me. If you could choose the people you have in your life, would you have those who influence you in positive ways or those who nurture you? I choose the latter. Somehow influence has a air of the holier-than-thou, I-know-whats-good-for-you that I abhor in people. We often run into people who pontificate on how we should live our lives without really investing time and effort into trying to understand us up close. These people operate from the Ego. Influencing others gives them a sense of power and superiority. That's why I prefer the nurturing kind. It speaks of humility and compassion. It speaks of active engagement, interest, affection and genuine concern. Well, we never get to choose in life. Or do we?

Back from Yellowstone

Blessings that I need to count everyday - hot water, and a strong pair of legs to carry me on hiking trips.



Things I discovered I don't like: bumpy plane rides, the fear of bears...I don't dislike bears, I just don't like having to be afraid of them. After reading Jamaica Kincaid's "A Walk in the Himalayas", I have decided that I don't like leeches either. This is obviously not from experience but its one of those things I haven't the slightest desire of ever running into.