Sunny Mahajan

Dream of a Nation : Understanding our country's aspiration

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Sat, 02 Apr 2016 11:02:00 +0000

We as a country were fortunate to have had a constellation of thinkers and leaders possessing wide opinions in our freedom struggle. No matter from which background they came, found themselves united for a common goal.

While fighting against imperialism a parallel ideological contest was taking place among our leaders to decide future form of government. Among the contenders were communism, socialism and democracy. Democracy was chosen considering the pluralistic nature of our society and dissent from communist party and socialist party demands at that time.

Again it should be noted that a internal struggle for religious and social reforms was undergoing in India for past centuries. Be it saints like Tukaram and Kabir or activists like Jyotirao Phule, Dhondo Keshav Karve, Gopal Hari Deshmukh, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Vittal Ramji Shinde and many many more.

That was the reason why Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar during drafting of the constitution in front of the Constituent Assembly on Friday 25th November 1949 said

"On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which is Assembly has to laboriously built up.

The second thing we are wanting in is recognition of the principle of fraternity. what does fraternity mean? Fraternity means a sense of common brotherhood of all Indians-if Indians being one people. It is the principle which gives unity and solidarity to social life. It is a difficult thing to achieve. How difficult it is, can be realized from the story related by James Bryce in his volume on American Commonwealth about the United States of America.The story is- I propose to recount it in the words of Bryce himself- that-"Some years ago the American Protestant Episcopal Church was occupied at its triennial Convention in revising its liturgy. It was thought desirable to introduce among the short sentence prayers a prayer for the whole people, and an eminent New England divine proposed the words `O Lord, bless our nation'. Accepted one afternoon, on the spur of the moment, the sentence was brought up next day for reconsideration, when so many objections were raised by the laity to the word nation' as importing too definite a recognition of national unity, that it was dropped, and instead there were adopted the words `O Lord, bless these United States." There was so little solidarity in the U.S.A. at the time when this incident occurred that the people of America did not think that they were a nation. If the people of the United States could not feel that they were a nation, how difficult it is for Indians to think that they are a nation. I remember the days when politically-minded Indians, resented the expression "the people of India". They preferred the expression "the Indian nation." I am of opinion that in believing that we are a nation, we are cherishing a great delusion. How can people divided into several thousands of castes be a nation? The sooner we realize that we are not as yet a nation in the social and psychological sense of the world, the better for us. For then only we shall realize the necessity of becoming a nation and seriously think of ways and means of realizing the goal. The realization of this goal is going to be very difficult – far more difficult than it has been in the United States. The United States has no caste problem. In India there are castes. The castes are anti-national. In the first place because they bring about separation in social life. They are anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste. But we must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation in reality. For fraternity can be a fact only when there is a nation. Without fraternity equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint.These are my reflections about the tasks that lie ahead of us. They may not be very pleasant to some. But there can be no gainsaying that political power in this country has too long been the monopoly of a few and the many are only beasts of burden, but also beasts of prey. This monopoly has not merely deprived them of their chance of betterment, it has sapped them of what may be called the significance of life. These down-trodden classes are tired of being governed. They are impatient to govern themselves. This urge for self-realization in the down-trodden classes must not be allowed to devolve into a class struggle or class war. It would lead to a division of the House. That would indeed be a day of disaster. For, as has been well said by Abraham Lincoln, a House divided against itself cannot stand very long. Therefore the sooner room is made for the realization of their aspiration, the better for the few, the better for the country, the better for the maintenance for its independence and the better for the continuance of its democratic structure. This can only be done by the establishment of equality and fraternity in all spheres of life. That is why I have laid so much stresses on them. "

A visionary indeed.

Today every agitation that we see in India filters down to the crude differences between oligarchic/plutocratic/kleptocratic & Democratic forces. (Socialism aside)

Which puts tremendous pressure on our democratic institutions to uphold the basic rights of our citizens. Our democratic institutions is the last line of defense, wherein if it fails one day we would lose our democracy. May that day never come but reality on ground seems alarming.

Which puts us one step behind our goal to become a true nation. First we need to strengthen our democratic machinery, restoring faith that every citizen is equal in front of these institutions. Second implementing honest socio-economic reforms which serves the common masses of our country bringing every citizen on a common psychological conscious. Then only we could dream of a nation truly in every regard.

Thoughts of a hungry sage

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 22:40:00 +0000

M.S. Swaminathan with Norman Borlaug

“To those who are hungry, God is bread” – Mahatma Gandhi’s words during Bengal Famine during 1946 inspired young patriotic Swaminathan to change his directions of interest from medical to agricultural research.

M.S. Swaminathan is popularly known as the Indian father of green revolution. Defeating predictions like "Indians will die of hunger by 1970"during 1960’s, Swaminathan increased our wheat production from 10 Million Tons to 17 million tons during 1963 and 1968. His insights of plant genome and plant architecture changed our farming and fed millions of hungry Indians.

A man of his character still serves our nation with the same excitement and force. During the period of 1996 to 2010 India has experienced the highest farmer suicides allegedly due to genetically modified varieties and failure of ecosystem by the government. His reports with details of how to address the biggest problem/Solution of India ‘Farming’, has been completely ignored. A link to the last NCF report.

Apart from his expertise in developing specific variety of high yielding seeds he also has a great understanding of government programs and its effective channeling mechanisms. He always focuses on very poor farmer and women empowerment, believing that they are the core influencers for change in the society. He is worried of Farming as a profession and a way of life, as no one these days want to do it. Also believes that the true genuine majorities of India, Poor and the youth should not be ignored but guided to create a great nation.

Concluding by his own words, “Future belongs to nations with grains, not guns”.

Picture above shows both M.S. Swaminathan and Norman Borlaug (Global Father of green revolution) together in one frame.

Moral Universe of Press has shifted from Democracy

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 01:21:00 +0000

First starting with acknowledgements, I would like to thank respected National Rural Reporter of our country Mr. P. Sainath for enlightning us on such a important issue. The media is considered as the forth pillar of our proud democracy (Ideally). The nexus of Politics, media and corporate is turning down the dream of our forefathers, of free speech and liberty to all. The title of this article comes from Indian Vice President's speech.

This post is just to share you a file which is unavailable on Press council of India's website due to high pressure from corporate in media. Instead you have a 13 page summarized article. This report talks about the paid news nexus in politics and media and which in all favors the black money market in India. In the last Maharashtra Assembly Elections media houses were targeting 30% of candidate election canvasing expenditure. Corporatization in media has been a boon for business houses but a shame for democarcay where a non millionaire or billionare candidate cannot even think of winning the elections. Tailored artivceles, supplements that look like news celebrating these milllionare candidates paved their way to electoral victory. This generation's opinion are completely turning into a media driven exercise.

I would not end this by giving you a happy ending or a sarcastic note. Infact I will re-utter P.Sainath's words: Both states fake optimism (Every thing is changing) and cynical pessimism (Nothing changes nothing will change) will comforts you for non action. Instead he urges us to land in the center ground called hope and act. I hope our media understands its vital role to make our democracy the land that our fathers dreamed of.

FYI
PCI Report on Paid News

We can’t just sweep it under the rug !

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 00:43:00 +0000

Disclaimer: Please don’t be judgmental or hypocritical while reading my words. I do not support or try to promote any party or religion or even revolutionist. My words are directed to my fellow countrymen who I believe one day will regain their own rational, loving and pure selves.

The Psyche of the nation is corrupted. Total hypocrisy has been our tool to safeguard our conscious mind from raw reality. When it comes to showing fake patriotism, extremism of our religion or believing irrational facts, we top the charts. This brings me to the center stage of Indian Media at least for following weeks to come: Delhi Elections. I really felt provoked to write this after seeing Ravish Kumar’s Report on unauthorized Colonies in Delhi (http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/prime-time/prime-time-conditions-of-unauthorised-colonies-in-delhi/355240?hphin&video-featured). I am a really big fan of him and have great respect for his dedication towards a better and neutral media. I would really recommend you to watch this report and see for your own the real India.

65 Million People live in slums according to the latest census which is on a verge to rise up to 107 million by 2017. Forget about the ground reality. Surprising report says that child sex ratio of these slums is better than urban India (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/65-million-people-live-in-slums-in-india-says-census-data/article5188234.ece). This is where the hypocrisy comes in. So called urban population looks at gender in a barbarian manner. Another example is regarding clean India. Forget about cleaning the streets, people just don’t want to change their habit of littering them. You get the same reflection from the government side; they will run big cleaning campaigns and not talk about sewage systems, waste water management or solid waste management. Now these unauthorized colonies have been allowed to legalize for political gain, and then the infrastructure provided is totally ridiculous. Unplanned suburbs and slums will act as a blockage for equal distribution of wealth and health. Our bureaucracy is of attitude to sweep everything under the rug.

Uncertain Complexity

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 21:03:00 +0000

Guys I’m not pessimist, I’m optimist but, there are few things that bother me this is one of it.
Every time every moment is different and always is, it could be because we humans think a lot to find a pattern, certainty which could be predictable but, nature will always prove us wrong, it could be paradox, quixotic and contradictory. From a small talk with a friend to severe hurricanes every thing in the space is chaotic, whimsical and random with always unseen jacks popping out of the box. Talking with a person we know can be different every time, the amount of data generated and analyzed by our brains during such a talk is humongous. And it will differ at every meet, even though we don’t feel it. There is this chaos theory (popularly known as butterfly effect) which states that butterfly flapping wings at a remote place could be the reason for a hurricane at another place.(Sounds too remote?)There is another one, a ball placed at summit of a hill has many possibilities of rolling down or not, but countless factors such as wind, initial position ,gradient etc. can produce infinite possibilities as of where will the ball land if landed. The space is abstruse, esoteric or transcend. What is the limit of data of all experiences, feeling, findings, abstract ideas, etc. and that till our times in every field of study we have drafted? Forget the undiscovered, but only revisiting existing known can startle us with countless new discoveries. What is the end to this?
Infinity^Infinity

Think Childish!

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:23:00 +0000

Around years we are pressing hard on innovation, so what exactly does it mean. It isn't easy to innovate, to bring an idea (which people often joke off) into reality. The results are a product of long hours of failure, of which we are often feared. The first flight by Wright bros. lasted just 12 sec and covered 111 feet which is so nano of what we do today. There is always this failure factor playing around to screw us out, but also possibility of a new world of ideas uncovered.

RANDOM -A child is always what he/she is. The approach he (assuming it is a small boy) has is always random, always new. There aren't any rules set for they are free to do any thing in any way. That is the think that lands them to discover new things.

NO FEAR AND QUESTION- Also they don't have any fear of failure not even a bit of it. Our approaches to things should be in such manner, always, why is it so? Why not this way? A good example of such approach is : Chinese alchemist in medieval times, were searching for and elixir and they like a small child's play mixed things randomly. They almost tried everything, but one combination surprised them, shit of bats + charcoal + sulphur. Which resulted not in elixir but gunpowder (Shit of bat was full of potassium nitrate.) Which opened a new array of inventions such as rockets, guns etc. Which ultimately changed the course of human history and as they say, the rest is history. Such an attitude needs to be encouraged and inculcated in young minds. Eventually young scientists will fearlessly contribute.

UPDATE AND ENCOURAGE IDEAS- We should always be welcome to new ideas and updates as a child does. Guns were invented in the 16th century and British came in the 18th, if we had guns and we would had done R&D for 2 centuries, India would never had been under British rule instead the opposite would have been true.

OBSERVE- Another quality a child has, is keen observation. Small children often sit staring at one thing continuously. They are really good at it.

DOCUMENTATION – Collect, analyze and interpret. This is a process that child carries out mentally.

India had, has and will always have good brains but there is a need for the right approach. India needs, and can achieve tremendous growth in science and technology, and I think such approach will multiply it. Naturally, everyone was a child once.

So think childish!

2nd Father of Nation

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 19:12:00 +0000

This is the 2nd time in the history of this great nation called India, that citizens have united for an revolutionary movement which would change the fate of this nation for times to come.

People of India are basically friendly, loving & peaceful by nature. It is this that our history reflects. India as a nation has never ever invaded any nation for the past 10,000 years. Non-Violence has been an structural element in our psychology.

Weak transport systems, weak media network, no online social network, more poor & illiterate people, above all ruled by a foreign unjust nation , these were the circumstances through which our father of nation “Mahatma Gandhi” lightened a torch of non-violent protest to free our own nation. A unlimited source of energy & inspiration for humanity to achieve equal rights for living by an non-violent way.

64 years after freedom India as a nation has gone through little ups and more downs. The torch that our father passed us by has diminished in intensity. Self interest has broken its boundaries creating more wider unequal Indian society. Co-operative societies have been deteriorated & now operated by only a few. Our feeling of unity, equality & responsibility for our nation has been faded. Administrators, politicians, bureaucracy, law and order system & people themselves are moving towards a dark side.

     It was this moment of time that all circumstances conspired for an 2nd greatest revolution which lightened every Indian mind with same old thought of unity, equality, co-operation, social responsibility & above all humanity.
     Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of non-violence Anna Hazare was the one who pushed the drafting and sanctioning of RTI (Right To Information) Act. firstly in Maharashtra & then all around the country. This started a feeling of involvement & confidence in every citizen towards fighting injustice.
     It was this beginning that unfolded many scams. It was RTI Act. That uncovered the Adarsh scam. Biggest scams such as 2g, common wealth also were uncovered recently. This made people think for nation. And at this perfect time Anna Hazare has raised against the government to push them for drafting civil society’s lokpal bill.
     People are erupting to support him for his good cause with huge support from media networks, social networks & the Indian youth. This will take us as a nation towards a good new prosperous shore, towards a nation which we all dream of. And if this happens Anna Hazare will surely be our “2nd Father of Nation”.

McDonalds - a Tapri

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:30:00 +0000

Just to create an visual, i would start this with . 2 French Fries ,1 Coke Float,1 Chicken Tikka, a most repeatedly or common menu orders at an outlet of the food giant McDonald’s family restaurant in India.

The brand has created such a great impact on our minds that we unconsciously fall for it.American companies have and R&D base that knows what exactly the food contains should be ,that you get addicted to there taste ,they know how exactly the atmosphere,how the mascot should look like & how the commercial be,all to make an impression on your mind that it’s the best place you could be.

When it recently opened its store at our city’s boundary touching NH-4 (highway connecting major Indian cities Pune and Bengaluru) it elated me. I had a imaginary picture screening in my head about how it would be.How disciplined it will be,there management systems,researched processes all of which I was thinking and thinking with shear excitement in my mind.

Now after about a year or so there is no more enthusiasm as i had before.It was all normal but still I had an image that Mc Donalds was a brand which is in every aspect an perfect global leader in food chain industry.

But today it proved me wrong.It showed me again that great global companies which follow high standards & norms in international markets ignore Indian jurisdiction & take Indian laws just for sake, an formality on paper.

These picture have been taken at the entrance of McDonalds family restaurant,Kolhapur,Maharashtra ,India. (My City)

These pictures narrate the truth that McDonalds is no different than any other typical Indian restaurant which requires no clearances from authorities to operate. Looking at this, an typical Indian restaurant is by far more eco-friendly than McDonalds as they have very few non-bio-degradable waste as McDonalds dump.And yes McDonalds have not only dumped there waste, packaging & vegetables on highway but also tried to burn it similar as any other small cross street unorganised shop does in India.

So what exactly McDonalds is ,it is by my view an institution only to make money at any cost even at the cost of environment. An good company is one which shows social responsibility but the best show environmental responsibility..Forget about environmental responsibility I even doubt the companies policies in direction of social responsibility.

Clearly McDonalds is what we call a street side tea shop, a ‘Tapri’

The government should take serious actions on this type of practices, so that Indian laws will be taken seriously.Waiting for the government to take action is like dreaming in this country at this time.The only way to teach this kind of act a lesson is to abandon it. We should try our best on our side , not to be a part of any system causing environmental & cultural damage to our country.

SATISFACTION

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:55:00 +0000

Eating infinite tasty food to stimulate your taste buds,eating heavy food to satisfy your endless hungry stomach,having alcohol,tobacco, cigarette to give a high to your brain and finally having sex to satisfy your physical need. Nowadays repeatation of these, so called "satisfaction" is the basic definition of living life.

So what exactly is true satisfaction?Satisfaction is a end, its and end of an "unknown" rat race,end of endless thinking. I am, i think a liberal man, ya i have read "a brief history of time ",yes i know who Charles Darwin was but yet the questions my childhood always asked me about, the reason of existence?, the source of energy? are still an unsolvable unknown puzzle . We all think the same, who cares about the reason - live it as it comes. Yes i too think the same, but "How" is the question. All human present on this earth have an equal respectable share of this nature but yet due to human materialism spreading like a deadly fire its till a dream.

Living for us is for our physical body, giving it as possible as we can throughout life is what we call living.But still we cannot satisfy that physical state of ours till the end. We never think of our inner energy "the soul" ,that to has its demands,its hunger.And this soul doesn't have an endless need,it can satisfy itself by just a glimpse of eternity.

Eternity is mental satisfaction which is a juice of humanity,love,devotion,knowledge and unity.That is the main and missing part in our puzzle of existence its living for everyone, living for us, living for nature.

"LIVE AND HELP LIVE "

INDIA VS BHARAT

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 15:47:00 +0000

This feeling was never so intense until i visited the 'The Collection' mall in Bangalore.I have visited many elite and luxurious places around the country.Don't know what happened this time,it just carried me.

India as a single country has split into halves. Being from an suburban city i respect people beyond their financial status.A country where people fight for living where literally people wear what they get. I was here in a place where a single jeans costed around Rs. 26000 /- . This had taken me into an dilemma between materialism and inclusive growth.Not because i couldn't afford it but because it was not worth it.
              The word 'inclusive growth' never was so meaning full until now.This had shown me two outmatching countries in one.Only a person from an suburban city can feel this as he has been in farms where sweat and blood mix to produce, to glazing hyper malls in metropolitan where it is consumed.Inclusive growth is deadly needed in our country or we may loose our heritage. Our villages,our culture and most importantly humanity will perish. I am not against freedom of living for different financial classes.
              Every living creature on planet has an right to have his equal share of resources that mother nature provides.But human race just for so called pleasure or comparative success has drawn lines of inequalities by creating fake webs like economy,religion,race and many more.Knowing that everyone & everything is going to end some day why should we live in inequalities.why dint we follow the nature.
              Now i come to know why our saints boycotted this materialistic pleasure and searched for eternal pleasure.

But now we live in present, and to make it pleasant we need to work with responsibility.Social responsibility and inclusive growth are the words we should work for ,to make our nation feel happy we need overall in depth development.
The corporate world which is riding on the superpower wave can and should make this happen.

THE END

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:34:00 +0000

This is not an srcipt of an sci-fi movie or an passage from an fictional book this is true and damm real.Sometimes we have an gut feeling that movies show us the reality and also the predicted future.Thats surely true in this case.After seeing the movie 2012 i just did a little research to see is it really true . After that so called research, i had an series of shocks.1st shock- According to Mayan civilization the world is going to end on 21st December 2012, as their calendar ends on this day.

2nd -Tibet is no more on the map and having seen the satellite pictures of a small town called 'DAMXUNG' which was in tibet, now china,i was blown out seen the huge industrial sheds and two big 'pyramid shaped' structures. This small town have an airport and helipad and also a railway station. This town towards its north has an mountain range behind which there is an lake which is biggest in the whole country. Now the movie is coming before my eyes. There is someting suspecious going around there. Considering the visits of american president to china resently, big spams everywhere.Name of that small town and its infrastucture where only animal husbandry was practiced recently all indicate that this may be it.The recent tsunami at japan showed the wild thing of nature and what it can do, it may be an start of something big or it has started slowly,it will swallow the whole world in a few years.This may sound a little filmy but this can be a perspective.And what i think is that they are constructing ships instead of a dam.Stop! u must be thinking that i am bluffing.The best thing u can do is watch the film 2012 then read this passage again and do ur own research and then tell me what u think. Remember 21st december 2012 haha!! long live living !!

SUGGESTED READING

BARE TRUTH

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 06:40:00 +0000

Earth is the only place (our home) we know, for OUR existance. We really need to save it to make it live its natural lifespan,so that we get more time for planning a "switchover planet".Basically economy is a illusion a competetion and entertainment for humans to spend their life on earth till they live.We need to cut down our population by regulating strict laws.R&D in Technology is the only thing thats our tool for longer existance.Aviation technology ,space exploration,material science & mental peace and stability science are the most important aspects we need to concentrate on.Rehabilitaion of forest should be done as fast as possible.Business,economy,secondary industries & fashion is all recreational means for humans.Our basic goal is existance and if do not exist, thinking wont exist & exist wont exist.So we need to slow down so called arificial progress and comparative development and dominance.We all are humans- one specie ,we will survive,thinking will survive the d-day by united co-operation.We can do it we can survive,all we need do is organise earth so that it can rejuvenate. We should create special human concentration centres across world in existing countries and convert rest of land into forest maximum as possible.Control population as low as possible so that one who is born may enjoy maximum resources possible.It will not hurt the unborn as they are not in existance.We stand at the top of the pyramid getting all resources as possible but if our population increases it will take us to the end of our illusion called "LIFE" which we love the most.

living life????

noreply@blogger.com (Sunny Mahajan) — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 10:40:00 +0000

What exactly is life??? Think from an galactic view !! It is an time given for an an ''living organism '' to live in this black space. From an well civilized next generation human it is an opportunity to established your name in front of the human community and to live a lavish and ''comfortable'' life. I always think that being good, being bad, being rich or poor does not matter as everything ur name ur body is gonna vanish one day.the think that mattered is that what and how u wanted to live and are you happy at the end.The basic reason for human existence is for to respect the gift of life and "live and let live ".Its all about the internal happiness u achieve althrough ur lifE
Yep! It Will Be Contd.........