Mysorean

The Hindu has an article on the acquittal of Geelani.

Giving Mr. Geelani the benefit of the doubt, a Bench consisting of Justice P. Venkatarama Reddi and Justice P.P. Naolekar said his conduct at the time of the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001 was disturbing and created a serious suspicion about his role as he reportedly approved the terrorist act. Further, the Bench referred to Mr. Geelani’s untruthful pleas about his contacts with Afzal and Shaukat and said the needle of suspicion pointed to him. However, “suspicion alone is not sufficient to convict a person.”

In a press conference shown on Headlines Today News Channel, Mr. Geelani was stating how happy he was to be proven innocent especially after being convicted (and given a death sentence) by a lower court. His happiness is understandable. And my hearty wishes to him for his acquittal.

My discomfort arises from the last statement with which the TV coverage ended. “I realise I was convicted earlier only because I am a Kashmiri Muslim”, said Mr. Geelani. He was not responding improptu to questions from reporters. He was reading out from a paper which probably had the statement on it. All the National newspapers have rightly kept the statement out of their stories. But I am unable to shrug it off.

If he was convicted earlier just because he was a Kashmiri Muslim, the judgement of the Apex Court also shouldn’t have changed. Afterall, he didn’t change his religion before this judgement. He was hurt by the judgement of the earlier court. Anybody would have been. You punish an innocent person, the innocent person will obviously be hurt.

Being a professor, who teaches in a famous University, making such statements don’t suit his demeanour. Going into your lecture with the attitude that I am not treated on par with the others because of my religion, you will only end up poisoning more minds than teaching them to live in harmony with other people.

Have our tolerance limits really gone up to such an extent that we take such statements in our stride too? It’s a pity that such a statement was made in the first place. And despite getting justice, if this is the stand that a person takes then its dangerous to the society. I consider that statement as unnecessary. It is an open attack on the Indian tolerance levels.

By acquitting Mr. Geelani, now it’s unclear as to who we have acquitted. A Kashmiri Muslim who is such a danger to the country that he was once awarded a death penalty? Or an Indian who is living under a free democracy and an effective juidicary?

Tomorrow: The discourse at Ramakrishna Ashram

A message that Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam spreads in all schools that he visits in the form of a prayer:

As a young citizen of India,
armed with technology, knowledge and love for my nation,
I realize, small aim is a crime.

I will work and sweat for a great vision,
the vision of transforming India into a developed nation
powered by economic strength with value system.

I am one of the citizens of a billion,
only the vision will ignite the billion souls.
It has entered into me,
the ignited soul compared to any resource,
is the most powerful resource
on the earth, above the earth and under the earth.

I will keep the lamp of knowledge burning

to achieve the vision – Developed India.

Tomorrow: The Bhagavad Gita on the Soul

An Old couple lose their son. They fight to get justice and end up taking Law into their own hands. They try to win by staying in the system, but they ought to take the system on since it’s keeping them out of it how much ever they belong to it. (viruddh)

A conscientious young lad wants people of this country to follow the rules that are there. He wants everybody to do their duty properly and in the spirit in which it ought to be done. He goes about killing the people who don’t follow the system. (anniyan)

The system is the problem.

System is a word that as soon as I hear I realize that it ain’t related to me. I somehow don’t own the word. Can we say the same about words like ‘family’, ‘brother’, etc. ? Why? Why don’t I want to own the word? Simply because there is a responsibility that I openly take up to answer millions of people who have thousands of questions against the system. I don’t want to take up the responsibility and probably I am also guilty of having corrupted the system somewhere.

The system is built up of people whom I have voted for. It’s not always possible that whoever I voted for, lost. So, the people up there are my representatives. If I don’t believe in them, then I have two options:

1. Make them more accountable. Go to them and demand solutions. (I still trust them)
2. Ask them to step down, and get a more effective person instead or I stand up instead of them. (I have lost my trust in them)

This is an approach where we are trying to propose a change from the top. There are many more options. Lets look at a few of them.

Everybody in this country wants to do something. There’s this attitude of “Mujhe kuch karna hai” in each and everyone. How do we make use of it? Well, if there is a doubt whether that basic feeling exists in everybody begin by asking yourself. I am sure you will find the answer. How do we harness this energy in the direction all of us want but are not sure whether we will reach the destination? We need to start doing it to know. Prediction of the future is not as useful as exploring and moulding our way through it.

It’s not all that tough you know. The problem is in the fact that each of us wants to do something in the area of our concern. Fine. Let’s do it. We always ask this highly responsibility-shrugging kind of question,”How does it matter if I alone do my duty?”. We need to start from somewhere and we shall start from ourselves. No, not because it’s the right point to start with, just that it’s the easiest point to start from. Come to think of it, I don’t know which is the right starting point! If you know, let me know.

When I was a kid, my parents taught me “Vishnu Sahasranamam” – the
thousand names of Lord Vishnu. I would never take up the initiative to
start the recitation of those 108 slokas. It was a regular feature during our
evenings after dinner, before going to sleep. I would hate
my father for pestering me to sit through the recitation. But you know
one thing, I learnt the entire sloka by heart. I can today just reel out the
entire sloka from my memory. Today I realise the value of the sloka. It can
bring so much of calmness to your personality and keep out certain unwanted things from your mind. That apart, if I had started to learn the sloka after realising that it can bring me peace of mind, then it would have been very tough. But since I had already learnt it, I started saying it daily and today it’s again a regular feature in my day. This time, no outside pressure. And I can feel the enhancement in my daily being. Thanks to my parents!

So, the point is: Starting point is where we define it to be. Since we are defining the entire process ourselves we can start from where we want to. We want to cleanse the system. And as I said, each of us wants to do it in our own areas. Let’s begin the change. All we need to do is do our duties as a professional, family roles (son, father, brother, uncle, etc.) and citizen to perfection. It’s not possible to attain perfection alone. Perfection is teamwork. All of us can do it if we decide to.

It’s my dream to see this country be a developed country before I go to the next world. And I need your help, each one of you, in making my dream a reality. I am sure we can do it.

Tomorrow: Holistic development of the human personality

Rajesh Jain is a person I admire. Not because he made Rs. 500 crore at the height of dotcom craze! But because he practices the same values that I always thought were and should form the core of my value system. It helps me get more conviction that I can achieve my vision by following this value system.

Given below is one among a series of letters that Rajesh is writing to his new-born son Abhishek. Here he talks about the Power of passion.

From E M E R G I C . o r g: Rajesh Jain:

“Dear Abhishek,

Understand the Power of Passion

There are two attributes that I have found which can make a big difference – passion and discipline. Passion is about the energy that we bring to what we are doing. Discipline is the process we follow to getting things done. Let’s talk a little about both of these.

Think of passion as infectious enthusiasm. It is about the force that we bring in the work we do – and how we can positively impact those around us. I learnt the power of this during my first year at IIT. I was contesting for the hostel elections – standing for the post of Literary Secretary. My opponent was one of the most well-liked seniors. No one gave me a chance to win – I was after all a “freshie.” But having made the decision to contest, I was determined not to end up with the same result as when I had stood for School Captain a few years ago. (I had then lost by a narrow margin – after I forgot my speech.)

So, this time around, I decided to campaign hard. I was the underdog, so big deal. I had little to lose. I met with almost every single hostelite, explaining my plans for what I’d do if I were elected. I only had my passion working for me. It was a big change for me. I was until that point of me an introvert – content to live in my own small world. But having decided to fight, I knew that unless I changed, I stood no chance. It was one evening that one of my seniors in the hostel told me – “You know, Rajesh, what we really like about you is your infectious enthusiasm.” That is a statement I have not forgotten to this day.

As it turns out, I did win the elections – by a couple votes. That was the only election I had to fight in IIT – as I went on to become General Secretary (Cultural), one of the highest posts in the student government. When I look back, it was that election which turned the tide for me. It changed me – for the better. It also showed me the power of passion.

It was the same passion that I had going for me when I started IndiaWorld in 1994 and had to go out and source content from various publishers. I had to make them see a world built around the Internet that did not exist. I had to make them believe me. That is where Passion comes in. It is one of the greatest assets we can possess – especially when we are trying to persuade others.

Passion comes from an inner belief – you have to let your inner feelings reflect on the outside, and like a virus, infect others around you. Passion is one of the key dimensions of leadership – and you will have to demonstrate plenty of it as you “make no little plans.”

All of us have passion. We don’t discover it at the right time, that’s all. Once we bring passion into our system we will find that we achieve greater satisfaction in whatever we do irrespective of the result.

One of my plans for myself, is to go on my own. I have a person in whom I can trust and rely on! We are sure we shall build a successful enterprise once we get together. That’s because we are confident of our fundamental values. While being confident, we are somewhere unable to convince ourselves that we will be able to sell this idea of leaving a lucrative job with a regular monthly paycheck and jump into something which might leave us with nothing at all to our well-wishers and family members.

But we have the passion and the vision to change India into a developed country. We are willing to put in all our efforts to make this happen. We are ready to be the change. The question is when. I will not lie saying that I am brimming with ideas to make this happen. I am trying to think. Think of better ways of achieving my two-fold objective: Better India and Our survival. If you have ideas I am open to discussion. I have to answer the question of “when” myself and to my future business partner. He will have a different idea. We need to converge on a single idea and then, that’s it. Be the change!

The idea has to be powerful enough to change the world. Otherwise, what’s the use? I can’t start a kirana store and expect the world to change! We need to work on a powerful concept friend! Let’s put our minds together. We live apart, but that shouldn’t be a reason not to think and discuss. We should be ready to give our full commitment at the drawing board stage. The idea gains strength and belief as we work on it more and more. We need to get together friend. Let’s build a better India. It’s in our hands. Let’s do it.