THE FILTH IN THE "S*** HOLES"

     The President of the United States did it once again!  The man who called some countries S**t holes earlier has now called out some countries, including India, for their filth.  While the filth is indeed a reality, the tone and the insensitivity of the comment show a high level of ingratitude for the red carpet treatment given him as also his own lack of empathy and the absence of an intellect able to understand and appreciate the why behind the what.  Unfortunately, when it comes to the 'dirt and filth' of the developing world, his sentiments and disdain are shared by many in the general population in the US including the so-called the NRIs, the Non-resident Indians, and their American born and groomed children - the latter's ingratitude being for the almost free education the first generation here got in India and helped them move here, and the insensitivity for, and most likely due, the privilege they and their families enjoyed back home for reasons like caste and position.  These make it necessary to examine this topic of filth in some detail and with some honesty.

    No human being likes to live in filth.  The aspirations of peoples for a good life, and a good environment to live in, are the same irrespective of their nationality, color, or whatever.  The main differentiators are education, natural resources, wealth, and history - not necessarily in that order of importance.  Without basic natural resources, particularly clean water, it is plainly impossible to maintain a high level of cleanliness and good health.   You also need a good amount of wealth to pay for even essential things like garbage pick up, street cleaning, and even more for expensive infrastructure like sewer systems and waste disposal and recycling plants.   

     Ask the people of Flint, Michigan (which is in USA, by the way) if you are in doubt.  My friends in America who speak loudly about filth in the so-called Third World have never seen Flint or have gone across the proverbial 'railway track or creek' in many states in the US, nor have they ventured into the poor areas of the large cities of America.  They probably have not read about the 'superfund sites' and have probably turned a blind eye to all the pollution and cancer and other diseases-causing filth created by mindless industrial filth here.  And, of course, we are blind to how we export filth by moving polluting industries out to other nations.  Ever heard of Bhopal, India?  But then we are affluent and can do that ignoring the glass house we live in and the bigger tragedy that this happens here too despite the incredible wealth of this nation.

    What matters equally is education - not just in school, but as it applies to that elusive thing we learn from the cultural milieu we live in.  The state of Kerala in India is a great example.  Much of Kerala is very clean - at least the Hindu and educated Christian parts, and that has nothing to do with the wealth of the family.  Even the poor keep their homes and their surroundings very clean.  Walk across to the muslim sections of Malabar, and you will see a very different thing.  (Wow! What a politically incorrect thing to say!  But that is a fact that no one can unfortunately ignore.  I say this because I believe that the Indian society has to do everything to uplift the muslim population there if the nation is to really progress.)

    Filth breeds on itself.  It is well-known that depression and filth form a vicious cycle.  People who are depressed pay little attention to how clean they and their environment are, and the lack of that cleanliness adds even more to their depression.

    Finally, history is an important factor.  Many of the developing nations have been plundered for generations by the West, and the filth you see there is the other side of the coin whose better side of cleanliness, better health, greater longevity, etc., we enjoy due to that plunder.  In fact, you do not have to go even that far to understand this.  Just look at the situation of the African Americans or Native Indians in this country.  Much of the filth they have to endure is the result of the history of their exploitation.

    So, the next time you or some prep boy or girl complains about filth in the developing nations, please remember the above facts.  Understand, think, and speak with empathy and concentrate more on what you can do to improve things even in a small way.  This is perhaps the best lesson we can teach our children too.  THANK YOU! 

Kashmir can't be the Victim of American Prostitutes, Tricks, and Naifs.

An election year in America brings Kashmir naturally to the forefront in many ways, and there is considerable concern both among Indians and Indian Americans that a government of the Democratic Party may lean the wrong way as it has for decades - wrong not only for India, but also for the USA.

That Kashmir has been an integral part of India for eons and part of its Hindu ethos from the distant undetermined start of that religion is undeniable.  The destruction of many sacred shrines or the driving away of Hindus cannot change history.  Many a Hindu saint and scholar as also many Hindu religious Sanskrit works and Indian classical literature grew out of Kashmir, and it finds mention in the very ancient and revered texts of Hindus as not anything foreign but an integral part of the land of their authors.   And that history goes back at least 5000 years.   Its Islamic history came much later beginning about 710 CE with the violent invasions of the barbarians in the name of a religion for whom anyone who did not subscribe to it, and only it, was a 'kafir' to be killed unless forcibly converted.

From a more modern geo-political point of view, Pakistan is strategically important to the so-called free world, because its falling in the hands of the communists and authoritarian regimes endangers international trade and prosperity of many nations through easy access by undesirables to the Arabian sea.  In fact, it is an even more important domino than the dominos for which thousands of Americans have given their lives.  Indeed, today one of the supporters of Pakistan in the Kashmir issue is China which has cleverly acquired from Pakistan, in exchange for WMDs and delivery mechanisms, a path through Pakistan-occupied Indian land to the Arabian sea.  Wait until its implications fully roll out for our nation USA that fought tooth and nail in Afghanistan and lost many just to stop the Russian communists gain similar access.  If you think the Chinese menace has become too much, wait for this to roll out!

It would be too naive and criminal to assume that otherwise intelligent US politicians and their so-called expert foreign policy advisers would be unaware of the above facts.  Then why are many of them blinded to support Pakistan in its quest to permanently acquire Kashmir and to turn a blind eye to recent history of many an act of aggression, deceit, instigation, and terrorism by Pakistan?  Why do they make blanket statements that superficially sound rooted in high democratic and humanitarian principles, but are in fact opportunist, corrupt, hypocritical, and above all suicidal?

Ask yourself how US would react if Puerto Rico, an Indian Reservation, or even a distant small possession of the US were to want to break away under similar instigations of a foreign nation or even on its own?  Would these US politicians let the same "principles" they  propound in the context of Kashmir apply to these situations and let them become independent?  And would they even look at it kindly if the instigating power is a known failed state, a harborer of terrorists against the US, and aiding a totalitarian communist state that has become the nemesis of the USA through the Kissinger-Nixon exercise of stupid expediency and subsequent nurture for the cause of crony capitalism by successive governments of both parties?  [Read the book 'Massacre' by the award winning US correspondent Robert Payne to understand how these two even ignored, just to make the US-China partnership happen through the "good" offices of Pakistan, the massacre of about three million Bangladeshis and the rape of over a million Bangladeshi women by the Pakistani army.]

What is at play are two highly troubling facts.  One is money from Saudi Arabia and some other Islamic nations, none of which has any semblance of democracy or human rights themselves.  In the quest to amass campaign contributions and possibly other payoffs, the US politicians and their advisers have chosen to prostitute themselves and the high principles on which our own nation is founded to take sides with totally non-democratic and totalitarian players.  They even forget that the distant history that we conveniently quote when it comes to Israel is not applied to India whose history with Kashmir pre-dates even the very birth of Judaism or Islam.  The second is the expediency of trying to get some favors and short-term economic gains for the US (and possibly personal ones like huge donations to one's 'charity' foundation) and looking good while running the US government, even if it be at the expense of the long term welfare and good of the US itself.  Both China and Pakistan are true nemeses of this latter sin as far as the US is concerned.  And in this, these politicians behave exactly as tricks who go for the immediate fun from undesirables at the expense of many a disease to come later.  And, of course, you have the lobbyists too who are the equivalent of pimps in this game.

What is at stake is the long term prosperity and security of the USA.  Young Americans and Indian Americans need to educate themselves on the history of Kashmir, the brutal invasions and subjugation of its people by tyrants and rogues in the name of the Islamic religion, and the more recent driving away of hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindu Brahmins) from their land.  It is unfortunate that at least a pair of American generations has been (mis)educated by those who themselves lacked that lesson in history and a proper perspective, due mostly to the texts and writings of dishonest propaganda of the British to perpetuate their empire and satiate their own racism and bias.  Herein lies the third cause of why America acts in total antithesis to its own asserted values and practices when it comes to Kashmir.    Wherever do we park our commitment to human rights or democracy if we continue USA's blind and misguided support to Pakistan and the essentially terrorist movements in Kashmir?  The argument that a terrorist is someone else's freedom fighter is not an argument we would accept if any group in the US were to resort to even a fraction of the violence and terror acts perpetrated in Kashmir through the instigation of Pakistan and the covert support of China.

Enough is enough.  For our own long term security and respect among democratic nations of the world and for the right evaluation by history, it is high time that we - the USA - as a nation shed our hypocrisy in the matter of Kashmir and re-examine everything.  May be, it is high time to send some of the old advisers and 'experts' to their real paymaster nations and get in place those who will serve the US honestly and with its long term good and only that in mind.

ON DEATH AND DYING

   Why am I writing this blog at this time when most of the world is facing a pandemic and many are worried about becoming a victim?  Certainly, it is not because of any personal fear, or any perverse desire to make you more worried.  So read on setting your worries aside. It is mainly to let you know that if you feel scared, depressed and down, it is a natural reaction.  There are things you can do to subdue those feelings.

   My first encounter with death was early in my fourth year in Kerala, India.  Hearing some loud crying, I came out of the main hall into the side room of our house to see my favorite 'Shantha teacher' bawling a good four feet or away from the side exit door to our house narrating to my mother and grandmother how her younger brother contracted small pox on a train and died just three days later.  There was no official manifesto for 'social distancing' in those days, but what contained epidemics to some extent was probably all the social and religious taboos surrounding death and concerning diseases like small pox and chicken pox. Those forbade visits from and to houses infected and required that their members may not touch anyone for several weeks.  Not that I knew what death really was, but I could figure that something really bad had happened.  I kept asking my mother and grandmother for many days as they tried to put me to bed, but was told not to think about it, and that all my teacher was crying about was that her brother had left to God's place and she could not see him any more.  That, of course, brought from me many questions about God and why people go to his place etc., but no answer came that was anywhere near the truth or what I could understand.

    In another six months or so, my great grandfather who was living with us passed away.  He had become very old (93) and had suffered a head injury from a fall, but he recovered surprisingly.  But he developed a diarrhea which got worse by the day.  None of the medications was working, and my grandfather, who was a doctor, had pronounced that his father was sinking, and all we could do was to make his days as nice as possible.  Those were days when old people were allowed to die without more pain induced on them through heroic attempts to keep them going even if it were only to a life with highly diminished quality.  One morning when I woke up, I saw the old man laid in the main hall like a stick.  He seemed to be sleeping.  The odd thing was his two big toes were tied together, and there was also a yellow ribbon tied from under his chin to the top of his head.  We lived in a small town, and our custom does not permit moving the body to a mortuary or morgue.    I saw lots of crying, some religious ceremonies being performed, and later my great grandfather, who used to make me breakfast every day, carried out on a bamboo stretcher sort of a thing and driven off in our large family car.  The mood of the house had changed drastically, and it stayed that way for many days.  Again, I could get no satisfactory answers from my elders.

     When I was about eight, we moved to Madras (now called Chennai) where it is common sight to see dead bodies being carried in full view in a procession to the burial or cremation grounds.  I was initially scared to see these, and even more scared to ask anyone at home since I knew by then that this was not a topic for discussion.  But then I had classmates who could give almost an entire lecture on death, and from them I 'learned' quite a bit.  Yet, the statements by some contradicted those of some others and left me with some knowledge buttered with a lot of confusion.

     The time I came to understand death in a proper way was while I was in high school browsing through some medical books of my grandfather.  This was something of a routine done clandestinely and started with the curiosity about certain body parts and related matters.  Surprisingly, I found the discussions in them very interesting, not in any prurient sense but in a really intellectual way.  I was getting wiser about life and death after all, along with information on lots of anatomy, diseases, and treatment.  Wiser may be, but not at ease, as I found out later in Vaishnav College right in front of which was a cremation ground from which at times came the smell of burning bodies into our class room.  Even today, the burning of flesh in a barbecue brings back in me those nauseating memories.

     I must say that those were days when my agnosticism was at its peak.  All the religious stuff appeared absolutely nonsensical to me.  But then, other than my agnostic grandfather, the rest of the household was too religious for me even to disclose my agnosticism, let alone to have my doubts cleared.  And, I kept reading and reading, trying to find answers to many an intriguing question while simultaneously going through many a religious ceremony mechanistically to please the elders, nay to avoid their ire.

     The time death really hit me hard was when I was in my early forties and when a young colleague at Bellcore died due to a recurrence of his sarcoma.  His cancer had spread to his brain, and details of his last days filled with unbearable headaches and his resisting to take morphine so that he could take in every waking moment in the company of his mother who had come from India broke my heart as of many of my colleagues.  Sitting in his memorial meeting, something really snapped inside me making me wonder whether I could go too just like that, and what would happen to my whole family.    The only thing I could do was to take out some insurance policies on myself and my wife; I did that. But that did not help with the other challenges imagined for those dependent on me I would leave behind.  All this, combined with a discovery of a cyst in my wife's brain that took two years and three divergent medical opinions about surgery to resolve into a diagnosis as an 'arachnoid cyst' that was not growing and didn't pose a risk, was driving me up a wall.   Retrospectively, I must say that what I went through as a consequence was really an utter depression, although at that time, I thought my doctor was jumping to conclusions and most likely wrong.  Prozac, Zoloft, and a series of medicines helped me to appear normal to the rest of the world, but there was a deep abyss in my own mind known mostly only to me and my wife.  Trust me, pretense is not a pleasant game.

     An American lady, who was a Ph.D. class mate of my wife and also a Counsellor, suggested that I read, "Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life" by Gail Sheehy, a book that I would highly recommend to all as one that details the ages 20-60 in very insightful ways.  Just to cite one example, explaining the so-called 'midlife crisis,' the author says that around 40, some young friend or relative dies and that changes one's personality much; men begin to become mellow shedding their previous aggressive quest to succeed at all cost, but women begin to become suddenly self centered complaining how they have spent their prime years serving others like a husband, children, et al.  That book was certainly an eye opener in many ways, but unfortunately not a solace.

     Then I hit the jackpot in the form of a small book titled, 'Teaching of the Bhagavad Gita' by Swami Dayananda Saraswati.  Written in captivating prose, it started expounding the lessons by pointing out how inconsequential the problems we worry about really are, and how there is a big macrocosm that makes our microcosm and its issues quite irrelevant.  It was as though I suddenly became an Arjuna being told by Krishna himself:  'asOchyAn anvasOchastvam (you are worrying about things not worth your worries).'  That set me off on a serious study of vEdantA which, as a system attempting to answer many fundamental questions, was the perfect antidote to my hitherto agnosticism.  It cleared many a doubt in my mind and gave a level of incredible peace.  More importantly, the mathematician in me was fascinated by its unquestionable logic and consistency of thought.

     Here I am at 70, immune compromised, and facing a virus that is causing enormous devastation all around and killing many.  Yet, I could not be more at peace with the notion of death than ever or anyone.  It is true that I have been fortunate to be blessed with many wonderful people and things around me and to have some accomplishments.  I could also look back at my life and claim that I have lived a good life in the sense of having been blessed to do some things of value and usefulness to others.  But they are not the real reasons for my peace.  Like everyone else, I too feel my life as incomplete and want more time to achieve a few more things.  But I know, to hope that some day we can claim our life to have become complete is a futile quest.  In any case, none of that matters.

     My peace comes from the Vedantic view of our world and our existence as a small part of an infinite continuum of repeated states of being manifest and unmanifest of the Supreme Consciousness that the true Self in me is.  Many may applaud, "Cowards die many deaths, the valiant but once," but to me the most appealing tenet is that of Vedanta that the real I does not die.   I accept that model and many of its explanations as the best I have seen based even on  many observables.  How else does one explain how even members of a twin often are different in diverse ways, even as babies exposed only to a common environment?  But the real reason of my acceptance may well be the underlying cogency and logical foundation on which the concepts of Vedanta stand.  Among the many privileges of my (this) life has been to have had my eyes opened to this great system of thought and the opportunity to delve into it seriously and to attain a level of peace that is indescribable.

         If one death can have profound impact similar to that of my colleague on me, it is no wonder that news of many deaths every day, day after day,  and worries for oneself and the near and dear could become quite onerous. The right way to uplift ourselves in such an environment is through taking on a quest to understand what this life is all about through the teachings of the wise across many generations that have preceded us, and to fill our minds with those thoughts and inquiries thereon rather than be consumed by what is being played out incessantly on television and the newspapers.  In the least, hear some nice lectures, or pick up the phone or connect through the Internet and talk to some who can give you the right perspectives.  Above all, stay safe, and be proactive.