Pictures can speak too

Pictures from my blogs.
Some of these speak more than the blog itself !!

Aliens in India

Empathy and sympathy: two words which are often misunderstood by many. Rather, the former is often misunderstood as the latter, probably because they both sound alike. They however convey different meanings, infact much more different than it appears at first. Empathy, to take definition from one of the dictionaries, is intellectual identification with feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of others. Very few know when to sympathise and when to empathise. One of the key differences is that suffering or pain is the sine qua non for sympathy, but not empathy. Sometimes one needs to look beyond the obvious to empathise and then act accordingly.

You might be wondering that what has empathy to do with aliens? And when did aliens come to India? Or are they planning to come to India?

The next few sentences talks about issues beyond the obvious meaning of aliens. It talks about the not-so-often-obvious pain of not being from the mainland India and more importantly the pain of not being recognized and treated as 'other' Indians. It tries to look into India and Indians from the eyes of those who are increasingly considering themselves to be less Indian than ever. It talks about the potential danger which India and Indians might have to face if they continue to remain oblivious of something which will in sometime appear very apparent. It talks about what is lacking in all of us.
It talks about the need for empathy.

Race against Race

When will the race against race get over?

The recently concluded Commonwealth Games would be remembered for various reasons and the reasons could be very different for different set of people.

There would be Indians who initially would have felt let down by the "leaders" and the "games" officials who were busy playing games with the Indian people and the image of the nation. These same bunch of Indians would be breathing a sigh of relief now that the games have concluded without any issues( barring a couple of glitches). The opening and the closing ceremony would definitely have given each Indian a moment to feel that extra pride of being an Indian.

But there would also be a bunch of people( those primarily from the West) for whom it is not over yet. These are the people who were the most vocal critics of games going to a "third world country" like India. What is more disturbing is the fact that this had little to do with the mishandling before the games. The major reason for it was the latent "superiority feeling", or the "racial prejudice" which many of them seem to harbour even in this supposedly "free from race" era.

A-Yodhha for Ayodhya

Verdict is out on one of the longest running cases in the Indian courts.

This is one verdict, the build up for which in the fast few weeks witnessed the best of behaviour from the Indian politicians ( which unfortunately is very rare). And it was not only the politicians who behaved responsibly and rationally, the people and the media also behaved in a commendable manner.

Now that the verdict is out, it is time to act even more rationally and more responsibly.

Its time to reflect on the greater repercussions of this decision.