When I read “Naked Ape” of anthropologist Desmond Morris a few years back, I wondered about our evolution. It was really an interesting account of our evolution.

In every one of us there lays a fierce hunter-gatherer designed by evolution to survive. Like the baboons, our monkey-cousins, with whom we share an ecological link, the most crucial development in the evolution of Homo sapiens was learning tribal living and co-operation. By working together, our ancestors could out-hunt even the fiercest predators and avoid being eaten. But the growth of a huge brain has its costs - our minds take a lot of energy to run. Even so, the benefits were immense. Alongside big brains, we developed language and tools and mastered the use of fire. Man became the most effective and deadliest hunter the world had ever seen - far more deadly than the greatest Tyrannosaur or sabre-toothed tiger. Armed with a few spears, a group of human hunters could easily defeat any animal.

However, this supremacy started to change with the advent of farming. The change to an agrarian society took place so quickly. Man invented war. Rival males were treated as prey to be hunted down and killed, much like animals were before them. But, happily, there is another side to the brain. That is its creativity combined with curiosity. The ability to concentrate and cooperate towards a long-term goal, an ability forged in the primeval chase, could be put to good use. The result was the fascinating development of human society: buildings and roads, technology and art, music and literature, the whole of science and industry. The rise of humanity has begun.

Let’s start discussing about humanism and human rights from here.

Humanism is a philosophy of compassion. Humanism entails a commitment to search for the truth and morality through human means in support of human interests. It is a philosophy of reason and science in pursuit of knowledge. It is not only the thinking person’s outlook, but also the feelings of the person as well, as it has inspired the arts, the sciences and the philanthropy and many more. Even in criticism it is tolerant by acknowledging the rights of people to choose their ways.

Humanists are committed to civil liberties. Humanism is an expansion of global consciousness and an open-minded approach for solving social problems. It?s also an approach that allows for testing new alternatives.

The relevance of humanism is getting increased day by day as more and more countries are focusing towards combating terrorism and controlling human rights violation. The increasing awareness of human rights in the contemporary world may be a great achievement of our civilization. Human rights constitute the very source of all rights of human being. The concept of human rights can be linked to the concept of justice.

In 1948 United Nations issued an elaborate list of human rights, known as “Universal declaration of human rights”. It advised its members to give wide publicity to these rights in their respective countries, particularly in schools, and other educational institutions. This declaration is best suited to build a free, democratic and welfare state.

India has set up National Human Rights Commission in 1993 in order to promote awareness on human rights and to ensure their protection. NGOs like “People’s Unions for Civil Liberties” and “People’s Union for Democratic Rights” have done reasonable work. The amnesty international headquartered in London has done commendable work in this area and continuing its crusade against the violation of human rights all over the world.

Unfortunately, the violation of human rights starts even before birth. Take for example the female foeticides.  A sharp decline in sex ratio in 150 districts in India is a matter of great concern as it is expected to lead to serious demographic imbalances and social consequences. Women organizations in India are fighting for wide range of issues including trafficking of women, superstitions, domestic violence, rape, alcoholism, AIDS and other relevant issues, which are directly related to violations of human rights.

Women and children who are the victims of sex trafficking face wide range of violations of human rights. They are forced to work as bonded labourers in conditions tantamount to slavery.  Sex trafficking is widely acknowledged to be the 21^st century version of slavery. The world’s worst trafficking is in Asia.

The violation of human rights on caste basis is not new and has been prevailing for centuries. Other than enforcement of law, better education, better opportunities and better awareness to invoke and protect their human rights are needed to overcome this scenario.

The spread of terrorism, violence and environmental pollution are now threatening the life of the people. However, the dark side is that sometimes human rights are invoked to shield hard-core criminals and terrorists. The agonies and the predicament of those victims are often overlooked. When such issue arises, the real situation must be analyzed with utmost care and caution.

The problems related to violations of human rights are complex and multifaceted. Different kinds of laws and conventions have been passed but the will to implement these with the required focus and vision is missing in our country. The root cause lies not only in the law, or with the government but also with those who followed them.

The sensitiveness of the society and the humanity at large could save the dignity of life and people. Unless the mindset and the attitudes of people change, it is difficult to achieve these goals.

To summarize, Humanism is a philosophy for those who are in love with life. To love life we need to respect human life and its legitimate rights. So the violation of human rights is like denying the space to be in love with life.

where blood spilled

on the glittering carpets

Where the voice of panic

traveled unceremoniously

through our living rooms

Where the souls struggled

to make a desperate attempt

towards survival

I am still with those eyes

which snagged on those blurred

images

First time in my life

I cursed my TV set!

My addiction of watching

newscast !

My addiction of reading

Morning newspaper!

How can you live in a world

which magnifies

the images of agony

on a platter?

The images of agony

Still haunt me

like a nightmare.

The headlines still surge onto

my sentiments

to bring grief

With every succeeding day

the anxieties are rising

on the barometer of life in mumbai

Hope the determination of people

to survive

will defeat

each and every strike

Most of the times, in the office or out, I feel like I am on display, an object of pity, fascination or disenchantment. Initially I did feel its awkwardness but when time progressed it gave me an impression that it is a common thing in a city like Mumbai.

I reached office before time as usual adding one more feather to my cap of sincerity and dedication. I put my bag on the table and straight away went to the cloakroom to get ready. I washed my face with utmost care as always. I have been doing this since so many years. I looked at the mirror and spotted a small pimple on my right cheek. Someone asked from within “How long you will polish your face like this dear friend?” I combed my hair several times using so many methods to bring about a look which can hide my soon to be arrived baldness. (Every day after taking bath I mourn the death of each and every hair, which falls like autumn leaves).

I didn’t sleep well yesterday, thinking about today’s presentation. I put on my computer to check the presentation once again before joining for the meeting. I ordered for a tea and concentrated on the presentation. While running through the slides viz. The present scenario, the plan of action to resist the competition and the innovative plan and strategy to capture the market share etc. sipping the tea, I thought how many times I have rewritten this to satisfy the clients. All these are part of the game like putting old wine in a new bottle with an appealing label.

When the time arrived, I rushed to the conference room carrying the laptop. I distanced myself from the bosses deliberately as usual to ease the pressure. The delegation arrived with fanfare. While shaking hands with each other surprisingly I noticed that the person whom I met at the traffic signal today morning was one of the members of the delegation. I thought what a coincidence. The presentations started. When my turn came I presented my version with more focus on growth. The clients got overwhelmed and agreed to sign the deal.

During lunch the person whom I met at the traffic signal came to me and shook my hands. He told, “I am impressed the way you presented the things”. I thanked him for the appreciation.

After lunch I went to my seat and sat for sometime in a meditating mood. Suddenly my phone rang. I picked up the phone; my boss was on the line. “Could you come to my cabin?” he asked. I went to his cabin with anxiety. “Please be comfortable!” he told while pointing me the chair. I got surprised; this is the first time he said like that. When I sat comfortably I couldn’t resist glancing at his white board, which has the figures on it, that I put during our discussion to finalize the strategy. Suddenly he asked in a loud voice “From where you got the figures?” “We only discussed and finalized yesterday” I responded quickly. He said in a disappointing voice “Yes we were discussed, but who asked you to put it in the presentation.” I wanted to say that there was little time left for polishing the presentation but I kept mum knowing that he is in a bad mood. “I want a more realistic plan of action to achieve the figures by tomorrow” He said with command. I strolled back to my seat with a little disappointment thinking that boss is always right.

I sat for a while little relaxed rewinding the entire episode. Even though I had little to do with my mood today, the only conclusion I can draw is very soon my boss may dump me in some other redundant function thinking that my histrionics may disturb his dream of comfort. Suddenly my direct line rang. I picked up the phone thinking that it must be my boss once again. “Good afternoon Mr Vijay” the voice seemed familiar. “Good afternoon” I responded. “Could you recognize me?” the voice asked. I tried to recollect the voice but failed. “Just recollect the person whom you met in the traffic signal today morning” the voice asked with a soft laughter. “Yes sir, I remember” I replied astonishingly. “Have you ever thought for a change?” he enquired with curiosity. “Not yet” I replied half-heartedly. “When you think of a change, just let me know. We can possibly work out the things in a better way”. “Thanks” I said with a relief.

The figures, the bad mood of my boss and the lucrative offer that I got over phone all moved me one by one. I questioned myself, “Is there a need for a self realization at this juncture?”

I logged onto my computer to check the presentation once again. The screen showed “Your password will expire in two days, would you like to change it?” Each time, I see this I click “No” thinking that it is a nuisance but this time I clicked “Yes” as I was under the influence of a positive thinking.

There are times when we think this is the way things ought to be, without taking into account the feelings of others. When things don’t go our way, we end up feeling depressed. I know I can tackle temporary setbacks, which won’t have a permanent bearing on my mindset or life. There should be a mechanism to see things in a better way to impress upon the boss or else get ready for a change, It’s a matter of choosing between things to buy a share of peace.

The cock crew

Dawn arrived

Sun has risen

in the east

Who knows

how long I will remain

in this beautiful shore

I tread my path

through the agonies

living behind the gloomy past

I have moulded

so many images

life and dreams

but fallen short of

happiness

While pulling on

in this somnambulistic world

a song of Omar Khyyam

frequents my ears

“Here with a loaf of bread

beneath the bough

A jug of wine

a book of verse

and Thou beside me singing

in the wilderness

And wilderness is paradise now”

When Omar Khyyam sings

Wilderness becomes paradise

Who says paradise is not on earth

My nagging fingers

started writing

The ink flowed through

the passage of my being

Your dreams are not yours

alone

You asked her to make-do in a one-room apartment. She did. You got up at 3 to watch the World Cup. She made tea. You never had to worry about your health, your mom, your kids. She did. You sometimes forgot to say, I love you. She never did. Your dreams are not yours alone.

This is the advertisement of Union Bank of India, which got stuck in my mind. The sentence “your dreams are not yours alone” passed through the heart and embraced my conscience. I kept the newspaper aside and started thinking about my role as a husband. Though it may look embezzled, I felt the reality that I am in the same category as mentioned in the advertisement.

In the rush of time, we seldom forget to think deeply about others, their feelings and dreams. These days the working hours are terribly uncertain. You plan something and end up in something else within no time, as the priority gets changed every now and then. If I discuss this with my wife, she will definitely laugh at me because she is also working and handles a responsible position and knows about the vagaries of work life. The surprising part is that she still manages time between work and home very smoothly. Whenever I tried to extend a helping hand to ease her pressure, I landed up in making a mess of the whole thing.

I stopped thinking about it further realizing that it will not take me anywhere, as it is difficult to revisit the lost opportunities.

I opened my mailbox to check the mail and spotted a mail of a consultancy firm. It said: Everything in life is temporary. Darkness of the night or brightness of the day. Even sunrise is temporary, so is sunset. If things are going good, enjoy it, it won’t last forever. And if things are going bad, don’t worry coz it won’t last forever either. Everything just passes by.

I had a relief by thinking that if things are going good enjoy it, suddenly I paused for sometime thinking about the reality that it won’t last forever. Good times and bad times just pass according to the destiny. We have to take a firm resolve to contemplate both with self-realization. When good times come you have to preserve some rays of happiness for bad times.

I read somewhere that life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a lemon in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the lemon falls, there is no point you come first. Same is with life. Your striving is only worth if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but the feeling of being excited and alive, will gradually start to die.

I looked through the glass window. Nature is always there whenever I look up for solace. The sublimity and indifference persisting in nature always make me wonder. While looking at the numerous trees and its eye-catching greenery, I thought for a while how insubstantial my thoughts were. Let me do something worthwhile before they engulf me once again.

It’s really surprising that an advertisement like these made me really crazy. Nowadays companies are striving hard to influence our emotional equilibrium. Most of the times their promotional gimmicks act as motivation and prompt us to look back to our life very closely.

I picked up the phone and ordered for a coffee. A strong coffee is essential to plan for a resurrection.

A day’s sorrow

The train strolls through

the sticky summer

like a Trojan horse

The searing wind

with invisible wings

drifted through

the blazing summer

Perspiration bloomed

like a wild flower

to ignite the feelings

While glancing through

the doomed periphery

blurred like focal amnesia

a placid loneliness bothered me

A day’s sorrow

is like the sorrow

of a cancer ward

Market

I was reading Nancy Gibbs (Time October 13th issue). She writes with elan certain sensitive things, which rules the roost at the moment in United States. By quoting a joke of Bob Hope as “A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it” she describes the current scenario. On an average an American has nine credit cards with a total $ 17,000 balance. People borrow against their houses and pensions to live in a way that dares them to actually grow old. “Never invest in any idea you can’t illustrate with a crayon,” Fidelity mastermind Peter Lynch advised, but American embraced investments about which they understood nothing except the hollow promise that they would never fail. When the economy began to swoon Americans kept spending, effectively sending themselves rebate checks from accounts already overdrawn, as if it would help to buy a new TV and charge it to the kids. States fund their schools, which among other things are meant to turn children into responsible adults, by selling lottery tickets.”

After reading Nancy I went to sleep with a feeling of pity on Americans. I had a dream about Dalal Street soon after. It had a scary look. As I watched along the wide street, I was taken aback by the abnormality of the scenes. A large, white-bearded man in a white robe and a Gandhi cap angrily lectured a dozen or so people, pointing to a Pepsi bottle, which he snatched from a child as a proof of India’s moral failings. On the other corner, a man in a worn out shirt howled, I am not congress. I am not BJP. I am an Indian, by adding something about smoking, drinking and Internet. I then overheard a man in safari confessing to someone through his cell phone: I’m sorry. Did I ask you to buy those shares? Then why are you blaming me? These scenes made me crazy.

The scenes of bedlam! Imagine how many such scenes and conversations must be going on at the same time at so many places.

Market values are changing rapidly. The narrative stories we hear in the aftermath of every crisis, may probably lead us to miss the deeper cause entirely. Financial crises are natural. It crops up when competition between investment enterprises sets up a race for higher leverage.

The problem for 99% of investors is that their trading decisions are guided by emotion. And when the financial landscape is especially treacherous as it is now, or when it’s irrationally optimistic as it has been in the recent past, this tendency is magnified.

Let’s think about Mr Warren Buffet! Mr. Buffet is the world’s richest person, topping this year’s ranking of billionaires by Forbes magazine with $62 billion. Mr. Buffett has pledged to give most of that fortune to charity upon his death. In the last two weeks alone, Mr. Buffet has exercised his influence mainly by investing in embattled blue-chip companies, committing a total of $8 billion to Goldman Sachs and General Electric. He called the current crisis an economic Pearl Harbor, requiring immediate action. Its biggest single cause, he explained, was the real estate bubble. Three hundred million Americans, their lending institutions, their government, their media, all believed that house prices were going to go up consistently, he said. Lending was done based on it, and everybody did a lot of foolish things. To help pay for the rescue, the government should raise taxes on the wealthy, Mr. Buffet suggested. I’m paying the lowest tax rate that I’ve ever paid in my life, he said. Now, that’s crazy. Do we have a Buffet in our country to spell out the market realities so daringly?

Hindustan Times reported that Lakshmi Mittal just got poorer by 16 billion pounds (about Rs.13.3 lakh crores). The 58-year-old NRI heads a list of 10 super-rich Britons who have lost 23 billion pounds (1.9 lakh crore) between them.

The financial security is swirling down the drain. September was a bad month for stocks. Panic was spreading on in financial markets, and the biggest investors,not small investors were panicking the most. Nobody was sure how much damage it would cause before it ends.

Are the markets having certain dynamics? Certainly, markets have internal dynamics. They’re self-propelling systems driven in large part by the investors on rumors, gossip, fears, expectations, and the good reasons for optimism or pessimism of the market. It’s these internal dynamics that make it possible for billions to evaporate from portfolios.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, popularly known as India’s Warren Buffet, has a bullish long-term outlook. Markets don’t always listen to logic in the short term he says, but as far as India is concerned, there is a very good opportunity and fundamentally India is going to be an out performing market.

He reiterates,  I don’t think India is affected. Yes it is temporarily affected by the sentiment against the emerging money markets. I personally feel that could be bad news in the short term. But in the medium and the long term, I feel that you will narrow down where there is crisis, the number of asset classes, and the countries that people don’t like to invest. Once people get over this crisis and they take a breath and when they find India outperforming, we’ll find far more investors in India than anywhere else. So I feel that the result of this crisis would be that India would attract far more money. It’s my opinion. I reserve the right to be wrong.

To avoid crises, we need to have more imaginative and more open-minded attitude to understand the market dynamics and how markets really work.

The statement of World Bank chief Robert Zoellick ahead of G7 finance leaders meetings this weekend in Washington gives some hope. He said, “The G7 is not working” referring to the group of rich countries including United states, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan. We need a better group for a different time. The new multilaterialism, suiting our times, will need to be a flexible network, not a fixed nor unitary system. It needs to maximize the strengths of interconnecting and overlapping actors and institutions, public and private. This signals about his mood to adapt a new strategy for the World Bank to address changing times of global economy in which emerging markets like India will have a greater role.

Now is no time to bury our head in the sand. We have to just wait for the crisis to pass through. Hope there will be a boom for Indian stock market and let’s pray for that.

The passage of time

Today morning when I was waiting for the train to arrive, I noticed that the indicator showed a time, which was not at all matching with my wristwatch. Surprisingly I looked at the giant clock in the platform, which showed a time somewhat differently. I surrendered to the indicator and decided not to look at my watch because I have to wait for the train regardless of the time showed in the giant clock and my wristwatch. Ultimately the train arrived 10 minutes late breaking all my calculations. My thoughts marched through different facets of time.

During childhood I noticed that the people who were working in our paddy fields seldom keep their right palm as a shade to their eyes while looking at the sun to ascertain the time. They decide their lunch hours as well as their time to depart after work with this method. As a spectator, I often try to find out the time with this method, but failed miserably.

My Grand Father told me that they have expertise in so many things like this as they have a close association and understanding with the nature. Now that workforce got disbursed to nowhere, the paddy fields became concrete jungles and there the clocks managed time with little bit of variations.

We live by watch and calendar. We uproariously celebrate particular moments in time even as we quietly despair of its passage.

Let’s pass through some quotations on time:

Plutarch said 2000 years ago that the whole life of man is but a point of time; let’s enjoy it. Oscar Levant said “so little time and so little to do”, he must be meaning that we must cherish each moment as we could experience it only once. Let’s move to Shakespeare. He said in Macbeth that “come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day” by thinking that no matter whatever happens, time flow at the same rate.

Isaac Newton wrote in the late 17th century that ”time flows equably without reference to anything external,” means the universe is equipped with a kind of built-in clock that ticks off seconds identically, regardless of location or epoch.

Albert Einstein while analyzing Newtonian facade revealed that the passage of time depends on circumstances and environment. He showed that the wristwatches worn by two individuals moving relative to one another, or experiencing different gravitational fields, tick off time at different rates. The passage of time, according to Einstein, is in the eye of the beholder.

He gave a functional explanation that time exists because it somehow necessarily needs to in order to stop all events happening simultaneously.

There’s time as understood scientifically, and then there’s time as experienced intuitively. For decades, I’ve struggled to bring my experience closer to my understanding.

Why we are uniformly drawn from one second to the next and why time always goes in the same direction.? It appears to me that this is an illusion as there is no definite answer.

Clocks that are in relative motion or those are subject to different gravitational fields tick off time at different rates; the more these factors come into play, the further out of synchronization the clocks will fall.

As adults we often think that equations are a set of ready-made tools, which is continually rewritten over the years. Great equations change according to our perception of the world. They reorchestrate, transform and reintegrate our perception by redefining what belongs with what.

Many believe that combining quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of gravity can evolve a radically new formulation of natural law.

We are sitting at the cool shadow of the present, memorizing the past, without knowing where the time will take us in future.

Regardless of our scientific insights, we still mourn the ephemeral life and always thrilled to welcome each newly delivered moments.

Choice

In the beginning

“choice” was not a hiccup

There was no competition

Now things have changed

from naked ape

to robotics, nanotechnology

and unknown to unknowns

Wherever you turn

someone is there for advice

Everyone competing everywhere

in this unforgiving world

The times are changing

Paradigms are shifting
when generations face Choice

Choice engender more choice

Like an amoeba

it starts off,

Over the time

it breaks up

into so many elements

We should view the future

through this process of synthesis

Don’t think it will calm down

It will get worse

The writing is on the wall

Always a Pandora’s box gets open

from the sublime

to bestow new paradoxes

A new discerning

and conscious generation

is compelling the environment

to redefine the choices

Every change creates ripples

If we ignore changes

we will never conquer

our choice of difference

Future wears discontinuities

and will be chaotic!

We need to build it

Divorce - the distance from a dream to agony

This is not a story. This is a reality.

This is about Radha, a girl who has stepped into the paradox of family life only to slip into the spillway of divorce.

I met Radha during my vacation recently and got bruised with the flames, which was generated by her agony.

I knew her since childhood. That point of time we used to travel together in the mornings. I go to office and she to school. While on the way she used to ask so many questions and put me in an awkward situation She was beginning to learn things herself.

Our association continued for another one year and after that I went to Mumbai.

When I met her over the years, during my vacations, I could gather a clear mindset and her dreams about life.

The time arrived and she submerged into wedlock with the blessings of her loved ones. Her eyes have bloomed with full of dreams about life.

Two years rushed like a supersonic jet. When I went to her house with an apologetic mind, she told “It’s not your fault so an apology is not required! He shunted me home and the formalities for a divorce is on” I got a shock. I looked at her eyes and saw the dark circles, which talked to me about her agony.

It started with a simple misunderstanding, which has grown over time to snatch the happiness from her.

When I met her during my vacation recently, I couldn’t recognize her. She pulled down drastically and her wide blue eyes plunged into the dark circles, which she gained through sleeplessness. I couldn’t stand her so I took her son to a nearby place for sometime and returned back with a pale smile.

Though the reason for her separation is mysterious, a chance to patch up the things was not at all on sight. The memories of her still haunt me like mad.

Radha’s case is not a strange one. The percentages of divorced and separated people in our country are on a steep rise, which is really shocking. I don’t want to compile some sort of statistics to prove my claim. When you browse through any relationship sight, just check the status. You can see so many separated/divorced women seeking soul mates.

Why has such a situation prevailing in our country?

Is the agony, emotional torment of a custody battle of children, the financial equation of dividing Bank accounts, investments and pensions, child support and alimony all these are not that disturbing?

In most of the cases by the time the court has heard their case, major portion of the precious money have found their way to the lawyers.

When men and women take personality tests, some of the old Mars-Venus stereotypes keep reappearing. On an average, women are more cooperative, nurturing, cautious and emotionally responsive. Men tend to be more competitive, assertive, reckless and emotionally flat most of the times. Psychologists asserts that both  personalities have been shaped by traditional social roles, and that personality differences will shrink as women spend less time nurturing children and more time in jobs outside the home. Whatever may be the psychological aspects as laid down above; there should be a clear understanding about the realities of life rather than mulling over one’s comfort.

Once a case is finally heard, neither parent can be certain of legal precedent that might steer the proceedings towards a mutually agreeable outcome. A custody evaluator or a judge can never understand a family’s situation or individual children as well as the parents do.

If two people can contemplate for the possibility of an agreement in advance as to how they would divide assets, and the time, which they are supposed to divide for their children, it can ease the pressure and agony. Even children could have a single structure for their new lives from the moment their parents separate if a custody schedule is outlined before marriage. But to what extent it is possible in India is a big question mark.

Radha’s fate has put a scar on my heart which is not going to be healed for a long time.