Demonetization

Just came back from the bank. My second visit so far. The first, I had to stand in a queue for an hour and half to deposit my old money and exchange some of it for INR 4000 in the new currency. The second, today, I had to spend ten mins in the queue to withdraw some money from my account against a cheque.

I am an armchair theorist – the theorist of the worst variety. I simply can’t bring myself to put in the hard work and research required to delve deep in to any subject and get my facts before opening my mouth. I just take the available facts and try and think my way through to the rest of the story. Not a good idea, to say the least. However, having said that upfront, I still think that this method is not without its merits.  One, it makes me think – which it seems is one of the toughest things that the mind can do, although the human mind was designed for that one purpose only. Second, it spares me the effort of having to actually pour through reams of information available on the social network or the news channels. From what little I have seen, neither of the sources have stood up to the basic tests of credibility and impartiality. 

I certainly have good things to say about this step. Have listed a few below:

1. Fake or counterfeit money becomes invalid at one swoop. Simply scraps of paper. Goes out of the economy instantly. Poof - like magic! It’s a good thing.
2. As a corollary, money, mostly fake, used to fund insurgency and terrorism by our neighbor/s becomes void – as result, we can expect an immediate drop in acts of insurgency and terrorism.
3. A fraction of the moneyed (the tax evader types and not the law abiding moneyed) who had been stupid enough to hoard their wealth in bank notes will be penalized by default. Agreed that there are myriad ways to convert the old bills in to usable currency - but none of these are easy or foolproof. Hardship and risk is involved. Hence, this too might be a good thing overall. 
4. As a basic tenet of economics, supply remaining the same, if the demand (read buying power) goes down, prices will fall. Be it consumables or real estate for that matter. This however is a short-term phenomenon. Things should be back to normal as soon as the banking situation improves – six months to a year at the most. This too, even if short term, is a good thing. It is obviously better to buy potatoes, or a house for that matter, at a lower price for six months, as opposed to never.

But this is where I run out of good things. Here is my take on the issues mentioned above – and then some (and i know that all or most of these points have already been discussed threadbare at all forums - so don't go in expecting too many novel or original points):

1. Fake notes and the corollary, funding insurgency: In the short term, both will drastically go down. However, if an enemy nation is determined to ruin India, what is there to prevent it from creating fakes of the new currencies being floated by the Govt. It will take some time and money – but the enemy has both of these in abundance. These notes, in fact any notes in the world, are not counterfeit proof. Hence, we can expect the fake notes back in circulation after a few months. And with that, there will be increase in insurgency – as sure as night follows day. 
2. Black money: As I stated, the real players in the black money game are not stupid. They do not hoard currency notes stuffed in to pillows or mattresses or buried in pots. They invest that – in real estate, in stocks, and in God knows what else. But never in currency notes. So, I don’t expect them to take a hit of any consequence. Yes, the small fry, the Marwari businessman who deals only in cash, the local money lender and their brethren will feel the pinch. But the real actors -  the business houses, politicians, film stars and cricketers -  who presumably account for more than 80% of the black money in circulation won’t be affected. The social media is awash with stories of hundreds of crores being deposited in the banks within a week of the announcement. But let us just think this through for a moment. I myself had ten thousand rupees cash in old currency with me on the day of the announcement. I deposited that in the bank the very next day. Let’s assume that only 10% of the population are like me. Ten percent of 125 crores is almost 13 crores. If each deposited a paltry ten thousand, then the total deposits would be 130 Thousand Crores. We are yet to reach half way of that figure. So that is not a big deal in itself. But after depositing 10,000, I proceeded to withdraw 24,000 out of my account – which, I normally would not have. If others withdraw half of that, more than twice the money will be withdrawn than has actually been put in. That cannot be good news for the banking sector nor the economy. 
3. Further, the kirana stores and the vegetable vendors have been hit. First I could not go to them as I did not have adequate cash handy after depositing my old notes. When I received / withdrew money from the bank, the poor vegetable vendor did not have change for 2000 note that I bandied in his face. So I simply went to the supermarket and brought my groceries and vegetables using my card. 
4. Those who were in the habit of hoarding currency notes, will continue to do so. Nothing is there to prevent them from doing so. In fact, now they are assured that the Govt will not carry out a similar exercise for the next ten years at least. Hence they can gleefully continue to hoard money. 
5. Lastly, I raise a contentious issue: Who knew that the Govt is going to implement this step? The Govt obviously. And people close to the Govt. The Government and the ruling party, at least in our country, are synonymous. Why do political parties need illegal hoards of cash? Mostly to fight elections. Every party does that. Every party accumulates cash, most of it illegally, for this purpose. We have the UP elections coming soon. This practice of enticing voters with cash and cash related incentives is an established fact in UP. It’s a big State. It has many constituencies. It requires cash - a lot of it. All parties were prepared for that – some openly soliciting cash from its followers. Now with this one move, the cash reserves of most political parties are worthless heaps of paper. I say most, not all. The only party which had prior knowledge about this would naturally be better prepared. And which is that party? Second, with the short term fall in prices as well as incidence of insurgency and terrorism, which party stands to gain the most political mileage out of this? 
6. People love to be martyrs. It lends a sense of heroism to their staid, predictable and often tough lives. People inherently want to see themselves as suffering pain for the welfare of the nation. Not many get a chance to stand at the border or lay down their lives for the country. Now here comes a chance where standing in queues to get your own money out of your bank can be seen as contributing towards nation building. It is being played so, very smartly, by the minds behind this entire move. Pain is made out to be good. Its honorable. Its laudable. The more pain you suffer the more of a patriot you are. People have died standing in queues. But that is acceptable – they are martyrs after all. Died for the nation.  The second is more of a psychology thing. There is a lot of frustration and pent up anger in the poor as well as the so called lower middle class. The have-nots. They feel that they have been betrayed by the society as a whole. While they struggle to make ends meet, to feed their children, to get adequate health care, they keep seeing the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The Haves. Its normal to feel betrayed, left out and somehow cheated and exploited. The rich and the corrupt are often seen and measured through the same viewing glass. I am honest, hardworking and reasonably intelligent – even then my family suffers, my life is a miserable struggle for existence. Whereas these pampered, spoilt, dishonest rich have all going for them just by virtue of their birth. I can’t accept that. I can’t tolerate that. I know that even if I pour my sweat and blood, chances are that I will never be able to reach their level. So now, finally, my PM, the lowly but honorable Chaiwala, has done something to punish these bad guys. Now, their money will be taken away. They too will feel pain, feel fear. This gives me a kind of perverse pleasure. I know, to some, this may seem far-fetched, but I feel, that this too played an important role in all the glee being poured on to the social media.

But at the end – I will still say – that this measure is better than no measure. Even if this stops terrorism and needless loss of lives through terrorism, for six months, hats off. However, I reiterate, that this measure, alone, by itself, will hardly make a dent. This must be the beginning. The first tiny step.  As regards the matter of curbing black money – that only time will tell.   

The truth about everything…

What is the strongest impulse of Nature? Around which basic or core principle does life revolve? What is that central guiding principle of life in nature? Have we ever thought about this? From the knowledge gleaned from my limited reading, (and purely according to my opinion), the greatest scientist / thinker / philosopher, of all times, is not Einstein or Socrates or Newton. It is the renowned British Naturalist, Charles Darwin. Anyone who has mindfully read his works, especially the seminal ‘Origin of Species’, will realise that the theory he propounds is actually epoch making. It not only explains the concept of evolution of life forms on Earth, it also answers a lot of questions on a lot of seemingly unrelated stuff – like human and animal behaviour - why people behave the way they do, why do they love certain things and why they hate, what they act in a certain way and why they react in set ways – and a lot many questions. If you really think deep enough, you realise that the damn theory explains almost everything.

Sounds like an exaggeration? Let me try and explain why?

The basic core principle of all life forms is simple – it’s the survival and propagation of their own species. All of life is geared towards this. Life, since its inception, has been revolving around this core principle. Every other thing, be it actions, reactions, emotions, genetics, evolution, behaviour, health, sickness, even death, ultimately serves this core principle. Everything can be explained once this core principle is assimilated and understood in its entirety. Here is an analysis of the two most common human virtues to make us understand this principle in action:

Love: Let us take the most popular perception of love. The one between a man and a woman. Here is a preposterous alternative view for you to consider. There is nothing called love. The male and the female of the species need to have sex in order to procreate – to give birth to the next generation – which in turn, will ensure that the species continues on this earth. This is pretty straight forward in all the other billions of species co-habiting this planet with us. They don’t fall in love. They don’t marry. They don’t hang out. They don’t experience heartbreak over love. They simply have sex and give birth to the next generation. Simple and pretty straight forward. The concept of love exists only in one of the billion odd species on this earth. Humans. Why is it so? Humans are just another species, albeit one with a higher intelligence level. But are we really so different from all other (billions minus one) species? We, like all others, get hungry and eat, get thirsty and drink, get tired and sleep and so on. The only thing that distinguishes us from the rest is that we have the ability to think, to reason.

For the species to survive, it needs to eat and drink. It needs to sleep. Accordingly, nature has designed all life forms to actively pursue and ensure that it gets adequate nutrition and rest. It has accorded the highest biological urges to hunger, thirst and sleep. All life form is helpless against these urges. Every life form dedicates itself towards fulfilling these needs. To survive. In addition to these, nature has ensured that all life forms are designed with accessories like pain, fear, aggression and other traits that help it survive. In its most basic form, anything that helps us survive will be pleasurable (think eating, drinking, saying warm etc.) and anything that reduces our chances of survival will be painful (injuries, sickness, physical fights etc.). Now, once the survival of the species is ensured, nature turns its attention to equipping all species with traits which will ensure that the species propagates and thrives – it creates the next generation. So here, once survival is relatively assured (the initial 20% of a lifetime is the riskiest and hence all the focus is on survival), nature turns on the sex drive. The body gets pumped with hormones which lead to it becoming desirable to the other sex within the species. The need to have sex, at least as observed in animals, becomes overriding. At this stage, the highest pleasure (after basic survival requirements like food and drink) is accorded to the act of sex. Without the pleasure principle, no life form would make the kind of effort required to ensure that the sperm reaches the ovum and fertilises it – a messy and tiring process if you think about it. Here, it is interesting to note that Nature doesn’t trust its life forms to carry out the bodily functions which are the most important for survival, stuff like breathing, beating of the heart, peristalsis and so on. It ensures that there are separate independent mechanisms to carry these out without involving conscious effort. It just added pain to notify us when something goes wrong with any of these. Coming back to procreation, Nature, in her truest form, doesn’t give a damn about love. All nature needs is that we procreate. That is the reason why the urge to procreate, to have sex, is one of the strongest biological urges, almost at par with hunger and thirst. And also, one of the most pleasurable ones. The concept of love is a human invention. It was actually necessitated to enable the human race to survive and thrive in an orderly manner. Think about this. Men, by nature, are polygamous. Even if they are “deeply in love” with their partner they will still ogle other attractive females and even fantasize about sex with them. Women, on the other hand, generally don’t lust after other men once they have decoded on their partner. Here is the evolutionary reason. In order for the species to propagate, men need to fertilise as many women as they can. Hence they have the ability to do so till a very late age. Hence they generally don’t become too unattractive with age. Women, on the other hand, at least in humans, need to nurture their offspring till a pretty long time as human new-borns are absolutely incapable of taking care of themselves and surviving. Hence the female gives all her attention towards ensuring survival of the next generation. Hence maternal love is so powerful. Hence, even a pooping, bawling, irritating child is the apple of his or her mother’s eyes and she will do anything for the child – even sacrifice herself. Because it is an evolutionary need – to ensure propagation of the species. Hence, a pregnant lady is unattractive from a sexual view point – as sex at that time may reduce the chances of survival of the baby inside the womb. Hence a woman is protected from a majority of illness till she reaches an age by which her offspring is capable enough to take its own care. Ever notice how a female chooses her mate? She takes her time. She will flirt around if required. But she will only settle on the male who gives her the maximum evolutionary advantage – stronger (in our case richer or more powerful), fitter, smarter and so on. And stick with him once selected. She unconsciously tries to improve the genetic probability of the next generation to thrive. However, for a thinking species, this seems gross and even selfish. So its given a veneer of love. And to prevent society from descending in to chaos, the trappings of marriage and parenthood are added. The emotional component of the ‘love’ is a learned trait. It is a conditioned reflex. Not a natural instinct. Answer this – given a choice, who do most guys fall in love with? The pretty voluptuous blonde or the noble mother Teresa types? Love is 90% physical and, as an afterthought, 10% anything else.

Selflessness: Again a myth. Again, only expected from in humans. Some might say that a dog’s love for its master is selfless. Not correct. A dog loves its master because the master feeds it. In a household, the dog loves the servant who feeds it more than the mistress of the house who owns her. It loves because that helps it survive. Selfishness is essential, even critical, for the survival of the individual as well as the species. If, I selflessly gave up my share of food to a hungrier person, I would die. And the weak, helpless person would survive and replicate – leading to a brood of weak and helpless next generation. The purpose of evolution is constant improvement so as to enable the species to thrive. The above scenario doesn’t do that. Hence it is not allowed as an instinct. By instinct, every living being is selfish. Because it’s a sine qua non for survival. It is not as big an evil as it is touted to be. In fact, this is the trait which has actually helped us evolve. It is this trait which constantly and relentlessly weeds out the weaker and the defective individuals. The chain, which is as strong as its weakest link, cannot be allowed to be broken. However, humans again have gone against nature and made selflessness a virtue. Humans need that trait so that a soldier can throw himself on a tank in battle regardless to his own safety. The same way, a brainwashed suicide bomber will strap herself with explosives for a ‘cause’. Here, the notion of a country or a religion acts like that of a species. So, for the survival of a religion or a country, these are the essential. Hence the conditioning. The problem with the ability to think, which has a gazillion evolutionary advantages, is that the higher intellect (the stronger sub species) can manipulate this trait and condition the minds of the lesser intellects to serve their own purpose. Here too, if you think about it, the weaker links are getting weeded out. That is the reason the notion of selflessness has survived despite it being instinctively non beneficial to evolution.

Nature is cruel. But there is a purpose behind its cruelty. Nature is continuously strengthening the species and thereby, strengthening life itself. Continuously and relentlessly. This is how it is. No amount of angst ridden hand wringing will change this. The weak get eliminated. The strong get stronger and keep propagating. The dodo bird gets eliminated because neither it could attack, nor defend. It could not even manage to flee (it could neither run very fast nor fly). Same for chicken. However, but for humans, the entire chicken species too would have been long gone. Thankfully, humans developed a taste for it and it was easy to manage and breed. As a result, it thrives as a species – to be killed and eaten by humans. Sad – but that is how it is. More on this later…

Why I am worried... and a bit scared...

What is it that we expect from Doctors?  Simplistically put, that they should treat suffering with compassion and they should cure malaise. What is it that we expect from an actor? That he should act well – he should entertain, he should select his movies in such a way that the movie, at the end, giveth something to the viewer and not taketh away. What is it that we expect from the policeman – that he should protect.  What is it that we expect from the Judge – that he should dispense justice fairly, quickly and as per the laid down law. What is that we expect from journalists? That they should report the news in as fair and unbiased manner as possible. What do we expect from an army man – that he should defend the country from threats – mostly external. What do we expect from politicians? I will come to that in a moment.

Now to the question that is troubling me. Picture this. I am a 42 year old Hindu male and I have recently been diagnosed with a rare malignant brain tumour. What do I do? I go to the best possible neurosurgeon to get this operated upon. The surgeon agrees to do the operation. The surgeon has an excellent track record of successfully operating these types of tumour. Now, just before the surgery, I come to know that this neurosurgeon has an extra marital affair. His family life is troubled. Also, this neurosurgeon is a practising Muslim. His favourite meal is a well done beef steak. Now what should I, a devout traditional Hindu do? Does it pose a moral or ethical dilemma for me? Do I consider these factors and refuse to get operated on.  Nah. Not a chance. And rightfully so. What concerns and should concern all patients in similar situations is one and only one question. And that is, how good is a surgeon is this guy? Everything else is beside the point. None of my business. As far as I am concerned, this guy can have a dozen extra marital affairs and be a Jew or a Christian or for that matter an atheist. I simply don’t give a damn. This same example can be used for actors. If I admire or hate Salman Khan on the screen it’s only and only because of his acting prowess or lack of it. If I spend money on a ticket and watch a Salman Khan movie, I expect to see some fine acting. Ii expect to be entertained for those two and half hours. I really don’t give a damn about the religion, political beliefs, eating habits, toilet practices and personal hygiene of Salman Khan. I have the right only to admire or criticise his acting qualities. Because he is an actor and I have paid money to see his acting.

My point is – everyone in this society has a specific function, a prime role if you will. It may have been decided by that person himself or it may have been decided for him by circumstances. But he has to discharge that particular role to the best of his abilities. That is non-negotiable. Everything else is or at least should be the concern of the people affected. People may say that no person can be defined on only one role that person plays. I agree. There are some matters where we can voice our opinion if we choose to. For e.g. I may say that if instead of Salman Khan any other person had to face the trial of running over innocent poor people sleeping on the footpath when driving a SUV in an inebriated condition, that person would have been long back locked up and the keys forgotten. But here again, it was Salman Khan. He had the clout, the influence and the money to get away with a supposedly bad judgement. He did. I may grumble, I may whine but that is that. Those are the privileges that come with money and influence. He had those and he used those to get away scot free (well almost). No amount of cribbing is going to change that. What could have been done instead was that the investigating agencies should have a done a better job, got irrefutable evidence, resisted being threatened or bribed and presented the judiciary with appropriate evidence and the judiciary would then have done its role for which its there. So again, my discussion boils down to the fact that if every person or agency carries out its role diligently and to the best of its abilities, it won’t take long for our nation, any nation for that matter, to be transformed in to working as a well-oiled piece of machinery.

As a responsible citizen, I try to keep up with the affairs that concern governance in this vast nation of a billion plus. For that I rely on television or printed news. But this is what worries me. Since the last almost two years, invariably (except on occasional days), the entire media (both print as well as television) are obsessed with presenting news that focus on issues related to religion. Every bit of news that is presented boils down to Hindu Muslim issues. And as if that were not enough, there is not a single channel which is trying to present just the facts and let the viewers (readers) form an opinion. Opinions are being made and these are being thrust down the gullet of a gullible population. Opinions were supposed to be restricted to the editorials or guest columns. But now, there is simply no news reporting. It’s all about my view and theirs. I object to this. I consider myself capable enough to form my own opinions. Spare me yours. Just give me the facts in as unbiased a manner that you can. Leave the opinion making to me. Give me news on what’s happening in the agriculture sector, in health, on the state of the economy, on the impact of the falling crude prices, on inflation, on bank rates, on market performance. Give me news on sports, on entertainment, on science and technology. I can go on and on. Let me choose what to watch. Let me decide. Let me form my own opinion. Is that too much to ask? But turn on any news channel, especially at prime time and you will get a host of rabid panelists, screaming murder at the top of their voices, rudely interrupting each other with the anchor trying to out do the panelists – in short mayhem reigns supreme. And the issues of debate (debate mind you – not news) mostly revolve around or end up in religion. Hindu Muslim. The more vitriolic the program, the more venom spewing ‘foaming at the mouths’ panelists, higher the TRPs. It has all boiled down to a TRP game. I mean come on. Enough is enough. This is downright scary. Where are we headed?

Coming to the JNU issue. From what I understand – and please understand that my comprehension of the matter is severely compromised due to the absence of rational fact presenting news - a group of students raised their voice against the country at the JNU. They raised objectionable slogans like we will break the country, we want independence from India and Afzal Guru was wrongfully hanged.  Lets understand one thing. This happened at the JNU. Now, the JNU has a tradition, a history of this. This is not the first time it happened and certainly won’t be the last. This is probably the only college where students are actually encouraged to voice their opinion. They are taught to state their opinion irrespective of what the conventional wisdom says. If a group feels that Afzal Guru was hanged wrongfully, they are encouraged to say this and debate on this. I have had the opportunity of spending a few evenings at their canteens on the campus and frankly speaking I have been impressed. The debates that take place are truly remarkable for the depth of content and insight. If a group says that Kashmiris have been treated wrongfully and that they have been refused a right to vote for their independence from India, the group is allowed, in fact encouraged to say this, to debate this. Remember that these are students. Many are PhD scholars with multiple master’s degrees. Having a Govt sponsored institution that actually encourages debates, encourages voicing of opinions, to my mind, is a truly noble thing. PDP, the ruling political party at Kashmir shares the exact same opinions on Afzal Guru, Kashmir Militancy and the Kashmir independence movement. Also remember that this is the very same Govt that the BJP supports in Kashmir. The same Govt. with which the BJP rules over Kashmir. And it’s the same BJP that cracks down on students for voicing the very same opinions. Many parts of the country for that matter want independence. The Nagas want it, most north eastern states want it, half of the country under Left Wing Extremists want it. Wanting something, voicing an opinion, raising their demands is not wrong. Using violence to do so is. Taking innocent lives in the process is wrong. Taking the law in to the hands is wrong. And equally wrong is cracking down on students sharing their opinion. Using police brutality on these students protesting peacefully is wrong. Allowing lawyers and policemen to thrash them, that too on the premises of our august courts is wrong. And the worst is when the leadership remains mum on this. Our ex PM, the learned Manmohan Singh, has been brutally targeted for remaining mum on many important issues. He did not have any kind of majority. He was a victim of dynasty politics as well as coalition pressure. And by nature he was a reticent man. But the current PM is voluble to say the least. His party rode in to power on his ability to speak. He has the gift of the gab and he displays that at every given opportunity. He has the backing of an overwhelming majority. And he decides to keep quite on all the issues that are the staple of prime time. On the Pune Film        Institute fiasco, on the beef killing, on the Malda issue. A true statesman, a PM is a PM first and Hindu second. He is an indian first and a Hindu second. He is the PM of the entire country and not just Hindus. And yet he chooses to remain quite while the media anchors and their political and religious panellists continue to spew venom gleefully.

The here is the worst part, the one that should sadden all Indian hearts. We have not even spared our Jawans and officers of the military. The military in our country is the one agency which does what it is supposed to do. That is, defend our country from threats, both external and internal. And they have been doing a magnificent job - sometimes paying for it with their lives. And unfortunately they have been dragged in to cesspool. They are quoted as examples by people who do not have a modicum of integrity, who do not have even a basic understanding of patriotism or sacrifice. The best tribute, in fact the only tribute we can pay these martyrs is by doing what they do on a daily basis – that is  doing our respective jobs to the best of our abilities – like they do.

If a group shouts anti India slogans, most citizens should, and rightfully so, feel offended. Fair enough. Feeling offended is right. But then there is a laid down system to deal with it. There are laws. There are courts. The concerned authorities should take action as per this laid down law. The media should report the fact. And move on. The surest way to cause further damage is to keep harping on it for weeks, to keep this highlighted till everybody gets involved. In the process, the truth gets lost, the laws are forgotten and everyone with half a brain turns judge jury and prosecutor. This will only spread the movement further get all colleges involved, lead to rallies, dharnas and violence and normal life goes for a toss. The focus shifts from governance and its related issues to this bullshit. A non-issue becomes an issue. The hard earned image of the country is destroyed and none of the promised investments come. India gains a reputation of a rigid right wing communal country where the lawyers drag and thrash students on court house premises while the police and the politicians watch on and the media vultures thrive on this carcass of democracy. Everything goes, everything is lost in this. And who suffers? Who bears the brunt? The media? The politicians? Nah – its you and me.

The solution is simple. Do your portion to the best of your abilities. Engage with people who have an opinion that differs from yours. Debate with them. Adhere to the law of the land. Understand that there are no right and wrong in most cases. Understand that a person is never right or wrong in totality. Everyone is an intriguing and eclectic mix of ideas and opinions shaped by multiple factors ranging from genetics, education, circumstances and upbringing. Encourage good and rational journalism. Channels only show what people want. They are only and only concerned with TRPs and the ensuing profits. Hear the dissenting voice with respect. If I do not agree with your opinion I have all rights to say so. However, I do not have a right to abuse your mother or your sister or to try and kill you just because I do not agree with you and don’t have the moral courage or intellect to debate with you. That is insane. Killing people over age old eating habits is insane. Killing people because someone worships a different god is insane. The guy who coined the term ‘Hindutva’ himself was an atheist and never condoned eating beef.  Read the Manu Smriti upon which many practices of Hinduism are based on. There are sections which will disgust you. Read the Rig Veda. There are sections which encourage eating of cow meat. I can kill a goat and eat it, I can kill a chicken and eat it, I can kill any living being and eat it and it’s all right but I can’t kill a cow and eat it. I can murder hapless animals and eat meat on Wednesdays but I can’t touch meat on Tuesdays. True Hinduism, is based on two simple principles – Satya and Ahimsa. Ahimsa by definition means not eating flesh. Period. True Hinduism is based on the concepts of Dharma and Karma. Before claiming to be even remotely Hindu, let me find out what my Dharma is – what my karma is and whether I am true to those. Let me give up eating flesh. Let me stop telling lies. Let me read a bit of unbiased history and find out that when all political parties (except the Muslim League) unanimously boycotted British Rule and elections under it, which organization actively joined hand and partnered with the Muslim League and strongly advocated prolonging British Rule in India. And then I can try and preach Hinduism. Till then let me keep my damn trap firmly shut and not advise others.

I sometimes really miss the previous ‘corrupt to the core’ government. At least then we had something to be outraged about. The current scenario just makes me cringe with disgust.