From Fables to Academia: Weaving of Ancient Indian Storytelling into the Higher Education in Ancient India

 Ancient India's holistic approach to education seamlessly integrated storytelling from childhood to the highest echelons of academia. This article delves into the continuum of narrative-based learning, tracing its evolution from childhood fables to the hallowed halls of institutions like Nalanda and Taxila. The journey unveils how storytelling transcended generations, nurturing a profound understanding of science and knowledge.

The Foundation: Storytelling in Early Education:

In ancient India, education was a gradual process that commenced with storytelling at an early age. Children were introduced to concepts through engaging narratives, which not only captured their imagination but also laid the groundwork for lifelong learning. An example of this is the story of the churning of the ocean (Samudra Manthan), symbolizing the cosmic process of change and evolution.

Imagine a young child listening to the captivating story of the Moon, a handsome deity with twenty-seven wives, each representing a different lunar phase. As the child grows, they realize the symbolic nature of this tale. The Moon's varying appearances are akin to the changing phases resulting from the Moon's orbital relationship with the Earth and the Sun.

Transition to Higher Learning Centers:

As young learners matured, they embarked on a transformative journey to renowned centers of higher education like Nalanda and Taxila. These institutions were not just repositories of knowledge but vibrant hubs of intellectual exchange. Here, storytelling was elevated to new heights, serving as a bridge between tradition and advanced scholarship.

Narratives as Pedagogical Tools:

Ancient Indian universities recognized the pedagogical potential of storytelling. Professors, known as gurus, employed narratives to elucidate complex theories and philosophies. Historical accounts suggest that epics like the Ramayana were analyzed for their moral, ethical, and philosophical dimensions, fostering critical thinking and deeper insights.

Time Lapse Examples in Advanced Learning:

As students progressed, storytelling evolved into a sophisticated tool for imparting advanced knowledge. Concepts like time dilation, a principle of Einstein's theory of relativity, can be linked to the mythological tales within the Ramayana, where time passes differently in different realms.

As students progressed, storytelling evolved into a sophisticated tool for imparting advanced knowledge. Symbolism and allegory, integral to Indian storytelling traditions, were employed to convey intricate concepts. Mythological narratives and parables carried hidden meanings that allegorically communicated profound philosophical, scientific, and ethical truths.

Storytelling as Memory Aid:

Ancient Indian education emphasized oral transmission of knowledge. Storytelling not only made information more memorable but also facilitated its retention. Elaborate stories served as mnemonic devices, allowing scholars to recall vast amounts of information during debates, discussions, and discourse.

Conclusion:

From the simplicity of childhood tales to the intricacies of advanced academia, storytelling was the thread that connected the diverse fabric of ancient Indian education. The transition from fables to the hallowed halls of Nalanda and Taxila demonstrated the enduring effectiveness of this methodology. As we navigate the complexities of modern education, we draw inspiration from this historical tapestry, where storytelling was the bridge that guided seekers of knowledge from the realms of imagination to the frontiers of enlightenment. <with help from ChatGPT>

View from My Window July 2020

 

Mandala Kapil Gupta Aug 19 2020 - First Mandala

Almost first attempt on Mandala Aug 19 2020

Universe - We are missing something

If you are facing a mirror and with another mirror behind you, it's natural for you to see 1000s of replicas. Though let's imagine that you don't know the principle of physics of mirror imaging and don't know there is a mirror behind you. You will keep looking for answers of how deep is the image in the mirror is.
When I hear/ read about Universe, and it's vastness, sometimes, I feel, are we missing something in rules, that can make this all less complex.....

Bright - Confused - Stagnant

We all come across so many bright, really bright, people, who have done great as kids/teenagers and struggling in adult life. These are people from best of the Universities, and you talk to them, and they are bright, they think beyond, they can hold a conversation on complex topics. Many of these "bright people" are struggling in career vis a vis many other "not so bright" candidates.
What's going on here, why brightest minds are not at the top. The simple answer is "What they do not teach you at School?" or in simple terms, it is not all about only intelligence. So what are the parameters that stop intelligent people from growing to the top?
In my thinking, following are some critical parameters. Following is no final list, though just a list that I thought of, I may update it later.......
i) What is one's driving factor?
We have heard many times, the best recipe for success is to do what's your passion is, so you go to work every day to something that drives you. Though topping a college or university is not always about passion or internally driven. Many times driving factor comes from external stimuli, like just about meeting expectations of society or parents or fear of something external. Same people in real adult life, have difficulty in finding that drive from inner self when things are going well. There is no fear or meeting any body's expectations or failure. So in such a mindset, one is always in a catch-up game. In adult life, a person will for some time work hard and reach a point of equality or a small advantage to peers, a place, where one does not feel fear and pressure of societal expectations. With fear gone, this is obviously followed by a float period. During the float period rest of the world moves ahead and then fear comes back again. This person never achieves the full potential of self and always in catch up game, since stimuli are external. The answer lies in thinking through what is one's self-driving factor in life. It has to be something from the inner that one buys into and one wants to achieve. It should not be something based on external stimuli.
ii) Intelligent people at times do not know, how to learn from successful people?
An intelligent person in college is a person, whom everybody comes to help for most. So effectively everybody is learning from him or her, rather him or her learning from others. Above may not be true for all the people. Though there is a fair percentage of academically brilliant people, who do self-learning. Being self-taught is ok when in college, where learning mostly is one dimensional. Though in real life, success needs competence in multiple dimensions. At this point, one's ability to learn and listen to others become very important. At this point ability to collaborate, or learn from other successful people becomes the difference between success and float.
Due to Lack of ability to learn from others, intelligent people either get frustrated or confused or both. Some try to do what they know the best work harder and produce more, though that is like cleaning the handle of knife again and again, while what one needs is sharpening the edge of the knife. Failure despite hard work leads to more frustration. It is a deadly trap, since these people, many a time become the demotivation catalysts in the organization. These are the people, though bright, are the ones who are complaining about anything and everything on the coffee machines. These are tough people to identify since given intelligence they have; they are still average or above average performers in current roles. It is the growth that they lack and desire that company cannot give.
iii) Lack of Discipline
The third factor in my understanding is the lack of discipline. An intelligent person and gets things easy in early life. The first casualty for easy wins is discipline. While in real life, my take, discipline is more important than intelligence. I am not demeaning intelligence, just prioritizing. Simple situations of self-owned business or a corporate job, when one needs to fill in 12 hrs or work in an eight hour day, the only way to accomplish that is through discipline or burn out happens fast. There are mundane tasks that need to be completed, and those need discipline. The lack of discipline hinders growth.
So a shout out to, all intelligent people out there, look at yourself carefully. Please don't become the critiques of the world at the coffee machine. You are more than that; organizations need you, the world needs you.
Simple abilities to relook at what your persona is, what you driving factor is, may lead to success you are missing for so long.

The Fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said “you have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.” You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. Make sure you control your temper the next time you are tempted to say or do something you will regret later.

- Author Unknown

Above is not mine ...... :), though this one is so beautiful almost poetic, so here it goes

We Fail Everyday

We all fail every day, from the second we wake up till the time we go to sleep, we fail. We fail to wake up on time; we fail to get breakfast right, we fail to hold on calories, we fail in a conference calls, we fail in conversations with the team. There are these small failures that we face since we wake up to the time we sleep.
Somebody can say that, in a way, we succeed as well every day. Though what I want to focus on is the failure, since somebody said failure stays with us ten times more than success. Add to that, our own biases, most of us are not arrogant and have grown up with strong notions of being sensitive to what others tell us, feel about us etc. etc. That will make an impact of failures "10 times more" even multiply more on us. That is why failures can easily suck our energy and focus. If we let failure overcome us, this paralyzes us and paralyzes us for few minutes, or hours. The worse is that it paralyzes us for some crucial seconds when our brain should be going what do I do to recover the situation.
We need to keep our mind and body in the condition that is ready to take the impacts and hits of failure every second, every day. Let's do some preventive maintenance, so our body (car) doesn't break down on every bump, every strong break or tight turn.
Some simple rules can be followed to lessen the impact.
i) Transactional interactions do not govern the long-term goals. So with every transaction fails, ask brain to stop thinking "force-Maure," i.e. my promotion is gone, I need new role etc. etc. The long-term goals achievement is like staying healthy, you do get your indulgences, though till you are doing few things right (i.e., hitting the gym regularly), the body will hold up. So if your brain takes you to long-term goals, tell him STOP, this was just a transaction. Over time train brain to understand that it was just a transaction, no point being paranoid about it. Believe in the longevity of life and fruitlessness of our end result in life.
ii) Set expectations right, now with years in the corporate world or growing up. You understand yourself better than others. No point trying to fool yourself. In every given situation set your expectations based on your past record and your capabilities. Most of the fails are since you go beyond your own ability. So with every fail is an opportunity to re-set your expectations and see what you can achieve. Once again always remember fruitlessness of the end result in life.
iii) Take breaks at short intervals, This is not about taking mandatory annual breaks, frankly, most of us do not even take those to re-adjust compass, and if you have a posting in other country and visit the home country in these breaks. You come back more fatigued than rejuvenated. These are the breaks weekly or maybe twice a week. These are breaks just to let brain get some time to relax (perhaps meditation). It is like breaking the flow whether on a good flow or downward spiral. When on good flow, chances of making mistakes, it makes sense to stop and rethink, based on above two points. It does not make sense to run a 100 yards fast while you have to run a full mile. When on a downward spiral, this is an absolute must for course correction. How many times sports team have lost games since they failed to slow down the game.
iv) Know your team and talk to your team. So who is your team, who is on your side in life and in an organization? In a nutshell, who got your back? Write down on a piece of paper these names. The names should not be more than 3-4. These are the people you are talking to when you are taking your break. These are the people you are keeping in touch. These are the people who are your well-wishers. These are the people who will call out loud and be true to you.
To end, the fruitlessness of the end result is philosophical from Gita; you do not take anything with you at the end of life for the final journey. You do not remember who was the 7th King of any kingdom, or 9th president of any country. It's about the journey and enjoying it, it is not about where you reach. Smell the roses and listen to leaves......... failures will not impact you, live a life.

Right Amount of Carrot and Stick and Ownership

We seem to be creating a world where flexibility and patience is becoming lesser and lesser of virtues. 

The thought process started after reading multiple news items about kids shouldn't be disciplined physically i.e. slapping etc by teachers and parents. I don't support slapping or physical punishment. Though the pressure teachers and parents are in isn't funny. Kid just goes his own way, how do you manage him/her. If they are in control good, if they aren't and just keep answering you back, what the option is left. Funny is same society that puts these rules on teachers and parents, do not take ownership when things go wrong.

Controversial, but didn't we in current generation, go through all this. Are we deranged, confused human beings. Most of us aren't....

So controlling the punishment so that it doesn't have permanent damage is fine. Still pushing to a point that discipline itself becomes causality, in that case we will have bigger challenge.

Take this thought processes in every part of life, there is always a balance, and as humans we won't ever find perfect balance, we can strive for it.

Same thought going forward, why should Cigarette companies pay compensation. Its like person commits suicide the company that made the rope by which he hanged himself gets sued.

Do Not Make Peace with Devil

Utopia is a real or imaginary society, place, state, etc., considered to be perfect or ideal. As a kid Utopia is what we are taught; Utopia is what we grew up believing in. The police officer will always be upright; an engineer will know all the laws of engineering, a relative will always be good to you, politicians are suppose to do good job etc. etc. We are made to believe all is well in the world and we had to simply grow up and go about the usual business where everything would be fair and right.
Then the dreadful thing happens, all of us really grow up and came face to face with reality of life. The things we never thought existed stare us in our face. We now hear things like “life is not a level playing field” “world works in its own ways” “laws of science don’t work in life’ “who told you I will support you” “pay me to get work done” “be careful of everybody”.
Some of us accept the new reality and some of us take time. Finally each of us find a way to cope with it. In many of us it manifests in our behavior “Some of us became gregarious to avoid facing the truth” “Some of us became contemplative” “Some of us just ignored it and got immersed oneself in our lives and , work and family” “Some became activist” etc. etc. We all call it being focused and trying to achieve something in life, may be that is not that bad, though at the same time we forgot that most of us are making compromises. .

The World has both God and Devil holds true. Pick any religion, philosopher, writer or even simple rationalist, all will agree with this. The actual words can be, “different shades of grey”, “two sides of a coin” or as simple as “good and bad in the world. Though all would agree and believe that world has two faces to it, and I prefer to call it GOD and DEVIL.

Most of us are introduced to God very early in life, and all about him is taught to us, though we are kept away from devil by all well meaning elders. We are suppose to believe in God and act as per God’s will and not the Devil’s However the challenge is that when we move away from our support system, we face the devil, and worse we are left alone to deal with him when, nobody has ever told / taught us how to? Then one day it dawns upon us that the world is made of good and evil and then we make peace with devil. We understand that for the good to exist, evil will be lurking behind, for god to prevail, devil will be present.

When we make peace with devil, we are called grown up? We now know how to manage the world? We know how to handle situations? In the context of devil, where we face the devil i.e. corruption, bullying or just plain simple lying, we still learn to live with it. That is also called coming to age. Though making peace with devil is the worst thing that happens to a human being. That is when a human being dies. When we become living corpses? Look at corporate world full of living corpses, the flawed goal of life is to get next promotion; spirituality is a good word to write essay on, physical fitness is required to manage the rigors of the world hence patience required for yoga isn’t possible. Corporate world was an example; even worse kinds we find may be in government where most don’t even have a goal, not even a flawed one like next promotion, as well businessmen chasing the goal of making money? These all are way of camouflaging our inability to subdue devil. In all this we camouflage our peace with devil in the name of I have do it for family? I have to show my parents or somebody that I am can achieve something?
This peace with devil by each one of us makes us a bit of devil ourselves, it makes devil stronger. Since devil like god also stays within us. The small parts of devils in all of us in summation create the bigger devil in society and system. What this devil does to society and system, we all know and have felt at some time or other in smaller or greater degree.
So may be at some point, we need a little education about devil during growing up. A small amount of sensitivity to know how to manage this devil, and little amount of training how not to fall for devil with in us.
In a sense to tell us “How not to grow up, by not making peace with devil, and how not to fall for devil within, make us understand that its small devils inside which make of bigger devil of society? How to grow up by following God within us and subduing/ minimizing/ nullifying devil within?

In a sense to understand there is devil out there though don’t make peace with it, since that only feeds it, and makes it even more dangerous for me, for you, for my family, for your family and for society.

Hope Laws of Economies Won't Work in Extreme Conditions

They say when it comes it comes big…………… its more like a last straw on camel’s back. Things may keep piling up the straws and nobody notices till camel finally goes down.
First we as individuals were introduced to the life of credit. Its so cool concept, one can live on something that we haven’t earned. We can live life on credit and be happy about it. Though this doesn’t stop here than we have companies who decide they can live on credit and hedge on future income through banks. Than we took next step ahead and banks started living on credit on future income, and finally there is no where income is going to come from, so we look at crash.
May be its not this simple, there are lots of systems, companies and instruments build around to keep the money flow going. So there are valuations to give credit, and there are risk ratings etc. etc. Though core of the challenge remains that we had reversed the flow of money, money was suppose to go to a place where it sees value. We turned the game on its head and we put the money first since we thought that there will be value. Finally when for once value didn’t come we needed to turn the tide, reverse the flow. Though that wasn’t part of equation, and neither natural, hence somebody has to pay the price and fill the gap.
For people not being able to pay credit, many of us paid in some way i.e. late payment interests, annual charges, discounts from retailers that should have come to us all were/are payments we made for defaulters. We reached a state that credit failing started messing up so big, that banks started failing. Hence we had countries bailing out banks on credit, so effectively again good people and good banks and companies are paying for bad ones.
The way I look at it equation is simple. The banks used our money (post tax money), now they are using my tax money (we paid to government) to bail themselves out. Hence it’s surely a case of good guys paying for bad guys. This is very small part of the problem, we are sitting on a much larger and scary prospect here...
Here we are sitting at a level where companies do fail and is expected and part of life and we are getting used to it. We are reaching second stage where we are getting used to banks failing. We are sitting at the onset of third phase of decadence that countries may start failing, since these are the countries that are now supporting the failing people, companies and banks.
The standard laws of physics don't work in extreme material conditions and that's true for most of the laws. So hopefully basic economic laws won't work when we reach at final frontier of countries living on credit and failing due to credit crunch and I hope we will be able to save this planet.
Save this planet, am I going overboard, I think not, since once a country defaults, it has to increase consumption, and one way to do that is WAR, so last resort of a country when it defaults on credit is war, US is keeping its economy going precisely by war for last many years. Hopefully we won't reach there.......... hopefully laws of economies like many other laws won’t work in extreme final frontier and we will be saved…

Jackson and India Love Affair

It’s a strange feeling as I saw the news of MJ passing away of heart attack. Somehow it wasn’t like any other news of another celebrity passing away. Somehow it leaves vacuum somewhere.
Now why is that many of us feel so strongly about it, may be many of us will feel not that strongly but close to this if Madonna passes away. Since its part of our growing away, beat it and material girl were as much part of discussions as much as trigonometry, or solar systems. In small towns beyond bollywood music meant Jackson, Madonna or may be Boney M, though Boney M never grew beyond few songs. Another factor could be since Jackson had music and dance as part of his art. He was less about songs and more about music to many of us, his dance was, that left many of spell bound, and in awe. That suited Indian mind that revels on class and something out of ordinary. His beats were what we related with, the one’s who graduated from beats also found meaning in his songs.
From “Beat It” to “They don’t care about us”, is so true for a generation that’s dependent on government and process to support them, and find it difficult when same government and process turn on them and doesn’t support. So go back and see MJ was pouring himself out in his songs, and a generation who understood him, and resonated with him loved him. Though being an artist he consumed himself with his feelings, which many of us are able to suppress and live life. The sensitive soul of an Artist was always trying to mingle and being accepted in this world, without realizing that none of us at any level is anytime been accepted in this world completely. It’s only on occasions where this world passes us and other times it browbeats us. This innocence of an artist who made an attempt to be accepted by the world and then not being able to win this, consuming his own life out of it is so poignant and so much resonates with feelings many of us feel in our lonely hours. We a whole generation has lived life trying to get accepted in the world where we were free citizens now, in family where we were masters of our destiny and where ever we went. It was a generation burdened by load of freedom to prove themselves that MJ resonated with.
Today when he is gone, there is loss a sense of loss that part of my personal history is gone.

Terrorism

Its a touchy subject and its tough to manage subject. Its been giving me sleepless nights at times. How can somebody just stand up and blow himself up, how can somebody plant explosives and blow people up. What does it take for a human to become so inhuman?

Now people have been cruel and have killed people in all kinds of reasons All these reasons have been put up as beliefs, whether its religion, communism, land or language.

So once a person harms other person due to any belief and isn't ready tobe flexible that's terrorism. Today we see Islamic terrorism in front of us in more pronounced form. Though haven't we seen this always in history.

So what is terrorism, its when one person or community refuses to give other margin for discussion, and theory of live and let live is forgotten. Now this seems to enshrined in some beliefs that they can't live with others, though followers of that belief should understand this quickly and make adjustment.

Lets look from other prespective, religion changes every 1000 years and new religion comes in every 1000 to 2000 years, country maps change every 100 years, just look at maps in 1700, 1800, 1900 or 2000 AD, language changes even faster. So why people get lost and don't understand this basic.

Only thing that stays are basic human principles of peace and live and let live...

Buddhism despite absolutley peaceful religion still grew all over the world. Gandhi changed world without violence. Same is good with Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandella. Hence its not that violence will give people what they are looking for. They are going to lose finally, since they aren't working on changing people, they are trying to force people.

Finally, violence doesn't give nobody anything in long run, hence killing people doesn't have any long term impact except short term pain for victim and long term pain for perperator. So focus on working on fundamentals of peace and live and let live, and world will be with you.

I have so much more to write on this, though its so draining, so may be some other day.

Will we live to see it vanishing?

It’s our Doing, We need to clean this!
While Driving to office and listening to FM, I heard one advertisement about the sale of apartments next to a 200 acre lake and it went on asking to act fast as they are going away as fast as shooting stars. I am sure the advertiser meant that his apartments are going away that fast. However my first thought was “is he talking about lakes?". Yes, lakes are going away from Bangalore as fast as shooting stars. We are down to 60 lakes in Bangalore from 200, less than a decade back. I will be wasting your and my time and money if it’s just another great statistics for you to throw the next time you are sitting with a drink in hand, talking in a party to show your knowledge. Have you ever realized who the culprit is, it’s “you” and “me”, and it’s “us!

Ever thought of what happened to the trees which were on the plot our home is now? If pictures speak; look at them, now you know where the trees are gone. They are gone and your and my houses are looking like dark red infection spots on Bangalore city. This is our city, did we replace those trees? Did we ever ask builder? What? No, my convenience and better life were more important to me and my laziness and apathy are too big to bring them back or give them space around me.
Once we understand the damage, we must realize that it’s our turn now to support the environment. We have enough dooms day warnings from environmentalists. This is surely not the kind of future we want to leave for our next generation.
For me one of the ways was to start planting trees, and I found my soul, in a project “Green Dream” sponsored by my Rotary Club. The project plans to plant 100,000 trees in a year. When we started the project soon we realized that planting a tree and nurturing it is more difficult than taking a 100 year tree off the ground in the name of development. We can talk about it some other day.
Involvement with this project did provide me with some great insights about areas in and around Bangalore. I think it did complete me as a person or as Bangalorean more than many other things in my life. While going to villages in outskirts and planting trees, I came across humble village people fighting and losing battles to save lakes and trees against death threats from land mafia. I found shop-keepers coming out and pledging support to nurture trees planted within 50 meters of the shop. I came across some corporates who were more than willing to go extra mile, but some completely lost in bureaucracy and whims and fancies of few.
Above all, I found myself, I found my bearings, and standing on a dried lake bed I felt like standing in a grave yard. This is the grave yard in the making of which I was involved. Standing below a large tree next to the dried lake where one clap caused 1000’s of birds flying all over, I realized they would have had 100’s of trees just a few years back. As I stood there on lake bed with my seven year old daughter planting a tree, she asked “Papa jab barish hogi to pani aayega, to ped kaisey bachega” (“Papa when it rains, there will be water, then how will the tree survive?”). I looked at her, and didn’t have heart to tell her that there will not be any water on this lake bed again. I just told her; in that case we will plant more trees with a smile. The twinkle in her eyes was worth thousand smiles. Now it is 9.00 AM and she was planting her 4th tree and she started around 7.00 AM. She loved it, being with dad, out there in open air doing something of value. I could sense her imagining a jungle growing with birds and trees some years later. In my heart I knew the enormity of the task. We planted 20,000 trees till date this year and we want to reach 100,000, and even that won’t be enough. On given day, we get about 50 volunteers and that’s not sufficient. We need a movement; we need an awakening in every area, every corner to save this city, and its trees and lakes.
Lets be part of it as individuals, as families to save this city!
Will you ask, the next time while buying a house or getting into a commercial complex, “did I mess up the environment?” How can I replace this, how can I support or save this. If we don’t, its coming back to us, we forgot Tsunami, though it did come back after 170 years. If nature hasn’t hit us for 1000’s of years, it doesn’t mean that it won’t do it again.
May be next time I hear the advertisement I will not mistake it for lakes going away, since we will know that all of us are awake to the fact that we need to save our environment.

Media Double Edged / Security Forces Sandwiched

Media – Irresponsible though a necessity

Most of us remember Amitabh Bachann’s coin with tail on both sides from Sholay. Its an interesting parallel with Indian media. They play with a coin having tail on both sides. Media can never be wrong, so if 26/11 happens they have the right to question the police/ army why action was not swift enough. Than incident like in Bangalore happens where unfortunately 19 year old gets killed because Army is swift, media goes on overdrive to ask why army was so swift.
We have reels of papers infact complete two pages only on this story in Times of India, the second paper I buy is Deccan Herald and that also seems to contain atleast full one page on this, and tone is as army is on fault.
Take the case of this boy, he is running from the police. So despite police asking to stop he didn’t. He runs into army compound, hides himself on the roof of the top army brass in the state and hides himself. He is confronted by none other than army, now he runs again. What is army/police suppose to do at 1.00 AM in night.
If he runs away in night, the newspaper will be intruder (or better terrorist) ran away from army / police despite state being on high alert.
So here media is playing with a coin that has tails on both ends and media knows it very well.
Few questions by media
1. Can’t they over power him?
2. Can’t they shoot him in his legs?
3. He was unarmed?
4. Didn’t they hear him talking to his family on phone?
Answers
1. at 1.00 AM a man running next in army compound? Overpower him where and how, by first going close and checking out whether he shoots or blows himself up and kills few army jawans with himself. May be media is just too unhappy since they wanted exactly that, what a juicy news and great trps.
2. Try shooting a running man late night at 1.00 am, I am sure the person who asked this question has great brains though decided not to use them before asking the question.
3. How sentry does know he is unarmed? May be he should have put his life in danger and if killed like six police man on train station in Mumbai, than may be by God’s grace his other friends would have caught him. Again great news and photo opportunity for media, grieving family of a slain soldier is great news, as well his picture with garland on it makes great emotional picture.
4. Now this one for sure is intellectual question. Army should have gadgets to listen that its mom on other side, how do security guy knows that he isn’t talking to his contacts in Karachi, give me a break guys.

Some simple questions I know most of the families ask the young kids
1. If you are 19, what are you doing out of house after 10.00 PM, for God’s grace it was 1.00 AM, and family was not even trying to find out where is he. Not my call to make how a family should keep there young. Though if you take such risks of not knowing where your 19 year old is is at midnight, you run the risk of losing him out, unfortunately.
2. Unfortunately freedom doesn’t come free and we Indians will be well off realizing it as soon as we can. Sorry we can’t be doing free wheeling on MG Road when it’s prohibited. Sorry once you break a law, and you get police asking you to stop you don’t run away. Sorry you don’t jump in army compound without telling at midnight. Sorry you need to know difference between areas of security forces and civilian area, Sorry once you are in security area and challenged by none other than army, you don’t run. Sorry if you do this all you may lose your life.

Very unfortunate, sad and heart almost bleeds seeing a 19 year old go down like this. Though if anybody is responsible for this death. It’s his parents/ family relatives, who taught him
• You are breaking the law by free wheeling.
• You can run from police
• You can be out of house at 1.00 AM without intimation.
• You can run from army and still blame them.

If any body is crying on an age of 19 years, just as a reminder, the only terrorist caught after Mumbai terror carnage is Kasab, and his age is 19 years.

In nutshell our security forces are under pressure of democratically elected government and its compulsions. Don’t question them when they seem to have acted in right manner the way they should have acted. It’s fortunate that it was just a boy who have been brought up with wrong groundings, and unfortunately shot dead.
I shudder to think had it been another Kasab with two other accomplices in other parts of army campus, and army would have acted the way media is asking them to, trying to overpower him. A dead brigadier and his family in middle of an army camp under siege would have made great news, and would have almost assured a full scale war.
My advice to army please please do act exactly the way you acted this time, when you see a unidentified man running in your campus, I don’t want another Mumbai or Kasab running alive on our land.

Its not a country but a corporate we are dealing with

This is more of a random blog, we all remember good guy, bad guy team in corporate world during negotiations.
Pakistan seems to be playing that game for long long time with us, and the diplomatic world doesn't know how to manage this. There is a bad guy in Army, and good guy in elected government.

This completely works for them since both good guy and bad guy make money like this. There is President/ Prime Minister and most who have made careers outside the country, Last finance minister was in running for Citi's head post against Mr. Pandit, so they look at current posts as another job/career move.
There is army which anyway controls and benefits from eveything within the country. They own ladn, head all the institutions (including cricket control board).
So now for both to profit, they need to tango, and that's what is happening.
One creates blood bath, other says not me. When other passes the line first one takes over.
Good guy, anyway has not control over bad guy. Bad guy, one you can't talk to, other why me, I work under good guy.
Where do you go from here......
This isn't a corporate, where you can leave the table or you can sack somebody..
In between Pakistani people are losing all they have, though they are fed like many communicst states on propoganda of hate and intolerance, which they are lapping up big time. They have nothing else to go to.
This helps both good guy and bad guy. So good guy won't do anything to stop the propoganda of hate and Islam and bad guy will use it to keep legitimacy.

May be only thing one can wait for, is that its not a finite transaction like a corporate. Its eating into country and may lead to its falling apart.
Though like many corporate, would this impact on the top, no they will still take bonuses.
Its people of Pakistan, who will be impacted. They need to see this design. It will impact neighbors llike all stake holders of a corporate.
Though when this corporate comes down it will take many down with it.
Just ensure that we aren't going down with it.

How Many Will You Detest And For How Long

My take on angry outbrusts after Mumbai attacks is to get involved in governance, go join a party or start one. We have a system, and we haven't nurtured, goons did, and now we have goons running it. Politicians come from the system, we don't want to be part of, though that's what is going to run our lives. As much as I agree with people on state of polity and state of MPs in our country. Though you kill these 540, you have another 540 may be even bigger scums ready to take over, and another 540, and another. We all have seen fights for MP/MLA tickets. The challenge for us isn't about eliminating 540 and another 540 and another 540, but to choose the right 540, so there isn't next 540 lining up, since we got the best one's in. Now either we be part of those 540, or we be part of process to choose those 540, or make it easier for people to choose which 540 are best. If we educated aren't doing any of this, than we get scum of 540, and we get the scum in return.
Kapil Gupta