Robin Hood spots new Neighborhood!

It is certainly not an ordinary Sunday (September 27, 2015), the God of Knowledge, Lord Ganesha is on his way back home (Ananth Chaturdashi). Like every year, this year too he showered on us bounty full of knowledge and blessings. Just when we thought that was over, he gave us for the very first time something that we had always seen but never understood in depth. Three new NEIGHBORHOODS!

To make us aware of these new neighborhoods and their importance in the years ahead, he used one of the strongest medium on this planet Earth, none other than, our very own Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.

Addressing a gathering of technocrats at Silicon Valley in California during his US visit, Modi stated that he had met many of them in Delhi and New York, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These are the new neighborhoods of our new world.

Indeed what a thought. Today we cannot deny that we have made friends quicker in our life than expected through Facebook or Twitter. We keep everyone informed of the minutest happenings in our life through Twitter and in return keenly follow what’s happening on the other side. All this changes have completely given a new dimension to one’s life. It will not be wrong to say that through phone calls we were connected, but through these newly formed neighborhoods we are strongly inter-connected. All this has happened in the shortest possible time.

Prime Minister Modi says that the most fundamental debate for our youth today is the choice between Android, iOS or Windows. It somewhere goes to reflect the progressive mind-set of the country who has embarked upon to be the giants not just in the political sphere but on technological know-how too.  

Days are not far when the school kids will walk into classrooms having no blackboards but 3-D screens and no burden of carrying bag full of notebooks but rather fully charged iPads.

More and more foreign technology giants are now showing keen interest in setting up their offices and production houses in India thus making it easier, for the educational institutions, to seek placements for their wards within India and at the same time working for a major international house. Isn’t it one way a positive solution to long pending issue of ‘Brain Drain’?

Finally, Modi has a point when he says, “the status that now matters is not whether you are awake or asleep, but whether you are online or offline.”

When he says this, he means ‘Online’ for the productivity and growth of the nation, ‘Online’ to help reach the technological know-how to the remotest corner of the globe. It is high time to switch on our brainy Wi-Fi and embark upon the journey towards a contributing citizen of not just India but also of these new Neighborhoods found by our very own Robin Hood.

Ganapati Bappa Morya, Pudhchya Varshi Lawkar Ya!

The big BAN theory!

I had tough time in deciding whether to write this blog now or wait for another day as I had a non-vegetarian (meat) meal just an hour ago and didn’t really wish to offend the readers belonging to various communities.

So much has been spoken and written about the meat ban in recent days that I strongly feel, the word ‘BAN’ should itself be banned. For several decades, no one had any problem with what others ate or drank. Unless one forcibly stuffed something down someone’s throat, certainly not with any malicious intention to harm one’s religion (or to convert). Why suddenly such a hue and cry?

There are several issues and unfinished tasks pending from decades which require immediate attention. Farmers are committing suicides; let us BAN their unwarranted deaths. Several villages are reeling under severe drought; let us BAN the wastage of water. Several instances of crime against women are reported daily; let us BAN the pervert attitude. And many more such issues need to be tackled on priority basis.

Raking up issues in the name of protecting religious sentiments, and that too selectively, is nothing but vote-bank politics. How can a beef ban in Maharashtra be a step in the direction of protecting the religious sentiments of Hindus, while in the neighbouring state of Goa, it’s allowed to be sold and consumed freely? In Goa, Hindus are in majority and like Maharashtra the tiny but progressive state too is ruled by the BJP. How can the sentiments of Hindus staying in two states differ so drastically?

What does one really gain by imposing such BANS? Instead of protecting the interests of the society, it leaves it divided. We, as a country, have bigger battles to win ahead. A divided society on such whims and fancies of political ‘jokers’ will only end up turning this country into a circus.

No political party has the will or the determination to take everyone along and grow. Every party, instead of highlighting what good they have done, is today busy exposing opponents’ shortcomings. And in this mad tussle for one-upmanship, we invent and re-invent dangerous tools like BAN.