A bird in hand

I was listening to the radio a couple of days back when I heard this song which goes something like 'A bird in hand is worth one in the bush is worth one on a electric wire', which instantly sounded like one of those meaningless songs that are the rule rather than exception now-a-days. And then suddenly realization hit me like a ton of bricks on a glass window, this song had a deeper meaning that I could ever imagine.

'A bird in hand is worth two in the bush' is one of those oft' quoted and misquoted sayings. The song though was at a entirely different level, subtle though it might be. How often do we esteem one person over another? How often do we put down one person to show up another? Or how often have we knowingly or unknowingly estimated one life over another?

I know what some of you are guessing, I am getting sensitive here (An unknown quality to me).

We thinking highly of a person in power more than the homeless. I have been in situations where somebody gets a place of honour just because they know somebody who is powerful. I don't want to get into the argument about how a person works all his life to be recoganised. The differences that I want to point out is in judging a person by the what he belongs to, by who he knows, by what society says rather than by what he is.

To further drill this point home, the sermon at my church last week was a eye opener. The Pastor passed around the flyer that wanted people to write down a list of various things that people thought were important. It ranged from important clothing brands to important women not in the entertainment industry. More often than not people picked the expensive ones for inanimate objects and people in power for the people centric questions. And then he proceeded to ask us why we didn't consider the brands that we normally use as important? Why we didn't consider our own relatives and friends as important? The worst part of it all was that he was right.

Our sense of importance seems to be highly wrapped and twisted. We cannot survive without our friends and family but we accord more importance to people we don't even know or will never meet. We don't consider the simple things in life that we cannot live without as important rather spending all that adulation on things that we don't need, that we would buy just to impress people we don't have to!

It was definitely an eye opener for me, atleast God is not a respecter of personsRomans 2:11, or I am definitely screwed(Pardon the French)

Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.
Leviticus 19:15

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The Passion of the Code

I know I am joining the party late, oh well better late than never. All this rhetoric about the Da Vici code has finally gotten to me. I can't remember another book generating this kinda reaction from people in a long time since the Satanic Verses by Salman Sushide.

Though there is no scope for a fatwa here, there have been book burnings, call for banning and all other sorts of melodrama by people who want to wear their religious patriotism on their sleeve. Being a person of the faith that is technically at the receiving end of this 'book/Movie', I am left scratching my head if this what Jesus would do (WWJD).

From my 'limited' knowledge of the Bible I know that He asked us to famously turn our other cheek not talk about blasphemy and call for the head of people with different views. I have heard some people even call it treason! What I don't I don't understand is how can you commit treason against something you don't belong to? Technically I can't commit treason against Uncle Sam can I? Against India, heck ya! The asininity seems to have permeated people in all walks of life including the Vatican.

The film in itself doesn't seem to have made much of an impact like the book. Though I must agree that it was good marketing tactic jus like Mel used for the Passion Of Christ. And the Catholic church just bought into it lock stock and barrel.

The vacuousness of the whole opposition is that it would erode the faith of the 'faithful' which is a whole lot of balderdash, according to me ofcourse. The bottomline is that the church has failed in its duty to educate the flock. They have spent more time trying to figure out what the wordings of the doctrine is than to attend to the simple moral and religious foundation of its existence, the divinity of Jesus Christ. And now to put all the blame for the weakening of the faith on a two bit movie is not only preposterous but also just plain irresponsible.

I think its time for the church to start on its commission and let the burning and protesting to the others.

But I(Jesus) say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Mathew 5:44-48

Odyssey - Book 2 - Chapter iv - the South African

This is jus a teaser ... you would need to check my personal blog tamilnole.blogspot.com for the whole deal. I know I have been kinda lazy about this this month .... bear with me ... changes are coming ;).

The pictures of the wedding are here while the pictures from the trip are here.

Divide and rule!

A technique invented by the British imperialists, now perfected by the Indian politician. Divide they do by caste, creed, religion and geography, specially when its election time. This time round with elections occurring for five states in India.

The biggest divider this time around happens to be the "Human Resource Development" Minister Dr. Arjun Singh. He let out the cat among the pigeons by calling for reservation in the post-graduate level education at the premier educational institutions, medical colleges and private industries. It is a good election time gimmick to gather some votes, but it stinks of 'rasheadedness'.

At the outset let me state that I am not against reservation(caste/race based). Mainly because I do not have an alternative solution to it.

I just have an issue with how it is implemented. If the government spent as much time on primary education for the lower castes to bring them in par with the mainstream, we wouldn't have to resort to reservation at this level. There are certain fields that I believe should not be touched by reservation and the major area is medicine. I would feel safe to know that my doctor has the brains to get into medical college and has not had the medical degree forced on him due to reservation. It would be definitive be better to raise the standards of the down trodden rather than lower the bar. It would be oxymoronic, to call the Indian IITs and IIMs as one of the best in the world while we try to get in people under reservation.

In reality this reservation would only benefit the ricer of the lower caste, who have any idea of the perks of the system and would not really reach the intended audience of the lower income group. Instead of trying the top down model, the powers that be would be better off to try the bottom up model, if they really want to make a change.

The other interesting question that arises is how politicians implement such polarising moves with impunity. The cause lies in the fact that the middle class never really votes ... they are just happy to live a contended life with no social responsibility. What the politicians are trying to do is speak to the uneducated (Who incidentally is not helped in any by such measures) who speak the language of division. Its easy to get the loyalty of a person who does not understand the consequences of such actions and whose caste loyalty is worn on his sleeve.

If the middle class and the educated masses want to prevent such divisive policies from seeing the light of day, they would have to put aside their complacency aside and be ready to actively exercise their social responsibility. The best way to do it would be by voting (against such policies)!
P.S: For daily updates ---> The Odyssey