I love being alive.
I love feeling the warm sun on my hands and face
Or watching the drizzle droplets float.
I love feeling my pulse and knowing everyone else has one too.
I love looking in the mirror and knowing
That I have a physical form.
I love that I can see, hear music and even traffic,
That I can taste fruit juice and smell perfume and
Touch soft cotton.
I love that I can feel love and pain with so much intensity.
I love feeling loved.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Intellectual Property Rights
What and Why?
When something is invented, be it a procedure, a technology, software or even works of art and expression like music, paintings, movies and literature, it is understood that a lot of work has gone into its creation. People work whole lifetimes on certain discoveries. Intellectual property rights are a set of laws which protect such work from easy duplication. A time frame is given within which that technology or work is exclusively the maker’s to use for commercial purposes. The reasoning being that apart from time and effort, the individual is most likely to have invested money in it heavily. Commercially speaking it is only fair that they reap what they sow.
But the term ‘intellectual property’ denotes the specific legal rights, and not the intellectual work itself.
Under this vast legal set up are subcategories of laws based on what the creation or discovery is. These also include copyrights, trademarks, patents etc.
An industrial design right protects the form of appearance, style or design of an industrial object from infringement. A trade secret is an item of non-public information concerning the commercial practices or proprietary knowledge of a business. Public disclosure of trade secrets may sometimes be illegal.
The purpose of having such rights provides commercial incentive so that they would rather share their information than keep it to themselves. It is useful thus, in sharing of knowledge. If IPR had existed during the time of the invention of the first microscopes, microbiology would’ve developed at a faster rate with Leeuwenhoek sharing his method of lens grinding. The legal protections granted by IP laws are credited with significant contributions toward economic growth.
Intellectual property rights are considered by economists to be a form of temporary monopoly enforced by the state (or enforced using the legal mechanisms for redress supported by the state).
Intellectual property rights are usually limited to non-rival goods, that is, goods which can be used or enjoyed by many people simultaneously—the use by one person does not exclude use by another. The establishment of intellectual property rights, therefore, represents a trade-off, to balance the interest of society in the creation of non-rival goods by encouraging their production, with the problems of monopoly power. Since the trade-off and the relevant benefits and costs to society will depend on many factors that may be specific to each product and society, the optimum period of time during which the temporary monopoly rights exist is unclear.
Modern usage of the term intellectual property began with the 1967 establishment of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), but it did not enter popular usage until passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980.
Problems with IPR
Some critics of intellectual property, such as those in the free culture movement, characterize it as intellectual protectionism or intellectual monopoly and argue that the public interest is harmed by protectionist legislation such as copyright extension, software patents and business method patents. Although the term is in wide use, some critics reject the term intellectual property altogether. Richard Stallman argues that it "systematically distorts and confuses these issues, and its use was and is promoted by those who gain from this confusion." He claims that the term "operates as a catch-all to lump together disparate laws [which] originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues." These critics advocate referring to copyrights, patents and trademarks in the singular and warn against abstracting disparate laws into a collective term.
Apart from this issue, IPR of biological technology used in production of various pharmaceutically and industrially important products have been controversial.
The main problem has occurred when a product such as, for example, a tablet for easing the symptoms of AIDS patients has been patented and so has been priced a lot higher than any average individual can afford on a regular basis. In this case, the patent holder would expect the government to subsidise it for its people instead of expecting that such a medicine would come any cheaper. This sounds like the best option where both the inventor and the consumer get what they want. But it is still very debatable, considering that it is a matter of life and death, whether the price must be set so high in the first place. Some people would call it the exploitation of people’s need to live.
"What is more important patent rights or patients' rights?"
-Zimbabwean Health Minister, Dr. T. Stamps
(ICASA Conference, Sept. 9, 1999)
Another issue that arises is the attempt and some successes of patenting indigenous knowledge.
Traditional health systems are based in world views or cosmologies that take into account mental, social, spiritual, physical and ecological dimensions of health and well being.
Central importance on the concept of balance - within the individual and between the individual, society and Nature. Imbalance arises with the breaking of the inter connectedness of life - and results in discomfort and disease.
Traditional health systems have organized frameworks for classifying plants, animals, landscapes and climatic conditions in relation to their effects on health and disease.
These taxonomies have much in common with one another and represent a culturally relevant empirical framework for assessing medicinal plant biodiversity. Such taxonomies may diverge significantly with Western classificatory frameworks and assumptions. This is of importance when determining prior art as it pertains to intellectual property law.
Food and medicine are of ten viewed interchangeably. Food is medicine. Diet is the basis of health.
Revitalization movements are drawing on traditional medical know ledge to develop integrated modern and traditional health care projects. These movements and other groups have drawn attention to the shrinking availability of medicinal plants to supply the burgeoning need for herbal medicines in non-Western societies and in the industrial countries. Conservation and horticulture programmes are emerging as vital components of the revitalization of local health traditions.
So it becomes obvious that since there are two very different paradigms of looking at knowledge, there will be a conflict about the legal frameworks of IPR. Indigenous people who have known protected and passed on valuable knowledge don’t think in terms of money to be gained. And if there needs must be money involved, certainly the person who knows how to write a scientific paper on this knowledge doesn’t deserve it even a fraction of a percentage as much as the community which preserved such knowledge. The company or holder of such a patent then becomes legally capable of prosecuting that community for using patented knowledge without paying for it when such a patent is allowed. Is this fair by any means? To invent a law which isn’t sensitive to the various approaches people have been having for so long? To create a blanket system under which everyone must operate similarly?
So now that we know both what IPR is, why it is created and what its main issues are, we can zero in on what is done about them, plant protection.
In the following section we’ll look at legal protection and indigenous knowledge. One must note though, that the exploitation of plants for commercial purposes is currently unsustainable. Along with over harvesting is a lot of habitat destruction which disturbs the balance of the ecosystem. But to get into the question of conservation now would be too much of a deviation.
Addressing Legal Plant and Indigenous Knowledge Protection
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
The CBD is the only major international convention that assigns ownership of
biodiversity to indigenous communities and individuals and asserts their right to
protect this knowledge.
Article 8 (j): State Parties required to “respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote the wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilisation of such knowledge, innovations and practices.”
Article 18.4: Contracting Parties should “encourage and develop models of cooperation for the development and use of technologies, including traditional & indigenous technologies."
The CBD competes for influence with the far more powerful TRIPS (Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights).
TRIPS is now the key international agreement promoting the harmonisation of national IPR regimes. Covers four types of intellectual property rights:
1. Patents
2. Geographical indications
3. Undisclosed information (trade secrets)
4. Trademarks
• TRIPS makes no reference to the protection of traditional knowledge. Does not acknowledge or distinguish between indigenous, community-based knowledge and that of industry
• TRIPS does not require adoption of UPOV standards, but rather provision "for the protection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof." (Art. 27(3)(b))
INDIA
• From 1994, Indian Government did not succeed in repeated attempts to revise 1970 Patent Act to come into line with TRIPS.
• Efforts to do so resulted in riots on streets. Half a million farmers demonstrating.
• Late 1999 succeeded in amending it in accord with TRIPS and removing protection for important medicines from patent control.
• Activist groups called for a deadline for coming into line with TRIPS to allow time for full debate and resolution of all of the issues involved.
TURMERIC
The Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research of India filed a re-examination request with the US Patent and Trademark Office, seeking revocation of a 1994 patent issued to the University of Mississippi.
Patent, 5,401,504, claimed the use of turmeric for promoting wound healing.
India argued that turmeric is a well known traditional medicine used in India, and written about by Indian researchers as early as the 1950s.
India secured a revocation of the patent.
India is now recording on a set of CD Roms all of the national medicinal plant knowledge. This will be distributed to patent offices world-wide to provide a data base of prior art on Indian traditional medicinal knowledge.
India is also pursuing a comprehensive legal strategy to seek revocation on non-Indian patents on Indian life forms.
OTHER HERBAL EXAMPLES
1. Phyllanthus amarus - Ayurvedic treatment for jaundice. U.S. patent for use
with Hepatitis B.
2. Piper nigrum. Ayurvedic treatment for vitiligo ( a skin pigmentation disorder).
UK patent for application of a molecule from piper nigrup for use in treatment
of vitiligo.
3. Shaman Pharmaceuticals: AIDS diarrhea herbal drug. Contrct for benefit
sharing with source of origin of the information
Social & economic costs of changes in IP legislation
By requiring patents to be applied to pharmaceuticals, it is being argued that TRIPS will have the effect of pricing common drugs out of the reach of most people in poor countries. If herbal medicines are patented - either domestically or internationally - the medicines used as the first and last resort for healthcare by the poor will also become unaffordable. Some examples illustrate the point.
• 200 % increase in cost of medicines after the 1979 introduction of pharmaceutical product patents in Italy.
• Welfare loss to Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, Korea, and Taiwan) would amount to a minimum of US$3.5 billion and a maximum of US$10.8 billion.
Income gains by foreign patent owners would be between US$2.1 billion and US$14.4 billion. (World Bank)
• `National health disaster' anticipated by the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association from implementation of TRIPs in India.
• 30% of Indian population can afford modern medicines.
• Comparisons of prices of drugs between India and countries where patent protection exists: up to 41 times costlier in countries with patent protection.
• Drug prices in Malaysia, where patent protection exists, 20% to 760% higher than in India. Profit-maximising behaviour based on `what the market can bear'.
Some IPR Models for the protection of traditional knowledge.
1. Changing IPR law: Certificates of origin. (Sociedad Peruana de Derecho
Ambiental)
Patent applications based on use of genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge should require:
(i) A sworn statement as to the genetic resources and associated knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities utilised, directly or indirectly, in the research and development of the subject matter of the IPR application;
(ii) Evidence of prior informed consent of the country of origin and/or indigenous or local community, as appropriate;
(iii) International standardisation of these conditions through an international certification system.
Countries providing resources and/or traditional knowledge to issue certificates indicating that all obligations to the country and indigenous people/local community had been fulfilled e.g. prior informed consent, equitable benefit sharing, etc. Patent applications would include these certificates. Without them, they would automatically be rejected.
2. Transforming traditional knowledge into trade secrets. (IAD-supported project,
Ecuador).
Knowledge from communities wishing to participate in the project to be catalogued and deposited in a restricted access database. Each community will have its own file in the database.
Checks will be made to see whether each entry is not already in the public domain and whether other communities have the same knowledge.
To avoid the danger of a price war from competition among communities, there would be a cartel developed among those communities sharing a trade secret.
The trade secret can then be negotiated in a Material Transfer Agreement with the benefits shared between the government and the cartel members.
3. Local innovations databases.
Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), India, has developed databases of traditional knowledge and innovations in close collaboration with local community members.
Advocates a global registration system of local innovations. Individual and collective innovators would receive acknowledgement and financial rewards for commercial applications of their knowledge, innovations and practices.
Links would be built between small investors, entrepreneurs and innovators for mutual financial benefits.
Individuals or communities could seek IPR protection in such forms as inventors certificates and petty patents. (The intellectual property law of Kenya was amended in 1989 to provide for a petty patent for traditional medicinal knowledge.)
All national patent offices should be able to access local innovation databases when carrying out prior art searches and examinations.
Future
1. Debate over patenting will hinge much on what constitutes prior informed consent. How to determine who represents a community, what represents full consent.
2. State vs. Community ownership of indigenous knowledge. Should states get royalties from knowledge that originates from communities within those states? Or should royalties go direct to the traditional knowledge holders?
3. Disputes over patents on herbal products - impact on local herbal use and developing country exports of herbals. (World Bank: $3 trillion herbal market (by mid 21st century)
4. More examples of the S. African AIDS drugs type - & with herbals. "Patent rights v. Patients' rights".
5. Restrictions on collaborative research (e.g. India's Biodiversity research approval committee now requires Central Govt approval for all collaborative research pertaining to indigenous knowledge)
6. Southern (Eastern? e.g. ASEAN) alliance to combat prejudicial aspects of TRIPs.
Though the problems of IPR look daunting, and solutions seem difficult, the efforts that are made in that direction are commendable. In the future, some of the above will rise in the way of those who are trying to incorporate changes into the IPR laws. The debate and controversies may never be over but so long as there is effort, there is hope for improvement and balance in these laws.
When something is invented, be it a procedure, a technology, software or even works of art and expression like music, paintings, movies and literature, it is understood that a lot of work has gone into its creation. People work whole lifetimes on certain discoveries. Intellectual property rights are a set of laws which protect such work from easy duplication. A time frame is given within which that technology or work is exclusively the maker’s to use for commercial purposes. The reasoning being that apart from time and effort, the individual is most likely to have invested money in it heavily. Commercially speaking it is only fair that they reap what they sow.
But the term ‘intellectual property’ denotes the specific legal rights, and not the intellectual work itself.
Under this vast legal set up are subcategories of laws based on what the creation or discovery is. These also include copyrights, trademarks, patents etc.
An industrial design right protects the form of appearance, style or design of an industrial object from infringement. A trade secret is an item of non-public information concerning the commercial practices or proprietary knowledge of a business. Public disclosure of trade secrets may sometimes be illegal.
The purpose of having such rights provides commercial incentive so that they would rather share their information than keep it to themselves. It is useful thus, in sharing of knowledge. If IPR had existed during the time of the invention of the first microscopes, microbiology would’ve developed at a faster rate with Leeuwenhoek sharing his method of lens grinding. The legal protections granted by IP laws are credited with significant contributions toward economic growth.
Intellectual property rights are considered by economists to be a form of temporary monopoly enforced by the state (or enforced using the legal mechanisms for redress supported by the state).
Intellectual property rights are usually limited to non-rival goods, that is, goods which can be used or enjoyed by many people simultaneously—the use by one person does not exclude use by another. The establishment of intellectual property rights, therefore, represents a trade-off, to balance the interest of society in the creation of non-rival goods by encouraging their production, with the problems of monopoly power. Since the trade-off and the relevant benefits and costs to society will depend on many factors that may be specific to each product and society, the optimum period of time during which the temporary monopoly rights exist is unclear.
Modern usage of the term intellectual property began with the 1967 establishment of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), but it did not enter popular usage until passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980.
Problems with IPR
Some critics of intellectual property, such as those in the free culture movement, characterize it as intellectual protectionism or intellectual monopoly and argue that the public interest is harmed by protectionist legislation such as copyright extension, software patents and business method patents. Although the term is in wide use, some critics reject the term intellectual property altogether. Richard Stallman argues that it "systematically distorts and confuses these issues, and its use was and is promoted by those who gain from this confusion." He claims that the term "operates as a catch-all to lump together disparate laws [which] originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues." These critics advocate referring to copyrights, patents and trademarks in the singular and warn against abstracting disparate laws into a collective term.
Apart from this issue, IPR of biological technology used in production of various pharmaceutically and industrially important products have been controversial.
The main problem has occurred when a product such as, for example, a tablet for easing the symptoms of AIDS patients has been patented and so has been priced a lot higher than any average individual can afford on a regular basis. In this case, the patent holder would expect the government to subsidise it for its people instead of expecting that such a medicine would come any cheaper. This sounds like the best option where both the inventor and the consumer get what they want. But it is still very debatable, considering that it is a matter of life and death, whether the price must be set so high in the first place. Some people would call it the exploitation of people’s need to live.
"What is more important patent rights or patients' rights?"
-Zimbabwean Health Minister, Dr. T. Stamps
(ICASA Conference, Sept. 9, 1999)
Another issue that arises is the attempt and some successes of patenting indigenous knowledge.
Traditional health systems are based in world views or cosmologies that take into account mental, social, spiritual, physical and ecological dimensions of health and well being.
Central importance on the concept of balance - within the individual and between the individual, society and Nature. Imbalance arises with the breaking of the inter connectedness of life - and results in discomfort and disease.
Traditional health systems have organized frameworks for classifying plants, animals, landscapes and climatic conditions in relation to their effects on health and disease.
These taxonomies have much in common with one another and represent a culturally relevant empirical framework for assessing medicinal plant biodiversity. Such taxonomies may diverge significantly with Western classificatory frameworks and assumptions. This is of importance when determining prior art as it pertains to intellectual property law.
Food and medicine are of ten viewed interchangeably. Food is medicine. Diet is the basis of health.
Revitalization movements are drawing on traditional medical know ledge to develop integrated modern and traditional health care projects. These movements and other groups have drawn attention to the shrinking availability of medicinal plants to supply the burgeoning need for herbal medicines in non-Western societies and in the industrial countries. Conservation and horticulture programmes are emerging as vital components of the revitalization of local health traditions.
So it becomes obvious that since there are two very different paradigms of looking at knowledge, there will be a conflict about the legal frameworks of IPR. Indigenous people who have known protected and passed on valuable knowledge don’t think in terms of money to be gained. And if there needs must be money involved, certainly the person who knows how to write a scientific paper on this knowledge doesn’t deserve it even a fraction of a percentage as much as the community which preserved such knowledge. The company or holder of such a patent then becomes legally capable of prosecuting that community for using patented knowledge without paying for it when such a patent is allowed. Is this fair by any means? To invent a law which isn’t sensitive to the various approaches people have been having for so long? To create a blanket system under which everyone must operate similarly?
So now that we know both what IPR is, why it is created and what its main issues are, we can zero in on what is done about them, plant protection.
In the following section we’ll look at legal protection and indigenous knowledge. One must note though, that the exploitation of plants for commercial purposes is currently unsustainable. Along with over harvesting is a lot of habitat destruction which disturbs the balance of the ecosystem. But to get into the question of conservation now would be too much of a deviation.
Addressing Legal Plant and Indigenous Knowledge Protection
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
The CBD is the only major international convention that assigns ownership of
biodiversity to indigenous communities and individuals and asserts their right to
protect this knowledge.
Article 8 (j): State Parties required to “respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote the wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilisation of such knowledge, innovations and practices.”
Article 18.4: Contracting Parties should “encourage and develop models of cooperation for the development and use of technologies, including traditional & indigenous technologies."
The CBD competes for influence with the far more powerful TRIPS (Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights).
TRIPS is now the key international agreement promoting the harmonisation of national IPR regimes. Covers four types of intellectual property rights:
1. Patents
2. Geographical indications
3. Undisclosed information (trade secrets)
4. Trademarks
• TRIPS makes no reference to the protection of traditional knowledge. Does not acknowledge or distinguish between indigenous, community-based knowledge and that of industry
• TRIPS does not require adoption of UPOV standards, but rather provision "for the protection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof." (Art. 27(3)(b))
INDIA
• From 1994, Indian Government did not succeed in repeated attempts to revise 1970 Patent Act to come into line with TRIPS.
• Efforts to do so resulted in riots on streets. Half a million farmers demonstrating.
• Late 1999 succeeded in amending it in accord with TRIPS and removing protection for important medicines from patent control.
• Activist groups called for a deadline for coming into line with TRIPS to allow time for full debate and resolution of all of the issues involved.
TURMERIC
The Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research of India filed a re-examination request with the US Patent and Trademark Office, seeking revocation of a 1994 patent issued to the University of Mississippi.
Patent, 5,401,504, claimed the use of turmeric for promoting wound healing.
India argued that turmeric is a well known traditional medicine used in India, and written about by Indian researchers as early as the 1950s.
India secured a revocation of the patent.
India is now recording on a set of CD Roms all of the national medicinal plant knowledge. This will be distributed to patent offices world-wide to provide a data base of prior art on Indian traditional medicinal knowledge.
India is also pursuing a comprehensive legal strategy to seek revocation on non-Indian patents on Indian life forms.
OTHER HERBAL EXAMPLES
1. Phyllanthus amarus - Ayurvedic treatment for jaundice. U.S. patent for use
with Hepatitis B.
2. Piper nigrum. Ayurvedic treatment for vitiligo ( a skin pigmentation disorder).
UK patent for application of a molecule from piper nigrup for use in treatment
of vitiligo.
3. Shaman Pharmaceuticals: AIDS diarrhea herbal drug. Contrct for benefit
sharing with source of origin of the information
Social & economic costs of changes in IP legislation
By requiring patents to be applied to pharmaceuticals, it is being argued that TRIPS will have the effect of pricing common drugs out of the reach of most people in poor countries. If herbal medicines are patented - either domestically or internationally - the medicines used as the first and last resort for healthcare by the poor will also become unaffordable. Some examples illustrate the point.
• 200 % increase in cost of medicines after the 1979 introduction of pharmaceutical product patents in Italy.
• Welfare loss to Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, Korea, and Taiwan) would amount to a minimum of US$3.5 billion and a maximum of US$10.8 billion.
Income gains by foreign patent owners would be between US$2.1 billion and US$14.4 billion. (World Bank)
• `National health disaster' anticipated by the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association from implementation of TRIPs in India.
• 30% of Indian population can afford modern medicines.
• Comparisons of prices of drugs between India and countries where patent protection exists: up to 41 times costlier in countries with patent protection.
• Drug prices in Malaysia, where patent protection exists, 20% to 760% higher than in India. Profit-maximising behaviour based on `what the market can bear'.
Some IPR Models for the protection of traditional knowledge.
1. Changing IPR law: Certificates of origin. (Sociedad Peruana de Derecho
Ambiental)
Patent applications based on use of genetic resources and/or traditional knowledge should require:
(i) A sworn statement as to the genetic resources and associated knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities utilised, directly or indirectly, in the research and development of the subject matter of the IPR application;
(ii) Evidence of prior informed consent of the country of origin and/or indigenous or local community, as appropriate;
(iii) International standardisation of these conditions through an international certification system.
Countries providing resources and/or traditional knowledge to issue certificates indicating that all obligations to the country and indigenous people/local community had been fulfilled e.g. prior informed consent, equitable benefit sharing, etc. Patent applications would include these certificates. Without them, they would automatically be rejected.
2. Transforming traditional knowledge into trade secrets. (IAD-supported project,
Ecuador).
Knowledge from communities wishing to participate in the project to be catalogued and deposited in a restricted access database. Each community will have its own file in the database.
Checks will be made to see whether each entry is not already in the public domain and whether other communities have the same knowledge.
To avoid the danger of a price war from competition among communities, there would be a cartel developed among those communities sharing a trade secret.
The trade secret can then be negotiated in a Material Transfer Agreement with the benefits shared between the government and the cartel members.
3. Local innovations databases.
Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), India, has developed databases of traditional knowledge and innovations in close collaboration with local community members.
Advocates a global registration system of local innovations. Individual and collective innovators would receive acknowledgement and financial rewards for commercial applications of their knowledge, innovations and practices.
Links would be built between small investors, entrepreneurs and innovators for mutual financial benefits.
Individuals or communities could seek IPR protection in such forms as inventors certificates and petty patents. (The intellectual property law of Kenya was amended in 1989 to provide for a petty patent for traditional medicinal knowledge.)
All national patent offices should be able to access local innovation databases when carrying out prior art searches and examinations.
Future
1. Debate over patenting will hinge much on what constitutes prior informed consent. How to determine who represents a community, what represents full consent.
2. State vs. Community ownership of indigenous knowledge. Should states get royalties from knowledge that originates from communities within those states? Or should royalties go direct to the traditional knowledge holders?
3. Disputes over patents on herbal products - impact on local herbal use and developing country exports of herbals. (World Bank: $3 trillion herbal market (by mid 21st century)
4. More examples of the S. African AIDS drugs type - & with herbals. "Patent rights v. Patients' rights".
5. Restrictions on collaborative research (e.g. India's Biodiversity research approval committee now requires Central Govt approval for all collaborative research pertaining to indigenous knowledge)
6. Southern (Eastern? e.g. ASEAN) alliance to combat prejudicial aspects of TRIPs.
Though the problems of IPR look daunting, and solutions seem difficult, the efforts that are made in that direction are commendable. In the future, some of the above will rise in the way of those who are trying to incorporate changes into the IPR laws. The debate and controversies may never be over but so long as there is effort, there is hope for improvement and balance in these laws.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Hopeful Child
The child in me is alive and expectant
What a pleasant and torturous feeling is anticipation
She told me she’d take me to a candy shop
Full of sweet and colourful things
She’d show me the gate to an unexplored land
And even hand me the key.
A new world of possibilities
A new chance to love
Anticipation. I don’t know
If this is the Miracle I’ve been dreaming of
But the child in me doesn’t stop hoping.
What a pleasant and torturous feeling is anticipation
She told me she’d take me to a candy shop
Full of sweet and colourful things
She’d show me the gate to an unexplored land
And even hand me the key.
A new world of possibilities
A new chance to love
Anticipation. I don’t know
If this is the Miracle I’ve been dreaming of
But the child in me doesn’t stop hoping.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
The Buses
The Bus 1
I stand in the bus
The crowd sways behind me
My dupatta catches the flow
But oh! Now the flow chokes me.
The Bus 2
I stand in the bus.
Just behind the steps.
Two hands of different people
On either side of my neck
Grab hold of the metal bar in front
Immobility.
The Bus 3
Smelly people
With rough synthetic clothes
Rub against my skin
While reaching for support
My hand brushes past a woman’s head
And is coated with her oil.
The Bus 4
I stand near the steps
As people get in
The women hit my face as they enter
No apologies.
The Bus 5
At the back, a man,
His hand at a woman’s posterior
I glare.
He gets off at the next stop.
The Bus 6
Balancing on a bus is like
Practicing karate stances
And surfing at the same time
We become flexible, strong armed
Acrobats.
I stand in the bus
The crowd sways behind me
My dupatta catches the flow
But oh! Now the flow chokes me.
The Bus 2
I stand in the bus.
Just behind the steps.
Two hands of different people
On either side of my neck
Grab hold of the metal bar in front
Immobility.
The Bus 3
Smelly people
With rough synthetic clothes
Rub against my skin
While reaching for support
My hand brushes past a woman’s head
And is coated with her oil.
The Bus 4
I stand near the steps
As people get in
The women hit my face as they enter
No apologies.
The Bus 5
At the back, a man,
His hand at a woman’s posterior
I glare.
He gets off at the next stop.
The Bus 6
Balancing on a bus is like
Practicing karate stances
And surfing at the same time
We become flexible, strong armed
Acrobats.
For Now
This yellow evening,
Winds tell of rains to come.
A healthy, happy wind
That I haven’t felt for so long.
Dry mango leaves
Scrape along the concrete
Of my terrace.
Thunder from different directions
Kites dance in the wind
Koels chirp
A Monsoon song.
The coconut leaves ask me
‘How long have you been living in the
Future?
Wondering about where and
What you’ll be.’
A soft reprimand.
Thunder grows closer.
Winds are sweeter and stronger
The storm maybe coming
But for now,
The weather is beautiful.
Winds tell of rains to come.
A healthy, happy wind
That I haven’t felt for so long.
Dry mango leaves
Scrape along the concrete
Of my terrace.
Thunder from different directions
Kites dance in the wind
Koels chirp
A Monsoon song.
The coconut leaves ask me
‘How long have you been living in the
Future?
Wondering about where and
What you’ll be.’
A soft reprimand.
Thunder grows closer.
Winds are sweeter and stronger
The storm maybe coming
But for now,
The weather is beautiful.
Cockroaches
You may not have heard this story before but I’m sure if you look hard enough inside you, it will seem familiar. I knew it before it happened but I didn’t know I did, till it did.
What was it? A T.V? A silver metal box? A magical container?
I was having a shower in the fridge and when I came out and moved the fridge back, I noticed a small crack in the ground. Curious, I lifted the marble as though it were made of paper and out came a cockroach.
Now, I don’t like cockroaches very much. And this one was fatter and larger than the normal ones I’ve seen in this reality. So I quickly dressed and went out. My neighbour was smiling at me. He had given me the box just yesterday and I had accepted it because I had no clue what it was. It was interesting.
Life is busy. I went to work and came home in the afternoon. Or maybe it had been afternoon all day. I opened the kitchen to see around thirty cockroaches in four lines with the fat leader in front. They were marching carrying the corn to under the fridge.
My roommate has an old friend who lives a couple of streets away. She is a large woman with short, thick, black hair and a dimple on her left cheek when she smiles. She keeps a beautiful garden with pots hanging from the underside of her balcony. It isn’t very big but it’s teeming with grasses, shrubs, ornamental flowering plants, ponds and rock arrangements.
When I went home after my walk, my roommate was back and told me he had seen the cockroaches too.
‘Should we use pesticides? Or would that offend them?’ he asked.
‘It might but anyway don’t use it. I don’t want tumours and genetic disabilities for my children.’
‘Fair enough. Let’s ask them to move away.’
While he squatted and talked into the hole, I went to my room and checked the box. How can I open it? What’s inside? It was glowing a phosphorescent greenish white when I picked it up. And very cold.
Outside I caught my neighbour grinning at me again. ‘I came to ask you about the box. Why did you want to give it away?’ He didn’t reply but his grin had widened. ‘The cockroaches?’ I asked. He nodded. Then with a serious face he said, ‘It brings luck, the box. And the army of cockroaches will obey you if you feed them. They will protect you from everything.’ He lowered his voice and I leaned forward to hear him. ‘But I don’t like cockroaches.’
I went in to find out how the dialogues were going. ‘They will move to whichever place has enough food. They have an underground system of movement so we don’t need transportation.’
‘I found out what they do.’ I told him.
‘Well I agree with him. I don’t want luck or protection from cockroaches. Who can we give it to?’
When evening finally came, I took the box to his friend’s house. She was curious and looked happy to have it. It was glowing yellow with warmth.
A few weeks later, when on a walk, she thanked us for the box. She had placed it on a large arrangement of rocks and stones in the middle of her garden. The creepers were starting to grow over it.
What was it? A T.V? A silver metal box? A magical container?
I was having a shower in the fridge and when I came out and moved the fridge back, I noticed a small crack in the ground. Curious, I lifted the marble as though it were made of paper and out came a cockroach.
Now, I don’t like cockroaches very much. And this one was fatter and larger than the normal ones I’ve seen in this reality. So I quickly dressed and went out. My neighbour was smiling at me. He had given me the box just yesterday and I had accepted it because I had no clue what it was. It was interesting.
Life is busy. I went to work and came home in the afternoon. Or maybe it had been afternoon all day. I opened the kitchen to see around thirty cockroaches in four lines with the fat leader in front. They were marching carrying the corn to under the fridge.
My roommate has an old friend who lives a couple of streets away. She is a large woman with short, thick, black hair and a dimple on her left cheek when she smiles. She keeps a beautiful garden with pots hanging from the underside of her balcony. It isn’t very big but it’s teeming with grasses, shrubs, ornamental flowering plants, ponds and rock arrangements.
When I went home after my walk, my roommate was back and told me he had seen the cockroaches too.
‘Should we use pesticides? Or would that offend them?’ he asked.
‘It might but anyway don’t use it. I don’t want tumours and genetic disabilities for my children.’
‘Fair enough. Let’s ask them to move away.’
While he squatted and talked into the hole, I went to my room and checked the box. How can I open it? What’s inside? It was glowing a phosphorescent greenish white when I picked it up. And very cold.
Outside I caught my neighbour grinning at me again. ‘I came to ask you about the box. Why did you want to give it away?’ He didn’t reply but his grin had widened. ‘The cockroaches?’ I asked. He nodded. Then with a serious face he said, ‘It brings luck, the box. And the army of cockroaches will obey you if you feed them. They will protect you from everything.’ He lowered his voice and I leaned forward to hear him. ‘But I don’t like cockroaches.’
I went in to find out how the dialogues were going. ‘They will move to whichever place has enough food. They have an underground system of movement so we don’t need transportation.’
‘I found out what they do.’ I told him.
‘Well I agree with him. I don’t want luck or protection from cockroaches. Who can we give it to?’
When evening finally came, I took the box to his friend’s house. She was curious and looked happy to have it. It was glowing yellow with warmth.
A few weeks later, when on a walk, she thanked us for the box. She had placed it on a large arrangement of rocks and stones in the middle of her garden. The creepers were starting to grow over it.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
No Two Sunsets Are Ever the Same
Everything passes
Good and bad,
Small and big,
Everything.
The easiest thing to do is let them pass.
Holding on is an effort.
Holding on
Drains.
Learn lessons
But prepare to relearn.
This time it may be different
No two sunsets are ever the same.
Good and bad,
Small and big,
Everything.
The easiest thing to do is let them pass.
Holding on is an effort.
Holding on
Drains.
Learn lessons
But prepare to relearn.
This time it may be different
No two sunsets are ever the same.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Joke
If I was constantly aware of my place in this universe- as an individual of one of the millions of species of one of the billions of planets- it would constantly strike me a little ridiculous what a big deal I make of myself.
Selfish Sorrow
I don’t know if many people realise it. I did only four years ago. When I cry for someone’s death, it’s hardly ever really for the person who passed away. It’s usually for myself. I will never see him again. I will miss him. I wish I could see him smile at me just one more time.
About Life and Death
We assume Immortality. Only a death of someone close to us reminds us of our Impermanence.
We make promises and think of ways to make our lives more meaningful, now that we’ve experienced this reminder. It’s sometimes referred to as the Funeral Syndrome. But Time flows on and we are too soon lulled back into the false impression of permanence and nothing in our life really changes.
Normally, I would think; I expect to live quite long- maybe till I’m eighty. I expect to fall in love, raise children, and watch them raise theirs. I expect to do great things in psychology, music, the environment. I expect to learn everything I want to. And make some changes in the educational system- perhaps start a school or teach.
I expect so much.
But for all I know, there could be an accident this evening in which I die. And I’ll be off…in non-existence, quite peaceful to let it all go.
But even though I don’t worry too much about my own death, I know that how I live matters. If I don’t live to my full; if I don’t love freely, if I don’t help those who need it, if I don’t do all that I want to, it could be too late for any of us, at any moment.
And then there will be tears and regret.
We make promises and think of ways to make our lives more meaningful, now that we’ve experienced this reminder. It’s sometimes referred to as the Funeral Syndrome. But Time flows on and we are too soon lulled back into the false impression of permanence and nothing in our life really changes.
Normally, I would think; I expect to live quite long- maybe till I’m eighty. I expect to fall in love, raise children, and watch them raise theirs. I expect to do great things in psychology, music, the environment. I expect to learn everything I want to. And make some changes in the educational system- perhaps start a school or teach.
I expect so much.
But for all I know, there could be an accident this evening in which I die. And I’ll be off…in non-existence, quite peaceful to let it all go.
But even though I don’t worry too much about my own death, I know that how I live matters. If I don’t live to my full; if I don’t love freely, if I don’t help those who need it, if I don’t do all that I want to, it could be too late for any of us, at any moment.
And then there will be tears and regret.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Eulogy
Who was Sripadrao Uncle?
He was a Teacher.
But if this is true, then the word ‘Teacher’ must absorb infinitely
From his character, mind and actions.
‘Great’ falls too short. Not even close to enough a word to
Describe him.
In my humble words he was
A profound thinker, a good person with a
Heart so pure, untouched by negativity. Invincible.
A knowledgeable person of great intellect.
Even at great ages so energetic, optimistic, dedicated,
Wise, generous and so curious.
That was him.
In every life, there are some sparks of inspiration.
He was my first and brightest.
For everyone who knew him and those fortunate
Enough to have been taught by him
In Any way,
He was an Inspiration. A teacher.
Can any being measure to his qualities?
Maybe
If he was born again.
Remembering him with great affection and respect.
His student.
In my 11th, he had a haemorrhage. It was severe enough to force him not to teach anymore. But he would long to. I visited him at his home from then on. Once in a few months. He would see me and smile. What bright eyes even at 86 years of age! And each time, I would come home more driven to learn more. He was kind and soft spoken.
If i had just one wish now, I would like to see him smile at me Just one more time.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Poetry to me
My poetry is just my means of expressing myself in a free way. I don’t believe in rhyme or structure of any kind. I also don't believe in conveying messages to my readers. But like all poetry, mine too can be interpreted in more than one way. That is the beauty of poetry. I will not venture to explain any of the contexts. If you think you know, good, if not, big deal. As one of the clouds say, once it is in the open, it is the readers to read in what way suits them.
Anger
Anger.
Like a vengeful human on a leash
If you were to be freed
What damage, what destruction…
What chaos.
But making me stay is a strain
Why not just yell me out?
Break something inanimate
Or animate…
No.
Freedom of expression?
Is to hurt?
Is to break?
No.
That is savagery.
I am.
If u must express yourself
Do it in a civilised way.
Art, music, poetry, conversation,
Reason, logic…
That would make me stop existing.
Wouldn’t it.
Don’t smile so derisively.
In your wish to be rid of me
There is violence.
You.
You are the reason for
My blood pressure.
If you let me do as I want,
I wouldn’t be.
You cage me and expect me to disappear.
What else can I do?
Like a vengeful human on a leash
If you were to be freed
What damage, what destruction…
What chaos.
But making me stay is a strain
Why not just yell me out?
Break something inanimate
Or animate…
No.
Freedom of expression?
Is to hurt?
Is to break?
No.
That is savagery.
I am.
If u must express yourself
Do it in a civilised way.
Art, music, poetry, conversation,
Reason, logic…
That would make me stop existing.
Wouldn’t it.
Don’t smile so derisively.
In your wish to be rid of me
There is violence.
You.
You are the reason for
My blood pressure.
If you let me do as I want,
I wouldn’t be.
You cage me and expect me to disappear.
What else can I do?
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The Paradox of Music
I find it hard to believe how many people can make music. I tend to see it as too magical to belong to everyone. It’s understood that everyone sees it differently. But isn’t it too personal? It’s a paradox. Its universal and personal at the same time.
Repetition
I can’t write about freedom to love and express love;
Because I’ve written about it already.
I can’t write about womanhood;
I’ve said too much about that.
I can’t write even about my doubts about my sanity;
Any reader would’ve gathered that by now.
Even original ideas I come up with have been thought of by someone who died centuries before my birth.
I find repetition quite irritating.
Because I’ve written about it already.
I can’t write about womanhood;
I’ve said too much about that.
I can’t write even about my doubts about my sanity;
Any reader would’ve gathered that by now.
Even original ideas I come up with have been thought of by someone who died centuries before my birth.
I find repetition quite irritating.
A Rebel Signs Off
I will succumb
Just like a rebel ‘convinced’
Was I fighting on the wrong side?
Now I give into a natural flow
I believed in a non existent
An imaginary construct
How hard it is to let go of beliefs;
Ideals…
Just like a rebel ‘convinced’
Was I fighting on the wrong side?
Now I give into a natural flow
I believed in a non existent
An imaginary construct
How hard it is to let go of beliefs;
Ideals…
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
completeness.
of all the people who had come to visit her, what scared her the most were his concerned eyes.
they left.
he stayed.
she closed her eyes and willed him to go.
too weak for a battle.
instead, she felt the radiation of warmth from his palms on her cheek.
contact.
all this time...just for this warmth.
this completeness.
they left.
he stayed.
she closed her eyes and willed him to go.
too weak for a battle.
instead, she felt the radiation of warmth from his palms on her cheek.
contact.
all this time...just for this warmth.
this completeness.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
All* Human Males are Horny Bastards
It’s truer than you know. They think with their penises. They ogle at your breasts and ‘check out’ your figure. No, not just the overtly cheap guys who you encounter in the streets everyday. I would say they are just more honest about it.
Watch out. It could be anyone. Anyone with a penis. Many of your acquaintances, maybe family members in some cases and even teachers. And the old man who seems to be from a ‘good family’ and probably has grandchildren is not as pure or trustworthy as you may think. In fact the older they get, the more likely they are to put these thoughts into action. And isn’t it true that you would feel even less comfortable admitting abuse from them than someone who would be ‘command more respect’.
Sometimes, to your horror, you find that your own male friends talk like that when they are with other guys. They discuss ‘boob sizes’, ‘cleavages’, and what not. Do you even realise they can’t see past your physical form? Do we ever discuss penis sizes? For god’s sake, do we even look there?
No. Don’t be scared. Be disgusted or angry. If women were in control, I believe most men would have serious injuries to their thinking organ. Many probably would not even be able to have sex anymore. This would indeed be good for the population problem.
This patriarchal society where women have to dress according to the corruption and filth in the minds of males needs some changes. Why do, I seriously wonder, some women go to the trouble of wearing heels (bad for the back), and choking tops to get such bastards to notice them? If it’s out of pride in your own beauty, go ahead, but do question yourself about whether or not it has anything to do with males.
Have you ever noticed that most swear words are demeaning to women? It’s bitch. And son of a bitch. Why is there no male equivalent? Like, what do we call men who have the sexual morals of a ‘slut’? A woman magnet? Why is that not given the same filthy connotation as the word ‘slut’? Yes, sometimes the word dog, cur, jigilo(spelling, anyone?) are used but listen around and observe their rarity.
And though the saying goes, ‘you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them’, I think a woman is perfectly capable of living without them. But we are conditioned to believe that we can’t. If you have the education to make a living, enough friends and other family, why men? Oh that’s right. For sex. I understand. That will be their only purpose to us.
And I doubt they have a problem with being seen that way. After all they are more obsessed with it than women. If only they could be honest about that. That they are sex objects. Not us.
All these men who think of sex with every decent looking girl they see should be trapped in a prostitutes’ house till they are so sick of sex or they’re bankrupt spending on them. Though it might sound like a treat but they will not have a choice of coming out till they will never feel like looking at a woman that way again. And the sex workers can mint money and better their lives. Maybe even enroll in a college.
Let me suggest a punishment for rapists. It’s similar to the degree of violence I would sentence a tree killer with. Strip him. Pour cold water on him and whip him for a while. Ten will do. Too mild? Wait. I’m not done. Drag him through the streets, still stripped and beat the drums to draw attention to him. Show the world that he’s a criminal. A shame to society. Especially show him to the people who believed in him. Humiliation and frustration should saturate his soul. Ashamed, he should be taken to a stake. (Like witches were in the medieval times). His crime should be announced and he should be castrated. His genitals thrown in a rubbish dump full of worms. Let him watch it being consumed. And if the girl was a minor or disabled (physically or mentally), burn him alive.
Anything less than a rape can be given moderations of this. Let other men watch and fear. For, they should live in fear if they can’t respect us. But the ones pure at heart will have nothing to fear. I know some of them too. Which is why there is a * next to ‘All’ in the title. This post won’t offend anyone who has done nothing wrong. It’s a bit bold I agree. And so violent that on re-reading I too will feel disgusted. But idealism and being a softy be damned. People are best ruled by fear. Not love. No matter how hard you try.
Watch out. It could be anyone. Anyone with a penis. Many of your acquaintances, maybe family members in some cases and even teachers. And the old man who seems to be from a ‘good family’ and probably has grandchildren is not as pure or trustworthy as you may think. In fact the older they get, the more likely they are to put these thoughts into action. And isn’t it true that you would feel even less comfortable admitting abuse from them than someone who would be ‘command more respect’.
Sometimes, to your horror, you find that your own male friends talk like that when they are with other guys. They discuss ‘boob sizes’, ‘cleavages’, and what not. Do you even realise they can’t see past your physical form? Do we ever discuss penis sizes? For god’s sake, do we even look there?
No. Don’t be scared. Be disgusted or angry. If women were in control, I believe most men would have serious injuries to their thinking organ. Many probably would not even be able to have sex anymore. This would indeed be good for the population problem.
This patriarchal society where women have to dress according to the corruption and filth in the minds of males needs some changes. Why do, I seriously wonder, some women go to the trouble of wearing heels (bad for the back), and choking tops to get such bastards to notice them? If it’s out of pride in your own beauty, go ahead, but do question yourself about whether or not it has anything to do with males.
Have you ever noticed that most swear words are demeaning to women? It’s bitch. And son of a bitch. Why is there no male equivalent? Like, what do we call men who have the sexual morals of a ‘slut’? A woman magnet? Why is that not given the same filthy connotation as the word ‘slut’? Yes, sometimes the word dog, cur, jigilo(spelling, anyone?) are used but listen around and observe their rarity.
And though the saying goes, ‘you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them’, I think a woman is perfectly capable of living without them. But we are conditioned to believe that we can’t. If you have the education to make a living, enough friends and other family, why men? Oh that’s right. For sex. I understand. That will be their only purpose to us.
And I doubt they have a problem with being seen that way. After all they are more obsessed with it than women. If only they could be honest about that. That they are sex objects. Not us.
All these men who think of sex with every decent looking girl they see should be trapped in a prostitutes’ house till they are so sick of sex or they’re bankrupt spending on them. Though it might sound like a treat but they will not have a choice of coming out till they will never feel like looking at a woman that way again. And the sex workers can mint money and better their lives. Maybe even enroll in a college.
Let me suggest a punishment for rapists. It’s similar to the degree of violence I would sentence a tree killer with. Strip him. Pour cold water on him and whip him for a while. Ten will do. Too mild? Wait. I’m not done. Drag him through the streets, still stripped and beat the drums to draw attention to him. Show the world that he’s a criminal. A shame to society. Especially show him to the people who believed in him. Humiliation and frustration should saturate his soul. Ashamed, he should be taken to a stake. (Like witches were in the medieval times). His crime should be announced and he should be castrated. His genitals thrown in a rubbish dump full of worms. Let him watch it being consumed. And if the girl was a minor or disabled (physically or mentally), burn him alive.
Anything less than a rape can be given moderations of this. Let other men watch and fear. For, they should live in fear if they can’t respect us. But the ones pure at heart will have nothing to fear. I know some of them too. Which is why there is a * next to ‘All’ in the title. This post won’t offend anyone who has done nothing wrong. It’s a bit bold I agree. And so violent that on re-reading I too will feel disgusted. But idealism and being a softy be damned. People are best ruled by fear. Not love. No matter how hard you try.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Cloud no. 5
No no! Don't taste it!
You won't be able to live without it afterwards.
And its not found in plenty.
You won't be able to live without it afterwards.
And its not found in plenty.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
A Moment of Insanity? / Clarity?
How intensely have you questioned your sanity? Today my brain perceived differently- I saw at angles I hadn’t seen before and heard at times I couldn’t explain. I didn’t like it. The violence, the hatred, the filthy perversion suddenly struck me freshly. As was everything else. It was too sharp. I couldn’t breathe. In fresh air I moved like one dead. I was dead. All my motor functions were mechanical. I don’t remember. I tried to gain back life from leaves. But I needed a tree- to really hug a tree. People!
People are everywhere looking at me from all around. I can’t run. I can’t be alone.
I wander lost then as if they didn’t exist. I picked up my bag and left. I heard voices calling me- again and again and again. Louder and more frantic.
I ran.
I ran away.
Ran till I reached some trees.
People here too. Too many people!
Breathing not full.
Flushed, red in the cheeks, hot
Try to breathe, try hard to breathe.
No thought. No music.
Blank.
Shivering. Trembling. Hug my bag.
Not helping.
Stare. No blink at people-not people
Just moving objects that make sound.
First thought- how to go home?
To go home? Yes.
To go to Home? Yes!
Quiet forest. No people forest.
How?
I look around- road, buses, noise.
All around. All around.
Can’t!!!
Breathe in,
Out.
Deep.
Don’t cry.
I cry.
But no sad-only tears
I can’t feel.
Except alone- isolated.
Why? I can’t talk. No sound.
Only heavy breaths.
Can I get up and walk?
Try. Yes I can.
Two. My reflection takes over.
I stay scared, vulnerable,
Open to hurt inside.
Now I look around.
Except the weakness in my
Legs, I feel nothing- normal.
Perception still new but not
As harsh.
I’m home, away from
Violence and hate. Away
From perversion. Away from
People. Dirty people.
Just me, sky, terrace.
I will return, operate machine like.
Till scared me comes back ok.
People are everywhere looking at me from all around. I can’t run. I can’t be alone.
I wander lost then as if they didn’t exist. I picked up my bag and left. I heard voices calling me- again and again and again. Louder and more frantic.
I ran.
I ran away.
Ran till I reached some trees.
People here too. Too many people!
Breathing not full.
Flushed, red in the cheeks, hot
Try to breathe, try hard to breathe.
No thought. No music.
Blank.
Shivering. Trembling. Hug my bag.
Not helping.
Stare. No blink at people-not people
Just moving objects that make sound.
First thought- how to go home?
To go home? Yes.
To go to Home? Yes!
Quiet forest. No people forest.
How?
I look around- road, buses, noise.
All around. All around.
Can’t!!!
Breathe in,
Out.
Deep.
Don’t cry.
I cry.
But no sad-only tears
I can’t feel.
Except alone- isolated.
Why? I can’t talk. No sound.
Only heavy breaths.
Can I get up and walk?
Try. Yes I can.
Two. My reflection takes over.
I stay scared, vulnerable,
Open to hurt inside.
Now I look around.
Except the weakness in my
Legs, I feel nothing- normal.
Perception still new but not
As harsh.
I’m home, away from
Violence and hate. Away
From perversion. Away from
People. Dirty people.
Just me, sky, terrace.
I will return, operate machine like.
Till scared me comes back ok.
Earth
There is vulnerability
In the bud, and
Small new leaves.
In all young,
Newborns sprouting
Into Life.
There is freshness in
Water- life giving
Sparkling fluid;
Magical, flowing,
Crashing, spraying,
Raining,
From the clouds;
From the mountains
Into the expansive sea.
There is infinite energy
Power, radiance, in
The Sun.
It can give warmth and comfort
Or scorch and destroy.
Blind with brilliance or
Dive from beautiful hues.
Great big old
Mountains.
I needn’t kneel to feel
Humbled.
Fresh with new life
And crisp air.
Life is a miracle.
This Earth is a miracle.
Earth is home.
In the bud, and
Small new leaves.
In all young,
Newborns sprouting
Into Life.
There is freshness in
Water- life giving
Sparkling fluid;
Magical, flowing,
Crashing, spraying,
Raining,
From the clouds;
From the mountains
Into the expansive sea.
There is infinite energy
Power, radiance, in
The Sun.
It can give warmth and comfort
Or scorch and destroy.
Blind with brilliance or
Dive from beautiful hues.
Great big old
Mountains.
I needn’t kneel to feel
Humbled.
Fresh with new life
And crisp air.
Life is a miracle.
This Earth is a miracle.
Earth is home.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
On a Modified Version of Democracy
Those of my regular readers in Karnataka (as though I’m read worldwideJ) will know about the elections held recently.
This being my first opportunity to exercise my vote, I thought about it a great deal. My dad told me about the usual politics, the leaders and how corrupt each one is. By the end of it, I wondered whether I should vote at all- ‘all the options are so rotten anyway.’
By the next day, pamphlets started coming in about each candidate and party. All of them seemed polite, promising all sorts of things. But it’s an old joke isn’t it- ‘a politician’s promise’.
I was told that if I don’t vote, others would use my vote to add to their own favourite parties-proxy. I also heard about the option of saying I don’t like any of the candidates but here’s my vote. This was a good option. But I decided by then that I would vote. For an independent candidate.
So I voted for him. They told me I wasted my vote both on the day of the elections and the day of the results. I wonder- do they consider it similar to betting on which horse will win, or see it as an expression of what they want in the country? So my candidate didn’t win. At least I know I supported what I believed in. ‘Give a chance to someone new.’ Power corrupts but by the time it effects this candidate, someone newer will rise.
Agreed. Of all the possible ways of governance that exist today, democracy is probably the best, but it can be improved upon. Consider this:
Most of those who vote are swayed emotionally or by ‘gifts’ that appear at the time of elections. Why leave the fate of the country in such hands? Yet, it is they who will be ruled so they must be the ones deciding.
So a good way of doing it would be to not have parties. Only individuals who compete to run the country. Each person will have to have an efficient way of interacting with the people he or she represents. A transparent system of reports on what they have done and feedback form the people. Dialogue. They will be elected based on a trial period where they are judged for efficiency. Rather than misuse of power, this system will ensure competence in administration.
And with the lack of parties, people will be equal and unattached to sects of society. The recent Al Gores idea of interactive television for democracy would help this idea boost off.
(Disclaimer: I’m no political science student and this is just a rough idea. Someone who knows more should be able to flesh it out.)
Why vote for words and empty promises? Why not for actions and results at the grass root levels? Because ‘Everybody Loves a Good Drought’? I don’t. and neither do those who die in them.
Women and Kitchens
Women have far more complex brains than men. After some observation I have stared to feel that the main factor in dumbing down women is the kitchen. It has been done through out history.
I don’t mean to say that one can’t get creative in the kitchen, for that is an art too, but that most women don’t see it that way. Peeling and cutting vegetables, especially onions and potatoes, cooking rice etc are activities that don't require much creativity or analysis. Once one learns the general method, it is a matter of repetition. It’s a brain killing job! That’s why many people are known to have music on or someone to talk to as they are at it. If brain cells aren’t used, they die without any hope of regeneration again!
So with generational repeated disuse, and patriarchal mental conditioning, it is a perfect way of controlling women. It takes enough time to keep the house functional that the root of thinking about other things itself is killed. How effective. Whoever thought it up must’ve been a genius. But not all credit goes to the men. Women themselves propagate it!
The sooner you trap a woman in a kitchen and bind her to the house with a baby, the more effectively she will be ‘put in her place’.
The Un-title-able
For too long I have absorbed.
Here in this moonlight. I still see colour.
I breathe. I create.
There is no romantic breeze
No perfumed candles.
But I yield to your power
Gentle power.
In your trance.
So what am I to you?
Anything you can want
Shape me in your moment of creative bliss.
I can’t see the past
All I know is you.
Lines without coherence
Shapes that mean nothing
In the moonlight there’s less to see
More to feel
More that flows without looking back
In your power.
The sky has such a bright nose stud
And a mole on her leeward side.
This reality is constructed.
I constructed it.
Free flow
These shapes…
Stars are moles
Trees make pretty silhouettes
My pen reflects the moonlight.
The door ajar.
For too long I have absorbed
Can I flow?
Neck stretched to see the sky
Eyes closed I see anyway
Some mosquitoes want to
Enter immortality
My words
Freedom is to sit
Not knowing what you just wrote
And still write on;
Is to breathe without
Chains from the past
Off with the hooks attached
To my back.
I sink into a bath.
Meaningless.
Do you believe in science or
Wilder imaginations?
Self absorbed humans.
Written in the moonlight.
Now no more flow.
Is this not my medium?
Let me fly
Cancel time.
This isn’t craft.
This a form of freedom
An attempt, rather.
Inhibited.
Give me wings and let me fly
Or I’ll grow them for you
With you.
Is the night sky deep blue?
Or is it just me?
Impatience.
I look back in bright light
Beautifully vague
Vaguely beautiful.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
It is my medium.
My words, my mind
It is the truth.
I can’t fly now
But I play (Do they know?)
Incomplete, the feeling,
My neck and wrists exposed.
Relief.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
A Study of Communalism and Identity
-Janani Dhinakaran
06SJ2660
I
Identities Preferences and Behaviour
Where does the self come from? Identity and our definitions of our ‘self’ are a result of what we’ve been taught from the beginning of our lives.
It starts with ones name. When a baby is repeatedly called a certain name and it learns to respond, it is because it understands that it is being called, as a separate being from others. When it is shown its reflection in the mirror, which moves the same way it does, it begins to understand its body as different and separate from other things. Every concept it is taught builds the network from which other thoughts and concepts can be understood. When a child builds this network and is given opportunities to apply it for him/herself, that is the birth of an individual’s mind.
In this network, there will also be incorporated certain likes and dislikes based on upbringing and perhaps heredity. For example, many people feel immediately at home when they hear their mother tongue. Some smells that remind them of their dad’s clothes or places in their house will influence later tastes.
This tendency is even shown in how restricted a person’s sexual behaviour is; if one’s parents have never expressed their love to each other physically in one’s presence, one will grow up more inhibited towards public displays of affection and even getting physical in the first place, whereas, if ones parents were very open about it, or if they were single and in the habit of exploring different partners freely, this too will become a norm of the child when he/she grows up.
Just like an individuals habits, likes and dislikes are determined so significantly by upbringing, so is an individual’s beliefs. Religion and nationality are constructed identities due to social conditioning.
II
Separation From Origin
In many religions, one can observe the shift from worshipping forces of nature to worshipping a god who looks like a human. This shift is parallel to a community’s separation from nature. From worshipping nature, they try and become masters of it. All the traditions that would inherently protect key stone species and preserve biodiversity, turn into mere superstition and are discarded. The hunter-gatherers and tribes who were in-tune with nature become shifting agriculturalists and then settled agriculturalists. They get to know other communities and begin trade with surplus of resources and soon there is division of labour and hierarchy. Then industrialization happens where nature is not merely domesticated but exploited.
This separation from the original causes conflict of interests- a disruption of harmony.
The same type of separation can be traced in a child from the previous section- when a child uses his/her own mind, there is separation from the parents especially the mother who it was once physically part of.
The first fights between parents and children happen at the time of this separation.
Separation and classification is natural to the human mind as it helps us understand things better. The child’s mind is trained to differentiate one from another in the early years of education where small rings are sorted from big, and things of the same colours are placed together.
These two tendencies i.e. to separate from ones origin and to see differences, combined with the archaic hierarchical mindset, (not to see a difference as merely a difference but to term it better or worse compared to a norm that the majority has inherited from their predecessors) is the cause for most of the chaos in the world today.
III
Individual vs. Collective Identity
It seems as though belonging to a community is hardwired into the human brain. And from what V.S. Ramachandran says in his book ‘Phantoms in the Brain’, maybe even belief in god is, (specifically in the temporal lobes). Or maybe they are connected; maybe god is hardwired into the human brain so that groups stay together under one culture. This could be an evolutionary adaptation because it isn’t god per se that keeps wolf packs together.
But interestingly, one observes that in every pack there is an alpha and an omega. The omega is the scapegoat from any danger. It also gets to feed last and has to submit whenever demanded to, to re-emphasize the authority of the alpha. It has a hard life but it is safer for it to take this treatment than to live without the pack.
Humans are social animals. They like belonging to some or other identity, naming themselves something to feel accepted in a group. This even manifests in similar clothes, and mannerisms. And any hierarchy formed in the community, is accepted (at least initially); be it in the form of a government trying out democracy or the caste system.
People form communities and territories at every level. Why, even as an individual one has territory. But it is referred to as personal space. The space differs from culture to culture. But as groups, a family has the house as its territory; a tribe or neighbourhood (especially apartments) has a part of the forest or a gated space as its territory and nation has land within the national borders as its territory.
Though we have understood that the nation is an ‘imagined’ identity and in the case of India is far less of a cohesive unit, I make this statement about collective identity as it applies to clubs, scouts and other distinct associations as well. I would also argue that identity isn’t ‘imagined’ only at the national level, it is so at every level.
The territory and the general cultures, customs and preferences of the people of this community contribute to the sense of belonging and identity that they hold so dearly in their minds. This can be termed collective identity. And for the sake of survival, many times the collective identity is given more importance, than the variations there are within the community. In certain communities, an individual’s identity is not even respected, let alone acknowledged.
IV
Possible Causes of Violence
Violence can be traced down as symptoms of fear. Fear causes aggression (initially for survival from predators but now for survival of identity or ideology), which leads to violence. This violence is still violence whether it translates into murder or stays as an unspoken cruel thought in the mind. This fear can be caused by what is perceived as a threat to ones territory or identity.
This is evident in the contrasting reactions of the adults and the main characters’ children to the communal violence in the movie Bombay. While the adults shout out the propaganda, the children ask questions like, ‘what is Hindu? What is Muslim? What am I? If both lead to god, why do they fight?’
The children, because of their parents’ inter-religion marriage and because of their age, don’t have any distinct identity that they will fight or die to protect, whereas the adults do (or at least have been taught to believe so).
One can also observe that the violence occurs mainly in groups. An individual can be sensible with another from a different community but if the two meet in mobs of their own, they will forget all past friendship and sanity and kill instead. This is referred to as ‘mob frenzy’ and has been observed in mankind all over the world from centuries ago.
This happens because, as shown in ‘Ram ke Naam’, people seem to get into a trance with the slogans- A trance of being right and capable of anything, simply because one hears so many people saying the same thing with them. This sense of collective identity overpowers any remnant of the individual mind and leads to unpredictable and dangerous behaviour.
Violence also comes from the threat that some people feel about this collective identity (like religion in this case). People fear change in the image of their identity, which could occur by intermingling of ideas, customs and beliefs. They want it to be watertight even in a mixed population like that of today.
(Though many claim that so many wars have been fought for ideas, I think that when there is violence, reason and ideas don’t matter. People forget why it is happening. The meaning of the disagreement is lost along with any possible creativity that could’ve resulted from the sharing)
The politicians who want power use this fear to start violence. They don’t know or care about the philosophy that goes with the religion. Opposition parties especially, are always happy to have many riots that the ruling government can’t control so that during the next elections, they will be able to point out the other’s inefficiency.
And those who are frustrated with life in the city either because of the pollution or because of their poverty join the violence with identity as a mere excuse. This is clear in the unreasonable violence that occurred on Dr. Rajkumar’s death; And in the documentary, in the fact that the Hindu villagers don’t seem to join in the violence as much as the city people do. Could it be that the lack of space and greenery causes people to be more prone to violence in the city?
Violence, like sport or intense intellectual work, is a way of reinforcing the existence of the self. The mind wants to exist and to feel alive. And violence does that because for hatred to exist, there has to be at least two specific and defined parties. This definition leads to naming and reinforces the identity- a construction of the mind.
V
Comment on Babri Masjid related Violence
It is pretty obvious from the documentary that the whole thing was political. The outsiders, (those who came on the Rath), caused violence and tensions in otherwise peaceful areas. The politicians who talked so much about protecting Hinduism didn’t pray in the temple or donate any of the money that they got, to it.
Before the whole campaign about Ram Janmabhoomi and the Rath started, the people of the two religions would happily go eat in each other’s weddings (this is depicted even in the movie Bombay). ‘Now we fear each other’ says a Muslim man sadly.
How do the Hindu’s even know that there really was a temple there before the Babri Masjid? The first time it was said was by the British, perhaps to divide the otherwise peacefully coexisting religions. Well, hasn’t their clever plan worked. And the government is doing a great job of continuing the policy of divide and rule.
VI
A Matter of Caste?
It just so happens that most of the ‘lower caste’ people don’t care about the Ram Temple. They sensibly say why can’t they build it somewhere else?’ and ‘Once it exists it is wrong to destroy.’ Some even point out the stupidity of the whole issue when they talk about the far more pressing problems that the country is facing and emphasize that the obsession with one temple doesn’t serve any purpose.
But even the ‘low caste’ people in the city are there for the processions. Infact the elite don’t seem involved either. It’s only the middle strata of Hindus who seem bothered.
Also in the titles, not many ‘low caste’ or Muslim names appeared.
Conclusion
The self, and the various identities it gives itself, and its upbringing, make the mind. The birth of the mind is the end of unity and root of conflict. It feels threatened by any changes to its various images of itself and its community. This, in the scale of collective identity, in those who don’t have enough sensitivity, results in violence. And violence is exchanged in return: A never-ending cycle.
Why can’t we be like children? Why can’t we ask questions? Why can’t we think for ourselves; live our cultures for the diversity and beauty they have, but enjoy other cultures as well? In that sharing, tolerance is born. In that sharing, we stop making fools of ourselves at the cost of so many lives and to the advantage of the least spiritual people, who stand against everything any religion’s values preach.
Ideally it would be great to give up separation and identity. But neither is that easy nor is it natural. I say, learn more about each other and take the best from everything. Keep the individual’s sense, love and sensitivity for the world alive. And make your own path.
-Janani Dhinakaran
06SJ2660
I
Identities Preferences and Behaviour
Where does the self come from? Identity and our definitions of our ‘self’ are a result of what we’ve been taught from the beginning of our lives.
It starts with ones name. When a baby is repeatedly called a certain name and it learns to respond, it is because it understands that it is being called, as a separate being from others. When it is shown its reflection in the mirror, which moves the same way it does, it begins to understand its body as different and separate from other things. Every concept it is taught builds the network from which other thoughts and concepts can be understood. When a child builds this network and is given opportunities to apply it for him/herself, that is the birth of an individual’s mind.
In this network, there will also be incorporated certain likes and dislikes based on upbringing and perhaps heredity. For example, many people feel immediately at home when they hear their mother tongue. Some smells that remind them of their dad’s clothes or places in their house will influence later tastes.
This tendency is even shown in how restricted a person’s sexual behaviour is; if one’s parents have never expressed their love to each other physically in one’s presence, one will grow up more inhibited towards public displays of affection and even getting physical in the first place, whereas, if ones parents were very open about it, or if they were single and in the habit of exploring different partners freely, this too will become a norm of the child when he/she grows up.
Just like an individuals habits, likes and dislikes are determined so significantly by upbringing, so is an individual’s beliefs. Religion and nationality are constructed identities due to social conditioning.
II
Separation From Origin
In many religions, one can observe the shift from worshipping forces of nature to worshipping a god who looks like a human. This shift is parallel to a community’s separation from nature. From worshipping nature, they try and become masters of it. All the traditions that would inherently protect key stone species and preserve biodiversity, turn into mere superstition and are discarded. The hunter-gatherers and tribes who were in-tune with nature become shifting agriculturalists and then settled agriculturalists. They get to know other communities and begin trade with surplus of resources and soon there is division of labour and hierarchy. Then industrialization happens where nature is not merely domesticated but exploited.
This separation from the original causes conflict of interests- a disruption of harmony.
The same type of separation can be traced in a child from the previous section- when a child uses his/her own mind, there is separation from the parents especially the mother who it was once physically part of.
The first fights between parents and children happen at the time of this separation.
Separation and classification is natural to the human mind as it helps us understand things better. The child’s mind is trained to differentiate one from another in the early years of education where small rings are sorted from big, and things of the same colours are placed together.
These two tendencies i.e. to separate from ones origin and to see differences, combined with the archaic hierarchical mindset, (not to see a difference as merely a difference but to term it better or worse compared to a norm that the majority has inherited from their predecessors) is the cause for most of the chaos in the world today.
III
Individual vs. Collective Identity
It seems as though belonging to a community is hardwired into the human brain. And from what V.S. Ramachandran says in his book ‘Phantoms in the Brain’, maybe even belief in god is, (specifically in the temporal lobes). Or maybe they are connected; maybe god is hardwired into the human brain so that groups stay together under one culture. This could be an evolutionary adaptation because it isn’t god per se that keeps wolf packs together.
But interestingly, one observes that in every pack there is an alpha and an omega. The omega is the scapegoat from any danger. It also gets to feed last and has to submit whenever demanded to, to re-emphasize the authority of the alpha. It has a hard life but it is safer for it to take this treatment than to live without the pack.
Humans are social animals. They like belonging to some or other identity, naming themselves something to feel accepted in a group. This even manifests in similar clothes, and mannerisms. And any hierarchy formed in the community, is accepted (at least initially); be it in the form of a government trying out democracy or the caste system.
People form communities and territories at every level. Why, even as an individual one has territory. But it is referred to as personal space. The space differs from culture to culture. But as groups, a family has the house as its territory; a tribe or neighbourhood (especially apartments) has a part of the forest or a gated space as its territory and nation has land within the national borders as its territory.
Though we have understood that the nation is an ‘imagined’ identity and in the case of India is far less of a cohesive unit, I make this statement about collective identity as it applies to clubs, scouts and other distinct associations as well. I would also argue that identity isn’t ‘imagined’ only at the national level, it is so at every level.
The territory and the general cultures, customs and preferences of the people of this community contribute to the sense of belonging and identity that they hold so dearly in their minds. This can be termed collective identity. And for the sake of survival, many times the collective identity is given more importance, than the variations there are within the community. In certain communities, an individual’s identity is not even respected, let alone acknowledged.
IV
Possible Causes of Violence
Violence can be traced down as symptoms of fear. Fear causes aggression (initially for survival from predators but now for survival of identity or ideology), which leads to violence. This violence is still violence whether it translates into murder or stays as an unspoken cruel thought in the mind. This fear can be caused by what is perceived as a threat to ones territory or identity.
This is evident in the contrasting reactions of the adults and the main characters’ children to the communal violence in the movie Bombay. While the adults shout out the propaganda, the children ask questions like, ‘what is Hindu? What is Muslim? What am I? If both lead to god, why do they fight?’
The children, because of their parents’ inter-religion marriage and because of their age, don’t have any distinct identity that they will fight or die to protect, whereas the adults do (or at least have been taught to believe so).
One can also observe that the violence occurs mainly in groups. An individual can be sensible with another from a different community but if the two meet in mobs of their own, they will forget all past friendship and sanity and kill instead. This is referred to as ‘mob frenzy’ and has been observed in mankind all over the world from centuries ago.
This happens because, as shown in ‘Ram ke Naam’, people seem to get into a trance with the slogans- A trance of being right and capable of anything, simply because one hears so many people saying the same thing with them. This sense of collective identity overpowers any remnant of the individual mind and leads to unpredictable and dangerous behaviour.
Violence also comes from the threat that some people feel about this collective identity (like religion in this case). People fear change in the image of their identity, which could occur by intermingling of ideas, customs and beliefs. They want it to be watertight even in a mixed population like that of today.
(Though many claim that so many wars have been fought for ideas, I think that when there is violence, reason and ideas don’t matter. People forget why it is happening. The meaning of the disagreement is lost along with any possible creativity that could’ve resulted from the sharing)
The politicians who want power use this fear to start violence. They don’t know or care about the philosophy that goes with the religion. Opposition parties especially, are always happy to have many riots that the ruling government can’t control so that during the next elections, they will be able to point out the other’s inefficiency.
And those who are frustrated with life in the city either because of the pollution or because of their poverty join the violence with identity as a mere excuse. This is clear in the unreasonable violence that occurred on Dr. Rajkumar’s death; And in the documentary, in the fact that the Hindu villagers don’t seem to join in the violence as much as the city people do. Could it be that the lack of space and greenery causes people to be more prone to violence in the city?
Violence, like sport or intense intellectual work, is a way of reinforcing the existence of the self. The mind wants to exist and to feel alive. And violence does that because for hatred to exist, there has to be at least two specific and defined parties. This definition leads to naming and reinforces the identity- a construction of the mind.
V
Comment on Babri Masjid related Violence
It is pretty obvious from the documentary that the whole thing was political. The outsiders, (those who came on the Rath), caused violence and tensions in otherwise peaceful areas. The politicians who talked so much about protecting Hinduism didn’t pray in the temple or donate any of the money that they got, to it.
Before the whole campaign about Ram Janmabhoomi and the Rath started, the people of the two religions would happily go eat in each other’s weddings (this is depicted even in the movie Bombay). ‘Now we fear each other’ says a Muslim man sadly.
How do the Hindu’s even know that there really was a temple there before the Babri Masjid? The first time it was said was by the British, perhaps to divide the otherwise peacefully coexisting religions. Well, hasn’t their clever plan worked. And the government is doing a great job of continuing the policy of divide and rule.
VI
A Matter of Caste?
It just so happens that most of the ‘lower caste’ people don’t care about the Ram Temple. They sensibly say why can’t they build it somewhere else?’ and ‘Once it exists it is wrong to destroy.’ Some even point out the stupidity of the whole issue when they talk about the far more pressing problems that the country is facing and emphasize that the obsession with one temple doesn’t serve any purpose.
But even the ‘low caste’ people in the city are there for the processions. Infact the elite don’t seem involved either. It’s only the middle strata of Hindus who seem bothered.
Also in the titles, not many ‘low caste’ or Muslim names appeared.
Conclusion
The self, and the various identities it gives itself, and its upbringing, make the mind. The birth of the mind is the end of unity and root of conflict. It feels threatened by any changes to its various images of itself and its community. This, in the scale of collective identity, in those who don’t have enough sensitivity, results in violence. And violence is exchanged in return: A never-ending cycle.
Why can’t we be like children? Why can’t we ask questions? Why can’t we think for ourselves; live our cultures for the diversity and beauty they have, but enjoy other cultures as well? In that sharing, tolerance is born. In that sharing, we stop making fools of ourselves at the cost of so many lives and to the advantage of the least spiritual people, who stand against everything any religion’s values preach.
Ideally it would be great to give up separation and identity. But neither is that easy nor is it natural. I say, learn more about each other and take the best from everything. Keep the individual’s sense, love and sensitivity for the world alive. And make your own path.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Tibet inspired
Violence and aggression rise from fear and greed. What gives the Chinese the right to violate human rights? To kill and torture people? If I hadn’t visited Bylakuppe in September 2004, I would’ve never realized what was going on right next to India. There is no media coverage on the kind of torture being carried out on the Tibetans. It’s not like Iraq where we could read and condemn Bush and his soldiers for their actions.
Borders apart, we are all humans aren’t we? Then why is the world not doing anything when something like this happens? But even before that, some fundamental questions. How can one have the mind to hurt anyone or anything else? Why is ‘world peace’ a cliché? Why is the right way termed ‘idealism’ and ‘wishful thinking’? Why doesn’t anyone except maybe children ask these questions? Are we used to it? Just because its everywhere-newspapers and TV news, are we sick of hearing it? Do we briefly groan at the front page and turn to read the comics instead? Are we so selfish that we take our own freedom for granted and not care for others who don’t have it? Where does this violence come from? Isolation? Indifference? A fear of facing the truth?
In the twenty years I’ve been on earth, I discovered something. I was innocent. A long time ago, I was innocent. Now I’m guilty. There is violence in me. In trying to protect myself I have hated people, even hurt them. That’s where it starts. Don’t we all feel it sometimes? Frustration, dissatisfaction, fear, irritation, hate, insecurity, possessiveness. And don’t we all like to be praised? To bask in some neon glory? It is these natures that accumulate; join together like little droplets and become the monstrous sea of violence. Each one of us, by our fundamental natures is responsible for bloodshed because even if we don’t directly kill, we allow it to happen by inaction. We allow it in our own minds if not in deeds.
We can’t protest in absolute righteousness because we are so full of it ourselves. Do we realize that? If we can’t live without conflicts in our own minds, how will world peace become a reality?
We can’t pretend to love. We can’t expect superficial changes in policies to bring about any change to the root of filth, nor clean up the corruption in our selves. There are Hitlers, Bushes, and Hu Jintaos in all of us. When we teach them love and compassion, there can be peace.
But here’s the disclaimer. I am no one to tell you what to do. I, as filthy as I am. All I can do is humbly share what I do understand and hope to have more people be aware of this, and try to love. I have been trying. It’s not easy. But please, let’s not give up.
Borders apart, we are all humans aren’t we? Then why is the world not doing anything when something like this happens? But even before that, some fundamental questions. How can one have the mind to hurt anyone or anything else? Why is ‘world peace’ a cliché? Why is the right way termed ‘idealism’ and ‘wishful thinking’? Why doesn’t anyone except maybe children ask these questions? Are we used to it? Just because its everywhere-newspapers and TV news, are we sick of hearing it? Do we briefly groan at the front page and turn to read the comics instead? Are we so selfish that we take our own freedom for granted and not care for others who don’t have it? Where does this violence come from? Isolation? Indifference? A fear of facing the truth?
In the twenty years I’ve been on earth, I discovered something. I was innocent. A long time ago, I was innocent. Now I’m guilty. There is violence in me. In trying to protect myself I have hated people, even hurt them. That’s where it starts. Don’t we all feel it sometimes? Frustration, dissatisfaction, fear, irritation, hate, insecurity, possessiveness. And don’t we all like to be praised? To bask in some neon glory? It is these natures that accumulate; join together like little droplets and become the monstrous sea of violence. Each one of us, by our fundamental natures is responsible for bloodshed because even if we don’t directly kill, we allow it to happen by inaction. We allow it in our own minds if not in deeds.
We can’t protest in absolute righteousness because we are so full of it ourselves. Do we realize that? If we can’t live without conflicts in our own minds, how will world peace become a reality?
We can’t pretend to love. We can’t expect superficial changes in policies to bring about any change to the root of filth, nor clean up the corruption in our selves. There are Hitlers, Bushes, and Hu Jintaos in all of us. When we teach them love and compassion, there can be peace.
But here’s the disclaimer. I am no one to tell you what to do. I, as filthy as I am. All I can do is humbly share what I do understand and hope to have more people be aware of this, and try to love. I have been trying. It’s not easy. But please, let’s not give up.
Confessions
“I have seen you in my dreams. Smiling in enjoyment. I have felt you angry and watched you sleeping. And in real life, I feel safe and clean when I’m with you. Like I would at Home. Or in the pure Mountains. Such confessions happen only late at night.”
How?
“You told me it was shit. How did you stay clean? Are you stronger? They cant tolerate people and different clothes. I can’t tolerate violence. The world is easier for them. Should I not be here?”
redefine love
“I disagree that love has only one meaning. We must broaden our understanding. Because I need you to know what I mean when I say I ‘love you’. I will miss you.
Why is it that when the feeling is so different, there aren’t suitable words to express it? There is little pain in this separation. I won’t cry. Only embrace you and wish that over time, nothing really ends. Just changes and grows.”
Why is it that when the feeling is so different, there aren’t suitable words to express it? There is little pain in this separation. I won’t cry. Only embrace you and wish that over time, nothing really ends. Just changes and grows.”
Little Baby 10 Days Old
dedicated to my niece, Shruthi
Little baby 10 days old
You squirm around in my lap
Frown and smile without reason
Pee and poo without warning
Little baby 10 days old
Your feet are soft like petals
The grandmothers and aunts
Hover around you
Little baby 10 days old
You fall asleep so easily
Your cries silenced
In your peaceful state
Little baby 10 days old
You know nothing at all
And your family
Loves you so much
Little baby 10 days old
You squirm around in my lap
Frown and smile without reason
Pee and poo without warning
Little baby 10 days old
Your feet are soft like petals
The grandmothers and aunts
Hover around you
Little baby 10 days old
You fall asleep so easily
Your cries silenced
In your peaceful state
Little baby 10 days old
You know nothing at all
And your family
Loves you so much
Monday, April 28, 2008
god and love
Words like love and god are of the most ambiguous. What do people mean when they ask ‘do you believe in god’ or ‘I love you’. So few people see subtleties in the meanings of these words. Some even equate god with religion! Religion is just a socially accepted system of belief. It usually asks one not to question. And even those that originally had a spirit of questioning have become blind faith. But if people find some kind of peace in that, that’s to be respected as well.
But to me, god has too many more layers. He’s like good poetry.
Most of the time he is a companion, a friend who I can cry to, thank and shout out. But I am an understanding friend in return. If he had to take away my friend’s parent, after shouting at him, I eventually forgive him and accept it.
I go to him for forgiveness too but most of the time he goes easy on me. It’s myself I have a problem with. I make myself do things to make up for my mistake- sometimes figuratively whip myself till I feel worthy of forgiveness.
But god isn’t just a friend. He is a big hug of warm benevolence when I need support. When I feel like it, I even pray. I don’t need a temple or a specific time. I just quieten myself and connect to him, like when an ambulance passes by.
When I walk into a friend I needed to talk to, or get a seat in the bus on the days I don’t feel too good, I thank him for it. He protects me when I have to pass any form of danger. Sometimes I think he’s designed my life in the path of enrichment. Everything happens for a reason. Coincidences hold meaning.
But god can be impersonal too. He can be in the love and respect one can feel towards every living and non-living thing that exists. He can be everything or nothing just like everything and everyone else can. The moments when one feels one with the whole world and exploding with love, that’s god, that’s love. There’s no distinction between god and the individual.
Like god, love is a wide spectrum of experiences that needs individual understanding rather than definition. At different stages of life, we feel different forms and intensities of love towards different people and things.
I love my family, school teachers, seniors, peers and juniors (more or less family), other friends, and even some of my college teachers. I love the dogs I pass on the way to college, and the trees in my neighbourhood. I love the wind and the clouds. I love music and books. I love myself.
This ambiguity is actually good. Why should love be limited? There should be a Fundamental Right to Freedom of Love and its Expressions. The world would be a sweeter place if we could hug trees without people thinking its weird; And hold a blind woman’s hand as she gets off the bus; And comfort a crying stranger; buy lunch for a street kid or a poor disabled person; And all this in a spirit of love, not pity or superiority. Love shouldn’t know any boundaries. It is not love if it does.
But to me, god has too many more layers. He’s like good poetry.
Most of the time he is a companion, a friend who I can cry to, thank and shout out. But I am an understanding friend in return. If he had to take away my friend’s parent, after shouting at him, I eventually forgive him and accept it.
I go to him for forgiveness too but most of the time he goes easy on me. It’s myself I have a problem with. I make myself do things to make up for my mistake- sometimes figuratively whip myself till I feel worthy of forgiveness.
But god isn’t just a friend. He is a big hug of warm benevolence when I need support. When I feel like it, I even pray. I don’t need a temple or a specific time. I just quieten myself and connect to him, like when an ambulance passes by.
When I walk into a friend I needed to talk to, or get a seat in the bus on the days I don’t feel too good, I thank him for it. He protects me when I have to pass any form of danger. Sometimes I think he’s designed my life in the path of enrichment. Everything happens for a reason. Coincidences hold meaning.
But god can be impersonal too. He can be in the love and respect one can feel towards every living and non-living thing that exists. He can be everything or nothing just like everything and everyone else can. The moments when one feels one with the whole world and exploding with love, that’s god, that’s love. There’s no distinction between god and the individual.
Like god, love is a wide spectrum of experiences that needs individual understanding rather than definition. At different stages of life, we feel different forms and intensities of love towards different people and things.
I love my family, school teachers, seniors, peers and juniors (more or less family), other friends, and even some of my college teachers. I love the dogs I pass on the way to college, and the trees in my neighbourhood. I love the wind and the clouds. I love music and books. I love myself.
This ambiguity is actually good. Why should love be limited? There should be a Fundamental Right to Freedom of Love and its Expressions. The world would be a sweeter place if we could hug trees without people thinking its weird; And hold a blind woman’s hand as she gets off the bus; And comfort a crying stranger; buy lunch for a street kid or a poor disabled person; And all this in a spirit of love, not pity or superiority. Love shouldn’t know any boundaries. It is not love if it does.
womanhood
the following posts were withheld in the 'period of silence'
Child at heart, I am not used to telling people at parties that I don’t drink. No-one would ask me. I’m surprised when men talk to me as if I were a woman. I am surprised at what I find myself talking about- exes, condoms, not denying the body its desires. I am a woman but a child at heart. Compared to my mid teens, this seems a more drastic transition. Its been happening for quite a while. I’ve just woken up to it. The body changed maximum in the teen years but one doesn’t realize it till it enables one to feel very differently to what one has previously felt. Sexual maturity accompanies mental confusion. Mind needs time to catch up with body. Why cant we be just people instead of men and women?
My peers already know. They are consistently women. I oscillate between being a woman and a person. I am treated as if I were constantly aware that I was a woman. Why do they do it?
Or rather, why am I the exception?
If I weren’t, I would understand myself better.
Person to child, child to person, and then occasionally a woman, when I permit a man to treat me that way. Curious child in the classroom. Fun person with friends. While being eve teased, a disgusted and angry woman or an indifferent person. While pushed to flirting, a childishly shy or mischievous woman.
I start observing again-the changes- after so long. I’ve been living without understanding. But now I’ve started watching again.
I can imagine the women around me being mothers or getting married. Just dress them up and they’ll be ready. I hope I never grow up like them. I hope I never lose the child within. I don’t swear, drink, have a boyfriend to go out with, spend time in front of the mirror, swing my hips when I walk, wear much jewelry, wear heels, or wave like a girl. I must be tom boy.
Do I ever try to be a woman? Or do I try not to be?
Its easier not to be. It takes too much effort. But I’m defying my hormones? Defiant not to succumb to hormones or gendering?
Or a natural rebel?
Child at heart, I am not used to telling people at parties that I don’t drink. No-one would ask me. I’m surprised when men talk to me as if I were a woman. I am surprised at what I find myself talking about- exes, condoms, not denying the body its desires. I am a woman but a child at heart. Compared to my mid teens, this seems a more drastic transition. Its been happening for quite a while. I’ve just woken up to it. The body changed maximum in the teen years but one doesn’t realize it till it enables one to feel very differently to what one has previously felt. Sexual maturity accompanies mental confusion. Mind needs time to catch up with body. Why cant we be just people instead of men and women?
My peers already know. They are consistently women. I oscillate between being a woman and a person. I am treated as if I were constantly aware that I was a woman. Why do they do it?
Or rather, why am I the exception?
If I weren’t, I would understand myself better.
Person to child, child to person, and then occasionally a woman, when I permit a man to treat me that way. Curious child in the classroom. Fun person with friends. While being eve teased, a disgusted and angry woman or an indifferent person. While pushed to flirting, a childishly shy or mischievous woman.
I start observing again-the changes- after so long. I’ve been living without understanding. But now I’ve started watching again.
I can imagine the women around me being mothers or getting married. Just dress them up and they’ll be ready. I hope I never grow up like them. I hope I never lose the child within. I don’t swear, drink, have a boyfriend to go out with, spend time in front of the mirror, swing my hips when I walk, wear much jewelry, wear heels, or wave like a girl. I must be tom boy.
Do I ever try to be a woman? Or do I try not to be?
Its easier not to be. It takes too much effort. But I’m defying my hormones? Defiant not to succumb to hormones or gendering?
Or a natural rebel?
revival
i've shed my skin
purged my soul
i've created more than i imagined i could
fresh air, open spaces of nature make ppl nicer at heart...
i am now ready to rise again
this blog after so long is ready for my new writtens
i am aware that being a blog, its bound to be read by some of the great minds i've invited and certain scum but i'm beyond letting that bother my expression
new leaves have sprouted
flowers have bloomed and there are even fruits on the branches
peaceful sleep and bathing in love are cleansing
visiting home, being with family in long baths of fresh pure mountain water love...
what didnt kill me only made me stronger:)
purged my soul
i've created more than i imagined i could
fresh air, open spaces of nature make ppl nicer at heart...
i am now ready to rise again
this blog after so long is ready for my new writtens
i am aware that being a blog, its bound to be read by some of the great minds i've invited and certain scum but i'm beyond letting that bother my expression
new leaves have sprouted
flowers have bloomed and there are even fruits on the branches
peaceful sleep and bathing in love are cleansing
visiting home, being with family in long baths of fresh pure mountain water love...
what didnt kill me only made me stronger:)
Friday, February 29, 2008
she woke me up
dont we really live in a lulled illusion?
dont i...rather...
i do.
she woke me up
a devastating blow to the castles i had built
idealism about the self must be the last to crash
at least the last so far
im not great
im not perfect at all
im as filthy as the rest of them
if not more...by pretense...by unaware-ness
i cause the hurt
i cause the violence
if regret and wishing to rewind and erase parts of the past are not good enough,
as i know they arent
i need to know what is
is it possible to be clean?
is it possible for me to be clean?
if not like a divine soul
clean like a hospital where ills are cured?
time to search the soul
time to attempt a cleansing
can i clean with dirty hands?
still i wont not try
dont i...rather...
i do.
she woke me up
a devastating blow to the castles i had built
idealism about the self must be the last to crash
at least the last so far
im not great
im not perfect at all
im as filthy as the rest of them
if not more...by pretense...by unaware-ness
i cause the hurt
i cause the violence
if regret and wishing to rewind and erase parts of the past are not good enough,
as i know they arent
i need to know what is
is it possible to be clean?
is it possible for me to be clean?
if not like a divine soul
clean like a hospital where ills are cured?
time to search the soul
time to attempt a cleansing
can i clean with dirty hands?
still i wont not try
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Let the world know my Pain
written on 14th Feb
Maybe you cant see it so easily…but I've been in pain since 31st January.
There are reasons of course. Some you would understand, some you wouldn't. Would u consider not knowing yourself and what you want a source of unhappiness?
Well that's one. One of my favourite teachers retired. My email ids got hacked into. Passive distance became active rage. I've never felt that violent before. And by some misinterpretations resulting form that I lost two important friends. Both of them hate me now. To my knowledge, I've never been hated before. I still don't think I deserve it and I'm trying to shield myself form how much it hurts me.
Perhaps not as severe as this are the two other friends who turned diplomats after this incident. Fiends I can't cry to anymore.
Yes, there has been something positive about this- I've bonded more deeply with so many people. Grown closer to them because they supported me through it.
But I lost the usual high I live on…no more singing in labs, making people smile and smiling when I really felt happy. Now all my smiles are either forced or last few seconds before they disappear into a dull grimace. A wilted sunflower.
I took the appropriate and sensible measures about the incident and stepped back. I want the hate to stop though I'm still angry at times that my privacy was invaded. I thought the low would wear off slowly but yesterday, I was given a large dosage of hate. I don't understand how it's possible to hate me. I simply can't digest it.
Nothing's going my way. Except for my friends and family, the world seems to be conspiring against me. Even the bus conductor!
Tears? Lachrymal secretions! No they don't help much, though they do come once in a while. I can't cry or shout it out. I sing, but when I stop, it all comes back.
I told god last night to stop giving me a hard time. He seems to want to beat every ounce of my previously resilient optimism out of me. I don't like this world. I don't like the hate and negativity. I'm just a helpless child in this horrible world.
I can't burden people with more than what I have about my pain. It's not theirs to bear. I'm now part of this world. I've learnt to hate, I've learnt to use bad language without flinching when I'm angry. I'm hated. So true to mankind! But do you know how much this hurts?
I want to be an infant again. To be held do safely in my mother's arms. To be loved unconditionally by everyone. To cause no hurt to anyone. Pure, innocent, loved.
What's the point of living in this world? Why become filth to 'adapt'? And they say this pain is nothing. There's more to come so don't be naïve.
If this goes on, I may get suicidal. Geez! Would I have ever thought that possible before? I can't survive in this world the way I am. I need to toughen myself further. To get filthier with apathy. Absorb more filth. Till I'm like the rest of them. Zombies.
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