Nirvana!

'Selma' is a great effort and a must watch, atleast once, to know a little more about the plight of the African-American community in the US, then called as 'Negroes'. However, I feel it could have easily become one of the greatest narratives in raising social consciousness. Seems the film missed that opportunity. Not to belittle the team's efforts or to debunk the movie outright, but in the end 'Selma' comes out more as a good documentary than as a movie that depicts the struggle of the African Americans to secure their voting rights.  Compare this with the brilliant narration and screenplay of 'Lincoln' which focusses on his efforts during last four months to get the 13th Amendment(abolition of slavery) to the US Constitution passed. The viewer was not just treated with brilliant acting and script, even the trepidations, emotions, his mental agony all came out brilliantly in the screenplay. We got a view into who Lincoln was and what went...

“ Freedom is not free, everyday soldiers give their lives so that we can live ours. ” 15 years ago, in the summer months of 1999, the Pakistan army with aid from terrorist groups had launched a military attack across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and had threatened India’s territorial integrity. The Pakistani military establishment had become frustrated with India’s success in containing the militancy in J&K to within manageable limits and could not bear to see its strategy of ‘bleeding India through a thousand cuts’ evaporating into thin air. Its military aim was also to sever the Srinagar-Leh National Highway (NH) 1A and to isolate Kargil district and cut India’s lifeline to Leh and possibly occupy it. It is said that another aim was to infiltrate into the Kashmir Valley over the Amarnath Mountains and the Doda regions and physically occupy some territory on the Indian side of the LoC in Kargil district to use as a bargainin...

Whenever we read about the defence forces, army in particular, we get extreme accounts of valor and sacrifice or that of failure and corruption. But a normal army man's humane life gets lost somewhere in between. This Kannada book titled 'G annu Hidida Kaiyalli Pennu' (Pen in the hands which held a gun) by Brigadier SG Bhagwat is a pathbreaking account of life in the army in all its hues which never make it to the media.  Though Brigadier Bhagwat picks instances from his own life in the army in no way the book can be called as a biography. His lucid narration makes sure that the reader focuses on the event rather than the author himself. But the experience he gains from the events he narrates is also from which we get to learn. Amazing isn't it? Some of his experiences makes you proud of the army, some tell the pitfalls in the institution and our system, while few others incidents just make you smile.  Brigadier Bhagwat's narration of his unit...

What makes Narendra Modi the man he is? What is that we can learn from him? If there is one character of Modi that we can inculcate in ourselves, what is that?  Modi gave a 90 mins interview to ETV network. Most us already know his plans for the country and his views on issues tormenting the citizens. So, leaving aside most part of this interview, I consider this 5min part as the most significant, atleast for me, as it tells me who is Modi and what made him the man he is today! Sample this. Modi says, "जीवन में कभी भी कुछ बनने की सपने नहीं देखने चाहिए, कुछ करने के सपने देखने चाहिए और उन सपने को पूरा करने के लिए जीवन जुटा देना चाहिए |" Gives us the direction in which we need to steer ourselves. Next he says,"मुझे बचपन में राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ के द्वारा देश के लिए जीने का संस्कार मिले हैं | 'डिसिप्लिन' से जीने के संस्कार मिले हैं | कठोर परिश्रम करने के संस्कार मिले हैं | खुद के लिए नहीं औरो के लिए सोचने के संस्कार मिले हैं और इसकेलिए मैं राष्...

How different is the paradigm into which our 'intellectual right' wants to push the BJP/'Political Right' into?  If somebody's idea/work does not fit into their preconceptions, brand them as anti-Intellectual, threaten dire consequences if  their cogitations are not accepted or agreed to with folded hands and allow their jaundiced worldview to dictate viewpoints all with a tag on their forehead 'I AM INTELLECTUAL'. How different is this from what Thomas Sowell deciphers from the political left's antecedents? ->  http://www.nationalreview.com/article/352704/lefts-central-delusion-thomas-sowell  - A must read if you are concerned about our political future! Is this the political future we want? Shouldn't we be wary of such demeanours, even if it is branded as 'right'? PS: I don't believe in the nomenclatures of 'left', 'right', etc for the Indian political paradigm and am strongly of the opinion that they are inappropr...

Congratulations to the BJP for its resounding victory in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. They certainly deserve applause for retaining Chattisgarh and their comeback in Delhi is heartwarming.  If AAP's performance was a surprise, BJP's inact ion early on was known. Certainly not taking away credit from the average BJP worker on ground, but the BJP campaign was found wanting in reaching out to the grassroots. What used to help BJP in several states was never said overtly earlier due to their ideal of 'selfless service' but now it has to be said in the open just to shut some mouths. This is the story of how 'How the RSS went all out for Harsh Vardhan - but fell short' :  http://www.firstpost.com/politics/how-the-rss-went-all-out-for-harsh-vardhan-but-fell-short-1275059.html?utm_source=ref_article May not be to the liking of 'buddi jeevis' both on the so-called 'left' or 'right' but this had to be known to debunk their incongruent hate for ...

In the early 90’s the education scenario in Karnataka was no different from rest of the country. Being ‘convent’ educated was a prestigious achievement. It was a norm to look upon those who were educated in such English medium schools as the only literates. The overall scenario seemed as though McCauley’s dream to convert all Indians into ‘Brown Sahibs’, deracinated imitations of their white masters had succeeded through his Convent education system! गुरु – Guru : The remover of Darkness But that was not to be. Gurukula, the ancient system of education provided a potent way to take on McCauley’s form of education. In a Gurukula, Guru provided both knowledge and spiritual education to his Shishyas as per the highest ideals set by this Vedic system of education. With this ideal of creating great gurus, Ajeya Trust started the 'Maitreyi Gurukula' for girls in 1994 at Moorkaje in Bantwal Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. A similar institution for boys, the ‘...