In Support Of Ragging.

Tired of justifying what only I believe, I was in search of a subject which all of my friends support. The ‘menace’ of Ragging is an ideal one to analyze in that sense- it’s aura itself urges strong negative feelings in society. However, those who have actually faced its ‘wrath’ tend to appreciate its favors later. And yes..I am one of them.

I am aware of various media reports having disturbing incidences where a teenager was forced, assaulted and even worse. But from what I have observed, this is a very small, dark aspect of ragging. I don’t know if it is intentional, but there are some practically relevant, noble intentions involved in it which are summarily overlooked.

I should elaborate my conception of Ragging now- it is a sort of tradition for interaction, where new joinees/ entrants are treated roughly. Primary motive varies between instilling a sense of being juniormost in them; to breaking the ice to maintain the casual atmosphere. At first, former seems to be form of unethical bullying, but its importance cant be neglected practically- there are instances in life where you have to step backward/ bend a little to get what you want…to avoid being an erect tree which is the first to fall in storm.

You cannot ignore its positive side-effects: whole batch gets united against demanding, boasting, villainy seniors. Psychologically, the feeling that you are not alone in the stinky shit generates a lot of companionship. Against contrasting backgrounds the freshers come, they have the common agony in the name of demanding seniors. And those hardships beared collectively strengthen the bond of friendship for years to come.

Moreover, its worth the effort too- seniors are a pool of knowledge- which Prof doesn’t check copies, which likes to fail students; or which courses are scoring, which are boring; or which places are really good to hang out- there area of expertise is unlimited. They can guide you with tricks to score maximum with minimum effort; to shortcuts to admin bureaucracy, to secret places to have fun. In fact, I have always visualized seniors as dogs with tongue out, willing to give everything in return of some respect, be it superficial.

As a senior too, Ragging presents with the experience of leadership. You must have accumulated all sorts of junk knowledge, and it would surely be nice if that can help someone- thus putting you on morally high ground. The experience is something like getting a willing audience, who are ready to believe whatever crap you tell them- like guiding a herd of sheeps. In the disguise of guiding them, it is sorts of responsibility- to enable the freshers mingle in campus environment.

The responsibility aspect is loaded- which is often abused, giving ragging the bad light. The hardships of ragging aim to break the cocoon of fresher, but it may hurt some. Onus falls on seniors to identify moths who are to be handled tenderly. These moths are the ones who can benefit a lot from ragging, but crossing the line may be hazardous to their psyche. The ‘conductor’ of ragging requires lots of intelligence, and the fools relating ragging straightaway to stripping should be strongly condemned.

I strongly oppose any sort of physical tormenting as a form of ragging. In that sense, ragging also teaches fresher to know when to decline senseless orders. To disobey a bullying superior without annoying him is a technique which comes very handy in life. However, this requires an overlooking authority, guarding against any excesses. Here administration’ role comes to play.

It is suggested that each professor be allotted a group of freshers. Also each fresher be allotted a senior as caretaker. This type of vertical arrangement would ensure ‘supportive ragging’ – fresher can always go to corresponding senior/ professor if he is facing any problem. Besides forging junior-senior relationship, this would also bring Teachers closer to students and problems faced by them, from inception itself.

The whole logic is, to counter ragging as an evil should be avoided. A controlled version of this casual interaction will always be beneficial. What is required is a more supervised system which comes to action only while sniffing development of an unwanted incident. To let go Ragging completely from campuses would render it as an organization, where batches communicate only when need arises, thus missing out on some of most cherished joys of hostel life.

The Madness called ‘Cricket’.

Why is Hockey our National sport, instead of a much popular Cricket? Or why is that despite having largest fan following across world, Football lags far behind in India. This was just a seed, which made me think of our over-zealous preference to Cricket. And a simple approach revealed a particular trend in Indian behavior in deciding our favorite: We tend to favor a sport in which our chances of winning are fairly high. Sadly, this has nothing to do with enjoyment the game offers or physical/mental strength it demands.

Consider this: In 40’s, Indian Hockey team was consistently on top; with Major Dhyanchand as an international Hockey sensation. During those times, Indian team used to defeat world powers like US and Germany by embarrassing margins. Comparatively, stature of Cricket was worse than of Hockey nowadays. It was only natural for Govt to recognize Hockey, a favorite among masses then, as national game; against Cricket, considered a sophisticated English game. Post Dhyanchand era, Indian Hockey continuously degraded; while Cricket rose frantically. And after ’83 World Cup win, Cricket became unofficially the national sport, and has continued to be so.

And what a gap!! The Cricket economy is many fold greater than of rest all sports-Combined. In fact, in Indian subcontinent, a cricketer cannot be categorized along with other sport-persons. Annual income of a cricketer is much greater than that other sport-person can make in his entire career. Cricketers are stressed to arrange for practice time amongst marketing campaigns of various sponsors; while others are considered lucky even if one sponsor signs them.

Consider stepping into shoes of other sport-persons: There will be no one to support you, cheer you, or even celebrate your winning. You will have to practice through substandard, insufficient resources. Anything unethical done to you will fall on deaf ears. Yet you will have to face satirical comments after losing: “I knew this would happen...” And even if you win, you will be forgotten within a short span!

If you suggest that Cricket as a game is superior enough to deserve this kind of enthusiasm, I would politely disagree. It is neither physically tiring nor mentally exhausting, yet it gives the adrenaline rush of winning/losing. This may be considered as a merit…but can’t anyone see how artistically it defies the very motive of sport? Ironically, Cricket is hailed as a ‘Gentleman’s game’, one where you do not have to sweat and toil for a favorable outcome. All this while pretending to be ‘playing’.

For a neutral spectator, the field is an absolute dud compared to other outdoor sports. Of the 13 players on ground at a time, 11 wait patiently for ball to come to them. Apart from this occasional activity of ‘grab the ball, throw it back to pitch’, there is nothing much in store for them. On a more satirical note, Cricket manages to combine drawbacks of indoor and outdoor game seamlessly- It is as inactive as an indoor game can get, and requires a large, grassy area to play upon !

I think Cricket is the only team game where a player can single-handedly turn the game over. The very idea of ‘team performance’ is shifted backstage. Be it a batsman or bowler, their feat is attributed to individual credit, with minimum support required from team-mates. Also the inconsistent performances- a very ‘in-form’ batsman can get bowled on a duck; or a bowler having extremely poor average rate can suddenly claim 5 wicket haul…all such sudden spikes in performances can be attributed to the pattern of game, rather than on individuals. Interestingly, this fact is hailed by fans as a merit- “Cricket is an unpredictable game”!!

My intention is not to ridicule Cricket, but to point out that we are concentrating all our favor on an unworthy sport. And this support is doing harm to Cricket itself: people managing Cricket are tapping our zeal to fullest, making unhealthy sums of money. The game is marred by unethical practices of match/spot fixing, ridiculing the very public support they enjoy. Also, this aura of Cricket has overshadowed other sports considerably, and now most of the athletic persons are turning towards Cricket, charmed by all its glitter. This scenario will be dangerous for future, widening the gap between Cricket and other sports considerably.

Solution? Let the monetary gains from Cricket be distributed among other sports. This money can be spent on improving sports infrastructure in country. Also, limit the official compensation of Cricketers at par with other athletes. They can get a performance related incentive, and they can always make money from their endorsements. These steps will surely boost the morale of average sport-person and encourage him/her to perform better.

However the final onus is on us: Are we Indians so immature to shower all our love to a rewarding sport, while ignoring all others to oblivion? Cant we behave in a balanced way, appreciating the achievers and encouraging those who missed? Is complete negligence of other sports, a way of telling them to ‘First perform, then expect’? I think this attitude of hovering around an area where we are already good, is a way of turning blind eye to other sports which need improvement…So before we can expect from our sport persons a heavy medal tally like Australia’s in International events, we will have to tone our passion for Cricket and divert some of this enthusiasm to other sports as well.

Classic Blasphemy!

How often you have felt the grudge for being unorthodox? Being on an entirely different lane of road requires a lot of justification, and frequent too. But somehow I have garnered the courage to stand apart from herd and speak up the language of logic. And since this concerns God, I request a bit of patience and tolerance on your part before I develop my angle of plot.

What are places of worship meant for? Or what does an elaborate procedure of prayer aims to attain? I assume it would be to establish a connection between man and the almighty, through which we can thank and request for assistance of God in our actions. Clearly, it is a daunting task which may require high levels of concentration and self assessment on our part. Thus temples should be a quiet place, with peace in air.

On the contrary, what we observe is a hectic rush towards the idols, desire to touch it, and be near it for most of the time. Its like trying to impress the king by expressing extra devotion to his idol! People tend to forget that God IS omnipotent, and scrutinizes our actions all the time, not just for the period we are in a temple or during some holy festivals.(Try explaining this to the mad rush in temples during नवरात्र/ महाशिवरात्रि etc).

And idols are supposedly humanoid depiction of a formless entity, meant to simplify our conception of almighty and assist us to relate with him. But masses in general tend to pin their devotion on these mud/marble idols, and end up doing strange ‘mudras’ to indicate their level of devotion- the concept of one who follows the teachings being true devotee taking a backseat.

Worse still is the state of hymns and chants. These are mugged up and ranted without any awareness/consideration of true meaning. Ideally, they should be changed to a dialect that can be grasped by general masses easily. Further the content of these hymns itself raises a few doubts: they are filled with praises of Gods with references of their actions from ancient texts. I would like to ask, are Gods supposed to become happy after hearing his/her praises and grant our wishes? And if this is the case, one can scarcely ignore the similarity of God to a foolish king. Also, one can not pose to draw inspirations from these acts, as most of these are beyond human capability.

A classic example in this regard would be Satyanarayan katha, which is a frequent event in my house. It is composed of various stories where devotees promises to conduct the katha in his house-forgets; or unintentionally forgets to take prashad after listening to katha and hell breaks lose on them. Most interestingly, the entire event is strikingly devoid of actual verses from the much hyped katha. I wonder what this aims to convey- don’t question the greatness of this katha or your consequence will end up being a part of this ‘series of sorry tales’!!

Such blunders in our rich tradition clearly indicate some illogical modification in or failure to interpret our ancient texts. Rather we have a tendency to refer all moral acts as divine, thus much beyond our realm. This explains why “मर्यादा पुरुषोत्तम श्री राम” (as referred in Valmiki Ramayan - best among honourable males-पुरुषों में उत्तम, Sri Ram), was depicted as “प्रभु श्री राम” (in Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas-God Sri Ram).This excuses us from following in his footsteps, for we are no gods!!

Also I would like to question the concept of daily, long prayers as a good habit. It can be justified only if you are doing this for sake of moral support. But any expectation of you being a favoured one due to this should be questioned- God never asked to worship him, his sole request was to follow his teachings. On the same lines, the concept of doing ‘vrata’ is strange in itself- you are torturing the body, a gift by God, to please him ?

Modern religion establishment is in itself a wary state after all legal battles going on over captivity of temple properties among priests. It has knelt in front of money power- If you have committed a sin, however grave it may be, it offers a solution. In any grand temple, you can find a list of various poojas to ‘wash off’ your sins and seek blessings of almighty, against a price tag. This, if effective, would be a mockery of Gods’ justice and indicate growing presence of darkness(along with delay) in his court.

As per my opinion, temples should serve as nerve centres of distributing alms from rich to those who are less privileged; rather than vulgar display of devotion with unruly crowd, barking mantras. Despite of my scarce knowledge of religion and ancient teachings, I have little doubt that this is NOT how God would have liked to be worshipped. We are completely letting ourselves be directed by the brokers of religion, standing behind curtains of tradition. And however much we justify of our pure intentions for worship, we are not helping much by being part of this frenzied crowd.

Disclaimer: The content, style of description in this article is highly offensive. My sole aim here was to tear apart the artificial fabric of modern religious practices. If it is not evident in article, I would like to ascertain that I was in no way trying to defame God or challenge his authority.(Even if I wished, I couldn’t!!)
Also, I believe that good as well as bad features exist in all religions. I am absolutely certain that drawbacks corresponding to above mentioned defects could be found in any of other religions. I centred around Hinduism for references as I have understanding of this religion only(however little). I am extremely fortunate to be a Hindu with liberal eye to consider offensive arguments with a rationale mind.

Justifying Dowry!!

The topic itself is infamy...and I believe that my most intimate female acquaintances will not hesitate to set me ablaze the moment they catch glimpse of this topic. But pardon me, I could not help to put certain counter arguments regarding this issue. It in no way implies any personal viewpoint, and any such conclusions drawn can be diplomatically termed “unfortunate”.

Enough has been said about this age old practice in dark view. Also, dowry is considered one of the factors of gender inequality and hence at root of some serious social evils like female infanticide. However, one can argue certain merits (!!) too of this practice, constraining the view to a particular section of society. In this section, boys strive hard to establish their career and girls wait for their prince to come and let them embark on their luxurious horse..

You must have caught the essence of issue I am going to elaborate in this blog. This is a to-the-core practical observation. Lets take an instance from everyday life-Try to recollect from memory a wedding ceremony u have attended where both bride and groom have comparable professional status. You would surely fumble after a few cases as the general situation is averse- groom is professionally and hence financially much stronger than bride.

Brides are generally unemployed, trained throughout to be a housewife. And in most cases where they are employed, the nature of job itself is temporary, like being a teacher in primary school. Their lifestyle reflects that they are waiting for the right proposal of marriage, and serving the job as part-time. So when a well settled, and hence I can say much able groom lands on your lap, why hesitate to pay the price?

The best parameter to judge ‘dowrability’ of a couple is simple- imagine interchanging the profession of bride and groom. If you still think the said marriage is feasible, then you cant justify giving off expensive gifts. But if it is other way round (profession exchange making couple inappropriate), then you have to swallow the bitter truth- there is enough reason to shed a hefty dowry.

This ‘distorted’ view originated when I saw a lot of families, where girls are treated as equals and given same opportunities to prosper and establish. However, their performance remains consistently behind that of their brothers. Irony is that, after marriage, they manage to obtain a high standard of living; while there brothers are left striving for a stable, decent job.

Another case study in similar stride would be of batches of undergrad course in state universities and colleges, where sex ratio is good. However girls of the batch, irrespective of their intellectual quotient, end up far better than their male batch-mates in life. The only merit they seem to pursue is marrying a loaded guy. Obviously, their male colleagues can’t compete with them at this front, and have to settle with a living standard their intellect or labour can afford.

This scenario, for sure must not be unheard to you. I would attribute inability of girls (to establish professionally) to their careless approach towards career, more than lack of interest of their guardians. They seem to have this view embedded in them that they have to marry ultimately, and care for the house...so why to bother for a career? So they eventually are confined to household works, or at most, low profile jobs. In the meantime, their prospective groom-to-be are expected to strive hard to make a decent career; so that they can afford a TV with cable connection, where their future wife would enjoy the saas-bahu serials.

Well, here comes the practice of dowry to rescue. It is a fact that there are lesser “problems” encountered in marriage if the bride is professionally stable. This thankfully puts a pressure on young girls to establish a career. Even if she has to leave the job for household chores, she would ethically be sacrificing; thus commanding respect from her husband. Also, she could be financially less dependent on husband, making the couple equal and ideal; rather than that symbolizing a ‘horse pulling a wooden cart’.

This constrained view however holds only in upper middle class families, where girls are loved and cared for equally; and the practice of dowry persists. All the ills of dowry are magnified in lower middle class, where inefficient grooms rely heavily on dowry money, and capability of bride’s family falls short of his demands. However in upper middle class families, the money is sufficient, if not enormous, and the so called dowry evils have little stage to prosper. In this class, the message conveyed to girls through dowry is loud and clear: Grab a respectable profession or else be ready to drill a hole in your fathers’ purse and self respect....choice is yours!!

Disclaimer: Views expressed above unethically shows the other aspect of a gloomy social evil. The arguments raised applies strictly to a very small, but growing section of society, as already pointed in article itself. Such viewpoints are sure to rise in an increasingly ‘equal opportunity’ society, and here is a first!! Still, certain glaring facts regarding role of a woman in management of a house and skills required thereby are ignored shamelessly, unacknowledged. Arguments and instances of real life used to prove a handicapped view are provocative. I apologize in this regard, and would request the reader to take the article in right spirit.