Are India and Italy the same country? (Or, who really runs the world?)

Here’s an entry I’ve been meaning to do for some time but have only just got round to. I’m going back to commenting on Indian society. Now the title may lead you to think that this is going to be yet another damning article against Sonia Gandhi/Maino/whatever her name is, but it really isn’t. You don’t need me to tell you she’s Italian. But that is largely irrelevant to the point I want to make.

I’m looking to compare two countries, and one person can hardly be a valid cause for such a comparison. India and Italy have many things in common, and this is a short list only. For instance both can claim broad and internationally well loved cuisines, a wealth of flavours and a real commitment to food preparation. The Italians, particularly in the south, will spend a very long time making meals and nothing will get in the way of that. It is of paramount importance to them that the appropriate amount of time and care is taken in making each meal so that it is always a winner of a dish (or dishes J ). Similarly in India nothing can be construed as a meal unless it has been cooked and has used more than 3 or 4 fresh ingredients. I remember an aunt of mine who lives there saying that, because of the way we eat in the West (i.e. cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch then a cooked dinner in the evening) we only eat once a day. And she has a point, can it really be a meal if some effort hasn’t been put into it?

Second both countries have a strong familial ethic. Families are important, and rightly so. We can argue till the cows come home about dysfunction but fact remains a family unit is, on average and on the whole, more likely to lead to development of more rounded and less damaged individuals. Having such an ethic usually extends to friends as well; both are friendly people that would do far more to help out a friend than I’ve seen in any number of other countries. It’s almost as though both the Indians and Italians took an extra swig from the cup of the milk of human kindness!

This leads me to my next point, the strong religious identity. In both nations there are strong female images of a powerful matriarch that deserves respect , giving an environment for respect for both women and elders. In the case of Italy this takes the form of Madonna, aka the Virgin Mary and in India there are a number of them such as Lakshmi, Parvati and Shakti.

Which unfortunately leads me to the more negative aspects of both countries; hypocritical undertones.

Because, whilst both countries parade these strong female icons, in practice the average female is treated in a very different manner, one that could be deemed as second class in comparison to that of males. In the case of Italy, it is a case of a female’s appearance being a very strong indication of their success in work and elsewhere (more so than other European nations). If that wasn’t enough, it is quite normal for a man to have an affair (not so much with the younger generation but it is still alive and well nonetheless) and he is considered this immensely virile hero, but the woman in the affair is thought of in a far less flattering light, to put it lightly. Also you don’t need me to tell you all about Berlusconi and his, shall we say dealings, with women.

In India, one could argue it’s a bit more sinister. Female infanticide is, as ever, the elephant in the room that no one wishes to talk about but it is a big issue regardless. Look at the sex ratio of the average Indian orphanage, it will tell you all you need to know. This of course stems from the lack of value of a girl within society, and her value decreases the more rural you go. Whilst in the big cosmopolitan centres this is starting to be addressed a lot more needs to be done. Despite this Delhi has somehow reached a legendary status within the country of how unsafe it is for women. So that’s one aspect they have in common. That’s right, this is just the beginning!

Another, slightly more well known aspect of both countries is the level of corruption, which is bordering on the endemic. This is a little more surprising in Italy, being an EU member and all but that doesn’t change the fact that it exists. And corruption is a way of life in India. There are very few things that can be done without some form of ‘persuasion’. I suppose it is more of an issue in the latter but there are countless examples of investigations that were incredibly lax in order to save someones face: Italian example: checking out the safety of the track at Imola after Ayrton Senna’s crash, Indian example: the long-winded case involving the Bofors scam. Not to mention the odd dealings at the top. With Italy it is clear; it is not possible to spend a day in Italy without lining the pockets of Berlusconi. In India, it is not so clear, but politicians have far too much clout with the media and interfere with government issues far too much. If you were to go on Wikipedia to look through the list of known government scams that have occurred in the last 50 years, the list alone would take a while to read.

Both countries have spent of lot of time being subjugated by outsiders and tried hard to maintain an identity. As a result both nations have very conservative outlooks and are not so keen on cultures/practices/most things from the outside. Anything construed as foreign is viewed with a great deal of suspicion. This primarily manifests itself in adopting new styles of management and law making, because eating different food and listening to exotic music is a poor indicator of that in my opinion. What it means is that change is unlikely to come easy as everyone is set in their ways. And so dodgy geezers at all levels are going to be hard to dislodge, because they’ve become traditions essentially.

Oh, and I suppose you could argue that both countries are run by an Italian. There. That’s the only other time I’m going to mention that…

So my brief guide into why India and Italy are the same country. I’ve tried to keep it positive – heavy, but it has to be said that there are a lot of unnverving aspects that can’t be ignored.

Regards,

The Vedic Underdog

Loving Thailand vs Loving Thailand

Recently I stumbled across a documentary about a Thai matrimonial agency that looked to pair up Thai girls with foreign (read Western) men. As you can imagine it’s down to money.

I remember seeing a similar documentary when I was a child and being absolutely disgusted by these vile overweight old men lusting after young pretty Thai girls. Though this is quite well known, isn’t it? I don’t’ need to go into the details about how horrible this is, I’m sure you’re aware of it.

I will point out though in the documentary I saw recently the matrimonial agency, when describing the merits of Thai women mentioned that they ‘don’t have the hang ups of equality driven Western women’ and ‘never get a headache.’ I mentally threw up reading that one.

Now you may say that the old men are doing these girls a favour by marrying them and taking them out of poverty and hardship, but my recent epiphany indicates a fallacy in this: if money is the issue how about helping them to work their way out of poverty????? Fund their education, build offices, buy their products if they work in a factory (if you’re stingy). That would show your real affection for Thai women, and it would come from the head and not your…well you can imagine what word goes there.

Someday I may just start up a charity to do so (but I need to find out how much school and university costs in Thailand). A big middle finger to all these vile perverts who wouldn’t stand a chance with these women if the playing field was more level. I could go on about my feelings towards these disgusting individuals but that would be counterproductive. Let’s just say if anyone tried it in my family, they would be treated in the manner fitting their vile superficiality and using the downstairs brain.

UPDATE: As I was writing this article I Googled any groups that are doing anything like the charity I want to set up, but several thai bride websites came up (annoyed grunt). However there is hope: I found a well known NGO called Development and Education Programme for Daughters and Communities (DEPDC), their website is:

http://www.depdc.org/index.htm

They’re looking to stop child prostitution, which is highly important, but is not quite what I want to fund. I suppose that people would gravitate towards this option if they were interested in bettering themselves rather than wealth but I will think about my foundation nonetheless just in case there are young women out there who feel that they have no option other than to partake in this ‘sanctimonious’ prostitution.

Regards,

The Vedic Underdog

Choosing between hate and hate (Or, how every choice is wrong)

To a topic that never seems to get old: Indian politics. That is what I shall try to focus on here but I want to talk about how this affects Hindu identity globally. OK, on with it.

Now, in India there is a two party system as there is in most countries. One could however argue that there is a bit more choice compared to other countries as the two biggest parties, the Congress and the BJP, often form coalitions with smaller, more locally focused parties. But either way on a national scale that leads to there being two parties, with different thoughts and agendas.

The congress has traditionally been seen as a liberal and left wing party, and has in more recent times formed coalitions with communist parties, which fits in right with their agenda. The BJP is the more conservative, and has often had strong links with Hindu nationalist parties. So that’s how it is right now.

And also as in many countries people and families often identify with one of the two and stick with them throughout their lives. Generally if you’re not Hindu or Sikh, or you work in one of the ‘new’ Indian industries such as IT you go for the Congress. Otherwise a lot of ‘middle-India’ as I so affectionately call them go for the BJP, and they both have their reasons. Congress supporters will argue that the party is investing heavily in new technologies and will point to all the grand building works that have been conducted in the big cities to make them look more glitzy and modern as well as saying that they are a secular party because they don’t associate with Hindu nationalists. A number of minority Indians such as Christians have said that they feel the BJP is ‘racist’ (I put that down to not fully understanding the meaning of the word but I know what they mean) and so they vote for the Congress.

On the other side the BJP supporters argue that all our progress has been for show. Those building works are just to show off to the foreigners that India is going places and does not show the true story of all the problems going on in the heart of India, what with farmer suicides and resource mining destroying communities. There has been insinuation that the Congress will do anything for the minority vote banks and are powerfully un-Hindu. An example they would site is the managing of Hindu temples, where a good portion of the money earned by a temple (primarily through donations) is taken by the government and then being used to fund mosques and churches. And let’s not even get started on the Hajj subsidy…

I didn’t want to get too bogged down in the details and issues here because it will detract from the point. But I hope that paints the picture for those that aren’t so familiar. If you want to know more you really should pull your finger out and look some things up, I could not possibly condense the governmental issues of the worlds largest democracy into a blog post, could I?

As for myself, I have grown up in a BJP supporting family. And for many years I agreed with them that they were the better choice. Indeed, even now they preach of grassroots level development of the nation, which is far better than the more glitzy approach of the Congress. A uniform civil code for all, regardless of religion would be most welcome in a country that purports itself to be SECULAR! That’s why I was so much in favour with them and a number of the Hindu nationalist parties that they support (but not quite all of them). Until the day the façade cracked…

I make it out like there was one decisive factor that caused all this, it wasn’t quite like that. Firstly I remember how when the BJP were in power they never rehoused the deposed Kashmiri pandits, something which pretty much every Hindu nationalist wants. You’re in power, yet they’re still in camps. You ought to look up ‘hypocrisy’! Fast forward to now; the Congress are at an all time low in popularity. There have been a string of terrorist attacks in major cities over the course of the last 2 years or so (something which was suspiciously infrequent under the BJP. Funny that, considering the apparently anti-Muslim party they are said to be…). In addition to this some of you will be aware of the harrowing events by which the Delhi police, that can’t stop all the rapists and thieves in the city but sweep down on Baba Ramdev’s peaceful protest against black money (which I suppose all politicians in India are guilty of) like the corrupt vultures they are. Despite all of this, the BJP have not acted upon it. Infighting, weak exposure of Congress ineptitude and lack of coherent leadership have all played a part in this. Plus they haven’t done enough to shift their anti-anyone-that-isn’t-a-Hindu appearance, which makes them look in the eyes of many to be really backward. So the Indians have a choice between the corrupt evil party or an incompetent party of bigots. Ah, the agony of selection…

I suppose I better expand on Hindu nationalism now before the cataclysm of brain dead comments come in about how I’m intolerant start. Regardless of what it has become Hindutva was about ensuring that the nation where Dharmic thought began can maintain its heritage. Plus, if anyone was to actually pick up the Rig Veda or the Gita you’d see very quickly just how humanist those texts are. Heck, did you know that Sarvarkar himself was an atheist? A Hindu nation would be more secular than most actually secular nations currently, like, for example, INDIA! I know I’ve already said it once but if a Muslim lives and abides by one set of rules and a Hindu by another, in what way is that secular? It isn’t, it’s communal. More than that it’s separatist. It only serves to breed more contempt.

But as I said before I’ve become increasingly disillusioned with the Hindu parties too. There’s two reasons for that. Firstly, they’re all full of hot air. They talk the big talk about how the poor Kashmiris are suffering and how the country is run by an Italian (more on that later that’s why I’m not touching on it now) again and again and again but doing nothing about it. Second, the bizarre fatwa-esque movements they go on. I don’t mean protests about Lord Ram on sandals or Lakshmi on a bikini (I’m on the fence with that). I’m talking about torching cinemas because they showed a film about lesbian themes. I’m talking about the rampant hatred of Valentine’s day. It’s just not the way we do things, people!

This is usually the point where some sappy hippy-like Hindu would say about how ahimsa (non-violence) is the pillar of our faith. NO IT ISN’T! Well, I can say with certainty that in the Gandhi sense it isn’t. There is a time for action when your values are threatened, but the response needs to be calculated and precise (like in the great text Mahabharata, remember that??). Modern and progressive thoughts were how Hinduism first came into being so if you hate everything that comes from the west or isn’t quite like it was when you grew up, there’s no progress, there’s no new thought. I can’t think of anything more anti-Hindu than that. You deserve all that hate mail you get on the 14^th of February for that reason! Stop rioting all the time, it doesn’t help anyone!

So what do I do? Supporting the Congress-like principles is to turn a blind eye to the cultural and moral damage that the nation and Dharma is going through but to stick with the right wing ideology is a form of paralysis is just as bad. That’s why I picked the title ‘choosing between hate’, because that is what it feels like. I’m not sure exactly where that leaves me now, to be frank. All I can do is make the right choice when adversity is in front of me. Otherwise I’m going to fall into the trap of fear that has gripped so many of the Hindu samaj. Pick your battles, that’s what it is at the end of the day. What more can be said? If wanting your Dharma to survive is bigotry in someone’s eyes, they need a different perspective. And if embracing a few new ideas is turning your back on your culture, then, again, try looking at it in a different way before you judge or decide. It’s not quite so clear cut. Till then, I’ll try to stay sane in the face of all this ambiguity and stupidity.

Regards

The Vedic Underdog

The English disease of Indians (Or, what the heck are you talking about??)

Ah English. I can’t think of another language that I both love and hate so much as it. On the one hand it has a richness of words which is almost unparalleled in other languages, what with readily introducing foreign words into the lexicon and then (most importantly) making them its own. A feat other languages should be jealous of. But then I am also quite loath of it. For it becoming the international language it is seeping into all the other languages, and Anglophone customs, good or bad, are becoming the norm. I know of no nation where this is happening more astutely than India, where, in my opinion, it is a disease in the minds of the Indian people, and something really needs to be done.

Now I make bold statements I know, but I am fully prepared to back them up. So here I go with that. First of all English gives way to a lot of arrogance. The embarrassment of the stereotype of the loud British or American tourist talking loudly at locals and then getting angry when they don’t understand them is part of this. But then you have pseudo Anglophone states where similar things happen. English is an unfortunate status symbol in India, but what makes it even worse is the local arrogance of the people. They assume themselves to be fluent (they can usually speak it well but they’re not fluent, get that through your thick skulls!) and so when they come to England for instance and speak in their thick accent with some archaic colonial vocabulary or (worse still) local slang and no one can understand, they are shocked that no one can understand.

Heck, I actually remember someone from Delhi saying ‘these English people don’t know how to speak English.’ You’re having me on, right, the nation where the language was born can’t speak the language it created properly? No, it’s your ego that is the incomprehensible entity here! It’s such an ego that is the hindrance of any Indian that goes abroad to study: they push their own ridiculous form of English on everyone, so no one understands, and will not take any corrections and so in the end they can’t speak to anyone other than themselves. Lessons would be accepting weakness so no one takes them. Result: no one has a clue what anyone is saying. Well done, spectacular own goal.

So English and its status symbol go much further than that. I remember once taking a train in Germany and seeing some Indians on the train (not something that is very common there) and sat next to them. We started chatting in Hindi about everything and nothing as you do. After a while one of them asked me where I was from. I mentioned the origin of my parents but that we had come from the UK. It was at that stage that he said in a think Indian accent ‘Oh, you are tourists from UniTid Kinggdomm?’ and henceforth no matter how much I spoke in Hindi all my responses were in English. It was almost as though the half an hour of dialogue had not occurred at all. Cue me trying to decipher what he’s saying even though it would be infinitely easier to switch to the language we both grew up speaking.

It’s not just the speaking that can be irritating, it’s also the ideas that come with the language. Because everyone speaks English over there sitcoms can be broadcast without any real alterations. And so you get the mindless stream of debauchery, promiscuity and vulgarity that is seen here all the time over here. Now because we see it all the time we realise that it’s sad and pathetic but over there because of the association of English with intelligence and money, the impressionable Indian youth think that this is all the West is about and that this is how to act and conduct your life in order to get ahead. This leads to young men thinking of women as objects of their pleasures (and that number of partners = manliness) and the youth in general that swearwords are the cooler than Jimi Hendrix shimmying across space playing the wildest version of Voodoo Chile ever. OK, I had to stop the rantiness for a second.

So if you ever meet the really rich young people of India that grew up in the really fancy houses, you quickly realise how the f word is every other punctuation. It’s a vile sound that does them no favours with anyone but themselves. On the promiscuity front I remember my father once telling bout how one night he was sat with some friends who were telling him about how fortunate he was to be ‘surrounded by British women’ who will ‘take their clothes off for any reason’. Sickening. But I suppose that was more to do with a number of things.

Anywho the major point is in the name of English, India is being robbed of so many things, much more than she is gaining. I remember recently seeing the tagline for MTV India which was ‘the channel your mother warned you about.’ If it was British or American I would have probably chuckled because it fits in with the culture here but it’s such a powerfully non-Indian statement, a nation where the mother is to be revered (at least that’s the theory!). And so I can’t really say that English benefits. Now you could argue that it’s helped the economy what with foreign companies outsourcing. One of those exports has been call centres. But remember about the English no one can understand? That’s right, they’re moving them BACK for that reason. What an own goal, India. So what are we left with? A bunch of people who speak a European language in their own way, a manner which means no one can understand them, no outsourcing coming and barrel of rotten western philosophies (it’s amazing how ideas such as stoicism haven’t become prominent, I just don’t get it).

Not to mention how English is used in the midst of Indian languages indiscriminately, there’s no organic evolution like there was with (ironically) English, it’s like bashing two jigsaw pieces together that don’t fit. I have to use more English when I speak Hindi with Indians, particularly the young ones, cos no one understands me when I speak it purer as I do at home!

In ’47 a nation apparently became free of centuries of oppression. But choosing English paved the way for another form. I can already see the tide of South Indian hate with even the mention of Hindi as the state language. Don’t worry I’m not saying that. I just can’t believe that a nation of that size, that could have contributed so richly to the world culturally meekly chose to continue using a colonial language when they could have had a fresh start. And what language should they have chosen I hear you ask…?

SANSKRIT!!! A young nation could have revived an old language just like Israel revived Hebrew (I’m not going to go into the politics about the state but that’s an achievement, regardless). It would have been a golden opportunity for the country to learn about its ancient precolonial past, recover literature and philosophies that had remained dead and buried for so long. Some of you will also know that Chinese is a UN language. Sanskrit had every chance of getting such a status, and then maybe the world would have known a lot more about yoga, science, philosophy and a lot more besides.

But they gave the status meekly to English. And now all languages are doomed. Yipee

Regards

The Vedic Underdog

Where *am* I from?

This post is for all you mixed culture people. And I don’t mean those of you that are half this, quarter that and one 500th something else (unless you’re close to all those roots), I mean people who are quite literally between cultures within themselves (i.e. not simply through genetics).

I shall open with some central European humour. A Hungarian is drinking from a lake. A Slovak sees this and yells in Slovakian: ‘Stop! Don’t drink from the lake, the water is poisonous.’ On hearing the shouting the Hungarian stops drinking and asks the man (in Hungarian) what he just said, to which the Slovak replies ‘Oh, I just said that the water is cold, so drink slowly.’

Yes, I’m sure you’re splitting your sides to that one. But this joke was told to me by someone who is between cultures himself, an ethnic Hungarian living in Slovakia. This is common; apparently, Hungarians are the biggest ethnic minority in a number of central European nations. And being of one ethnicity living in a country with a different one has had its effect on him. ‘To the Slovaks I’m a dirty Hungarian, and to the Hungarians I’m a dirty Slovak. And somewhere between the two is me’, is what he had to say of it. And whilst I can not complain to have had someone describe me this bluntly, my own experiences aren’t so far off.

I’ve grown up as an ethnic Indian in the United Kingdom and by the grace of my parents been well versed in the language, culture and customs of the land of our origins. Whilst that has had many, many advantages, there have, unfortunately, been a number of issues with it too.

Don’t get me wrong, for the most part it’s great. I am equally comfortable in either country because I speak both languages fluently. Most of the time in India people can’t tell I’m from abroad. Their arrogance leads them to say they can tell when they do know, but 99.9% of the time on the street etc they haven’t a clue. Most of the time I don’t like to bring it up; I remember catching a train once with my cousin, sitting down and chatting for a while with him and the passengers after which he divulged I was not from India, something which irritated me but did lead the passengers to praise my grasp of the language, saying that they would not have known unless told that I was from elsewhere (which was a turn up for the books).

But it has also been a hindrance too. It does make it difficult internally for you to decide upon an identity when you’re slap bang in the middle of the two cultures. This does not necessarily happen if you are of one ethnicity living in a country with a different one. Often, people fall into two camps; either they spend all of their time with their own community and don’t integrate at all with the rest of society or they completely embrace the host nation, losing any heritage or cultural integrity, both of which are more harmful than taking the middle ground, as both indicate either fear (of losing or gaining something culturally) or all round discomfort of some aspect of the life you have. What’s happened with me is I’ve straddled the two, trying to take in the good aspects of both ways of life to enrich myself. But by doing so you have to be prepared for the pitfalls.
For starters people can’t put their finger on you (because many need to put people in boxes for them to make sense of you). As a result they approach you differently. Some Indians, particularly the younger ones, are intimidated by me. They find my straddling terrifying. As a defence mechanism they try and put the country I live in down, or they their inferiority complex makes them show off. They will speak to me in English (even when there is no need to do so) and then correct me when I speak Hindi for the most minor of faults (there was one time when I was told that ‘namaskar’ should not be used after noon. This is not true at all, and was nothing other than a display of arrogance). This is described in more detail in the English disease of Indians.

In the UK, almost instantly after hearing that my roots are from abroad, everyone immediately thinks I have an Indian accent (one that I didn’t have the second before I told them). I have lost count of the number of times white people have told me that my English is very good. Well, of course it’s good, you morons, I’m a native speaker!

Then there is the stigma of introducing yourself. It’s nearly impossible to get right; if I go for the ‘I’m British’ route and say nothing else, I am accused of not respecting my origins (which can lose you a lot of respect with certain people) or you can go for the ‘I’m Indian in origins’ route, which has its own problems. Firstly people may think you’re a foreigner despite the British accent and treat you differently but it’s also used as an argument that descendants of immigrants have no love for the nation they grew up and therefore should leave. Yes, I’m talking about the BNP.

So there you are, stuck between a rock and a hard place. I’ve learned to accept that ultimately neither nation will fully see me as just a person. I am, for those that actually like this aspect of me, a novelty, one way or the other. For the Indians, a guy who grew up in the west but can keep up with the best of them conversationally but still not quite one of them. For the Brits, another immigrant who should be mollycoddled and mocked because his parents came from a ‘poor’ nation who has had the privilege of being ‘civilised’. Most hold their tongues and don’t actually say that last bit, but their sentiments on how things are done over there and of my religion etc give it away.

Yet, for all my anger and irritation, I am thankful for being this way. Many British people of South Asian origin tell you an anecdote about the first time they went back to the land of their parents and spoke their ancestral language broken only to be interrupted by relatives who spoke ‘the Queens English’ and so they sheepishly switched to that themselves. I can say, with great pride, that I tell the OPPOSITE story; my relatives, assuming that I couldn’t even say hello in the language start with English only to receive a response in perfect Hindi, after which we sheepishly switch to the local language. The feeling is wonderful and I have to thank my parents profoundly for the gift they give me. Another time one of my cousins who grew up abroad asked me if we were told by our relatives in India that we spoke English too fast, to which I responded ‘We never spoke in English so we never found out.’

We straddlers have an important role to play in the development of the modern world; to help the melding of different customs and ideals of the world.
Multiculturalism is a beautiful thing when done correctly, truly the way to advance the human race. But the balance is very important. If you surrender yourself and your roots to your surroundings, you’re merely assimilating and there’s no exchange, just capitulation. If a few individuals, in whatever form, keep that culture preserved then they give a beautiful resource to the rest of the world, which the world can tap into in its purest form at any time. That needs to survive in assimilation. Otherwise you get a ‘melting pot’ that is of no use to anyone.

I felt this most astutely in my travels to the US, arguably the biggest melting pot of all. For me, it’s a bit of a graveyard of cultures. So many Germans immigrated there but the American ‘pretzel’ is horrific and bland, nothing like the noble ‘bretzel’ you get in Germany. Not to mention all the other food that’s been changed beyond repair *shudders*. On top of that, so many people over there are so keen to raise their kids ‘American’ (cos it’s the greatest somethingorother in the world apparently) they forget all about the beauty of the nation they came from. The result? You have all these people with really interesting names and interesting relatives but none of them have a clue about it. Knowing so much about the land of my fathers (and mothers), it does sadden me to think they’ll not know about that when it has enriched me so much as a person.

In short, I hate the way I am seen and some of the internal confusion that being of two cultures gives you, but I can live with it when I have gained so much. हिंदी एक बोहुत सुंदर भाषा है, और मुझे बोहुत आनंद है के मई उसकी प्रयोग कर सकता हूँ | Besides, we’re the ones that will help ensure the gems of wisdom, literature, etc from our adopted nation are passed on in the future. But we’re also open to other experiences, other ideals too. And that isn’t celebrated nearly as much as it should be!
So what am I? I am a person, first and foremost. But if you need classification, I’m British Indian (or Indian British if you prefer). In every sense of the word.
I may not fit in, but who cares? I’ll be at the crossroads of true progress one way or the other. Suck it, Griffin and Cameron!

Regards,

नमस्कार

The Vedic underdog
वेदों का व्यक्ति

What makes punya, action or intent? (Or, the pious are the most sinful)

First off the bat I should explain the meaning of punya. It’s a Sanskrit word for a good deed, and can be employed as a word to describe an action that is the opposite of sin. There doesn’t appear to be an English equivalent better than ‘virtue’ which is why I’ve decided to use this word, it’s far more apt.

I’ve been thinking about whether the action or the intent behind an action is the most important thing for doing punya recently. I’ll try to have a look at both personal and philosophical perspectives on it. So my first example: a guy joins a charitable organisation because he has a crush on a girl who volunteers for them. As part of his courtship dance he does his utmost for the charity and in doing so helps a lot of people. Whether he feels satisfaction or not from the actions is not necessarily important; is he a good person for doing the action or a bad one for giving in to his lust/desire/insert intellectual word for fancying here and changing the way he acts and does things? Personally I have to go for the former. At the very least him helping other people enriches their lives and leads them to want to help others or enrich others potentially. How can that possibly be bad? This is something that the Hindu laws of Karma also describe but I’ll get back to that later.

A more personal example would be me taking up vegetarianism. I initially did it because I was angry with the sheer ignorance of a group of meat eaters telling me how abstaining from meat is not only unnatural but morally wrong. That’s right; not wanting to kill an animal makes you a bad person. And on that whim I started. But when I read more about it, the health and environmental benefits of it (they’re real, you’re in denial if you think there aren’t), I realised it was a good choice with far more (positive) repercussions than the initial reasons that led me to this decision. And so to this day I have stuck with it.

Now for a Hindu example. Don’t cringe, I’m talking about mythological stories if the word ‘religion’ presses your cider (have a look at burden of the pious if you are offended). A thief dressed up as a priest because a king was looking for a noble pious man to marry his daughter (and he wanted the riches that came with that). Once he had dressed up and began to mingle, he was truly touched by the warmth and kindness he witness amongst these holy men, and he himself was transformed into a moral person by the experience. I’m not sure whether he got the girl but the important point is he managed to turn his life around from that moment on. Another example of action trumping intent.

With these examples I’m inclined to think that the actions one does seem to be more important that the reason behind them. Which is why I do believe in doing your duty, even if I don’t always manage to do so.

A slight deviation now: from personal experiences it does appear that pious people are more capable of sin than their less pious counterparts. On the surface this may seem ridiculous but when you think about it, who would know better about what wrong actions are’ than a pious person? Indeed they have an understanding of punya, but I’ve described with examples how that is meaningless. After all if you have all this pious knowledge and keep it to yourself and sit at home thinking about how lovely and pious you are, who does that help? No one, bar perhaps your ego getting a mild boost. It pains me to write that, for perhaps I am in that bracket. I am trying to spread the good vibes around though, honest. It remains to see what happens though from it.

I can think of a fourth anecdote that illustrates this principle above. Some time ago I was talking to a friend of mine, who is of the Hindu fold as I am but not as well versed. He enjoys alcohol and cigarettes and the all round debauchery that is often accused for corrupting Hindu youth and leading them astray. Despite this, he is always good humoured and loyal, always willing to help someone in need out if he can. He has brought joy into many lives. Yet, he says ‘I’m pretty sure I’m going to hell.’ Well first I corrected him, saying that ‘hell’ does not really exist in our philosophies (atheists just grit your teeth and get through this, it really isn’t that bad) and secondly that the universe operates on karma, with each action having an equal and opposite reaction. So, if you’ve done good things, there will be repercussions that are good from it. The opposite can be said for bad actions. At the end of the day these are weighed up and that is what really dictates how you progress in life (note that: I said IN this life, the afterlife is of no consequence to this).

This reminds me of some words of advice an ancient Egyptian gave to humanity: ‘do not worry too much about the afterlife, make THIS life your afterlife, THIS life your heaven.’ To get there, how ever you do it, you’ll need to give out good vibrations. It’s not just me that says that, top researchers do too. A Dr Gruber wrote in a recent article in the association for psychological sciences that ‘the strongest predictor of happiness is not money, or external recognition through success or fame,” Gruber says. “It’s having meaningful social relationships.” That means the best way to increase your happiness is to stop worrying about being happy and instead divert your energy to nurturing the social bonds you have with other people. “If there’s one thing you’re going to focus on, focus on that. Let all the rest come as it will.’

And with that thought combined with my two pennies on the matter (if you cared) I leave you

Regards

The Vedic Underdog

The danger of youth (or our time is always running out)

I have started a number of things later on in life than usual. Learning languages and instruments are examples of these. This is counterbalanced with a number of things I started at a very young age such as science and history. So in many ways I could write a testimonial to the adage ‘never too early, never too late’. But despite this, I’m actually writing the complete opposite. I’ll do my best to avoid the clichéd ‘life is short’ as much as I can but it shall be hard no doubt.

So what leads me to say this? Well, our youth driven society and the music performers I hang out with. A combination of the two has led me to this conclusion. That and the strange age I’m at where I’m neither particularly old nor the youngest of the young (OK, I suppose I am a bit more on the young side but still) and so you have the Indian brigade telling you to knuckle down and find a bride (cos you’re reaching that age) and the Anglo brigade to take it easy and take as long as you need to find someone you really connect with, and you have time to do that, you know, cos you’re young (apparently).

And so what do you take from that? You should go out and enjoy things in life, cos you’re young and still able-bodied to do so. If you're good at music and still youthful, squeeze as much as you can out of it before you're seen as being too old, which happens too often in this world.

But youth is often used as a reason not to do something. A popular saying amongst people my age and younger is ‘we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it’ for any number of situations i.e. not wanting to take responsibility for something and just enjoying it in an (almost) mindless fashion. And so many indulge (and indeed overindulge because hedonism is the only way, which I will discuss later on) and not think of any consequences. At all. It’s not as though you have to have every aspect of your life planned out because that would be almost as detrimental but there must be some middle ground. A moment thought about the consequences of doing something is a moment that can lead to maintained enjoyment of something. Just the right amount of indulgence of any number of things ensures your health will remain at a good enough level for you to enjoy it for many years to come. A tad preachy but remember that the man who doesn’t take time for his health in his youth will most definitely have to take time for his illness in old age.

But hedonism is, if anything, a digression from what I really wanted to say. Too many things are put off by all of us because we’re worried about the time not being quite right. And thoughts like that are poisonous to all of us getting the most out of ourselves, enjoying life to the fullest and making a difference around us (something which can ALL do, really) because it’s a shackle that stops us from flying high and free. Just do what you in your heart of hearts you know will make things better and give you a more wholesome existence. The time will never be better than right now.

I have a friend who has no qualms in getting drunk on a night out because life doesn’t really matter and so he’ll enjoy that but ends up depressed because life doesn’t really matter and he doesn’t feel like anyone will remember him when he’s gone. What a double edged sword he does hold. That is the kind of overthinking that can lead us to squander our time in thinking if we really are good enough for something or not rather than actually doing something, which is the truest indicator of all.

This entry may seem rambly, but below lies the take – home point:

‘Learn like you’re going to live forever. Live like you’re going to die tomorrow’.

Prudence and impulse are unlikely bedfellows

Regards

The Vedic Underdog