religion, impression and home truths

one of my friends raised this topic - that caused me to ponder a bit more than i normally do. he muses..

"was thinking (as i was stuck in traffic for 2 hours this am), and allow mw to explain at lenght, its time for a comeback in religion:- you look at a place like india (and many in the east) and you see a decay in dignity. ppl living in shacks and sewers with 5 children climbing all over each other.- in the west, esp. america, there is the 'i' mentality, which goes against all known religions and philophies.- in wealthy societies, ppl are apparently feeling alienated and lost its like in both places ppl are ignoring all previous "cautions and rules" and running blind. Religion, i think, is the best way to give them rules and borders - a framework. Sure i hear you say that, while in the past, religion and discpline brought huge progress parallely in the arts, sciences etc (minus galileo) at the cost of a miserable life for the masses, i think in today's day and age, a good mix of democracy and religion gives both freedom and discipline. Then though, thers is the belief that democracy when combined with capitalist society cannot coexist well with religion as the former two eventually lead to segregated,shallow socities where ppl are increasing alienated form scoieties. are capitalism and democracy just a differnet religion? which would work better?

moving on from, or rather with capitalism.. someone further remarked - the buildings we create are a reflection of our times and values....in the renaissance times it was the churches and cathedrals that were of supreme reverence ... because the church was the most coveted seat of all.. this gave way to castles and manors because the monarchy and the subsequent hierarchy became utmost important.

but even in all that there was a ceratin beauty attached to the architecture, the facade, the interior///.. fast forward to today and we see monstrous multistories- the supposed symbol of ultimate power - of all the money can ever buy and state..but lacking in the charmed beauty of a beautiful home or even a grand estate

. im not per say oppsoed to big houses - and im the first endorser of creature comforts to the extent of in-house gyms, pools et all... but i somehow still try to search for a lost meaning , probably a case of hidden identity , when i cross or walk-into someones house , the first, second or 50th time. and i still try to see how the home maker projects that identity.

today its a case of i-have-more-than you, more art ,more rooms, more facilities ..

200 years back a house reflected a mood, an era , a mind set .. the burgoiese had their trademark looks and proletariarts of course had to settle for theirs. today boundaries are being crossed and what was once reserved for the uber-elite has been forced to be part of the middle-class shopping cart, with market dynamics playing spoilt sport. the rich have had to strech their limit and wallet to indeed prove that they are rich.. which leads to a bigger problem. in an attempt to look better - the garsih replaces the classy and the loud replaces the sober. old money with all its undertstaed elegance has given way to even the most subdued spenders( who didnt have to spend obviously to make a statement) are doing so , just to be able to maintain that above othjers cut.

revolutions of the mind - by anand G

The first thing I ever learned about India was that my parents had chosen to leave it.The country was lost to us in America, where I was born. It had to be assembled in my mind, from thefragments of anecdotes and regular journeys east.Now, six years after returning to the country my parents left, as I prepare to depart it myself, the mindgoes back to the beginning, to my earliest pictures of it.India, reflected from afar, was late-night phone calls with the news of death. It was calling backrelatives who could not afford to call you. It was Hindu ceremonies with saffron and Kit Kat bars on aIndians now know that they don’t have to leave to have theirpersonal revolutions.India, consumed on our visits back, was being fetched from the airport and cooked a meal even in thedead of night. It was sideways hugs that strove to avoid breast contact. It was the chauvinism of uncleswho asked about my dreams and ignored my sister’s.It was wrong, yet easy, to feel that we did India a favor by coming home. We packed our suitcases withthings they couldn’t get for themselves: Jif peanut butter, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Gap khakis. Theseimports sketched a subtle hierarchy in which they were the wanting relatives and we their benefactors.My cousins in India would sometimes ask if I was Indian or American. I saw that their self-esteemdepended on my answer. “American,” I would say, because it was the truth, and because I felt that tosay otherwise would be to accept a lower berth in the world.What it meant to be American was to be free to invent yourself, to belong to a family and a society inwhich destiny was believed to be human-made.I looked around in India and saw everyone in their boxes, not coming fully into their own, replicatinglives lived before. If only they came to America, I told myself, so-and-so would be a millionaireentrepreneur; so-and-so would be as confident in her opinions as her husband; so-and-sos’ marriagewould be more like my parents’, with verve and swing-dancing lessons and bedtime crosswordpuzzles; so-and-so would study history and literature, not just bankable practicalities.I moved to India six years ago in an effort to understand it on my own terms, to render mine what haduntil then only belonged to my parents.India was changing when I arrived and has changed dramatically, viscerally, improbably in these2,000 days: farms giving way to factories; ultra-cheap cars being built; companies buying out rivalsabroad. But the greatest change I have witnessed is elsewhere. It is in the mind: Indians now knowthat they don’t have to leave, as my parents left, to have their personal revolutions.It took me time to see. At first, my old lenses were still in place — India the frustrating, difficultcountry — and so I saw only the things I had ever seen.But as I traveled the land, the data did not fit the framework. The children of the lower castes werehoisting themselves up one diploma and training program at a time. The women were becomingbreadwinners through microcredit and decentralized manufacturing. The young people were findingin their cellphones a first zone of individual identity. The couples were ending marriages no matterwhat “society” thinks, then finding love again. The vegetarians were embracing meat and meat-eaterswere turning vegetarian, defining themselves by taste and faith, not caste.Indians from languorous villages to pulsating cities were making difficult new choices to die otherthan where they were born, to pursue vocations not their father’s, to live lives imagined within theirown skulls. And it was addictive, this improbable rush of hope.The shift is only just beginning. Most Indians still live impossibly grim lives. Trickle down, here morethan most places, is slow. But it is a shift in psychologies, and you rarely meet an Indian untouched byGrabbing hold of their destinies, these Indians became the unlikely cousins of my own immigrantparents in America: restless, ambitious, with dreams vivid only to themselves. But my parents hadsought to beat the odds in a bad system, to be statistical flukes that got away.What has changed since they left is a systemic lifting of the odds for those who stay. It is a milestone inany nation’s life when leaving becomes a choice, not a necessity.My parents watch me from their perch outside Washington, D.C., and marvel at history’s sense ofirony: a son who ended up inventing himself in the country they left, who has written of the self-inventing swagger of a rising generation of Indians, in a country where “self” was once a vulgar word.At times, my mother wonders if they should have remained, should have waited for their owncountry’s revolution instead of crashing another’s. And as I leave India now I can only wonder howhistory would have turned out if the ocean of change had come a generation earlier.Because it came between their generation and mine, the premise of our family story has been pulledout from beneath us. We are American citizens now, my family, and proudly so. But we must face thatwe are Americans because of a choice prompted by truths that history has undone. They were true atthe choice’s making; in India, I saw their truth boil slowly away.They don’t crave our mayonnaise and khakis anymore. They no longer angrily berate America,because they are too busy building their own country. Indian accents are now cooler than British ones.No one asks if I feel Indian or American. How delicious to see that unconcern. How fortunate to live ina land you needn’t leave to become your fullest possible self.And how wondrous, in this time of revolutions, to have had my own here.I grew up in America defining myself by the soil under my feet, not by the blood in my veins. The soil Ishared with everyone else; the blood made me unbearably different. Before I loved India, I loathed it.But that feeling seems now like a relic from a buried past.I leave now on the journey’s next stretch, with sadness and with joy, humbled by India, grateful tohave been at the revolution and to have known the revolutions within.

The Indian Elections-New York Times-— V Mitchell

This truly the greatest show on Earth, an ode to a diverse and democratic ethos, where 700 million + of humanity vote, providing their small part in directing their ancient civilization into the future. It is no less impressive when done in a neighborhood which includes de-stabilizing and violent Pakistan , China , and Burma .Its challenges are immense, more so probably than anywhere else, particularly in development and fending off terrorism -- but considering these challenges and its neighbors, it is even more astounding that the most diverse nation on Earth, with hundreds of languages, all religions and cultures, is not only surviving, but thriving.The nation where Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism were born, which is the second largest Muslim nation on Earth; where Christianity has existed for 2000 years; where the oldest Jewish synagogues and Jewish communities have resided since the Romans burnt their 2nd temple; where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile reside; where the Zoroastrians’ from Persia have thrived since being thrown out of their ancient homeland; where Armenians and Syrians and many others have to come live; where the Paris-based OECD said was the largest economy on Earth 1500 of the last 2000 years, including the 2nd largest only 200 years ago; where 3 Muslim Presidents have been elected, where a Sikh is Prime Minister and the head of the ruling party a Catholic Italian woman, where the President is also a women, succeeding a Muslim President who as a rocket scientist was a hero in the nation; where a booming economy is lifting 40 million out of poverty each year and is expected to have the majority of its population in the middle class, already equal to the entire US population, by 2025; where its optimism and vibrancy is manifested in its movies, arts, economic growth, and voting, despite all the incredible challenges and hardships; where all the great powers are vying for influence, as it itself finds its place in the world. Where all of this is happening, is India , and as greater than 1/10 of humanity gets ready to vote, it is an inspiration to all the World. — V Mitchell , New York , NY