Sachin Dixit's Blog

Happy Intellectual is an interesting concept .Some how i find this as oxymoron .

Lets say for the sake of simplicity that an intellectual is a person who thinks . He [ gender neutral ] is someone who always thinks . He thinks about everything that happens around him .He tries to reason everything that goes around him and every thing that goes on but not around him 🙂 .
This is the guy who relies more on reason and logic than customs and rituals . Such a reliance often lead this person to question things . Such questions then begets agreements and disagreements over things .And then on an intellectual person starts taking stand . Stand for things he thinks and believes in . This is kind of a raw energy that has potential to shape things . Call it power of thought if we wish .Consider this a brain power 🙂
Cut to real life an intellect is either a rebel or he is into his own shell . But the power remains .

Lets move to over next type . A Happy person . He is someone ,everyone likes to be .Here is happy person who cheerful about life and things that go on . He is optimistic about tings that go around him and accommodates whatever happens with a smile .
I wonder where does such an sanguine outlook of the world come from . Is that a happy person is more acceptable towards thing .Must be .One cant be at peace with things he cant accept .
At cognitive level ,scientist say , being happy is being wel adjusted .So may be our Happy person dint accept things as they are but he compromised. Its like acceptance of convenience .And its also about ignoring the inconvenient .
Life as harsh and unfair it can be is a rough thing to deal with and digest .And i find such a compromise for the sake of feel good as quite practical .Its just the acceptance of human limitation and weakness . But once , the books say , we accept things as they are life become easier . It becomes easy . Such ease makes one optimistic about future . And this spreads cheer in ones dealing . This makes our Happy person .

We come across both these types . Somehow the intellectual person isnt that happy . And the happy person isnt that questioning . We find both of the normal .

I dont have any final verdict on what the right thing . But at fundamental level i disagree with both these types . Somewhere i find them extremes .Extremes in their belief that everything should be logical or nothing should be . Extreme in their practice or determination and immediate acceptance .
Somewhere at deeper level both make evident tow of the very strong tendency of human nature . While the intellectual signifies spirit of human mind and its might the happy person exemplifies our insatiable need of assurance .Without again taking a side i feel both of these are going for one sided and over simplified world view .
Its like one person choosing to always fight and one … never .

We as human race might still spend ages trying to figure out exactly how powerful human mind is . We as human race might go on getting philosophical and expound the virtues of acceptance .

Enter our Happy intellectual . This is an interesting category . Its of the people who understand that life is struggle to being with but the end can be a compromise . or may be the other way round . Point is its the Happy intellectuals non pursuel of a static view of world that makes it exciting . This is the person who is always cool with ever changing reality and still ready to negotiate his way out . He embodies the best of our fighter spirit and our sentimental flexibility .
He for once is the person who can switch between material and spiritual realms of our existence with ease .
To me thing signals an immense power . Its the flaring human mind that’s under control . Its the gushing human emotions that are under supervision . Its an enterprising human mind that values people .Its the realization that world need to be improved but not altered to suit ones convenience . Its the determination life needs to be enjoyed and be fought for .
Its of the people who has power to change things and the maturity to know what needs to changed why and how and most importantly how much .

Ben was one such person , i met in flight when i was drunk . One of such a person i know .and the reason why he matter is he is intellectual and he is happy .

As a teen i used to have big complaints on my friends forgetting to wish me birthday .Its was a simple funda for me then . Anyone one who wishes me on the day was my real friend .Nopes i dint confuse between great friends and routine ones . But someone who cares to remember my birthday was really my friend . Later when i grew up the fundae also changed . But i cant still laugh at my criteria of really friends . It was a rather simple and practical consideration .Some how the act of doing something so basic as saying Happy Bday assured the sanctity of the relation . I still go with the funda .doing things matter [ not so abt the converse though ].

Mumbai Attack on Taj and Trident were no small event for India .Much has been writeen about them and as the time passes its becoming more evident that this incident is going to shape India big time .More especially its considerations on nationalism .

I wish to draw attention to the other aspect where its going to make bigg difference , Indian democracy . As as institution its maturing .The way Mumabi blast prosecution is being handled makes the same thing evident .
Patriotism apart the basic things that happeing in and around Ajmal Kasabs trial is the case in point. Consider this Here is a nation infamous for Godhra and the mumbai attack . Here is the terrorist accused cought for Mumabi attck , looking all healthy . There was no news of any kinda of religious abuse towards this guy . He is presented in court and given a fair trial .

If you are not Indian or don’t believe much in Indian judicial system I wont argue with you .
But the fact that Ajmal Kasab has been given a govt laywer . The fact that Ms Anjali Waghmare is determined to fight his case . The fact that there is going to be detailed court trial does establish the sanctity of Indian democracy . No big claims that this is something so great about India .Rather its a sigh of content that the system is sane and working .

U know what the daughter of Hemant Karkare , the cop who died in mumbai attack said about kasab ” Release him , he is rather young can be/is mislead ” .May that’s something unique to this soil .. may be ..

The question hurts !.

The answer seems to be obvious but still … India has a long way to go in the process of respecting itself .

The attack was unprecedented in many respects. There was this generation and whole of india who started watching live action as it started .Boradcasted across network it had a moviegoers thrill in the eyes of many watching .Yes there was anger and a sense of being insulted when the siege continued for days but that too shows the naivety that we collectively have for such situations .
While we salute the brave police officers many of us have tough time ignoring that the ATS chief died with an out dated Armour in place .
While we appulaud the commandos we have tough time too ignoring the delays the system made .
Mumbai attack shattered many things along with the pride of Indians .
Its now a nation coming in terms with reality .Its people are realizing the sweet assumptions that we had aren’t so ! .

This India is now demanding action .And for a time after many years Indians started to realize that we are asking at the wrong place .
Its this india who is facing the moment of truth .The truth that we ignored and compromised the very basics standards that need to be followed to make a good society a great republic .Its this painful process of self examination that we are going through leaves me with hope that we may finally evolve to the questioning and uncompromising nation that we historically were know to be .

This is not to say that we or any other nation could avoid such incidents in future .Infcat i strongly believe thats its India who has the philosophical maturity to solve the problem of it at fundamental level .
But not in this incident .This was a case of terror and national insult and we must be candid in acknowledging that this is also a case of nation ignorant and unprepared ! .

To me Mumbai attacks aren’t unprecedented because they killed so many people or because they took hostage .It for reason subtle and far more effective for social psyche that makes them defining for India .

consider this :
This was the attack on foreign nationals most notably Israelis . This was also attack on the riches and not some train passenger .This was the attack happening on the background of rise of the term called hindu terror . This was the Most uncommunal aattck we had .This was the aattck where Muslims in mumbai denied access to their graveyard for terrorist burial .That to me , my friend is life defining moment for this nation .
Most notebly this was the attack in the age of media .This was the time where we had pakistani journalist participating in TV debates .It was in the face , like a slap , awakening the masses that unknowingly chose to pretned to sleep .

But now, somewhere it takes some amount of pain to call ourself that great of nation and super power in making .And this kind of feeling is frustrating .While i observe an event in making i pray that we feel more angry than frustrated , for its the former that leads to action . The later is just a drama done for self satisfaction .

While its too cute to believe that condy rices’s visit to Delhi was just a goodwill gesture .
The main question is will we go on war ?

The answer my friend in NO .

Not that i take side on we going or not going on war .The main question that won’t let me sleep is will the generation remember that we chose not to go on war ?
Will the generation never forget this choice made for progress as price paid and later channelize this in greater and universal benefit .

The main question is how far we will remember this day ?,will be take instant decision or will we stop compromising on principles? …will we improve the sum total of us …the nation ….?

the real question is …will india awake and arise ?!

The idea of lending money to non worthy people at higher interest rates sounds good. Making bonds out of these loans and selling them sounds like a real clever trick .Something that an MBA lad can be promoted to many ranks higher to :)…..And thats sub prime for you , and its collapsing .The magnitude of this problem , wel as of now a trillion doller .And the effect …well it remains to be seen how far and deeply it hurts us .

But its not the damage that worries me .In fact some some people say that there might not be , after all , a great recession in USA and sub prime would be just like a bump across a long road. And that scares me even more .There is after all a limit to how far people can go with a shit [sorry but no better word to express…] . And to say that it will be managed somehow is even dangerous .

One need not be a financial wizard to find this out. The system has messed up with a trillion $ and some one has to pay for this.And thats as simple as that .

Unfortunately this simple fact seem to have been forgotten .By whom ? 🙂 , well thats little tough to word .

If you meet an MBA graduated out of a business school its interesting to note how they contrast one idea with other …say efficiency versus effectiveness .The points that are made in such analysis are fine and sometimes subtle and the conclusion quite revealing.One can also see how cleverly data is put together to form patterns , predict things and plan things.A life where things live in balance sheets …between quarters .;the list of such wizardly mental feats is long and these are quite important to people in corporate world .It seems like they have found out the secret of how tings works in this worlds , like we can control future .

While i am not really into either confirming or denying this ,the fact remains that something somewhere is going wrong .

At a level they did confuse ends and means.At some point in the quest to manage and survive in competition it happened .The fallacy can be elaborated to death .But bashing some people for their mistakes isn’t .. progress anyway .

Its defeat of the masses that need to be blamed .

The western or more correctly the school of philosophy and logic from the pioneer of industrialized set of people has been ruling the world .The ideas and concepts that were proposed sounded revolutionary and they seem to have worked .And worked a lot. From globalisation to GDPs to massic currency exchagre rate the language that people thing in , the point of views that define good vs bad …everything was impacted .A new world order of right and better was set.And it set so strongly that it overwhelmed and overtook many of the longest surviving civilization .At times this also rendered thier ideas as outdated and obsolete . Today when we look at the wisdom in financial and coporate world its hard to appreciate diversity.And thats where the point lies .

Everyone everywhere began to do the same thing , so much so , that people stopped questioning .Nobody wondered how could consuming the finite resources can really result in progress of man kind .How could a company rellay exist if all you have is many instituations owning it without , always any passion apart from profit driving it .Or say what heppen to identity on the day we reach the destination of globalisation .And lastly how the hell can U make prosper from lending to ppl not worthy of it .

Its not that the mindset where such hard questioning can come from does not exist .But they all wherever they exist are overwhelmed .It can also be termed as death of local sense against the global norms of carrying out business .

And surpisingly this local sense is where lies the hope .

This is not to say that the harwards and yales are done with all they could nourish and give to world.But all these while they are all that was there as origin of new thought.Time has come for other soils to get into a kind of intellectual churning ,come up with their own thought on carrying worlds business and the synthesis that would result might just bring us to the best set of ideals for a sensible and meaning full of conducting affairs .

….would the likes of IIM please stand and be counted ?

Needless to say it’s a fine channel , coming from CNBC network .They serve excellent analysis on money and everything related to it .And the punch is ….its in Hindi .

Debates were always on in India , more so may be in the south ,that the generations that grow should grow in Indian language. It assumed different dimensions ranging from social engineering to something as obvious as TV channels. The overall subject of national identity and its future with respect to language is quite vast for this write up, but something that’s can be a short and excellent case driving in the point is education. Like all other spheres of it India had it large share of experiments with teaching and language chosen as medium of instruction. The synthesis had many academic and political offshoots some of them quite extreme and some rather ridiculous .

And as usual, the masses did deliver the verdict , English is the way to educate yourself in India , something quite poetic to a Democratic country .

There are voices that say to retain our nation pride we must educate our pupil in our own languages and countries like Germany and all are often cited as example .And when all these people could make the decision , which they did , we see state boards schools teaching everything in Indian languages .And there were others who said in order to survive on globalized world we need to learn it all in English, and these voices , which often came from the masses seem to have won .There is no point detailing on how the medium of education and mastering a language can be and are tow different tasks and can be done equally well , because anyone who really thinks on this matter can realize this soon on his own .And to make it more clear this isn’t actually realized by most .

The experiment with all-in-own-language resulted in Science being taught in some really absurd and unimaginative vocabulary .And the other extreme is made evident by Indian middle classes fascination of English private schools .Interestingly tough the moderates, did come up with something called as semi English wherein few subjects were taught in English and others in some chosen language .But that was more of dividing the problem than solving it .

Something that surprises me is that both the sides do make the valid point and drive them halfway through , exactly where the solution would have emerged .The nationalist when say it helps to nurture children in their own language ignore that subjects like maths and science [as tought in school] aren’t what is grown in India. And the other side while trying to keep pace with world ignore that English isn’t what the kids think in . To be complete ;things are not so black and white and well separate as such and there is a generation that does think in English and so on .

The point that’s complete lost in is by virtue of a simple mistake in approach taken to solve this .The over emphasis on ends that the means .And to put is very simply the whole story of a language chosen and education is that of relevance ! . Relevance then can be elaborated on different themes such as simplicity of usage , ease of conveying the subjects in the language , strategy of easing and incorporating new trends in subjects ..and many more academic divisions like that .

Relevance and lack of it is what made these experiments not so successful . And relevance is what CNBC Awaz made highlighted in it success . Its very simple here , the channel servers the content that’s of use to the masses , it servers that in the language that’s understood by them . To be fair that fact that science can be made extremely and deeply understandable in Hindi was first made clear by discovery channel .But theirs is more of a linguistic achievement ….

Any smart guy would use instead of saying account would use Hindi word “Khata” and I personally wont waste time praising them for this J .CNBC Awaz not only came up with innovative words for Global and financial jargon but it also changed itself and accommodated and integrated to the lingo and mind and logic of Indian masses .And that’s where you have day trading being effectively serverd in Hindi on a Channel from an Agency from outside India .

I could go on elaborating how well and distinctively CNBC did their task but the point in case is …. How they did it and the fact that they did it .What they did with finance and an Indian language is something that might just hold key to all answers and solutions on why and how can one do education in his own language .Its after all building better people while and before building a better nation .

Someone like CNBC did that here ..made the language and content relevant to each other, is doing it really well .And at times this Hindi version of channel is better that the English counterpart .Its not about the linguistic victory but the feat …that excites me ……
…….profit from it ! ..that’s the wish ..

Taare Zameen Par [ TZP ] is a good movie and Amir khan can be congratulated for bringing dyslexia as a theme of an Indian movie.

But them somehow ,i dont really feel the movie is all abt dyslexia or even status of education in india .The movie has a strong undercurrent of a Fathers palce in a childs life ….More so is …a fathers place in sons life.

Coming in terms with fathers has never been easy for Sons . Infact this as an occurance seldom happens .There are generally 2 extremes , either He has a place of God , not to be scanned critically or a complete and convenient ignorance .Its just left there ….like a coiled spring , generations after generations .And that is what ensures the phenomenon continues.

Producing a Man , one more Man in this world is concept thats thrilling to Men .And this ,which is sledom acknowledged as DADs attitude towards Sons is central to this theme.Sons are seen as extension of the Egos by DADs much like sowrds used to be in earlier times.And this adds quite an amount of expectation and possession on the Son.Posession is something that keeps the worlds going.They say Boyz dont grow only the toyz do .And a son is a power toy.

Its definitely not that all Fathers are the same or any such generalization .The point however is the differance between love and love for a reason .The reason can assume several shades and so does the relation of DAD with the son…Caring …Abusive …Neglected …pampered …even pure and truely loving …so on …so forth.

Its because the kids life is controlled by some one , its very important that once grown up a critical analysis of this process and if needed some new decisions should be made by each of us.Easy as this is to say , such review of authority figures[or for that matter any past relation] can be painful when you realize you where loved for a reason and not loved enough….or at all ! .Those who bear this and manage to review lives are what you would see around as examples of Happy people .

We should give parents their due share of being human and being fallible in decisions they made for the kid.Once can also say that Men are not wired to be emotional.But i think its stretching the justification too far. Men are just not used to give attention to subtle-basic-long term things.Or may be.. they are just never told that they don’t.

None needs an explanation that Mother is the one (usually) one that teaches the child Love and how to Love . And Fathers …well…. lets say protection or say they tell the boy how to be a Man .
But then do they really tell the boyz how to be a Man , coz in that case there wont be anything to mention abt.What actually happens is Fathers tell the Sons What is it to be Man .And this is what is the catch !

A Father is kids concept Man .Or incase things are bad , its his concept of how not be a Man.But in wither of the cases he is the one that rules .Rules ……….a child’s contract with Authority Figures . Its a seed that defines almost everything related to authority , howz , whats , what Nots etc .Its this authority…this concept of Control, as the kid grows up , he adds his own observation and makes a Final contract of his life. And this time its about Power .

And we dont any elaboration on how and what Good and Bad …………..can be -was- and will be affected by Men Plus Power equation .

And the Sad part is….. this equation lacks , again for one more time, for one more generation , the same things .The adamantness of being correct , the insistance on control,the emphasis on possession, the lack of scope for any other point of few ….and for the worst part the ability to love …or ….to love …just like that…for no reason …themselves …….their sons…often enough ………

[No gender bias , this blog is abt Sons] .
[This one is a writeup.. not my Dairy].