The hard choice

In artificial intelligence, “search” and “decision-making” happen to be two very important problems. Both eventually reduce to picking a good/best option from the given set of options.

Actually the reason why human beings are supposed to be intelligent creatures is because they can make that best/good/optimal choice. Our survival has depended on our ability to make choices. However problem with us is that often we confront a situation when we know what is the best choice but can’t make that choice.

Our mind knows what is the best choice and it knows that it can’t make that choice. This becomes on problem that can lead deepest sorrows of your life. The reason for agony is not really the choice made but the fact that we could not make the desired choice. Time goes on and situations change but that incompleteness remains within.

We procrastinate the final decision thinking time will get us out of the dilemma and decision-making eventually gets even more tougher. More time you take more wounds it inflicts on your state of mind. ultimately you decide to live with those wounds.

What should a wise man do in such cases? I searched for answers. I am not sure if I have got a good solution. I guess everyone has to face the situation when he is forced to make a choice he never wanted to make. I dont have any wise man around me to help me find a solution but I suppose such situation build strength of character. Anything that builds character is ought to bring misery says Calvin.

But then I have this beautiful words from Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s butler. I have liked this character the most in the whole movie. His dialogs have added a contemplative depth to both the batman movie.

Bruce Wayne: People are dying, Alfred. What would you have me do?
Alfred Pennyworth: Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They’ll hate you for it, but that’s the point of Batman, he can be the outcast. He can make the choice that no one else can make, the right choice.
Bruce Wayne: Well today I found out what Batman can’t do. He can’t endure this. Today you get to say “I told you so.”
Alfred Pennyworth: Today, I don’t want to.
[pauses for several moments]
Alfred Pennyworth: But I did bloody tell you.

I am not the batman.

Why I make spelling mistakes

I was flamed many times for my spelling mistakes. My sense of grammar is beyond redemption hence no one bothers to criticize. I am very much concerned about the process of education and learning more than anything else and wondered why can’t I spell even some of the most common words.

Till today I need to take help of dictionary-spellcheck to write words like Bureaucracy, Wednesday, Author (I write Auther usually). And I swear when I type this words just now I got them all wrong.

Am I linguistically impaired? Should I declare myself language atheist and demand minority status in this secular country? When I can manage subjects like probability, artificial intelligence with ease why should I fail in spelling Wednesday ?

I have discovered the reason and I feel it is something that all parents should remember. It so happened that when I entered from a marathi medium school to a semi-english medium school.  And honestly I did not share my parent’s enthusiasm for my education and the whole process of establishing that they are blessed with a smart kid.

I can’t really blame them for that. They were just trying to be “normal” parent though their kid I believe was a pretty abnormal one.

To make a smooth transition from primary to secondary school, the principle of the highschool, a very honorable man, conducted extra classes. In those he introduced us to basic blocks of English language. He taught us numbers, names of days and months, to recite tables in english etc. My mom insisted that I must top in the end test with full marks. That I must learn all that by heart.

I find it incredibly funny that parents often brag that their kid is not the “by heart” types. Instead he just reads once and understands. They call this true intelligence while knowing nothing about the kid next door they dont forget to bitch that “he is a by heart types”. They spread rumours that the parents actually lock up that guy/girl to make him study.

It is both ways. While my parents claimed so about all the kids who were apparently smarter than me and their parents claimed so about me. In the battle of beliefs we kids were the casualties.

But as the test day appeared close and close. I began to hate my life. In all the revisions that my mom administered I failed to get most of the spellings correct. She was furious and often used words such as “if you fail to do this you will never have a future”, “all students will race ahead in life while you will be stuck to the bottom”. I never really appreciated why exactly I have to race ahead instead of enjoying th wonderful summer vacation. What exactly is meant by sticking to the bottom?

But I guess the real phrases that did the damage were something like “you will put us to shame”. As a kid we have a lot of exaggerated sense of shame and pride. Hurting families pride was the last thing I wanted to do that was the only reason I endured the tortures I went through.

And when the results of that final tests were out they caused an avalanche in my small house. Out of 7 days of week I had got 4 spellings wrong. I had failed to figure out that some consecutive months in year have 31 days ( I still can’t recollect which months that quickly).  I had spelt “Four” as “Fore”  and Telephone as “Telefone”.

That day went a little tough on my little mind. My mom had taken my failure to heart. I was not even allowed to have my lunch peacefully and I almost felt that every one in the house including the servants gave me looks that echoed “such a loser”.

Soon my outlook towards English language turned extremely bitter. I was very proficient in Marathi for my age. I could read books that looked heavy to even adults. But as far as english and spellings are concerned I developed a trauma.

Soon I refused to learn them. I refused to learn them because I wanted to prove that not knowing correct spelling of “Four” is not going to hurt my future in any way. I am not sure if such an attitude is good for a student but I can always claim that it is due to the surroundings.

Had my mother realized that knowledge of a language is not about ratting spellings of words for the sake of topping a test but it is meant for effective communication. This effective communication comes from clarity of thought and ability to put it in clear words. Vocabulary, grammar (I typed this as grammer)  and spellings are meant to complement this activity. There is a pure joy involved in this.

I think the most important skills that as a kid one should learn is to accept failures. Doing something the wrong way. To rise above that cut throat competition and look at the world around us with inquisitiveness and curiosity. Add something to it with your creativity. Creativity my friend comes only from mistakes.

People who fear to fail become software engineers and clerks. Creative people become some one like Tendulkar, King Khan, Einstein etc. And the world and little fields have ample scope for mini Tendulkars and Einsteins. On the other hands there are just too many rats in the rat race.

Bottom line. My spellings have a story behind it. Dont blame me for that

In the Print 2:Our Beliefs must be Open to Change

Reproducing my letter published in today’s Navhind Times:

THIS is in response to ‘Bible and Science Compatible’ (NT, November 11). The concept of ‘the book’ in monotheist religions is based on a completely unscientific premise that there exists a God, who writes books through writers referred to as prophets, messengers or messiahs. Most of the things in these books are to be accepted as true purely because of the premise that it is the Word of God. Let us say the God indeed felt the need to give a message. Consider the second commandment ‘Thou shall not erect any graven images’. Is this really the second most important thing that the God wanted future generations of human beings to believe in? Is this as good as it gets spiritually and ethically? But more than the actual content, the subscription to the idea that a particular book is not merely a piece of literature but a product of some omnipotent power is more dangerous. All the progress, scientific as well as non-scientific is a search, where one is expected to constantly challenge previously held beliefs in the light of new facts and improve the collective understanding of humanity. The idea of a sacrosanct book is a barrier to our growth. Science may not have all the answers or it may not have any answers to some of the most profound questions about life and happiness. Spirituality might be one way. But whatever way we chose needs to be open to change, improvement, reason and experimentation. It should not be based on beliefs that are to be assumed true on the merit of some book or person.
AKSHAR PRABHU DESAI, Canacona

This bird must be killed

When I see a toaster malfunctioning and when I write software with bugs I know how complex even ordinary things are. So I always wondered how people really trust airlines with their life when it is such complex machine. Couple it with governments incomparable intelligence for messing up things and I made my mind never to fly by Indian Airlines.

Why a government should be in aviation business is something that my naive mind doesn’t understand. It has nothing to with national security, public good, governance etc. There are several other airlines which running in this country which offer a far better service.

Today’s news reads that this company has registered losses of Rs. 1.2 billion dollars. All this money came from my pocket and was wasted on over aged air hostesses, pilots who molest air hostesses, ministers flying and drunk passengers. My hard earned money was drained by the people I cant stand for 5 minutes.

There are several ironies that exist in our country. One of them is “a self proclaimed pro-poor (read pro-poverty) government running a service affordable only to 10% of it’s people”. This pro-poor government which apparently goes wrong on every economic aspect is headed by a “honest” man who owns a Phd. in economics.

When Arun Shourie went ahead with disinvestment he was termed as anti-poor, scandalous and what not. Both congress and media were up in arms against him. They argued that government is ought to be in the business of running hotels, bankrupt business and communication. Now that they are in power they are all for reforms.

They justify their moves by saying even NDA did the same thing. They too disinvested and we too are disinvesting.

There is a fundamental difference.

Government should not run businesses because it is simply not good at it. It not only screws up things it also holds back the potential of that particular industry. For example VSNL after being acquired by TATA has grown leaps and bounds. It has also significantly improve the quality of services thats available to industries. (Though they are still far from what is required).

When these businesses run in losses they inflict much more damage. They act as a sink of valuable public money. The $1.2b wasted by Air India could have been used to do so many wonderful things. It was a sufficient amount to fund the new 7 IITs. It was enough to build couple of more sea links.

The idea behind disinvestment is not just selling some of your assets to save your ass for a year or more but it should be strategic. It must be done is a way that it not only gets money to government but also changes the way in which it is being managed. This is possible only if you get rid of majority stake. This is precisely is not happening.

Disinvestment in AirIndia will be a gross mistake if the government does sell it’s majority stake and changes it’s management. Rather with such huge liabilities no will be ready to acquire this bird in any ways. I guess it must be killed. But then no will like to kill the bird that lays golden egg worth $1.2b in they backyard.

Vande Mataram and Islam

It is very annoying to see that everyone around you is more happier to live in darkness despite of knowing where the light is. Or it can be other way round as well that I am in darkness and all others are in the true light. But no one so far has managed to convince me.

An organization of Muslim clerics declared that “Vande Mataram” is unislamic. Now there were two reactions expected. One from the secularists and another from the so-called hindutva organizations. If one thinks that both these camps would fight over the issue, one will make a mistake. They will certainly fight each other but their basic understanding of the issue is inherently the same.

Should the state force a song on its citzens or not is purely a state affair and hence must be dealt with true secularism. It is certainly a right of people to study a religion and declare something “unislamic”, “unhindu” or “blasphemy”. But I dont see a need for the state to bother about what does a book say about things which are not at all religious.

But see how the secularists respond. They are shocked. They now instead try to prove that “Vande Mataram” is in coherence with Islam. How the Quran should be interpreted in order to make it look like something that permits Muslims to sing vande mataram. Using religious arguments to counter religion’s attack on secularism is the mistake that the have been doing for a long time.

Imagine tomorrow the same organization gives away a fatawah saying “frisking muslims is unislamic” will the government refer to Quran and argue with them that it is not the way to interpret Quran? Shouldnt it say “If it is unislamic, so be it.” ? Failure of our leaders to do so has costed us so much. Instead the secular camp has bent before the Communal demands of various religions from time and now.

If someone considers RSS and similar organizations to be the nemesis of Secular camp they will be making a gross mistake. The Sar-Sanghchalak says

I don’t think any religion is against desh bhakti. To say Bharat Mata ki Jai and Vande Mataram is not like a religious puja or idol worship.

Isnt this the same thing? Now I hear that Sangh has also offered to translate Vande Mataram in Urdu. The difference between the secular and RSS approach apparently has absolutely no difference. And both these approaches are essentially deviating from the secular principles over which we are supposed to function.

By using such arguments the leaders are actually legitimizing the “living by the book”. In a long run the public is only going to demand that the state policies be modeled on these books that are written thousand year old.

Morons!

 

Subhashitam सुभाषितम

One thing I always liked about Sanskrit was this concept of Subhashitam (Good-Thoughts). There are often full of figure of speeches and sometimes even rely on sarcasm. Many even might sound contradictory. Here are some picked from this source.

भूतिर्नीचगृहेषु विप्रसदने दारिद्र्यकोलाहलः
नाशो हंत सतामसत्पथजुषामायुः शतानां शतम् |
दुर्नीतिं तव वीक्ष्य कोपदहनज्वालाजटलोऽपिसन्
किं कुर्वे जगदीश यत्पुनरहं दीनो भवानीश्वरः ||

- भामिनीमान

The bad people always have plenty. Poverty dances in the homes of people who lead a honest life. Virtuous people die early while the rogues live for hundred years. When I see such atrocities in Your creation, I get all fumed up in anger. But what can I do, I am helpless and you are all powerful.

- Bhaminimana

Now let us pick something from Manusmriti.

भद्रं भद्रमिति ब्रूयात् भद्रमित्येव वा वदेत् |
शुष्कवैरं विवादं च न कुर्यात् केनचित् सह ||

- मनुस्मृति

One must always talk auspiciously. One must not talk negatively about anybody’s endeavor. One must not quarrel just for the sake of quarreling. One must not pickup unnecessary arguments

- Manu Smriti

And on importance of revenge

पादाहतं यदुत्थाय मूर्धानमधिरोहति |
स्वस्थादेवापमानेऽपि देहिनस्तद्वरं रजः ||

- शिशुपालवध

When kicked with foot, even dust fights back and ultimately sits on top of your head. Such is its power of revenge. A person who does nothing when insulted is worse than dust.

- Shishupala Vadha,

 

 

Emotional Complexities

One thing I regularly do is : Preparing lists. I recently prepared a list of most depressing moments of my childhood. Though I will not publish it, there was one important take away from that list.

I never had worries about exams, studies and least about my future. The depressing moments I faced as a child seem extremely trivial now as a grown up. Or may be I have learned to live with irony called life. Secondly, I realize that I was more concerned and bothered about things that were not related to my life at all.

I remember one day when I was returning from Chowgule college, I saw an old women, with barely any clothes on her body was trying to find a shelter near a closed shop. It was raining very heavily. The shopkeepers around did not let her even on the pavement. Now, lets not mistaken me as a compassionate human being. It only raised many questions in my life, what made that old woman be a destitute? What exactly happened with her life?

Search answers for irrelevant question is not a bad hobby. It gives you a good insight into human behavior. It makes you understand why people behave in a certain way under certain situations. It is also very depressing sometimes to know the real reason people behave in particular way.

A girls high school was on my way when I use to walk my way to bus stand every morning. That school was considered to be very prestigious in Panaji city and rich and poor flocked to get their kids admitted in this school. A father use to come to drop his daughter every morning to this school and I happened to cross their way everyday.

The father was clearly very poor. He use to accompany his daughter on way to school and he use to walk with her to school every day. I could clearly see a pride on his face that his daughter is going to a good school. He probably internally craved that people will see him with his daughter near the school and praise him for this achievement. He use to continuously talk with his daughter in his way, he would inquire about her studies her friends etc. In fact I felt that he was trying hard to establish a communication with his kid. And yes if I haven’t told you already. He was a dwarf.

The girl however was a bit reluctant to walk with him. When they use to reach near the school she use to be in a lot of hurry to get inside the building. While all other kids with their parents use to say bye bye 10 times to them. There was a stationary shop right opposite the school where the kids would force their parents to buy things for them.

This man would ask her daughter if she needed anything. Pen, Notebooks? He would ask. I have to go, I need to copy something from my friend. She would reply and run into the school not responding or reluctantly responding to the waving hand of her father.

Clearly the reason why she would do this, it was so clear to me that she was embarrassed of her father. She did not want to be seen with her father. Where as her father never realized that why she rushes in hurry. He thought she was very dedicated to her studies.

As a silent spectator, I always wondered. Whether that girl will ever realize the value of her fathers emotions. Whether the father will ever realize that his daughter is embarrassed about him. What if when she tell him this bluntly if not now may be when she grows up?

And I am sure one day will come when she will realize that she failed to acknowledge some of the most precious moments of her life. But it will be too late than.

All these questions might seem irrelevant. But undestanding people too well is like a curse for someone like me. There are so many such stories that I know. Unkwon people, irrelevant incidents but then they help me understand complexities of emotions in human life.

When I look back at my most deperssing moments list, I realise that the underlying common factor for making those moments depressing was a failure to understand my own emotions. There was a complete mis-interpretation of incidences which made me feel bad about them. But preparing this list helped. It made me emotionally more mature. It taught to be more sensitive towards other people.

Panchatantra Story 1

As Vrushabha, the bull walked towards the only source of water in the Jungle, Karataka and Damanaka watched him carefully. Vrushabha neither had the usual rhythm in his walk nor the pride which he use to have earlier.

“Something is wrong with Vrushabha, isnt it Damanaka?” Asked Karataka.

“Why should we poke our nose into affairs that are not our concern? Haven’t you heard the story of the monkey which pulled out the wedge from the log,” asked Damanaka.

Karataka remembered the story well but he had not taken any moral out of it. He insisted that as two very diligent and alert citizens of Panchatantra forest it is their duty to find out what has happened.

Irritated Damanaka said “Haven’t you learned any lessons from previous stories I told you? Haven’t you heard what happened to Krish the Software Engineer working in a reputed software firm?”

Karataka swirled its tail in excitement while Damanaka continued to eat the peace of meat he had had stolen from Sanjeevaka the Lion King.

What Happened to Krish? Tell me Damanaka, tell me. I have heard that IIT, Call Centers and Software industry usually have action, sex and thrill packed stories. Is Krish’s story is that interesting? -Karatak’s enthu had no bounds.

“Not every one is Chetan Bhagat Karataka, we are mere Jackals in the forest, we dont have IIM-A degrees and no one will publish our stories. Besides people dont like stories with moral, but looking at you still behaving like a fool, I think there is no point in having a moral to the story. ” Damanaka’s tone was grim which put water on Karataka’s enthu but he knew that Damanaka will soon start his story.

Krish was a very ambitious engineer. He had slogged very hard to get into the so-called “Best scope” engineering stream only to realize that all streams were essentially the same and none of them enlightened him to any new knowledge. Though Krish persisted and believed that his talent would be valued once he joins the industry, he did not smoke or drink like his other friends. He cleared engineering without getting a single back and 70% aggregate.

Damanaka you need to work on your story telling. We are no more kids, unless Krish drinks cans of beer and has a girl friend who smokes how the story will generate that excitement? No Wonder panchatantra is losing to television. Its time to add masala to the story.

Damanaka however ignored Karataka’s sarcastic comments. He continued.

Krish joined a reputed company. If you are not familiar with Indian software industry Karataka let me tell you, All software companies in India are reputed. They all are number one in something or other and all of them do only challenging work and all of them are driven by innovation of very high rank. In fact reading their advertisements you will wonder where are all the companies who are doing the legacy, support and other kinds of ordinary work.

Damanaka’s face was glowing as he narrated the story. Karataka was flipping his left ear. Damanaka  lifted his right paw and scrubbed his left ear. He then continued.

Krish joined and he had to be on bench for some days. He wondered what went wrong. his fingers were all excited to type out that code which he believed will make his life seem useful to the world. He thought he will do amazing things and will soon climb the ladder. But as time passed and he was still on bench his interest started decaying. He spent most of the time in TT room and pantry. And just in case you need some spice Karataka, he also started line marofying on the tester girl in the next cubicle. Krish got more and more cynical as the higher management failed to get him billed. His anger increased as that tester girls married off to one man in higher management.

Krish began to feel victimized. He started feeling that the security guards check his bag more thoroughly when he left office. His friends on projects started avoiding him on weekend. Give me one chance oh God, and I will work very very hard and show these people what I am worth of. He suddenly felt religious.

And that day arrived. Krish got himself on a project. He told the manager that he was already familiar with the framework and hence would start giving results right from day one. Manager showed happiness over his attitude and asked him to prepare some important documents as well. Krish did his work like a honest sincere and alert employee Karataka. Just the was you felt the need to go and talk to Vrushabha.

However Krish was a bit disappointed when he saw the same documents being mailed to client the only change being that the Author’s name was changed from Krish to his Manager’s name. But Krish was sincere like you Karataka. He did not take it to heart. He knew that the manager values him. When Pappu in his team screwed up Bug no 805 and 640, he promptly fixed them staying up the whole night.

Did his manager value his work Damanaka? asked Karataka with a question mark on his face.

Yes of course. Manager’s are good at it. Everyday when the manager left at 6 pm he would visit Krish’s cubicle instruct him about what needs to be done in next four hours and gave him few words of encouragement.

When client appreciated Krish’s work manager sent all the team members and super manager an email.

“Krish has received praise from client for the work he has done. Certainly if all team members stick to the processes I have set forth, I am sure everyone can perform like Krish. It shows that our processes are spot on”.

Not everyone is as smart as me. Krish’s heart cried but he kept quite Karataka. He kept quite. He came on weekends he spent sleepless nights. He could not remember when was the last time he went out on weekend. When was the last time he read a good book on lazy Saturday afternoon. While Manager drank coffee with Pappu and Smitha, Krish worked hard.

His hard work paid off. The Bugs were reduced, deadlines were met. Client was happy. Manager praised himself, patted his own back and asked others to clap in meetings.

The day of appraisals came. With heart full of hope Krish opened his mail. He just heard that Pappu got promoted.

Stop it Damanaka. Shouted Karataka. Thats enough.

But this is the climax of the story Karataka, aren’t you interested?

No I am not. Replied Karataka. I got the moral of the story. Let’s shut our mouths and let the Bull drink his water promptly. Let us not go to find out what happened.

Moral: When you hear that appraisals happened in your ex-company,dont ping your friends and ask them what happened. Not when it’s Saturday and when they are working.

 

6 pointers and Goal of IITs

It was by pure accident that I landed myself among 4 professors in room. One of them was a very distinguished and elderly professor I had blogged about before. There was a woman Prof. from Humanities and Social Science department, I dint know the other Prof. and the 4th one was my guide.

The elderly Prof. was saying that, when it comes to final year project all the profs. will guide only those students who have a CPI of 7.5 and above. He himself though is known in department to take “any” student who is refused guidance by all other Profs. He also noted that if a student has score less than 7.5 it actually means the student should not have been in IIT in the first place. [As per rules if you score less than 6.0 you are kicked out of IIT]

“Since the student has score above the mark set by the institution, isnt it the institutions responsibility to arrange a guide for them? No one takes them and an old man like me has to take the responsibility.” He questioned others. I smelled that a debate is about to start.

“Why do keep such students in institution? throw them out” Said the lady prof.

“But the rules say that if he scores more than 6.0 he can stay in IIT”- Another prof.

“Then change the rules” her reply was swift.

Everyone laughed and I too grinned.

“But then if you increase the level you will still find some at the bottom.”

I thanked the fate that at least one of them thought pragmatically. And then the same old man said the following words, which I indeed expected from him knowing him through his lecture, speeches and articles. These words not only are true but they highlight how IITs have turned to “Institutional Insanity” ( Word borrowed from Atanu Dey).

“I have seen many 6 pointers passing out of these institution. They have completed their projects well, they have got good jobs, they have a family, they are happy and they have contributed to the growth of society in a way no less than most 9 pointers. Then why reject them?”

One gets into IIT by fighting his way out from thousands and lakhs of students. The competition is not just unfair but takes a heavy toll on life of those students. Certainly if one gets into IIT by merit he is someone who has fought his way out by beating others to dust. I have written before about people who don’t get through. They are made to feel losers.

But even after getting in, and meeting the criteria set by the institution there are some “made to feel” losers.

By now way I am arguing against merit. Keep raising the bar but more important question that the institution needs to remember is, what is its goal? I am unable to find it even after searching the whole IITB site.

If the goal is to:

Act as a filter to, weed out every possible definition of mediocrity and pass only the best among the best in the given lot of best minds to society.

Then I think what the woman professor said is correct. Why 7.5? One can keep the criteria to 9-10 as well. There are geniuses all around the campus who will achieve it.

But if the goal is to, and I believe it should be the real goal:

To find the best talent in country, provide them with best infrastructure and guidance, to help them become finest engineers available to society.

Then I would say it is insanity not ensuring that every students passing the criteria of 6 CPI must get a guide.

But then the problem is not about guide and project. The problem is while talking about excellence the institution must remember that the kind of students enter IIT are excellent even if IIT doesn’t give them anything. Wherever they will go in world they are indeed above average. What matters is whether IIT can act as an amplifier and not a filter to the talent and intellect they posses.

As far as I am concerned I am new to this environment. But I see that most of the public institutions are so deviated from their original goal. It is not good for our society.

 

Faith in Terror

Recent blasts in margao have spurred a discussion in society and apparently peaceful Goan society is now deliberating upon the terrorist face of religious fundamentalism. Though the reasons and culprits behind the Margao blasts are not yet known conclusively to the public, discussion such important matter never had a better time.

Society is always divided in groups why does it take something like Communism or Religious groups to indulge in violence as a mean to show their hatred? We haven’t heard yet that some anti-alcohol group planted a bomb in a pub. Mostly it’s the religious groups or some groups like Naxalites resort to violence to show their hatred towards what they call “unbelievers”.

The Motivation and The Barrier

The reason is, an ordinary Human being like me will always find it extremely difficult to reason out to myself about the moral validity of my act. Human beings always avoid activities for which they cant reason to themselves. Since I cant reason to myself that I need to explode a bomb in public I simply cant think of doing such barbaric act. And this is same for almost all human beings irrespective of their religion. A Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian human being will by nature think of this act as barbaric. The reasoning capabilities of human mind are by default a major barrier to overcome when one decides to indulge in such act. All human beings are born with this ability and hence none of us is a born terrorist, in fact all of us are born as peace lovers. This clearly indicates that statements such as “All muslims are terrorists”, “Muslims are violent by default” are nothing but illogical and invalid statements.

The difference is clearly in something that helps the individual break this natural barrier. Why we see more of Islamic terrorism is explained by the fact that Islam’s doctrine actually helps an individual to rationalize his acts of terrors. He think that it’s his virtue to explode bombs in public. It is the teaching of Islam, and a firm dogmatic beliefs in what “The Book” says helps him to commit such dastardly acts. It is the Islam that makes a Muslim more violent than anything else. And it is not only about Islam, in fact any dogmatic belief makes an Individuals rational thinking capabilities very weak.

The Secular Argument

But then listen to the arguments of the secular camp which always claims that, Islam is a religion of peace and it is the poverty, political oppression and lack of education is what makes them more prone to violence. Assuming this as true the government announces several communal schemes where banks are asked to reserve 6% loans to minorities, panels like Sachhar are set up.

But then one must ask why does the Tibetan Monks, which have been oppressed by all means, which are poor to any extent, haven’t taken up arms against China? Why don’t we see a Tibetan buddhist monk suicide bomber destroying the Chinese Embassy? Instead their leader HH Dalai Lama get peace prize for Nobel. It is because that a Buddhist will have to work very hard to reason out to himself any act of violence. They might do it when they are pushed to limits but certainly their religion certainly makes the barrier against violence much stronger as opposed to the teachings of Islam. Buddhism can be relatively termed as religion of peace not Islam.

It is also interesting to note that, not just secularist, leftist but even the right wing organizations like RSS and parties termed as “Communal” like BJP seem to reach consensus over the statement that “Islam is a religion of peace, it is only some Muslims that are violent” while the truth (though politically inconvenient) is exactly the opposite. No Muslims is different from a Hindu, it is the Islam that makes him different.

The Sanstha and The Law Enforcers

Considering a case of Margao blast where the media and government have been claiming that Sanatan Sanstha is a prime target. The claim might lack evidence, but an organization like Sanatan is more likely to indulge in such acts because of the dogmatic beliefs it has been believing and propagating. Organizations like Sanatan, have been calling their arbitrary conclusions “Scientific Spirituality”. A look at their literature will give a sufficient insight about their system of beliefs. No one can deny them a right to believe that a ghee lamp is spiritually better than oil lamp, but the logic they will use to believe it can also be a perfect foundation for the acts for which their are being suspected.

It will be naive for us to belive that the government is capable of handling such situations carefully. Because they have not really understood the problem. They say all religions are same without reading all the major teachings of those religions, they link terrorism to economic reason when it is well proven that most of the terrorists are well educated and from upper middleclass or rich families. Interested reader can refer to the latest bestseller “Superfreakonomics”. Instead the government is very likely ot suppress the matter and symptoms of the problem rather than going to the roots of it.