Debatable or Controversial?

Debatable or Controversial ?

“Masjid mein jam peeney dey jahid,
Warna woh jagah bathaa dey jahan Khuda na ho !”
(Allow me to enjoy drinking right inside this mosque or else, show me a place where God is not present!)

Not just this famous quote, its author also too, was considered controversial!

I am not too sure! (I didn’t get a chance to ‘wrestle’ against him!  ) Really speaking, there is no big controversy or even something debatable! It is just about choosing to live ‘in’ the moment or ‘for’ the moment.

This genius took pleasure in confusing people around, like for instance, when he asked “Do the meaning of my Rubaiyat (couplets) undergo any change if written with a sword-point dipped in Blood?”

As a kid, at school, I used to wonder what my elder people mean when they said that something is highly debatable, or refer to a person as ‘non-controversial’! I found my own brain caught in a controversy when we were asked to choose to speak ‘for or against’ a topic to participate in a debating competition. “Science is good or bad for mankind” was a topic often repeated. ‘Watching Movies(good or bad)’ was another. I used to wonder why our teacher could not choose a topic that was more palatable or within our reach. Science was a compulsory subject, and movies were well out of our reach then. The teacher could have asked us to choose “Hostel life better, or life at home with parents” or still more precisely, “Life with parental control or without it”. I was sure, there would have been a long queue to support that “without control!”. I used to create a whole(some) mini-world of entertainment, visualizing such extended ideas and rehearsing its happenings during my day-dreaming-sessions!

Even as adults, we find that we are ‘scared’ of debating about many things, fearing controversy! One excuse we seek is lack of time. We have a fast life, full of tension, BP, stress, strain etc, leaving very less scope to indulge in even a ‘healthy’ debate. Why argue about anything when there is scope to ‘leave’ it to ‘their’ choice? We prefer to settle down to an acceptable repetitive ‘routine’ rather than explore the possibility of ‘colourful’ variations. Even petty things like placing furniture in a drawing room, matching colours of dress, TV channels , etc evoke controversies instead of healthy debates! At workplace, every thing is a potential threat to end up in a controversy, including moving up the table or chair by a few inches!

I do agree, people are at times quite unpredictable and could land us in a great predicament. Like, we try to merely ‘mention’ the weather, to a co-passenger in a train, to pass the time a bit more pleasantly, instead of staring at each other for the whole length of the journey. This, harmless and innocent looking gesture, the ‘mention’ of weather, could turn into a debate and before we realize, end us up into a deep controversy about who caused this ecological imbalance which has resulted into an irregular climatic cycle, affecting our economy when we are ‘already reeling’ under recession! Oh! Now even the carefully packed delicious home food has turned insipid due to ‘bad weather’ right inside the train compartment!
Once it happened to me thus… (the narrative of this instance is a bit long, and I shall cut ‘n’ paste the rest of it at the end, for those who are eager to wind up early).

The culture of teaching “Tarka-Shaastra” as a skill, has faded out. Now the head-hunters find the ‘out-of-box’ thinkers to be ‘out-of-stock’ during campus-recruitment-processes.

No wonder, topics which are very pertinent to handling basic issues of life even, fail to evoke any kind of response, though conveyed through that safe-distanced & convenient e-mails! I really wonder if it is even controversial to try and debate as to how to classify ‘issues’ as debatable or controversial! Perception is the Preceptor to decide whether to precipitate issues or not!

Regards,
PSN(21st Feb, 2009)
Post-script: (pre-planned though….. like that ‘wise’ mother who mentioned in her post script quote: “P.S : Beta, I was going to send you some money but by the time I realized, I had already sealed off this letter.” )
It happened to me once in a train. We were returning from Kerala, having attended a marriage function. A group of youngsters who got organized to represent the interests of rubber cultivators, were busy discussing strategy to effectively argue the case at Delhi with the political leaders. The youngsters were followers of communist ideals & principles. The innocent farmers were victims, left in the lurch, when Tyre manufacturers decided to switch over to ‘synthetic’ rubber, relocating their units away from amidst rubber plantations of Kerala. The youngsters were a bit primitive and crude (yet-to-be shaped into full-fledged politicians). They were ill equipped with weak arguments to counter the politicians who were past-masters, and more importantly, were also ‘patronized’ by rubber Barons. A clear fight between capitalism & communism. I was keenly observing the mannerism, strong accent of local language when they were trying to formulate appropriate phrases in English (the only medium available to them to converse with north Indian politicians!). My family saw no harm in ‘allowing’ me to listen to them. The trouble started quite unexpectedly when one of them sought my opinion on the ‘strength’ of their case! I should have confined myself to suggesting cohesiveness in language, phrases, brevity etc, to squeeze the case to comprehensively fit in the brief ‘time’ slot allotted to them while ‘meeting’ the political leaders. My very opening remarks were inadvertently very potential to brew trouble. I suffered a temporary loss of memory of the fact that politically inclined groups were a potential threat to common man anywhere, anytime, in our country!
I said “You farmers fail to learn lessons from the past! Sometime ago, multinationals had set up Cocoa factories in Kerala, and offered very tempting & lucrative amounts to switch over from traditional crops, and convert the cultivated lands into Cocoa plantations. Then, one fine morning, they moved their factories to ‘greener’ pastures. Farmers became penniless overnight. And this time, it is rubber”.
At once, a revolution was seen in the offing, and I became their lonely “Tsar”, remaining to be vanquished! I too felt a slight tremble inside me, like having stirred a hornet’s nest. The women folk of my family quietly stashed away the just-opened-ready-to-eat-snack-pack. Prepared now, for the ‘worst’! The leader turned to me and lashed out “You are quite ignorant of the basic principles of communism, its social benefits, protective outlook towards common man. Maybe you are fortunate to be slightly above poverty line, educated enough to slog under your capitalist bosses for a reasonably handsome assure-monthly-salary! (etc)”
I allowed a pause, to tone down the aggressive tendency and then told them, “Look, communism has failed even in countries which had adopted it, pursued it en-mass. You talk of basics. Yes, basics were adopted & propagated with errors. That is why it perhaps failed to ‘deliver’.”
When I stressed ‘basics’, the youngsters felt a little hesitant and paused. I didn’t wait. I continued—“Do you know where from this communism originated?” ……. “More than thousand years ago…?” I added. Now, they were stupefied. History wasn’t their cup of tea. All I needed to was to substantiate with irrefutable ‘logic’ to substitute a historic ‘evidence’.
“Not by the name ‘communism’. But the ‘basic’ principle, in a very sacred manner & with strict adherence” I said. By now, I had turned them into receptive listeners.
“The basic principle is that decision makers do not hold administrative powers, to avoid vested interests creeping into resultant corruption. That is what a Politburo is all about, isn’t it?”
The idea of ‘Power’ corrupts had an instant appeal. And now the reference to ‘corroborative’ historical evidence. “The ancient Rishis (ascetic spiritual persons engaged in penance) were your ‘Politburo’ members. Very intelligent, away from worldly desires, with meager possessions, and very much concerned about ‘common man’. They periodically visit the king at the latter’s request, counsel him on administrative matters, and leave for the recluse of forest to continue their penance. The King had no trouble implementing the ‘decisions’ by ‘politburo’ Rishis, quoting their wisdom, reassuring the subjects that the King was never an autocrat or dictator, but an obedient public servant, taking instructions from wise, meditative, saintly person whose integrity was proven beyond doubt. No wonder, the system of King as a ruler sustained for many centuries. It failed only when rishis became extinct! In today’s communism, the members of politburo are very much a part of the same society, and hence very much ever vulnerable to normal human weaknesses and temptations!”
We reached the station where I had to alight with my family.
To this day, I am not very sure as to what really helped me in extricating myself from a controversy—
The train reaching my destination or
The time taken by those youngsters to ‘digest’ the new angle of their basic concept or
The very ‘merits’ of the concept I had happened to put forth!
I now had invariably learned a lesson. Not to drift from a discussion into even a debate, for, a controversy is not far behind!

Hammer it out !

One of the meanings of “Hammer” is ‘to teach by frequent and energetic reiteration’; ‘to contrive by intellectual labour, to excogitate(with in or into). ‘hammer home’—to impress (a fact) strongly and effectively on someone.

Something like this was sought to be done when a strong-willed ‘Satyam’ employee decisively said ‘I need to FIX this guy’s THOUGHT PROCESS’!

Another news item (‘The Hindu’ dated 4th Feb, 2009) , “Life at Minus 24 degree Celsius” (Russian Winter) also seemed to highlight, indicatively though, the same need—to hammer, or FIX the thought process! While Britain was “paralyzed” by 15 cm of snow (Jan, 2009), NO SERIOUS PROBLEMS at Moscow, with Minus 24 degree C! It was a British student who observed thus—“We have a culture(in Britain) of people LIKING TO MOAN”!

Spiritual growth demands this ‘fixing of thought process’ a bit more severely! Zen Masters are good at hastening the process, and obviously, they sound a bit more crude. Indian Masters are too liberal, gentle and possess tons of patience & compassion. So, here the ‘drop-out’ rate is very high. Both the methods have exclusive advantages and hence do not warrant any comparison. The choice has always been with the student, seeker or the disciple!

But, Nature, gives us no choice. It is known as the ‘best’ teacher! It also gives the ‘TEST’ first, and then the lessons! So, when the Indian Masters ‘seem’ to be lenient, they are merely ‘referring’ the ‘case’ to another Great Teacher—the Mother Nature! Oh! Perhaps, to me, the Zen Masters seem preferable! All we need to do is just FIX our thought process about it too!

A freebie : That “peace-of-mind’ , which is so basic and very common to even animals!

The other way is, choosing to just to remain a ‘hammer-head’(meaning is given as ‘dull in intellect, stupid)! It has its own advantage—it needs no repairs or replacements even! It lasts longer than A lifetime!

Regards,
Psn (4th Feb, 2009)

References:
1) “Satyam” (an inspiring e-mail): This is an interesting mail which was forwarded to me was from one of Satyam employee has mailed. I wish to put this for the group.
------------ --------- --------- ------------ --------- ----------------
Dear All,
I am deputed at client location and came across a very interesting conversation in cafeteria yesterday. One of my co-worker, also deputed with the same client through some lesser known two room company, mustered guts to ask me sarcastically in front of entire team,
So, Satyam is gone! What are you guys planning to do now? In normal circumstances, I have a habit to not to reply to lose talks, but in front of entire team.... I thought I need to fix this guy's thought process. I asked him, as my military training has imbibed in me the habit to fight till last breadth,
Who says Satyam is gone when I am very much alive here and committed to create value on behalf of my company? . He shot back, Hello Mr., your chairman has resigned, you guys are facing financial turbulence and you still have a face to say that Satyam is not gone!
At this juncture, I thought of replying to this guy in his own language. I asked him, Tell me, what will you do and where will you go if our country India was not there?
He was not prepared for this level of thought and asked back, What a stupid question, How can India be gone, it is a country? I asked him back.,
Country! What makes a country? Land? Economy? Our Prime Minister? Our President? Our Geography? Or the PEOPLE? If our PM resigns, will you say India is gone? If our economy faces a slowdown, will you say India is gone?
But yes, if the people of a country are lost for any reason, we will say that country has no meaning. Who cares of vast land of Antarctica today which has just one permanent resident, Father Georgy? Which country does it belongs to? Why does not it has any government? Why does not it has any economy?
Or, how many countries were there when humans used to hunt for food in pre-historic times? Countries, Wealth, Infrastructures and booming economies are nothing but creations of efforts of PEOPLE, and they do not have any existance on their own.
And the final blow was, When one man can create Satyam as an organization of 53,000 people, why not 53,000 committed people can rebuild one SATYAM?
By now, I saw my point was well placed and he stood up and shook hands with me and murmured, Yaar, when I used to hear from my roommate who work in Satyam that EVERY SATYAMITE IS A LEADER, I used to laugh it off. Now, I know why! "
Beauty is His footprint showing us where He has passed – Aurobindo


2) “The Hindu” (dt. 4th Feb, 2009) “Russian Winter” Life at -24 degree Celsius. “Even as Britain is paralyzed by heavy snow, life is normal in Moscow which has much harsher weather—Luke Harding. Moscow: While Britain was paralyzed by 15 cm of snow, Russia was working normally. People traveling to offices and schools encountered no serious problems—despite the fact residents in Moscow woke up to a temperature of -24 degree C.
On the streets, commuters muffled in large hats and fur coats strolled along the icy pavements. Moscow’s major airports functioned without delay. The metro worked. All of this raises the obvious question: why are Brits so hopelessly inept when it comes to a bit of a chill?
Tourists and locals conceded that it was a bit parky in Moscow, but said this was no reason for the country to collapse. “most of my body is fine. But your face just freezes up,” said Frederick Bernas, a 21-year-old student at Bristol University, studying Russian in Moscow.
He added: “If you don’t talk for a while it is quite hard to pronounce things. Your mouth basically freezes”. Asked why Britain was unable to deal with milder conditions, he said:” We have a culture(in Britain) of people liking to moan.”
Russians, of course, are used to snow. Typically, it snows in Moscow from late October. It carries on snowing until March or April. It’s even been known to snow in May. Spectators watching the traditional Soviet Union victory parade on May1 sometimes watch nuclear missiles roll past with snow on them. This year, after an unusually tropical November and December, Russia is at last experiencing a real winter, with translucent blue skies and very low temperatures—the “magical days of frost and sunshine” evocatively described by Pushkin. Some weather experts say there is worse to come. They predict -38 degree C for Moscow by the weekend.