Truth is God

Truth is God. Everything else is Maya or illusion. The whole of universe is Maya, false, temporary. Only God is everlasting, permanent. If we want to come close to God, we have to be truthful. Every Religion says “ Speak the Truth”. When I was a child, I read in the textbook which said “Always speak the Truth”. When we grow up, we tell our children not to tell lies. But do we practice what we preach. The answer is probably not. My own experience is that Truth is very bitter, unpleasant and difficult to digest whereas Lies are sweet, Pleasant, good to hear. We lie to avoid embarrassment. We lie to boost our self image. We lie to please others. There are people who lie for no reasons whatsoever. Such people are habitual liers. They don’t feel guilty when they lie. They justify their lies by another bunch of lies. Politicians fall in this category of liers. People who are not habitual liers feel guilty when they lie. Their body language is not in synch with their tongue. Such people can be easily caught while lying. No matter how good we are in lying, in the long run, it is the truth that prevails over lies. If the whole world is destroyed, lies will perish but Truth will survive. Speaking Truth is not so easy. It requires lot of courage, commitment and determination to remain truthful. Are we prepared to pay the price for being truthful. If we are truthful, we will alienate our friends, relatives, colleagues. We will face difficulties in our workplace, at home. or wherever we go. We will have to face humiliation, embarrasment.,insults. Are we prepared to withstand difficulties that come in our way in exchange for being truthful.

T.V. Journalism in India

I personally feel the standard of Journalism has gone down in our country. I remember having seen an interview of "Satyajit Ray", perhaps the greatest Director of Realistic Cinema India has ever produced sometime in 1979. The Interview was conducted in a very polished and dignified fashion. The person who was taking interview chose to remain in the background. Not once did the camera focus on him during the interview session. The voice of the journalist was subdued, barely audible. The entire focus was on Mr Ray who was answering the questions put up by the journalist. Today's journalism is just the opposite. The focus of the camera is more on the journalist and less on the person who is being interviewed. It looks ridiculous. In most of the chat shows that I have seen, there does not seem to exist basic protocol. Most of the time, while the host speaks in Hindi , people participating in chat shows speak in English. Sometimes, it is even worse than this. The same person while expressing his views switches from English to Hindi and vice versa every now and then. What kind of Viewer the program is targetted at. Is the general public expected to understand multiple languages. In a situation where the participant expresses his views in a language other than the language in which the participants are supposed to speak, it is the responsibility of the host to interrupt and spell out clearly what the language of chat show is supposed to be. In extreme scenario, wherein the participant cannot speak in that language for whatever reasons, he or she should be allowed to speak in English as an exception which should be translated immediately by the host in Hindi for the benefit of the viewers. It appears to me that most of the participants have fairly good knowledge of Hindi but still they prefer to speak in English given the choice. When will we learn to respect our own language.

Real Heroes

Yesterday morning at around 9 o'clock , I was watching a program on NDTV news channel. It was a program organised to pay homage to our brave soldiers, commandos, policemen who lost their lives while fighting terror attack in Mumbai on 26/11. This program was so touching that it brought tears in my eyes. For the first time after many years, I saw the glory of our unsung heroes. Generally, in almost all channels, we get to see glorified images of politicians, bollywood actors and actresses and other high profile beaurocrats who have hardly contributed anything to the society. The same holds true of cricketers. Our real heroes are those ordinary people who are not scared to lay down their lives for the sake of the country. There are many other heroes who are selflessly serving the communities without any support from the government. We need to bring them into limelight. They should be made role model of our kids and not Bollywood actors and actresses as is prevalent now a days .Our T.V channels who are busing increasing their TRP through sensational news of murder, rape, vulgar dances, obscene comedies, Reality shows, meaningless saas bahu soap operas should instead focus on good work done by our unsung heroes. There appears to be a positive impact of mumbai terror attack in the sense that at least for few days, our channels stopped showing the usual dirty and useless programs. I only pray to God that after few days, when fear of terror strike subsides , these channels don't refert back to showing same old silly programs. Successful launch of Chandrayan 1 moon mission sometime in October this year was a landmark in the history of Indian space science. This news should have come as a headline in front page of Times of India on the next day of launch, but I was shocked to find some other news occupying the main headline instead. What a pity. When do we learn to appreciate good work done by the real heroes of our country.

Terror strike at Mumbai

The last terror attack in Mumbai has once again exposed the security lapses of our agencies. It looks like our police force with age old rifles and lathis are unable to fight terrorists who are armed to the teeth with AK47 automatic rifles and other electronic gudgets.Mr Karkare was killed because he was wearing a bullet proof jacket which was not good enough to protect him from bullets. Are our beaurocrats so corrupt as not to spare even those who fight for our safety and security. Our leaders are more concerned about their own security rather than the security of common man. Everytime there is a strike, our home minister gives the same old statement expressing sorrow and concern over the death of innocent people. Security of the common man in this country is always given the last priority. Unless common man puts pressure on the ministers and government officials to step up his security needs, no concrete action is going to be taken. Last terror attack at Mumbai is a grim reminder of what price we may have to pay if we neglect security needs of the country. Ordinary people in the country no longer feels secured. Terror can strike anytime, anywhere, in market, in schools, hotels, Hospitals, public places, at home. There is a need to create an awareness among the public as to the urgency with which our government should create special task force in each state to deal with this situation. Our security guards must be fully equipped with the latest fighting machines. Our intelligence agencies must be put on high alert. Our electronic media and print media should play active role in arousing the sentiments of the public towards terrorism. The question that we contineously need to ask ourselves is, should we display apathy towards the loss of life of other people and wait for our turn. Life is very precious and must be protected at all costs. Terrorism has become a global threat as of now and no longer confined to a particular region or territory . All peace loving countries must unite and fight terrorism at all costs.