ON BENAZIR'S DEATH

They made a wasteland and called it peace -(Tacitus). I was just strolling in busy market lanes of suburb Delhi when my boring eyes stole a view from a news scene running on TV in a small shop. It flashed, "Benazir killed." I had a sensation that 'history was being made' and rushed back to my room and glued to Internet to listen and watch what BBC had to offer. I was also reminded of 14th February 2004, when a political assassinaion of another former Prime Minister and potent Opposition leader Rafiq Hariri in far away Lebanon, had created a similar sensation in me, and , before that, on 9/11 when BBC Hindi flashed the news that 'world trade centre towers have been hit in terrorist attacks" (it was a political violence at its worst), Even before that Rajiv Gandhi was murdered on May 21, 1991. List of political murders, gruesome as they are, can be multiplied but I will be lying if I say that I have personal memories of more such incidents than just alluded to. So why does a political act of ultimate violence affects me, an Ayurvedic doctor, trying to find his feet in society by trying to pursue an MBA , one would ask ? And especially when the political leaders are not blemishless in conducting their affairs ? Basic answer to such question lies in fundamental human craving for curiosity, to be a part of history, and of course, to make sense of the weird world we have to live in. Bhutto family's political fortunes in Pakistan have seen much ebb and tide right from Zulfikar's rise on socialist plank in 1960s through to his judicial murder by Zia's hangmen in 1979, his daughter's triumphant entry in Pakistan in 1986, (she twice became PM, both time failing to complete term), murder of her brother Murtaza by police in 1996, self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998, again grand welcome to political turf 'in' Pakistan on 18th October 2007 (marred by terror attack on her political rallies) and finally this ultimate violence on human soul. Pakistan has a unique gun-culture to settle political questions and Benazir is its just the latest victim. Many will point fingers twards Musharraf, many will say that it is Al-Qaida, and still others will point out petty inter-party feuds as reason of grisly act. In each case stolid political process of reviving a dream of democracy suffers, for, though death is supposed to affect human conscience as nothing else can ; when death is so ubiquitous as it is in Pakistan today, it losses ability to provide a possible opportunity for better senses to prevail. Pakistan has to endure this trauma because its citizens have allowed repressive, regressive, and stultifying regimes to overshadow and overwhelm people's democratic urges. If political class tolerates military dictators and allows fundamental paranoia to direct tribal nationalism, it is the politicians who have to face the consequences. Benazir Bhutto's life story has had a tragic blend at many turns but this final tragedy is a tragedy for all democratic forces in Pakistan. When she became first woman PM of an Islamic country, she was a great hope who soon gave way to desperation through petty compromises ; now again she was a great hope for democratic, moderate and progressive forces of her nation , but assassin's bullet did not allow her to play her part. Yet one must agree that she is a martyr in path of saner forces and martyr's blood seldom goes in vain, so Pakistan's people must unite to defeat forces that create such havoc in country

ON ATHIESM AND GODS

Speculating about natural phenomena is one of the privilages that Nature has pleased to afford us human beings. But what a mess we have created, out of the potential of understanding nature and its myriad ways ! It is astonishing that many of the specialities of which human race can boast of, have a demeaning effect on that very race. One would cite the example of nuclear bombs; but that is a rather recent occurence in humanity's psychological hostory. A more subtle but potent concept that has degraded human life is the presence of an omnipresent,omnipotent, and omniscient God in collective human psyche with its multifarous effects. Such has been the effect of THE GOD CONCEPT that no field of human activity has stayed clear, unstained and unconditioned of it. Many would argue that humans are humans because they believe in God and in a surreal way of talking that may well be true, for, we have no evidence whatsoever that any biological species than Homo sapiens has such fantastic notions as 'the god concept' , but , then, no one has any positive evidence that ants and donkeys (less fortunate as they seem to us, for no objective reason) do not have a God. In fact, I have long speculated that if donkeys have a God, that can't be in a human form; that has to be an impressively strong, omnipotent, omipresent, and omniscient donkey, having all conceivable rights on all lving and non living being around them. But, of course, human conditioning and 'pride of race' rebel against allowing donkeys a God of their own and, just as we presume that donkeys are to serve humans because we take care of them, we also presume that our God will also take care of donkeys. If this smacks of human imperialism,you are bang on target. God has long been a convenient concept for imperialists of different ilk and has been much abused to allow and justify much of the injustice present in the world. So, MANY PERSONS GAIN IN MATERIAL TERMS. Thus, many claim special knowledge of God and his ways, many claim to protect God's and his followers' interests, stll others claim to spread his word to the pitiable ignorants. And they generally do this for some worldly gain, direct or indirect. This is one of the chief reasons of persistence of 'the god concept' in discourse of human affairs. Then, human beings can speculate about future. As we are condemned to have a better memory than any other species,we know our past better and seek to establish cause-and-effect relation between that past and speculated future. But experience soon shows that prediction of future is fraught with dangers and seldom accurate as human behaviour and surrounding environment is multivariate, thus leading to different outcomes in seemingly same obtaining conditions and same outcomes in seemingly different conditions. In a nutshell even the nearest and most mundane FUTURE IS UNCERTAIN otherwise God would have lost much of his ( it is a predominantly male concept) sheen. Then, human life,like all other life forms, is essentally perishable,and often without notice; and though there have been long talks and complex theories regarding possibilities of life after death. In solemn moments of approach of death, human mind is constrained to concede ignorance regarding such fancies. This IGNORANCE ABOUT STATUS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER DEATH further fuels weak minds to cling to some notion of continuity after death, for, if everything ends with death, life is bound to be absurd (a concept championed by Camus). So, we have heavens and hells and their administrators and our life continues after death, though in a rather mystified state. Thus, God concept helps PROVIDE MEANING TO AN ARGUABLY ABSURD LIFE. As humans are condemned to seek meanings even in most innocent and natural phenomena, they create concepts that help them find meaning, howsoever erroneous, in life; and God concept helps many people live according to some principles that are easy to grasp, handy to practise.....