WEEKEND LIGHTER: WHERE THE MIND IS WITHOUT FEAR...

WEEKEND LIGHTER: WHERE THE MIND IS WITHOUT FEAR…

Excerpts from a forwarded email:

Dear Shri Ram and Shri Jacob,

Pardon my loud thinking which I beg to give expression to

with due respect to you. Should India's goal be to become

an economic power or a military power?    Aren't nations with economic

power or military power  leading the world to mutual destruction,

probably a nuclear war, the destruction of the earth etc? Isn't inferiority

complex that makes us  want to be an  economic or military power? Cannot

India take to a less travelled road? We should of course abolish poverty,

ignorance etc. But this can be done  without thinking in terms of 'power'.

Efforts to create economic power through industrialization will certainly lead

to all the evils like growing disparities, alienation, spiritual deterioration,

fanaticism, growing violence, terrorism etc. Becoming a military power will certainly lead

to hunger for domination over other nations etc. and finally to war. The best defence which a

country can have is a happy, united, creative people.

Cannot Free India take

to a different path and show the world a way of saving the earth, creating

a cooperative world, a world in which science and technology are used

to create abundance for everyone, where belief systems do not become

prisons for the human mind, a world in which evolution of man to a higher level takes place as Aurobindo visualized?

Permit me to quote the prayer in Tagore's Gitanjali:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

Rabindranath Tagore

e.x.joseph

My response (December 10, 2015)

Good Morning

I entirely agree with your views.

But would add:

WHILE PRESERVING THE 'PERSONALITY' OF INDIA, WE CANNOT IGNORE WHAT THE SO CALLED RICH AND DEVELOPED COUNTRIES ARE UPTO. AS THE WORLD HAS BECOME SO INTERDEPENDENT AND EVERY TREMOR ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD IN SOME WAY AFFECTS INDIA, WE MAY HAVE TO REMAIN 'PREPARED'

Therefore, I am reconciled to a MIDDLE PATH. Let us not fight wars. But, if the pastime of the rich is just playing with arms, let us produce and sell quality armaments to the rich at 'exorbitant' prices and use the PROFIT for economic development.

Warm regards and Nice Day

M G Warrier

Joseph writes back:

My dear Govinda,

Suppose the quality armaments fall into the hands of extremists cannot we be the victims? This is what happened in West Asia. What we produce finally comes back to us. Is'nt this the law of life?

with best wishes,

joseph

My reaction:

Dear brother

I still remember your 'SUGAR' story. The story was like this: India exported sugar @dollar equivalent of 4 annas per pound to US. US gave a part of it as 'free aid' to Pakistan. Sugar was then smuggled to India. Indians purchased it in the 'open market @Rs2 per pound!

Mine was just a response, without going into details. We can think of 'harmless' products like vehicles or aircraft instead of amunition. I took that example, as the rich are buying guns to bombs with the ease of buying a toy for a 3 year old and we can sell them at any price!

Nice day

M G Warrier

Bonus Read:

Three out of my 5 suggestions submitted to Mathrubhumi on the occasion of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Kerala:

i)                   Strengthen Reserve Bank of India by appropriate fiscal policy support and grant of functional autonomy, the broad contours of the steps needed for which have been articulated in RBI Annual Report 2014-15. Also, strengthen RBI Balance Sheet by allowing the bank to strengthen its reserves by transfer from surplus income and additional GOI contribution to share capital which remains at Rs 5 crores since inception. Needless to say, a strong balance sheet of RBI, besides improving the country’s image, will support the central bank in conduct of Monetary Policy efficiently.

ii) Kerala State has a strong cooperative institutional infrastructure having a history of more than a century. NABARD should help these institutions to modernise by infusing professionalism in management and adopting appropriate technological innovations in operations. Political parties which are using cooperatives as revenue source may have to be taken into confidence.

iii)                The proposal for Aranmula Airport Project should be shelved permanently as Thiruvananthapuram and Nedumbassery Airports which can be further developed are reachable from Aranmula in less than two hours by road. The land acquired for Aranmula project should be used for developing a Herbal/Ayurvedic Tourism Park with world class facilities. Probably, Theme Parks similar to Disneyland or Oceanic Park (Hong Kong) could be developed within reach from Aranmula to attract tourists with different objectives.

 M G Warrier