Akhil:
My dearest appa,
Jay has forwarded his email written to you. Myself
& Govind was reading yours as well as his reply to you.
Govind had the opinion for example the lines which i
have quoted in RED had alerted Jay's thinking towards Anarchism. He said to forward
me the article of John Mathew which i have forwarded you and Govind in earlier email
about the subject 'I Don't Care'. According to Govind i have marked some lines
in red colour which u can go thru directs the opinion that the generation of
now doesn't understand etc..I have forwarded to Jay and he wrote to me in
SPANISH this morning which I have cliked for TRANSLATION and u can view jay's
e-mail below the article.
You can go thru the opinion of Jay as well. Now Jay
wants a reply from his Nana. I have not mentioned the opinion of Govind to Jay.
I am just mentioning to you only my dear appa.
Ravi called me this morning after checking in from
the Madrid Airport. Hope his flight took off in time. After reaching Washington
he may send message if he gets time there. Otherwise after reaching the hotel
in Los Angeles he will text me. He has to collect his baggage from
washington but they have issued the boarding pass from washington to Los
Angeles. Hope his journey will be pleasant. Will be waiting to hear from you
soon daddy. Love you so much. Take care.
Your loving daughter,
From Jay:
I wanted to ask you about all these, because I am
very interested in Anarchism, as I told you in previous mail. The difference
about Communism, is that there is no centralization, no dictatorship, and
focuses on development of the individual and forming groups, societies and
federations based on the person's will. It predicates freedom, in the sense that there should be no ruler, nor
leader, and you don't rule over others. All these matches quite a lot with my
personality and way of life.
The "I Don't
Care" Generation from Mathew.
I don't understand these MTV guys, I really can't.
There seems to be some perverse force at play making my understanding of this
channel into the equivalent to my trying to understand the moods of my son,
who, by the way, is a big fan of the channel. He is glued to
"Splitsvilla", "Roadies", and that Akshay Kumar something where
he talks in his high baritone-gone-bad voice about adventure and how he loves
it.
Yeah, I watch these channels as my son sits glued to
them. I try to understand his understanding of what is happening in these
channels. Wait, this is getting a bit confusing, so I will simplify, simplify.
I am trying to understand how the younger generation is being misled by the
notion of what young people should be doing in the modern world. Hope you get
the drift! The dominant theme here is to "not care about anything,"
or, as "Splitsvilla" puts it "Be Raw."
Being Raw as I understand it means: saying what
comes to mind (without thinking), doing what you feel like, and disrespecting
everybody. Be Raw also mean, by a corollary, that I don't care. There's great
danger in bringing up a generation in this belief. People do not understand
this. A generation weaned on "Be Raw" or "I don't
care" should also be prepared for rawness from others, and also be
prepared for "don't care" when some social atrocity has been
committed on them. They should know that there are wars being fought, genocides
being planned in this world. These young people are still in the care of their
loving parents. However, are they prepared to face the world alone, on their
terms, as their parents did around thirty years ago?
We as parents did whatever we could to cocoon them
from the world and its ills. We worked hard to provide them a home, clothes,
bikes, education (which is very expensive these days).
We genuflected before tyrannical bosses, ate humble pie in office
meetings, took shit from our clients, and swallowed our pride before aggressive
colleagues to hold on dearly to our jobs. If we were raw and "I don't
care" they would have ended up in a broken family, all alone, living in
some slum, without a job to give them the security they are flaunting.
Okay, I will stop ranting now.
But why I don't understand these MTV guys is because
on the other hand there is this guy Raghu exhorting everyone to be caring,
polite and a good citizen of the world. And he bloody imposes himself of the
poor trembling darlings. A girl said she wanted to be in Roadies because that
would make her famous and give her the right break. Girl, grow up! This thought
of instant stardom through the teevee is figment of the fertility of your
imagination. And there's this show where the spoilt brats of rich
industrialists are summarily insulted and traumatized by another presenter, or
Veejay, or whatever.
Now "I don't care" has become something of
an anthem for the youth. There are young gangs everywhere sporting their
"I don't care" on their sleeves, in a manner of speaking. I saw a
girl crossing the traffic, ears plugged by a hearing device, talking to someone,
unmindful that the cars are honking impatiently for her to cross. "I don't
care," she seems to be saying. And there's this guy, his hair like spikes
on his head, his ears, nose and eyebrows pierced, wearing skin-hugging clothes,
and a pointed pair of shoes. He also seems to say, 'I don't care."
Do you care? Do you? I don't understand this
generation.
THIS IS JAY'S REPLY FOR THE ARTICLE:
Hello ma,
I'll write my opinion, that does not mean what I say
is what is right. It's just what I think:
The opinion of your friend seems to me ridiculous,
really bad. Why? Because this debate has always existed. Young people always
have other fashions, trends, etc.. that in our generation were different, and
our parents and grandparents said the same of us.
The MTV show he speaks, who has a real effect? Who
are these programs? The young, not old, or those who work or who have to work
to survive. This depends very much on education with those children and youth.
This protection that he speaks of the parents, also influences to take that
attitude, because being so protected, and have as many facilities are not
capable of perceiving the real world. And so when they finish their career or
whatever, and have to deal with reality, out other problems that previous
generations had not faced because they worked from small, or whatever.
As much as the parents have sacrificed everything
they do, not going to save their children from all life's problems, that is.
And the attitude of "I Do not Care", because when these children grow
up and have to seek life, sooner or later have to face reality and change, or
those who are brave enough, crazy, or free ( whatever you call it) will
continue with that attitude until the end of his days.
That's it ma, do not understand what has to do with
my mail this article to nana. Come, see you later!
Dears
Akhil & Jay,
Yes,
I did see the article by Mathew as forwarded by you earlier. I did a fast
reading. I found it distressing on the part of an intelligent parent like
Mathew who cannot be considered as an orthodox. However, it seems common among
all parents towards their children though they are mature to think by
themselves. I did not think at that moment to put my thoughts in words. Think
of Binu here. Many here did think about getting her married but she did not
take anything serious. Similar is your thinking of Ravikuty. Let us not think
for our children; let them do it independently. Keep conversing so that the
children confide in their parents. Some guidance from experience might help
but. Yes, but.
I
am of the firm view that no generation carries all the baggage of their earlier
generation. They do change while some might go back. You could find examples
from our own families. I don’ want to illustrate them here. A good portion I
covered in my autobiography. I myself have changed in the process. All these
make me think again on subjects to my heart. Mathew’s children are not a don’t
care lot. They do enjoy MTV just like me some years back. Now I don’t go to
that. When time comes they will take care of not only Mathew but others as
well. There was a time when I did think that I will not be able to care even
for my small family. It all passed. Now Kala and Binu do take care of me beside
Amma. They may not go out, organize rallies and demonstrations for some seemed
public cause but they will be human to each other in or out of the family. We
don’t want rabble rousers carried by ego centric reasons just the team Anna set
of crowd.
On
9.5.2012 the Mumbai papers carried a news from the division bench of Bombay HC.
The court was hearing a few appeals from family court litigants. One of them a
man married and having children but living separately at Port Blair in Andaman
Islands in Bay of Bengal. He is employed n shipping. He married the woman in
2001 an arranged marriage. Wife was born and bred in Mumbai. Upto 2005 the man
was going out on ships and was home after long intervals. But when he was
posted at Port Blair he wanted his wife to go along which she refused. The
judges hearing the case were Justice Mujumdar and Justice Mohta. Mujumdar made
an observation saying that our tradition is that of Sita of Valmiki, who
followed Rama to the forest. This shows that people even two generations old
are not aware of or not bothered to know the present day realities. If my
memory is correct poets and writers of that and earlier generations were much
critical of the treatment meted to Sita by Rama of Valmiki. The remarks made by
the Justice are unwarranted and ill thought out. I am going out of the way to
recall that Laxmana also followed Rama his elder brother. Are we to follow this
tradition today? Secondly, Laxmana has a wife and she did not follow her
husband. He took leave of his mother that is prominent in Valmiki. But there
was nothing mentioned there about taking leave of his wife. Further on at the
end of battle in Lanka; Sita was released and brought before Rama. He did not
accept her purity and wanted her to take a fire test that was arranged. When
Sita entered fire the fire god became cool and presented her to Rama as a
purest wife. The story does not end here. A few months after coronation, Sita
was pregnant. She desired to visit the abodes of sages in the forest. Meanwhile
Rama heard some nasty saying by certain people against Sita and directed
Laxmana to leave her near some rishies abode in the forest. Sita did not know
this. When he was leaving he told Sita on the instruction of Rama that she is
exiled from the kingdom. Years passed. Sita delivered twins. They were educated
by Valmiki including on the use of weapons the boys being Kshatriya. Rama was
conducting a great horse sacrifice. They boys caught the horse foraging in the
sage’s abode. Laxmana failed to get the horse released. It all ended in Valmiki
bringing Sita and the boys to the palace. Rama did not accept Sita. He wanted
another fire test to prove the purity of Sita. In short a huge fire was lit for
Sita to enter. She did enter while crying for mother to rescue her. (All women even
though very mature cry for mother even if her mother is not alive and Sita did
the same.) The story ends with the goddess earth coming out of the
earth and taking Sita in her lap disappeared. No one could say that the judge
did remember all these when commenting about our tradition. He is too casual
with traditions.
The
ideal wife Sita never had a happy married life as proved by the Valmiki’s text.
Imagine on her life. Possible she was happy with her parents but got married by
about the age of 14/15 and went to her marital home. Only a few months there
then she accompanied her spouse to forest. Along with her husband and brother
in-law she also wandered from Ayodhya to south to the banks of Godavari in
Nasik Panchavadi. They might have been
there for a few years before she was abducted and confined in Lanka. In 14
years of dwelling in the forest Sita lived a life of denial. When she was back
in the palace of Ayodhya; she was a mature lady nearing 30. Then a couple or
three months later she was exiled into the forest while pregnant. She lived
under the consoling grace of Valmiki and for the sake of her two sons. When the
boys were out of teens might be 14/15 years of age; she was presented in the
court by Valmiki. Sita may be near 45 years now. She was asked to undergo fire
test for the second time but she vanished in to mother earth. Can we say it was
suicide? Not exactly from the epic!! What kind of “Ramrajya” that made the
queen suffers all her life and loses life?
NOW
LET ME COME TO THE TOPIC
OF ANARCISM.
I
found some articles on this theme years back when I was following Marxism to
understand it. It was only a side theme. Then I started reading about atheism
in India there were ideas of freewill and all. They were propagating for
cooperation, federations etc. sans all authorities. It was like communism
without communists. The first requirement is that of likeminded people in a
large majority to be elected on a promise of changing everything upside down.
Even if this is achieved on some day what will they do with the administration,
the industry and other infra structure? Let us assume that all wealth will be
taken over by the new authority in order to distribute them equally among all
people. How to distribute a coal mine, oil refinery or all those basic and
infrastructural bodies? Very difficult to imagine!! Among the population there
are talented and less talented as well as lazy people though may be a minority.
Should they get equal share? Let us be clear that money is not wealth at all.
Wealth consists of material objects, products of labour. Talented and skilled
will work hard to create new and more wealth which they will not share with
others who don’t do work. It is natural and true for millennia. The oldest
existing work of the ancients in India is the Rigveda. It describes conflict
between same groups of people at many places. They were not sorted peacefully
but through annihilating one or other group. Mamma could spot from notes made
by me on reading Rigveda that is with her. It is in Malayalam. Now I am looking
in the net on the subject and found a lot, much confusing than resolving. There
was an autobiography of a famous atheist “Gora” Gopalraju Ramachandra Rao. I
will forward it.
Dearest Nana,
I am very happy that you wrote such a huge and rich
content, in reply to our mails.
I totally agree with you with the example of the
Indian judges. It is pathetic and a shame, that such a country as India, which
delivers excellent and well rounded scientists, engineers, lawyers, doctors,
etc., is one of the top countries in many aspects (military, nuclear arsenal,
etc.), has at the same time such "bondages" as social and religious
thoughts, the casts system, such a big gap between rich and poor, inequality
for women, corruption, and a very large etc.
Regarding Anarchism, I believe that is not the
solution for all issues in the world. That is why, I am very curious, and wants
to learn more about it. Even between them, they have lots of difference of opinions.
Also, some of them believe that Communism is a mandatory step, as a transition
to Anarchism. The good thing about all these ideologies is that they make you
think, and form your own opinion. They encourage you to learn, to read, not
only the media, but many from many other sources, and contrast what you learn.
I will surely read the article of the Anarchist you
have sent, and give you a reply accordingly.
Yours,
Yours,
Jay
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