Idle Thoughts

Barkha Dutt closed a TV debate on ‘death penalty’ with an unusual take on justice: “Justice,” she said “is somewhere in between turning the other cheek and revenge”. I liked the fact that she differentiated justice from revenge. That is one step more evolved than those TV anchors who made a eleven year old girl bay for Ajmal Kasab’s blood. In the primitive world when every man was unto himself, justice and revenge had the same meaning. When someone hurt you, you got revenge by hurting them back. This was considered just and fair because that was the way you defended yourself in those days. The initial sets of law like the code of Hammurabi brought in an essential difference – the individuals were spared of taking revenge. Instead the state took the responsibility to get things even. But with the famous ‘an eye for an eye’ tone, the code itself came closer to a ‘revenge code’ than a ‘penal code’. During the 3000+ years after Hammurabi, the system of justice evolved a lot. Toda...

The human view of development of agriculture is straightforward – we preferred specific grains and fruits as our food and we started growing more and more of those. But how does this look from the view of the plants? How did they make humans chose them from the plentiful choice? How did they cultivate us as advanced form of bees and birds to spread their genes? I picked up Botany of Desire tempted by its promise to provide interesting insights into evolution from the plant’s point of view. Here is my experience. The book is filled with interesting tidbits and views. Look at this comment on the impact of commercialization of apple cultivation: An apple tree grown from the seed  produces a very different fruit from what the seed came from. Hence the natural forests and the original orchards that grew apple trees from the seeds were home for an incredible variety of the fruit – varying in taste, smell, shape, size and color. Now the commercialization has limited the choice to a han...

I was following the IPL-Tharoor saga not just as another scandal, but rather as a definition of what is the Darwinian fitness in Indian Politics. When Tharoor became prominent in politics, to me it was a welcome mutation – not a perfect new species, mind you – but a mutation that was a definite improvement on the existing species. And there was reason to believe that the environment of selection too has changed with increasing education of the masses and increasing influence of the electronic media. From that perspective it was quite interesting to watch if this new gene survived. It is probably too early to write the obituary of this political gene, but I think it looks unlikely that it will survive. In Indian politics it appears that the fittest one is the same old fashioned, wily gene. For those who are wondering why I am wasting my breath in supporting someone who apparently misused his position of power, I am not here to justify what he did or what he is supposed to have do...

Someone who identifies himself with the cause of Marathi Manoos felt that accepting Pakistani cricketers in India is an insult to the 26/11 martyrs. You don’t see the connection? 26/11 attackers came from Pakistan. Pakistani cricketers obviously come from Pakistan. Do you see it now? Now, that makes me wonder - What about Mumbai serial blasts? Many of those involved in those blasts hailed from Mumbai itself. Now, if we let Mumbai cricketers play in Mumbai, are we insulting someone? Let me stop this dangerous line of thought right here before some of the self proclaimed Marathi Manoos supporters actually take up this cause. Let me get back to the story that I started with. Owner of one of the IPL teams felt that Pakistani players should have been included in the IPL teams. Mysteriously, his team did not bid for any Pakistani player. It must be a virtue not to practice what you preach, because you are allowing others to be better than you. How selfless! There were people who cons...

Sachin Tendulkar completed 20 years in international cricket. In some aspects, it appears that Sachin is in a zone where time has stood still. Before his debut for India, he was asked in an interview about his ambitions. “I want to play for my country, sir” the boy replied. Not an unexpected answer at all in the context. Some twenty years later, in another interview, Sachin talked about his ambitions - He wanted to play for the country. I heard the same passion, the same determination that I heard 20 years back. Even the voice hadn’t changed! The same goes for the fans attitude as well. I remember watching matches where India was hopelessly staring at defeat: sitting at the edge of my seat, heart in my mouth only because Sachin was around there slaying demons. Anything was possible when he was around. I went through the same experience again last week when India played Australia in Hyderabad, chasing some 350 runs – watching Sachin trying to make the impossible possible. Nothing seems...

I had read a lot about Max Muller, before I got around to reading anything that he wrote. In fact, going by the contrasting views that I had read about him, I knew of two Max Mullers. The first Max Muller opened the eyes of western scholars (and some eastern, they say) to the real worth of Vedas and argued for this civilization’s rightful place in history. The second Max Muller misrepresented the facts about Vedas to suit his faith and prejudice. Which one is the real Max Muller? Was he the apostle who propagated the message of Vedas to the west? Or was he the devil who distorted the facts to fit prejudices, confusing the uninformed? Recently I had the opportunity to read what Max Muller thought of Vedas and Indians in his own words. Initial revelation was that Max Muller is not as much of a student of philosophy and religion as he is a historian. His interest in Vedas and the rest of Sanskrit literature mainly is the light that it can throw to the history of development of reli...