It is a well known fact that the United states always acts in its own self interest (nothing wrong in it within the right limits) .Though being a superpower, it tries to project that it knows best(pundit) what is good for the world at large, it is its own self interest(desi) that guides its decision making. It’s a different matter that it turns out to be short term gain long term pain(bandit) when such decisions prove counterproductive..
In the article “Why the war on Terror was lost” on Sunday,August 20,2006, editor of Hindustan times, Mr Vir Sanghvi describes how vulnerable the world has become because of terrorism despite all the measures taken by the US since 9/11. The recent Bombay bombings, the shutting down of Heathrow airport, the stringent security regulations that all international passengers are subjected to, the US warning to India to guard against attacks in the subcontinent are all pointers to the fact that we are probably much worse off than we were around 9/11.
Mr Sanghvi further tries to explain the phenomenon of the terrorist(those who were caught) not belonging to any particular cause or organization but normal people like you and me. He says ,” By invading Iraq, George Bush and Tony Blair convinced the world’s muslims that the west had targeted their religion. By failing to rein in the Israelis when they wreaked havoc in West Asia, they bred the fear that Islam had to fight for its very survival. In the process, Bush and Blair achieved what bin Laden would never have. They made Muslims feel like global victims and they radicalized Muslim youth from Bali to Bombay to Buckinghamshire. They gave terrorism a new raison’d eitre.”. The US support to Gen Musharraf and Pakistan also made it a hotbed of terrorism as a majority of the caught terrorists hailed from there.
The article concludes that the world that we shall bequeath to our children shall be tense, hate-filled and a dangerous place.
The United states has a penchant for shooting itself in the foot and there have been articles on how its short sighted policies(desi) often boomerang on itself. Therefore, in this context we can conclude that Desipundit and Desibandit are one and the same and since it’s a superpower the word Videsi(International) can also be used instead of Desi.
Now for some sub-local and self terrorism:-
I have been blogging for over a year now and though I was vaguely aware that www.desipundit.com had a good reputation for recommendation, I had never bothered much as I went about my nomadic excursions through the blogosphere. Then, when The Times of India evinced interest in some of the contents of my other blog ( Make your passion your profession – http://mypyp.wordpress.com/) and told me to write a series of short articles(ironically the first article got published just a day following this post for details- http://mypyp.wordpress.com/)- after a reputed magazine had already published one article on it in April’2006.. It just struck me out of the blue that how come no recognition had come from Desipundit. Is the standard of the blogosphere more stringent than that of professional magazines and newspapers?
All kinds of doubts began to invade my mind. I began to wonder about the credentials of people at www.desipundit.com One comes across examples of people who become critics when they cannot master the basic art and of some people who become judges when their practice as lawyers does not flourish. I started wondering whether the powers that be at Desipundit were in that category. Could their be a collusion between them and some of the bloggers? I sent an email(asking for advise) to the main person behind Desipundit, Partix which went unanswered. This coincided with the controversy where Kiruba Shanker’s blogstreet rating as the top Indian blogger was questioned by someone. This fuelled my doubtful mind even more and I began to wonder whether the top bloggers were trying to perpetuate their standing as some of our so called spiritual leaders.
As it so often happens with me and poetry being the spontaneous flow of powerful emotions, I ended up writing a rather unflattering poem on Desipundit., Patrix, Kiruba and god knows who. My apologies. I am not desperate for recognition but I make no pretensions of false modesty either..
The way things turned out, Patrix replied to my second email and Kiruba Shanker himself made a post where he stated that the ratings of http://www.sunsuna.com which rated him 24th were more reliable from a certain perspective. Patrix also pointed out that a majority of their recommendations were sent by others. This made me feel sheepish as a long time follower of Osho and Krishnamurthy as to what havoc even a slight lapse in an unobserved mind can do.
Both have taught that witnessing is the essence of meditation and one had to be constantly be watchful of one’s thoughts, feelings and actions. Krishnamurthy in particular always stresses that the root of all kinds of conflict lies in the mind and the thought process itself and no real transformation is possible unless there is transformation at the level of the individual.. Even the root cause of international terrorism is belief in a particular system or and strongly identifying with it. That is why both are against organized religion because that itself implies division and goes against a truly religious mind.
This corroborates the views of blind poet Jhon Milton who said that the mind within itself(and outside if I may say so) can create a heaven of hell and hell of heaven. The unobserved mind can itself be a pundit or a bandit which can have either national(desi) or international (videshi) connotations. The source of misery is inside(desi) and the external is just a manifestation.
Digressing slightly, it would not be out of place to mention what Devdas menon says in his book “Stop sleepwalking through life”. He says the guru(dispeller of darkness) had yielded place to the pundit(learned scholar). “. Knowledge being food for the ego, it sometimes goes against the very essence of spirituality.It is not uncommon to find egoistical tendencies in the so called pundit whose spiritual knowledge has made him a bandit from inside. Only constant dispassionate watchfulness can curb such and other negative tendencies and therefore act as a guru. To put it poetically:-
Hope I have been able to convey the vagaries of the mind
My apologies to those who may have thought that I have been unkind
Just wanted to highlight what all an unobserved mind can think from behind
Watching our thoughts, feelings and actions is a meditation and not doing so is tantamount to being blind.
Mind is like a drunken monkey stung by a scorpion
One should be circumspect and think ten times before forming an opinion
Whether it is an outsider or your lifetime companion.
To be objective, conditioning has to be peeled like the layers of an onion
That alone can reduce conflict in the stress filled 21st century and promote genuine union.
The Iraq war has proved that man can resort to war without any reason
For all democratic traditions and civilized conduct, it was actually a treason
Only an intellectually inclined world statesman with the right vision
Can remove conflict permanently by addressing both the root cause and effect of division.
I hope I have conveyed that whether desi or videsi, it is the mind that is the real pundit or bandit
Whatever research is possible on dispelling negative notions and thoughts, one should fund it
It is self introspection that acts as the best guru, one does not require a pundit.
For any conflict , thoughts have to be observed dispassionately; that alone can permanently end it.
Stray Thoughts 