Honnasiri's Catch

Having a rich culture is a boon, and a rare one. There are fewer countries, each time you count them, that seek to preserve theirs in all its glory. A deeper look into most of these cultures can convert this boon into a bane that parades right under our noses. This comparison can be simplistically defined as a western / western whitewash vs. a century / millennia-old preservation. It can also be classified science / reason/ logic heavy vs. a collection of arbitrary habits that add colour to the variety of ways people live. They made sense in a setting that has been preserved from a long time ago, that sometimes can just be cute and antiquated today, and it may or may not be realistically holding out as a sensible lifestyle against the tide of change. If the latter is your thing, what you are is blindfolded. You are, thereby, blind to everything except those things that define your cultural 'fold'. Just not your eyes, but your mind too. The blindfold over your mind keeps it wor...

Career hazards are a part of every job. A lot of times, they make it worth the risk. If you manage to cross over, it's certainly worth it, and it makes trying (without succeeding) worth the effort. Politics, too, is a career. With the shuffle of people back and forth once they get into inner circles, it certainly isn't a vocation they just end up finding themselves lucky to do. It has prep and reward involved—all which any politician should feel guilty about as long they are doing their jobs. And like every organisation and industry, there is competition, and not just the healthy type. Since the chances of them having a honourable merit-based in-organisation hierarchy in politics is low in India, there is  confrontation, which has now become the standard. It's like all politicians are trying their best to be champions in limbo (the game), outdoing one another when one sets a brand new low for inter-political and personal respect for colleagues and peers as humans—defamat...

The world's going digital. Smart phones, AI, IT... practically everything is made easy, possible at the click of something, or at the very thought of it. It's all come down to 1's and 0's—as binary as binary can get. Sadly, this can turn into an bloody infestation where binaries don't belong, like politics. With its root beginnings themselves dubious enough, this is an added insult. This binary thinking makes us magnets who have to stick to only one side based on our polarity (which we apparently can't change). It's all involuntary, you see. It's always left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative, or capitalists vs. everybody else. Neither of two groups (whichever they be) recognise any ground in between. It's like a great abyss of death. Independent inquiry always makes you from the other side, depending on who's accusing you. You either play for the home team or the other team. One is wrong, the other right; one evil, the other p...

(Topic: Politics) Read ( 1 ) Read ( 2 ) Read ( 3 ) As political ethics develop, the lines can be blurry almost all the time. A few of the rules, though, don't really change. They define the do's and don'ts of the core. Some are: One/a group can choose to believe what is not factually true for himself/themselves. That is allowed. It is not cardinal sin. The factual consequences are theirs to bear. Thought doesn't hurt and is not detrimental by itself. If one/a group wants to hold on any thought they like, they are free to. They may only be restricted once they adversely inflict it on another person in action. No individual's views automatically bear upon any other person. Offence is a personal matter, defined by intent to offend.  Ridiculing and mocking another's thinking doesn't help. It happens often with people who have different viewpoints that are, by a more prevalent standard, advanced but not prevalent for everyone. In or...

(Topic: Politics) Read ( 1 ) Read ( 2 ) While the democratic core is vibrant and exploding, it isn't the case of thinking magically becoming law. It's here that ideas form and are influenced, discussed and hopefully tested. Ideas that work on the ground aren't unicorn-like. They are sometimes dumbed down from larger concepts but it's better to have a bigger ideal to start with. They can always be made better over time. Most universally accepted views of how things ought to be are always balanced on one side. They serve one master and make the rest servants. Pick one and it will be easy to see. A good system serves everyone equally. Some argue, equally at their needs first. Others argue that that's too basic and it should be more competitive so that humans are naturally incentivized to do better, than be complacent. All these and many, many other ideas and sub-ideas are floating till one of them proves to be a better fit for a solution. All of this conver...

(Topic: Politics) Read (1) Well, politics is everywhere. When it comes into its own arena, and deals with power and governance, it takes on a new level. Till then people are just doing it on the side for ego kicks and side benefits. Once crossed over to the big leagues, the only thing different is a much, much wider playing field with the same motivation to win The science remains as is. There are some stark differences though. When otherwise practiced, there was never a referee, and there was no accountability. It is self-managed system. Sensible people rested their egos at a reasonable midpoint and accepted that there are going to be some crazy folk you can go ahead and ignore. At the next level, there is self-regulation and accountability, with the same freedom to crazy folk. It takes shape in a growing, robust swirling core of ideas fed by citizens' voices, with everything they think about where the country should be and how to get there. This is the sacred...

There's presently a lot of nataka in Karnataka. Long story short, BJP's short of full majority, Congress-JD(S) have joined together and cross the halfway mark, and there are 3 other independents who align one way or the other. The Governor, in his non-popular-by-some wisdom, has allowed the BJP to form government, with 15 days to pass a floor test. So, there's a swearing in of a Chief Minister with no government or cabinet, who practically doesn't have visible MLAs to get on his side except ones he can poach. All of this while we sit here in shock or amusement watching our beloved politicians take for this great rollercoaster ride. With the hope of making things better, there are voices for and against the present situation with various arguments why it is right, wrong, ethical or immoral. But there's one voice that's the most hypocritical of all: yours (if you're registered on an electoral roll somewhere in Karnataka and you didn't vote unless it w...