SPEAKING OF WORLD VIEW AND CONTEXTS..................

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/music/a/violinist_metro.htm

Good morning India.........

Dressed in jeans and a baseball cap, a 39 year-old ‘fiddler’stood against a wall next to a trash can at the L’Enfant Plaza metro station in Washington D.C. He looked like any other street musician trying to make a buck.

During the 43 minutes that he played his violin, researchers watched 1,097 people pass by during the morning rush hour. It took 3 minutes before someone even gazed in his direction, and even longer before any money was thrown into his violin case.

Most people did not notice the musician. Some were talking on cell phones, others listened to iPods. Masterful pieces such as Bach’s “Chaconne”, Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria”, and Manuel Ponce’s “Estrellita”, were passed off as nothing more than “generic classical music”. (Weingarten, 2007)That day, the fiddler made $32.17, or 75 cents a minute.

When situated within an upscale concert hall dressed in black, the same 39 year-old ‘fiddler’, Joshua Bell, on the same $3.5 million Stradivari violin, commands up to $1,000 a minute playing the exact same masterpieces. This elite musician is said to be “one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.” (Weingarten, 2007).

Within the context of a subway street musician, a measly seven people were moved to stop and listen before walking by. Within the context of a famous concert hall musician, thousands of listeners invest significant money to hear and be moved by Bell’s music, often with standing room only.

Often times during my counseling sessions with my students and their parents, I come across huge generation gaps and acute misunderstandings between the two. "Misunderstandings" is a mild word I use.
I think let the new generation have a free hand once a “Vision” is created. Let them be the designers of a new foundation along with the new buildings. Let them learn from old mistakes and their own. Let them close gaps to the front and not to their rear. Let us not keep making them look into rear view mirrors all the time in terms of our righteousness, vanity, cultural, social and religious bindings. Which often times my generation mistakes for "Values".

I think the first step would be recognizing the fact, that “What was good for us in our times may not be good for them in theirs”. After all how the world occurs to us, make our contexts and these contexts drive us.
(Precisely why I have reproduced the story of Joshua Bell).

Similar is the case with the new generation. Let us not make their contexts. It would be the same as creating new buildings on old foundations, howsoever much we may feel that our foundations are the strongest and the best. That is because over time our beliefs become our absolute truths and finally our so called values. We forget that values are only those which are universally accepted and not by isolated societies. 

Therefore it is time that the older generation learnt to understand that the next generation might see the poor fiddler as Joshua Bell on the subway and make their contexts accordingly.

The context uses you in that it shapes your way of being, which includes your perceptions, imagination, emotions, and thinking, and as a consequence the context shapes your actions. Can you really domesticate the next generation as per your perceptions and contexts? Like you train your dog not to pee on the carpet, to indicate with his tail when he requires to be let into the garden for his poop or not put his loving paws on the baby?
Food for thought is it not?

Burying Hemant Karkare......

Burying Hemant Karkare......

http://epaper.indianexpress.com/c/10385610

This is what a Policeman Julio Ribero spoke exactly a year ago as a Christian....
”Today, in my 86th year, I feel threatened, not wanted, reduced to a stranger in my own country. The same category of citizens who had put their trust in me to rescue them from a force they could not comprehend have now come out of the woodwork to condemn me for practicing a religion that is different from theirs. I am not an Indian anymore, at least in the eyes of the proponents of the Hindu Rashtra".

Today at age 87 he writes in the Indian Express an article 
"Burying Hemant Karkare".
The only thing I like about Julio Ribero and admire him for in his article, is that he has stood up all the way for his brother officer. He has not sold Hemant Karkare down the drain like it happened with Col Purohit. Col Purohit being from the Indian Army Corps of Intelligence should have been kept away from all including Cops. Possibly untold damage may have occurred as quite a few cops are traitors and they would have got hold of Top Secret Inner workings of Military Intelligence so also knowledge of military assets. Specially after hearing that Col Purohit was subjected to 3rd Degree torture by Hemant Karkare and his band. Like Hanging him upside down from a hook in the roof and heavy and brutal beatings, he being a human being may have divulged sensitive information. Now this is why I am upset at the superior officers of the Indian Army.

After having served close on to 26 years in the Army, I can say with certainty, no Army Officer moves or does anything without the orders and knowledge of superiors. If one has a look at the movement Order on which he moved from his unit to Delhi, it is absolutely correct and above board and for any soldier to move anywhere in India on duty it is sacrosanct. Unfortunately within this travel period Col Purohit was whisked away by Mr. Riberos blue eyed boy to destinations unknown, I believe from his home in Pachmari, it also appeared to be with the connivance of his bosses.

Julio Ribero is all praises for Karkare, and rejects out of hand, all evidence faulting Karkare in Malegaon blasts probe. Irrespective of the fact that NIA was heading a new probe. For him Karkare "Enjoyed an unsullied reputation for integrity, both financial and intellectual" So Hemant Karkare in Julio Ribeiro's eyes, could do NO wrong. I think senility is slowly catching up with him.

He talks of Hemant Karkare as being a highest upper cast Brahmin yet being impartial in his approach to all castes and religions. That I think is an insult to my clan. In effect he says that the Brahmin caste in general look down upon other castes in their professions? So somewhere in his heart he is biased towards other casts and religions? He further goes on to say that in our land the governing creed was "Hindus killing Muslims will be dealt with equally sternly as Muslims killing Hindus". Dear Sir, you are an acknowledged Congress Dupatta, do you really think the latter is true. May be old age has magnified his obsession with his Christian identity, which hopefully is a present trend due to approaching senility and was not there during his service in senior positions, because that in itself would have been a cause for worry.

I am not denying that Hemant Karkare may have been a very good Policeman and a good Police Officer, half of your article consists of your praise for him. Yet it must be remembered, the way you accuse the present "Hindutva agenda government" of sullying and burying Karkares good name. So also you accuse the NIA "under directions" of diluting the case made by Karkare. Exactly the same could be said of Karkare and his ATS. You refuse to believe that the NIA has some substance and evidence to reframe charges against the accused. Yet you believe without an iota of doubt that Hemant Karkare and his ATS could do no wrong and their presented case was gods own truth? 

Yet it is well known Mr Julio Ribero, that how the IPS who come under the command of State Governments are so unceremoniously treated like the politicians shoe shine boys. So it is quite possible that your blue eyed boy while investigating the case, had to bend to the pseudo secular pseudo pro minority Congress Government in power in Maharashtra at that point of time, as you now accuse the NIA? So also at that time it was common knowledge which minorities, the Nehru topiwalas were talking about. 

No Mr Julio Ribero I think you need to do a re think on your thoughts. As an upright policeman who rose to the highest ranks, you cannot have 2 standards to measure the same square. I have utmost respect for you, yet sometimes old age makes us treat our beliefs as if they were gods own truth.

Indian Army Coached 26 Kashmiri Students For JEE (Mains) Exam, 15 Got Selected

The Army’s Dagger Division, on Behalf on Chinar Corps, at Baramulla facilitated the students of the Valley who attended Kashmir Super-30 engineering coaching programme in 2015-16.

See more here:

http://topyaps.com/15-kashmiri-students-jee-mains-2016

A lot of my civilian and some Army friends commented on this initiative, mostly in the negative.

Some of them:

" Why waste time on them"

"Why not train veterans children"

"They are separatists and traitors don't deserve to come into Indian Institutes of learning". Plus a whole variety of them. Very few if any commended the Army for this sadbhavana initiative. I think all of us tended to forget that we are talking of children in the age group of 18 to 20.

I was very sad to also see a comment that " Still they will always love Pakistan". Actually this was the comment that hurt me most and triggered me to share my thoughts more than anything else.

I do appreciate these comments from the view point of those who see Kashmiris as anti Nationals and traitors. A separatist bunch of terrorists. However the comment that "They will still love Pakistan",  said with reference to students being trained for JEE and IIT entrance, that I think only time will tell.  

Twenty years of working as a facilitator and trainer and conducting Soft Skills Development Training Programs in Manufacturing and Service Industry mostly multinational and large corporate, teaching in Universities and Colleges, I tend to rethink. We cannot impose our perceptions on Gen Next. After all they are evolving and we are dinosaurs now fading into the mists of time.

I hated Pakistan and even hate it today, my sworn enemies from 1971. I used to harbor equal hate for Nehru, his dynasty and the Nehru topiwalas, the reason behind all the mess. If you really see the origins of this Kashmiri problem, it lies squarely at the feet of Jawaharlal Nehru,  an incompetent, egoistic and the weakest PM India has had the misfortune to have, these facts are available in contemporary history not colored by the white topiwalas. Even as Pakistani raiders were within 7 km of the Srinagar airport on 26 October 1947, and Sardar Patel prevailing upon Nehru. Manekshaw, then a Lt Colonel in the Directorate of Military Operations, presented an assessment to the Defence Committee of the Cabinet that Kashmir would be lost for good if troops were not flown immediately.
"Nehru hesitated (even after the Maharaja of Kashmir acceded to India). He was concerned about the world opinion (aka Looking Good) and talked about consulting the UN, until an impatient Sardar Patel wrested the initiative from him. "Jawahar, do you want Kashmir or do you want to give it away?" "Of course, I want Kashmir," was Nehru's indignant response. The Sardar turned to Sam and said, "You have your marching orders". Then my father who was a part of the operations as a company commander of a Sikh battalion, tells me Nehru stopped our advance into now Pak occupied Kashmir. We begged for just 48 hours to finish this battle, but this idiot on the advice of Mrs Mountbatten called in the United Nations and ordered a cease fire and left this state permanently on fire.. So why blame these children for the sins of their fathers? However that is neither here and there.

Coming back to the comment by people, "Why waste time on Kashmiri students"," they will still love Pakistan" and others, I feel the implication is that these friends feel that by giving an opportunity to Kashmiri kids to come into the mainstream of Indian Society, by facilitating their studies to become competitive and join premier Institutions of learning, they should become Indoctrinated with thoughts that will make them Nationalistic within the definitions of Nationalism as my friends see it, and taking it a bit further as stated, start hating Pakistan. Then in their ideas, these students will become true Indians deserving everything.

I am now more than certain and convinced, that we cannot impose on this generation in their late teens or early twenties, to hate Pakistan or to that matter China or any other country, because our or my sense of Nationalism dictates so,  because of our experiences with Pakistan says so.

Perception is at best subjective there can be no right or wrong or good or bad. One thing I have found for certain, is, that my students who are mostly in their late teens and early twenties know what they want. Unfortunately it may not be congruent with our ideas. That is the beauty of life. You and me do not know if the same drama takes place on the other side of the border or not, which most probably it does.

Our times are done, it is these students of today who will dictate as to which path has to be trodden globally, so also which direction they will take this forever  evolving  nation. I think let the new generation have a free hand once a “Vision” is created. Let them be the designers of a new foundation along with the new buildings. Let them learn from old mistakes and their own. Let them close gaps to the front and not to their rear. Let us not keep making them look into rear view mirrors all the time in terms of our righteousness, vanity, cultural, social and religious bindings and our beliefs of what Nationalism truly consists of.

Our way of being and our actions are correlated with (responsive to) the way in which what we are dealing with occurs or shows up for us.  For example, if the way a situation we are dealing with occurs for us as threatening, our way of being and acting - that is, our mental, emotional, and bodily states, and our thoughts and thought processes, and our actions - is likely to be correlated with
(responsive to) the situation occurring for us in that way.   On the other hand, if the way a situation we are dealing with occurs for us as an opportunity to excel, our way of being and acting is likely to be correlated with the situation occurring for us in that way. Now what ever has happened in Srinagar and the Kashmir valley (possibly because of our ass **le  politicians) has shaped these kids way of being because so far the context of situations existing in the valley have  occurred to them as threatening, therefore their way of being and acting are correlated with the context or the situation. If the Sadbhavana movement by the Indian Army in the valley is seen by these students as an opportunity to excel, there way of being and acting is likely to be correlated with the situation occurring to them in that way. I really do not understand why my friends cannot appreciate these simple facts of life.

Delving into it a bit further: The students Functional Constraints (trigger able set-ways-of-being-and-acting) often seem justified and even rational at the time, and are therefore difficult for the students to recognize as a limitation on their being and action. While such limitations on the students behavior, the behavior which we term as anti National and traitorous are difficult for them to recognize in themselves and hence students are often stuck on rails. The results of the Sadbhavna rally by the Army in the valley  will give an opportunity for the students to change and may be master their Functional Constraints which have so far been dictated by our politicians mismanagement and inept handling of the situation in the Kashmir Valley.

 I think the first step to change our mind set, would be recognizing the fact, that “What was good for us in our times may not be good for them in theirs”.  After all how the world occurs to us, make our contexts and these contexts drive us. Similar is the case with the new generation. Let us not make their contexts. It would be the same as creating new buildings on old foundations, howsoever much we may feel that our foundations are the best.
Going a bit wider and looking at the state of our Nation, the above facts hit us like a sucker punch. Let the dinosaurs remain extinct in the mists of time.