A Religious Conundrum – Is ‘World Peace’ a Utopian Fantasy?

“..Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

  Nothing to kill or die for

      And no religion too..”

Writer – Yamuna Matheswaran

During his New Year’s Eve performance at Times Square, popular American musician Cee Lo Green changed the lyrics of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, causing it to read – “Nothing to kill or die for, and all religions true” instead. Understandably, it generated widespread controversy. But Cee Lo defended his actions immediately after the incident, tweeting – “Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys! I was trying to say a world were [sic] u could believe what u wanted that’s all.”

The controversy aside, is it possible to imagine a world where all religions coexist peacefully? Or is that more implausible than a world with no religion at all?

Recently, while reading a chapter entitled ‘Religion Kills’ from Christopher Hitchens’ book ‘God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything’, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. As someone who is aware of the many wars fought, crimes committed and genocides made possible for the sake of religion, I did not find Hitchens’ writings to be particularly offensive. But I am wary of extremist views, of long-winded cynical polemics. My immediate reaction was – “Mr. Hitchens, please tell me something I don’t know”. After all, even if the world acknowledges the brutal acts brought forth in the name of religious justice, what are we to do about it? Banishing all the religions of the world is hardly a feasible solution. Besides, who are we to tell a God-fearing man, who in all possibility could be leading a conscientious life, to discard his beliefs? 

Are festivals in India really that ancient?

Writer – Ayan Ghosh

For Bengalis around the world, the month of October is always reminiscent with the festivities surrounding the worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It’s not only the biggest festival in Bengal, but also the most popular festival in the entire Eastern region of India, being widely celebrated in Orissa, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand.

As a child I had believed that Durga Puja is one of India’s many ancient festivals, as in a nation where heritage clearly lies in its past, the older practices are, the more venerated they become. It was only later that I came to know that the first Durga Puja in Calcutta was celebrated by Raja Naba Krishna Deb, an aristocrat, in Shobabazar Rajbari (a square in north Calcutta) in the 1700s.

Photo courtesy - silcharchronicle.com

Raja Naba Krishna Deb was one of the early Bengali stalwarts in the newly established British city of Calcutta. With knowledge of Persian, Arabic and crucially –English, he was invaluable as a translator for the East India Company in an era where few Indians understood English. After the death of Siraj ud-Daulah -the last Nawab of Bengal- Deb, along with the traitor Mir Jafar,  made himself a nouveau riche with earnings from the secret treasury.

Several Bengalis soon followed his footsteps and made astronomical fortunes through trade and contact with the British, and went on to establish the great houses of old Calcutta; each celebrating their own Durga Puja and often  competing with each other. As a reward for his services, the British conferred the honorary title of ‘Raja’ (as one cannot be a king under the Crown itself) upon Deb, and he returned the favor by donating lands and celebrating the first Durga Puja in Calcutta in 1757, the same year as the Battle of Plassey.

Among visiting dignitaries were none less than Robert Clive himself, and it is conjectured that puja was offered for the successful completion of the Battle, since the only church in the town had been destroyed in previous year’s siege of Calcutta by the Nawab’s forces. Therefore the Durga Puja festival in Calcutta was a celebration that took place in the beginning of India’s colonial period, and is not more than 250 years old!

This leads to the question – how old are India’s so called ancient festivals? Have they really been around since time immemorial. Even by common knowledge, it seems that in most cases they have been initiated by a person, and within surprisingly recent periods.

The concept of Silent Noise, and why we should give it thought

Photo Courtesy: www.thirdage.com

Writer: Meera Vijayann

A couple of months ago, a close friend mentioned that he was attending a ‘Silent Noise’ party in Bangalore. Curious, I looked it up and was tremendously impressed. If you haven’t heard of the Silent Noise Project already, here’s a gist; the project is the brainchild of DJ Justin Mason, who decided to find a way to work around the ban on noise along the beachfront by the Goa authorities. And the idea was simple – instead of blaring loud music after hours, all people had to do was plug in headphones, tune into their favourite DJ and continue foot tapping to the music.  So people were free to club hop, simply sitting by the beachside or sipping on a drink!

Justin Mason’s simple idea lent  a whole new vibe to outdoor parties. Of course, none of these parties lacked the natural flavour of regular late night parties. Complete with performers, dancers, lasers and spectacular visuals, party-goers were promised the entire deal. Needless to say, it is truly phenomenal how something as simple as wireless technology helped resolve a problem by creating a fine balance between silence and noise. But digging deep, I think that the Silent Noise concept also seemed to project a strangely disturbing trend among party-goers and people in general – everyone seemed to feel tremendously happy when they were disconnected, even in a crowd. 

A life-changing invention from the West Bank – Who’s life does it really change?

Writer – Meera Vijayann

It was the title of the Youtube video that caught my eye recently – A life-changing invention from the West Bank. Of course, I was almost immediately ashamed when I learnt it didn’t have anything to do with guns. Three young Palestinian school girls from the Askar refugee camp recently devised an advanced walking cane called ‘Stick-tech’ to help the blind. The cane, it is said, beeps when it passes over holes or objects, helping a person identify obstacles beforehand. The invention won them tickets to an international science fair in California, and needless to say, the girls were duly thrilled. But after surfing through a couple of media stories that covered this, I realized that there was hardly anything that talked about the situation itself.

Our attitude towards old world customs – Isn’t it high time to change?

Writer - Bhavia Velayudhan

I get to spend little time to with my family. So when I visited them this time for a change, it was a celebration. But even through such happiness, something bothered me. I was at an uncle’s house, and I noticed that somebody is missing – my aunt. When I asked for her, I was told that I couldn’t meet her . Assuming, she was sick, I rushed into the bedroom and saw that the door was locked from the outside.

‘She has her period now. Don’t go inside or touch her,’ her mother-in-law warned me.

‘So who cooked lunch?’ I asked.

‘It was bought outside as she is not allowed to enter the kitchen.’ she replied.

I was fuming. In the 21st century, why do people still allow this kind of untouchability? When my aunt opened the door, we felt as if we were talking at a conflict border. While snacks were served to me, her mother-in-law brought in some snacks and threw the bowl on her bed. I asked my aunt why she wouldn’t  talk about this to my uncle, and was surprised at what she said.

Need to get rid of E-waste? Turn it to E-jewellery!

Photo Courtesy – Yuma Fujimaki

Writer- Meera Vijayann

Do you remember the first time that someone gifted you a digital watch? Well of course, you do. For most of us, that marked the beginning of the future. Today, twenty years later, we can barely keep up. Mobile phones, record players, fancy air-conditioners, laptops, remote controls, television – technology has become an integral part of our lives. It has helped us progress in leaps and bounds into a digital future, made our lives easier. There is no need to depend on age-old desktops when there are newer compact laptops and tablets, heavy portable phones have been replaced with cell-phones, and e-books are slowly taking away old print editions from our libraries. But where do we throw away our old electronic products? The answer is, probably not too far away.

The hidden blessing – lessons from headache pills

Writer – Revathi Sreekumar

Ever wondered why those pills you take don’t make the headache go away? Here’s a little secret – they were probably not meant to ease the pain at all.  I work for a diagnostic company, so after three years of helping pharmaceutical and food companies set up quality procedures in their manufacturing line to make their products ‘safe’, I bet I can give you something to think about the next time you visit your local pharmacy.

With a ‘boom’ in the biotech industry in the last decade, a lot of Indian pharmaceutical companies are both exporting and selling their products within India. And needless to say, all the developed countries who import products made here enforce high quality standards in their manufacturing facilities; they conduct tests, send the FDA officials for a run through, and sometimes even make them visit manufacturing units by surprise. The math isn’t hard to work out – Labour is inexpensive here in India and since profit margins are high in the European and US markets, companies take the trouble and invest a little extra time and money. But this is not the same when Indian pharmaceuticals market their products in India.

A website for cheats – the ultimate treat or plain cheap?

Photo courtesy - D. Sharon Pruitt

Writer – Meera Vijayann

In a world where people are trying to fix broken-hearts, make their marriages last and hopefully find eternal love, there comes a website that shows you a side of human nature you never quite expected.

Ashleymadison.com , an American dating site for people who are ‘Married but looking’, was founded in 2001 hoping to let those who are married or committed have ‘casual encounters’ without hassle. Today, ten years on,  it continues to court controversy. But  its controversial tagline – ‘Life is short, have an affair‘ isn’t just what people are talking about now, but the fact that the website claims to get more than 700,000 unique visitors a month and have a registered membership of  2.45 million users is making people ask the most serious question about their love lives – What if?

Strut the ‘Slut walk’, and then talk

Writer – Vinay Dora

Not so long ago, the Indian online news space was abuzz with talk of the proposed Indian chapter of the ‘Slut walk’, now rechristened ‘Besharami Morcha’ or ‘Shameless Protest’ for a larger reach. For the uninitiated, the ‘Slut walk‘ Phenomenon began in Toronto, Canada in response to a Toronto police-officer’s remark that ‘women should avoid dressing like sluts’ while addressing a security audience.

Since then, Slut-walks have been held in 60 cities in the United States and Canada alone, along with many others in the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Finland, Ireland, South Africa and even Kyrgyzstan. The various walks have seen people from all walks of life, including men and children walk in solidarity with the message. But do innovative campaigns like this really make a difference?

Want to fight corruption? Pay a bribe with ‘Zero’ rupees

Writer – Meera Vijayann

Common citizens often believe that they are helpless when it comes to fighting corruption. Be it paying a ‘fine’ to the traffic police for no reason or an under-the-table donation to the college they wish to send their children to, bribes , unfortunately have become an inseparable part of everyday life.  Even worse, most people have begun to accept it. Surprisingly, few people understand that the national attitude towards corruption can be changed with just a little effort.  The best example is, perhaps, 5th Pillar, a Chennai-based NGO,  which introduced an simple, effortless idea to tackle bribes  - Zero rupee notes.