This posting is in reference to a recent interesting
exchange (Arun Kumar Arya and Ravi Challu) on "going
back to India" and its implications in a metaphysical
sense. It is a small part of a presentation by Prof.
M. Paranjpe, JNU - the story of his return. Forgive me
for the length of the posting - I see it reflects a
journey that most of us are on (unwittingly perhaps)
as we near the years where we may  begin to inspect
our internal topographies! Regards, Jay

Thank you jay for sharing my pain, dreams, wishes. That journey you mention is something that has bothered many forever in the form of "who am I", "what are my beliefs", "who am I obligated to", "what can I do to fairly return for my debts", ... Every one has somehow answered them. Gandhi, Tilak, Hitler, Bose, Victoria, Washington, etc all did. So did Paranjpe, Arya, Kalawar, ... "Who am I" question itself is hard one to start with. Standard answers include platonism/maya/..., a cell-in-a-mass leads to racism/populism/..., disbelief leads to science/criminalism/...

To paraphrase a britisher, "east is east, west is west, and never the twain shall meet". Except in America, for I don't even accept racial classification as being relevant to anything at all except as desirable attributes of beauty. Did you know that almost any female can look blonde (hair color), blue eyed ($200 contacts), white (like Sir singer), less fat (liposuction), enhanced breasts (implants). For under $20,000, a female can become desirable. The only consideration so far was the lack of transmissibility of these characteristics accross generations. With new genetics, even that barrier has fallen. There is no reason for not getting a likely-nice fertlized egg transplanted in your wife. Draupadi has been said to be married to five since she asked for a boon for a husband greatly honest (as Yudhister turn-out-to-be), proficient warrior (as Arjun turn-out-to-be), very strong (as Bheem turn-out-to-be),... Why look for a woman with all properties and be her slave (since why else would she care for you!), when she can be made up to look desirable, and produce desirable offsprings!

Most  of our  teachers were either of mixed
Anglo-Indian stock or of  Indo-Portuguese descent.
Apart from the Smiths and the Jones and  the Russels,
there were the Pintos and the Rosarios and the
Rodrigues.  I  even had a  P.T. teacher who publically
said, "Oh, these  Indian  names are  too much  for me
so  don't expect me to pronounce  them!"  When I spoke
of my nationalist leanings to my Anglo-Indian
friend,  Kenneth Luxa,  he said,  "Do you make your
servants  sit  at the table  with you? If  you don't,
how can you claim  equality with  your former masters?
You are a subject race and  will remain  so in  the
eyes  of the  world." Kenneth,  sure enough, left for
Australia for good.

Both US and Britain did well, US even better. My stats - dollar was worth Rs 5 in 1960, Rs. 10 in 1975, Rs 45 now; Pound was Rs 20, Rs 40 and Rs 60). Why? A standard GD problem. Boils down to freedoms to be foolishly different in a changing technological landscape. US did better for unlike Britain, it is NOT a class bound society. Karma, not birth, decides your class, not because of inheritence rules, but realities of a very dynamic society. My question to Paranjpe, but for the intellectual hurt, why is a brown babu better than white? At least I can channelise my hatred for the white stupid into positive directions, rather than feel helpless?

It  is paradoxes  such as  these that  in some  way
trigger  your mental growth. From that kind of school,
the transition to Madras Christian   College,  another
old  institution  founded  by  the Presbyterians,
was  almost seamless.  Thence  to  the even  more
elitist  St.  Stephen's College of  Delhi, formed a
hundred years back by the Cambridge missionary
brotherhood.  This was a College famed  for producing
our civil servants. As soon as you entered,
you  got an  English nick  name. Aniruddha  became
Andy,  Mandeep became  Mandy, Chakravarty became
Chuck, Bhaskar became Buck, and so  on.  It was not
hard to understand the mindset of those who ruled
India.

Pointless intellectualism. Why shouldn't the British do it. Why should Indians care either way?

Then  going abroad  to the USA to study to see and
experience how this  thing called  capitalism and
imperialism and the engines of modernity  really
worked. It was like being Jonah in the Belly of
the  Beast  and then coming back  alive! Well, very
few people do that,  come back that  is. And why would
one want to come back at all?   To   a   backward, 
slow,  static, restricted, poor, underdeveloped
country? Well,  there  was certain  recklessness,
certain  exuberance to it. Now I see that  the reason
that one
wanted  to  come back was  to be a  part of something
bigger than oneself, something  exciting and
challenging. It was to participate  in  this process
that  was taking place in India. It was  nothing
short of the  recovery and  the remaking of a whole
civilization.  True,  the  site  of  this  was  the
postcolonial nation,  hamstrung  by its  selfish and
callous elites. But this process   of   recovery  and
reassertion  were  undeniable  and omnipresent.

What is forgotten in all this is that America started nearly as backward as India, and an enemy of the British. That it developed so much, India did not, and despite repeated dishonest treachery of segments of population against others, is enormously significant. That china is recovering faster is relevant too, inspite of their horrible human rights record.

Nowadays  as  postmodernists,  we  tend to  be  very
suspicious, especially  of  grand  narratives.

And that, Sir, is what progress is all about - painful disregard of views learned the hard way by intellectuals like Paranjpe. Blatant foolish disregard for scholarly views and judgements of elders. Letting the fools have their dreams and say. Total destruction of lawyers and judges. If my views are labelled anarchistic by Morons, I accept not, since there are two golden principles of west that need to be kept intact in a cantfake world - material, human, linguistic - the principle of causality and the principle of non-retroactivity.

Gloria

Thank you responding with pertinent judicious wellframed comments.

One thing is this narrative which disturbed me greatly was that your friend spoke of a terrible trend in america...the imperfection of the non-barbie doll. Why must women be blond, wear contacts, and have surgical implants and removals done in order to be considered desireable?

non-barbie-doll is a good term. You however fall into the same trap that Indians did several thousand years ago, continues to this day, that just because some things are reasoned, all must be. This trap has led to reincarnation, horoscopes etc, or in US las vegas. Why must ... asserts a reasonfull explanation to an empirical fact - that is how ALL men are, even hindus, blacks, chinese, eskimos, ... But I fully agree with you that there is NO rational reason to hold that position.

Why does a man need to fall slave to this? The image of the blonde, buxom, anorexic female comes from a man named hitler.  Chemicals in her hair, plastic in her eyes and breasts, skeleton showing thru her skin...it is conditioning which remains in place long after the genocide has occurred.

Let us not confuse matters by attributing to Herr Hitler sins he never committed - blonde blue-eyed yes - buxom aneroxic female image is solely a US advertizing invention. Let us also not accuse Herr stupid of being discriminatory - he kept wellfed even fat German Aryans and murdered good looking jews too. And I thought to be a successful model in New york, you needed to be one step beyond "skeleton showing thru her skin ", you had to be a heroin junkie.

Science has found ways to do what hitler could not. Obliteration of future generations by non-intimate fertilization.  A world of blondes...think about that.

Obliteration of future generations by non-intimate fertilization - why so O lady? I view test tube procreation a boon from science that makes females unessential - desirable always, manipulator soon no more. Think of childless couples, age different couples, gay couples. Think of accident victims. Think of AIDS patients. In fact, rather than fearing blonde world, I would welcome it for then my dark hair, brown eyes and wheatish complexion would make me a very desirable commodity indeed! From the empirical researches on non-swede populations in sweden, it appears that when most every one is blonde, blondes prefer nonblondes! Given that it is a good reliable woman with brains that I am after, I can't see how the skin/hair color of people around me matters?

How far is america in her equality of the masses if women must literally be butchered to appear to be female? When will men of any nation see the beauty in the natural mother of any child? To victimize the non blond woman is a form of self hatred expressed upon the fairer race. 

A women is not just a mother, she is also viewed as property, in fact in Mahabharat the Hindu classics, war took place because the five hubands of Draupadi were stupid enough to stake her as property in a gamble. Sole possesion of shared belief in desirability is essence of maleness - makes the other guy jealous. Blondes are desirable because they are different and because they are rare since the genetic transmission characteritic is recessive. Not surprisingly, red heads are even more valuable. As a male afflicted with honesty, I must admit blonds turned me on more, but so did my mother and sisters when young. Sir shrink have terms for it, and it takes only mild rationale to overcome this natural behavior. Using strong denunciation of reality only injures the few like me dumb enough to be honest.

The desire to plant seed not your own to bear a "perfect" child is a hatred expressed upon your race. This kind of process requires no tirant.  Who can be more cruel than the fool himself.

For once I agree with you fully, but to point out that there is no such thing as perfect child or "hatred expressed on your race" when it really means to me "hatred expressed on yourself".

Gloria-2

I was speaking to your friends comment...not all men.

I hoped so.

 yes we have this nazi attitude in the usa.  Blondes were portrayed as the good mother, often with buxom breasts for feeding the soldiers of the new world order. As far as the anorexia, yes perhaps this is a product of hollywood.  A strange trend in a country with food for all except the woman who wishes to be attractive. Food is a resource.  Restriction of resource is the root of many overthrows throughout history.

I disagree with you strongly in that weight control is important for two orthogonal reasons - beauty (stupid form) and longevity (very important). It really makes no difference why you diet, as long as you do.

Why is a mother a manipulator?  My god Arun...

Surely a misread madam, for I checked and no one can decode my text as implying that, unless you place ALL women on a pedestal for being a mother, a placement I don't. You may find it hard to believe but I have encountered manipulating women as well as honest hard working ones. The ability of wanting a woman for reasons beyond procreation is very important to me. Some one nice to build a loving, honored, cared for family; protect me the ravages of unnecessary seriousness hereafter; provide a fun-filled environment spiced with astounding results of glorious devotion to some hobbies and art; deliver to me the wonders I missed while I was forced to pursue my researches; and be the idol I can learn and delight to celebrate, spoil, worship, and astonish. I want a conservative person I can take to my mother, fall in love with, trust, treasure, serenade, plot to instantiate a smile, kiss passionately, enjoy her cooking, and die in her arms.

A women is not just a mother, she is also viewed as property... This belief of men is why women in this country refuse to marry.  I am shocked to see you say this so carelessly to me.  I am my own property.  Men should learn they own themselves only.

 A sure misread madam for I called the perpetrators of this crime stupid - the strongest word in my lexicon. All the rest can be ignored, except that I am shocked to see that before believing my capability to have indulged in this sin, you did not carefully reread the passage.

You are honest but I am clear in correcting your misunderstanding.  Your injury or mine?  I think if you say this thing to me then you have injured me.  If it is survival of the fittest and you look at this in terms of who is injured and who is not.  Then obviously you will be injured not me.  Survival of the fittest.

 I ignore it as unintended words.

I agree.  You harm yourself more than you could harm me for I will defend my humanity even if you do not recognize it.

 Unnecesssary spunk lady :)

Gloria-3

Gloria-4

you are right.  i do not bravely take the blows upon my breast.  I am old and tired.  i have control of myself.  it is my last defense and i cannot afford to surrender it.