I was wondering why Gold is so precious. ..generally we cant do anything with it. we can't eat it and can't produce energy with it. Its just a"SYMBOL" of wealth...a converter ..using which bartering is easy...people can exchange goods and services ..but I think its too over priced because it has no inherent value. a kg of wheat or coal or a liter of milk or even a gram of uranium ..these can be used to get energy.. these have an inherent value..but gold..its just a mediator . its symbol of the mediator/broker/contractor class..or symbol of capitalism, who takes the product from the producer and supply it to end user..and for that it takes huge margin making fool of both customer and producer. Unfortunately poor producer is most disadvantaged! The high value of gold represent our social structure. The whole world is governed by few and the larger section is poor and powerless.
marriage and "man vs woman"
The institution of marriage is one of the greatest parts of civilized life. This is an equation which disturbs the equilibrium and tends to create a new one. Both the girl and the boy enter into a life full of responsibility, leaving behind a care free life full of freedom. As it is said that the man loses his bachelor’s degree and the woman get her Master’s! However, this great tradition is loaded with tonnes of expectations from each family. The husband is supposed to be treating the wife as the most important person, jokingly termed as “joru ka gulam” and the wife, who leaves her own family and accept the new house as her own is expected to follow the norms of her in-law's house.
But if husband ignores wife’s need, he is being a good man probably by not being “joru ka gulam” and if the girl tries to look for some autonomy, she is a rebellion. All the burden of family's pride and respect is always on woman .Our TV serials had played a great role in maligning sas-bahu relations, but that’s not the focus right now. All I need to say is that the girl is expected to adapt with new family while there is no such expectation on the other side. She certainly loses the comfort and independence of what she used to enjoy at her Mayka. Why is she supposed to call even the younger sister-in-law and brother-in-law as bhaia and didi. Why is she supposed to follow the instructions instead of deciding herself what to do and what not to? Why a mature, self dependent girl suddenly treated as naive to take her own decisions and expected to take permission for even small things. And if she doesn’t, she is too “modern” who don’t have respect for traditions. If the boy stay out at office for longer or go out to meet friends, it’s his fundamental right, but if the girl want to do same, she has to inform in-laws and take permission in advance, and mostly her such needs are not an important thing, even if it’s a matter of great significance for her. And generally the opposite sex friends and not welcome. Some people might counter argue here for giving rationale of respect for traditions and wish of elders for these prejudices against the woman. But there is no question of rational here, it’s the situation and it’s so deep rooted that even we can’t dig up to the rationale. Moreover, the tradition and the rational are not always in sync as the rational keep changing with time. If I give example of sati pratha ...contemporary people justified such inhuman tradition. You can say that sati was an extreme case, however the extremities help to understand the direction if not the intensity, and I want to emphasize the negativity of the situation here.
The question is probably too obvious with centuries of exploitation and suppression, the woman is certainly a disadvantaged group not only socially but also psychologically! I don't know what more to write about it. The opinion would be very subjective and a social change is always too slow.
Why i wrote about the evolution of God
Why a middle class Indian youth constituting our country’s intelligentsia is so indifferent to the burning issues around. Be it starving poor, or naxals or Kashmir or corruption. I get probably the answer by looking at my own past. During my college days I was bothered by disarrangement at hostels and pathetic conditions of toilets and labs. But I knew I could not do anything about it and I ignored it with my helplessness.( I said I could not because we tried and failed.) Then I got into job and got busy with life. And in rest of the time thinking about a good pass time, so called enjoyments...making friends and socialising. Still not much concerned about the society and having no tension from the family. When did I have the time from my leisurely luxurious time schedule to think about others? As the psychological principles say that we don’t feel empathy for the event happening at distances far away. Like we may not kill a person in front because of our human instinct but we may not hesitate much in firing a missile that would kill hundreds of man a thousand miles away. Even the animals don’t kill their own species. This instinct is unique to the great highly developed human. Till I had job/family/friend/social networking related responsibilities and pursuing my hobbies, I hardly get time to think about any issue bigger than the traffic jam on way to office or bad food at office canteen. I never bothered about political, economical and social problems of the world or the nation. May be I was not aware of or may be my psychological defence mechanism to save myself from the frustration and information overload avoided any attention to these issues. We, specifically people earning good enough like bachelor software engineers seems to be living in a pseudo reality....a world of the air conditioned offices or the big Malls or multiplexes and we think that everything is so good....we don’t see the things happening outside.)
But now, now I am in an identity crisis. What I am here for! What’s the purpose of my life...why I am what I am? What role I am going to play in this world. If things keep going like this, what will be the future or will there be any future at all? This put a big question before me questioning significance of every moment of my life...for me and for others.
I can feel a little pulse of how the youth might have felt during the British rule. ..The frustration and the helplessness...the quest to find a way to do something...to make a change! But it all looks in continuity. Oppression and exploitation be it by British or American or our own natives, how does it make any difference to the poor. May be that’s how life is. Or maybe now the rosy picture of the world is getting clear and it’s not so colorful at all. Now I understand why the subjects like religion and philosophy are so important. We can’t make sense of our life without them. That probably why we created the thing we need most..... the concept of God..to save us from ourselves!
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