Posts here brim with opinions, certainties, prescriptions and declarations. It must make you wonder how qualified I am to be making these. Alas I have no claims that’d impress you. I am not a trained scientist, historian, teacher, journalist, artist, bureaucrat, businessman or any of the many other badges that’d give me credibility.
My training long long ago in the 1960s, was as a sea-going engineer; it was more hands-on than academically rigorous. But that’s a career that has made me what I am: a somewhat assertive person. The reason is, life at sea infuses you with self-confidence. Because,you see, even if one’s father owned a fleet of ships his son has to start at the lowest rung, gain work experience and pass exams for each climb up the ladder. There are few establishments ashore in India where a rich man’s son will not suddenly appear on top a lot of people who have worked for decades. [Needless to add, in political parties in India, this is almost a routine.] The Internet has been the only other experience that has been as empowering as my life at sea. My freedom to express myself has after all, been possible only in this Internet Republic.
Long voyages and solitudes afforded me, a young man at sea, plenty of time to read- I devoured books. Reading has been a consuming passion that was doused 50 years later when the Internet arrived. I do not think ‘reading’ on the Internet can ever give you the immersion that books can, but I must confess I have been seduced to become an Internet junkie and have paid the price for it with a vastly reduced attention span.
As I write this in 2016, aged 74,only two things overwhelm me: one, a passion for the environment, especially the importance of water as a nation’s only true wealth, and two, the humble folk of India who live so lightly with a tiny footprint, but with great humility, little urge to anger, sensitivity,forgiveness, a readiness to labour and a quiet reverence for the traditions of this land, enriched as it has been by many significant lives in its past, whether mythical or real.
I am a Tamil, can’t read Hindi and know no Sanskrit. I was a mere statistical Hindu, until 2000 when India’s biased media, secular humbugs and intellectual phoneys began to make me sound more Hindu or right wing than I have ever wanted or cared to.I am chagrined by this but will brave on.
I was not born into wealth nor have I worked hard for one, but I am surprised at what has accrued to me. It is disproportionate to my education, skills, labour, goodness or acumen. I wonder how this has come about with such ordinary effort. I am apprehensive of it as when I face a trick question.
I spend most of my time actively restoring an abandoned piece of land I adopted in 2006- and, passionately willing India to become a happy, prosperous, peaceful land
My training long long ago in the 1960s, was as a sea-going engineer; it was more hands-on than academically rigorous. But that’s a career that has made me what I am: a somewhat assertive person. The reason is, life at sea infuses you with self-confidence. Because,you see, even if one’s father owned a fleet of ships his son has to start at the lowest rung, gain work experience and pass exams for each climb up the ladder. There are few establishments ashore in India where a rich man’s son will not suddenly appear on top a lot of people who have worked for decades. [Needless to add, in political parties in India, this is almost a routine.] The Internet has been the only other experience that has been as empowering as my life at sea. My freedom to express myself has after all, been possible only in this Internet Republic.
Long voyages and solitudes afforded me, a young man at sea, plenty of time to read- I devoured books. Reading has been a consuming passion that was doused 50 years later when the Internet arrived. I do not think ‘reading’ on the Internet can ever give you the immersion that books can, but I must confess I have been seduced to become an Internet junkie and have paid the price for it with a vastly reduced attention span.
As I write this in 2016, aged 74,only two things overwhelm me: one, a passion for the environment, especially the importance of water as a nation’s only true wealth, and two, the humble folk of India who live so lightly with a tiny footprint, but with great humility, little urge to anger, sensitivity,forgiveness, a readiness to labour and a quiet reverence for the traditions of this land, enriched as it has been by many significant lives in its past, whether mythical or real.
I am a Tamil, can’t read Hindi and know no Sanskrit. I was a mere statistical Hindu, until 2000 when India’s biased media, secular humbugs and intellectual phoneys began to make me sound more Hindu or right wing than I have ever wanted or cared to.I am chagrined by this but will brave on.
I was not born into wealth nor have I worked hard for one, but I am surprised at what has accrued to me. It is disproportionate to my education, skills, labour, goodness or acumen. I wonder how this has come about with such ordinary effort. I am apprehensive of it as when I face a trick question.
I spend most of my time actively restoring an abandoned piece of land I adopted in 2006- and, passionately willing India to become a happy, prosperous, peaceful land
I wish I get a chance to see you in person.
ReplyDeleterakesh