Rituals are often seen as the remnants of our undesirable past – a baggage which, as a society, we failed to unload. They are often linked with the continuance of many ills that societies face. But it is important that we understand their context prior to rejecting them.
Though Bangalore is now to be called Bengaluru, but somehow name changes do not go well with me. These conflicts about nouns are nothing but ploys to distract people. But this note is not about distractions. It is about strange observations.
People my age grew up in a world of limited choices. Career wise, the primary push was for an engineering or medical degree, and of course the armed forces. How I ended up as a designer is a story of strange coincidences.
This is a headline from the future – a future not so far away because it is highly likely that by 2027 Uttarakhand will cease to be ‘devbhoomi’ – a hill state carved out to meet the unique socio-political & socio-economic needs of the mountain people.
Our conversations about humanity are largely centered on the idea of body and soul. But if look around, what get to see is nothing but identities – some self-defined and some enforced. In the sea of humanity, identity seems to be the omnipresent social tag.
The act of policy creation demands empathy and farsightedness. Without these it is likely that the policy framework would begin to collapse at the very onset. The provision of reservation for EWS children in private schools under the RTE Act is a good example of what not to do.
What a crazy year two thousand twenty one was! One hand there was pain, chaos and desperation; on the other hand there was hope and faith. While humanity suffered. Humanity also came together to show that it cares for its fellow beings.
In order to understand the issue of caste it is important that we zoom out a bit and discuss the legacy and context of caste oppression. Human history, and present, seems to suggest that the casteism is more of a rule than being an exception.
I grew up in an environment where the idea of caste and religion did not seem to exist. My idea of India was the India that our course books of civics and history talked about. I was totally unaware that a rude shock was waiting for me.
Hope is omnipresent. It exists in everything around us. It exists all the time. If we strive enough, and are lucky, then it transforms into reality. Or else it manifests as melancholy but strangely hope still lingers on in various forms.
