Odds And Ends

And the rain is back. Just when I thought the misery was finally over.
In a place where the mood swings with the weather, that can’t be good news. And as if to confirm my theory of an evil conspiracy out to get me, came serious problems at work and bad news from my doctor last week. Suffice to say that I’m no longer the invincible superhero I thought I was. Which, according to conventional wisdom, should have put a lot of things in perspective. But no such thing happened. I was more pissed than anything else. I mean, to be told with finality that you can no longer so much as take a whiff of that ghee-drenched mutton biriyani, or bite into that scrumptious burger with the two layers of cheese, is not just nasty and mean, but patently unfair. And apparently it’s all because of my genes. People I know can wolf down all the butter, pizza, and cheeze in the world, and a couple of rare steaks over the weekend for good measure, and *still* have healthy cholesterol levels?? Is there any justice in this world? And to think I put in the fight of my life to quit smoking a year ago!

Plenty happening back home. Our man, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji is kicking up a storm of potentially historic proportions in Punjab. A quasi-religious organization set up in the early half of the twentieth century, the Dera Sacha Sauda has been a feature of the Punjab social structure for decades. From what I learnt over the last week, it mostly caters to ‘lower caste’ Sikhs, which in itself was a revelation, since I had no idea that Sikhism, which was started as a socially progressive offshoot of Hinduism, till today had inherent discrimination based on caste, of all parameters. The current leader of the sect, Ram Raheem Singh, took charge in 1990. And since then, the fortunes, following, political clout, and scandals within the organization just kept growing. For an organization that attracts members of all religions, and is known for its dedication to social causes (disaster relief, campaigns against illiteracy, female infanticide), it is indeed a strange state of affairs that its leader has allegations of murder and rape against him and is currently being investigated by the CBI. Still more startling, and murky, are the links of the sect to the Congress Party.

Many analysts are of the view that this entire so-called controversy is a manufactured one, and is just a political game between the Congress and the Akali Dal. It bears mentioning that whenever the Akali Dal has been in power in Punjab and Congress has been in power at the center, the state government has never been allowed to complete its full tenure. It has either been dismissed by the federal government or brought down by other nefarious tactics. This time too the uncomfortably close links between the Dera leadership and the Congress are beginning to remind us of the all too familiar Congress ‘hand’ behind most such unrest. After all, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has gone on record asking his followers to vote for Congress in the Vidhan Sabha elections. But the Akalis are not above any blame either, The state government sat back and let the violence escalate. Polarization of Punjabi society on religious lines can only benefit political parties with huge religion-based vote banks. The scary thought here is the possibility of this degenerating into another situation like the late 70s and 80s. Then too Sikhs were on the warpath against the Nirankaris, yet another sect in Punjab. That unrest marked the beginnings of Sikh nationalism and exploded with the rise of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, yet another Congress creation (an interesting take here). If the fanatic fringe of Sikh clergy continue to call the shots in Punjab, as they seem to be doing today, the Indian government may just have the makings of another monster on its hands.

Meanwhile, the are-we-there-yet tour of Bangladesh rambles on. Where were we…one-days? Tests? Oh…there was a century? Two? You don’t say…! The oldies are out to prove a few points. But getting out on 101 and 100? Man, they could have made it a little less obvious! Anyway, Tendulkar found his voice after the runs, Claims the team should have a say in selecting the new coach. Sounds like a pretty reasonable sentiment on the face of it. After all, they are the interested party, and who better than the ‘coachees’ themselves to decide who should be coach. But I’d be interested in knowing whether this has any precedent in professional sport. I mean, does any professional sports team actually empower its players to select their coach by a democratic process (presumably)? Think football (real football, soccer to ignoramuses), basketball, hockey, American football, baseball, anything. I always thought that professionally managed teams had their coach selected for them by their management. Not that we cannot *set* a precedent, of course, but I’m just curious. Of course, tennis players mostly select their own coaches, but we’re talking about team sports.

This side of the world, CNN decided that it was time to pay tribute to Asian Americans. So we have an ongoing ‘Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month‘ to contend with. By some strange twist of geography, Indians are also included in this rather generic demographic. One question being tackled is the real or perceived ‘pressure to achieve’ in Asian culture. So you have stories like this or this. Now, is ‘pressure to achieve’ necessarily a bad thing? In the United States of America, the birthplace of Individualism, it apparently is. So, in this land of freedom, if you want to be a bum, your parents should just stop ‘pressurizing’ you and allow you to be just that. And judging from the average American teen, they’re doing a pretty good job of it too.

I think what the Americans have really cracked is higher education. No one does it better than them. And no one earns more money off it either. And that’s part of the reason why the system is so successful. But they are way off the mark with primary and secondary education. Call me a cultural conservative, but I think the formative years in education are for absorbing knowledge, rather than questioning concepts at every step. Realistic, intelligent questions cannot be asked with half-baked knowldege. But that is the exact opposite of what seems to be the conventional wisdom in (American) schools these days. I think this is where Asians differ culturally from their western counterparts. They are culturally more deferential to elders, teachers, even more so during their childhood and early teenage years. The byproduct of this is a readiness to ‘absorb’ knowledge during those crucial years as a student, and analyze, raise questions much later, during higher education, much more closer to adulthood, when there is enough confidence in the knowledge learnt during the early years. I have not stepped into a high-school classroom in the United States. But the impression I have is that ‘attitude’ takes a very central stage there. So, I have a problem when this wonderful cultural trait of Asians in general is dismissed as ‘parental pressure’.
Respect for elders, making your family proud, academic excellence are traits that are given a lot of importance to by Indians, and Asians in general. If the fear of disappointing your parents can drive you to work twice as hard to get those grades and crack those exams, I say, more power to the parents!

Contrary to popular American belief (as evident from some of the comments to the above stories on CNN), countries like India are not filled with docile brain-washed dorks cramming to save themselves from potential mental and physical abuse by domineering and success-demanding parents. I see well-rounded successful, intelligent individuals. If there are people with permanent scars caused by extreme parental pressure, I’m yet to meet them in the last 33 years of my life. Instead what I see in the United States are 10-year olds beating up homeless people and pea-brained teenagers going on shooting sprees in schools. These are extreme examples, yes. There are lunatics in all cultures. But I’d rather live in a society with demanding parents and the resultant intelligent people, than in one with slacking individualistic parents and juvenile delinquents.

A friend recently admitted his three-year old daughter to pre-school here. As he proudly pointed out to the teacher how his child could recite the alphabet and count till 10, he was mildly reprimanded for putting ‘undue pressure’ on the child and lectured that this was not how it was done ‘here’. She almost made it sound like abuse! I got a very good feel of this attitude when I read some of the comments in response to this cute YouTube video.

It looks like rain again. So much for my long weekend.

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~ by Shubho on May 21, 2007.