The Power of Division in Religion - By Brendan.

I have many favorite bloggers whom I love to read and reread. And with the lady bug smiling at me, I have earned friendships of some of them as well. One such amazing thought provoking blogger is Brendan who authors Brandy, Whiskey & All That. A friend and guide, he had to be on my blog, I thought. And I hatched a wicked plan of having him here. So, one morning I pinged him and with quivering fingers I typed a message asking him to be a guest writer for CoffeeBeans. So, much for my wickedness. Being the sweet soul he is he typed a smiling "COOL" in reply. And here he is with a powerful post on power and supremacy of religion. I wont say anything further, its here for you to read. 

The Power of Division in Religion

The communal riots in the Central African Republic (C.A.R.) are not recent news. Muslims and Christians had been living in a state of unrest since its colonial power, France, granted them Independence. The nation that had been ruled by successive Christian governments till now was seized by Muslim rebels who installed Michel Djotodia as their leader. This man then disbanded his rebel group to bring peace to the country but to no avail. Both sides continue to fight and kill each other. The African Union and France who have sent in troops to maintain peace have realized that they underestimated the level of hatred that the two communities had for each other. Instead of minor sectarian violence, this situation had turned out to be ‘ingrained hatred’ that was cultivated in both communities. The last update by the BBC was that the rebel leader had stepped down due to pressure from neighbouring nations in order for the parliament to elect an interim leader.

Though we have seen it in India too, strained relations between Christians and Muslims seem a farce to me because it is widely believed that that the two religions along with Judaism had sprung from the same well. But today, Jews are fighting Muslims, Muslims are fighting Christians and so on and so forth. I do not mean to narrow this down to just these religions but when even their history is same, the religious matter contains the thing to a large extent and it is known for a fact that they are the branches of the same tree, then why fight?

One word: Power.

Wherever there are inter-religious tensions in the world, the one constant in the sea of variables is Power. There is a single motive for making people kill each other. As mentioned before, there may be other variables but if these problems are viewed with a magnifying glass, I bet even Sherlock Holmes would find Power to be elementary in these cases.

There are a number of examples that one can produce to make this fact clear as water but I refrain from doing so lest I find more examples of one community and less of the other, thus putting myself in the position of being called partisan. However, on browsing the internet or old records of newspapers, one is sure to find a number of riots, both in India and the world that took place for the sole reason of shifting the balance of Power.

I believe that people do not fight of their own accord, they are made to believe that their fight will be just, however incredulous that may seem. Adolf Hitler justified his war to his soldiers, so did Julius Caesar and Osama Bin Laden. It is not the religious that one needs to keep an eye out for, it s for those who would seek power in the manipulation of people. It is these serpents that lurk within and poison the society for their gain.

-By Brendan Dabhi. 

(Here is his latest : The prodigal Reader)

Kanchivaram, an Experience.

There are movies that entertain you no matter how many times you watch them. They simply refuse to cease their entertainment factor.
Then there are movies that haunt you, literally, so much so that you curse the day you planned to watch them. You dread those movies will devour your brain cells and downgrade your IQ level to minus something. 

And then there are movies that touch you with some unbelievable forces in some unbelievable manner and you are cocooned in a magical world of their stories. You become a part of that story. You feel intelligent, you feel dignified, honored, you feel alive…because you have watched a brilliant story telling on celluloid and you say, a medium well used. 

Many movies have given me this kind of opportunities to experience such feeling and recently one such movie did that magic, it was “Kanchivaram”. So heartrending. Set in 1940's this Priyadarshan's 2008 Tamil movie drowned me into its depth with such vigor that I had to watch a comedy later that night to get myself out of a poignant trance. Yes, a movie to get over another one, because I couldn’t sleep. The performances, the story, the faces of the story refused to leave my sight.  

  

Image: Google

A director who is famous for his comedy capers presented another drama showcasing his brilliant story-telling talent. What surprised me here was Prakash Raj. I saw him first in “Singham” and neither the movie nor the actor made any impression on me. However, with “Kanchivaram”, I have become an admirer of Prakash Raj's work and I wish to see more of him in such exceptional celluloid works. 

An absolute recommend if you find delight in such heart-warming, thought provoking, well paced, shining with brilliant performances movie.
I wanted to review and rate this movie initially, but I realized some movies like this one are beyond any reviewing or rating. They just need to be no experienced.

Recharging Graceful Locks to Energize Life.

It’s been so long that I have taken a long distance train journey in sleeper class. Last one was when I was a little girl. The train journeys during vacations used to recharge my life that used to get dry with studies and books. Traveling in A/c compartment from Mumbai to Kolkata resulted in a big hole in the pocket, though, it didn’t take long for us to upgrade ourselves to A/c coaches. Loved the facilities that were provided in the cool coaches of the train, although, it's all covered up features gave the feeling of being clamped up in a box. 

 Later flights smiled at us promising a quick journey to our destination in an affordable price. Happy about the glamorous change I often enjoyed hiring its services.
But, there was always something missing in the journeys. I never felt the excitement, the revival I used to feel as a child. Thus, my collection of colorful memories of the journey suffered. I no longer had tales to cherish and bore my friends with them.

All I had to tell was about the food, the fellow passengers and the train crew.  The world outside which I could only see through tinted glass but could never hear had nothing much to offer.  I could never hear the children running with the train nor hear the train that ran with a grudge to reach the destination. This was never with the sleeper class. There it meant open windows with air breezing in at a speed I couldn't calculate.

Now, I knew I wanted to travel in sleeper class- The journey should equally be fun and memorable like the destination. 

 
I wanted to look out of the window of my seat, stick out my nose from between the bars and breath the outside world and hear them.
I wanted to let loose my hair and feel the air playing with them in merry.
I wanted the air to get lost in my locks while making them dance to its tune while I play with scenarios. 
I wanted to feel the air over myself that smelled of the villages that dwell beside the tracks, the beautiful lively fields that are cared by farmers, the tiny ponds were children take their playful swims.
I wanted to have FUN the way I used to have in my childhood days.
I wanted to refresh my life, recharge myself with the same kind of train journey; the real Indian train journey during my vacation.

So, after so many years, I have decided to have this long distance journey with my family- the old way; Mumbai to Kolkata in sleeper class.
But then, the same fun-filled air would mean me, later, carrying a witch's broom tail on my head.

My beauty lies in four things; my smile, my confidence, my skin and my hair. God has blessed me with straight hair that needs no hot irons to straighten them. They are my lovelies who have been loyally glorifying my face and my personality through out my life.

However even gods face snags and my locks are no exception. Wild winds, angry sun, filthy pollution keep attacking my mane wickedly promising them a dry existence every time I am out. And the sleeper class journey of two days would mean dry, coarse, chaotic, angry hair that would lower my level of zeal. I don't want to hide them inside a scarf or a cap; I want my locks to enjoy themselves too. I need to recharge them before I make them face a wild time in the train so that they can not only have their time of their life along with me, but also be happy, beautiful and alive after we reach the destination.

I hear Sunsilk has a potion that does the trick, it recharges the hair. I am hoping to get my hands on it before I make this trip in April. What do you think; will I get the chance of making my lovelies happy and then have my chance to recharge my life?

  

*****

This post is written exclusively for the Recharge Your Hair Recharge Your Life Contest by Sunsilk in association with Indiblogger.

A National Change Via Apps: Vote India!

With 2014 General Elections knocking the door, I feel as an Indian citizen, it is our individual responsibility to spread the awareness, inspire and motivate people specially the youth, who constitute the majority of the population of the country and is about to become the youngest country by 2020, to vote.

Amid the changes in the attitudes of the people and the record 66 per cent of around 1.2 crore voters exercising their voting grants in the Delhi assembly election it gave the Delhiiets the mega change in the capital. This has fueled the hopes of the change we Indians have been craving for that we have the power to choose our people to govern the state and the nation to serve the citizens and make the country a better one.

Now on an individual level our access to reach a large number of people in today's time is through internet and mobile apps. even to ask others to turn up for an event its the fastest way to reach people. Given that out of there are 51 million smartphone users in urban India today with the young generation using smartphones and its various apps more than the rest of the population.

First we need to understand why people do not vote. There are many reasons: lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of elections, apathy towards the entire procedure and worse they prefer enjoying the off day. 

Here the the mobile chat apps, like we-chat, can be used to encourage the youth and make them motivate others, even the elder generations who by now have somewhere given up on the system or do not understand its significance.

I have decided to create a page on Facebook listing out the basics of voting and Election Commission rules and share it with my contacts on my mobile apps. The page will talk about the rules attached to voting for example the 49-O rule.

“Rule 49-O is a rule in The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961[1] of India, which governs elections in the country. It describes the procedure to be followed when a valid voter decides not to cast his vote, and decides to record this fact. The apparent purpose of this section is to prevent the election fraud or the misuse of votes.”

-[source-Wikipedia.]

I'll be updating my contacts with news related to EC through the various sharing options on the chat apps, like the one I'm already sharing; Indian Election Commission has tied up with Google where the later will tender EC its resources like search engines to enable voters to check with their enrollment statuses online and also to locate the polling stations through Google maps.  

Conducting various discussions and debates over politics, government, parties, the candidates and the needs of people and the nation would be a good motivating factor. And invitation to these events will be sent through the mobile apps. The videos of these discussions can be later shared with others through the smartphone apps and let it go viral. I am already listing the topics to discuss and I have many friends contributing. 

Sharing various photos and videos, through these mobile apps, that motivate to vote can boost up the level of enthusiasm of the youth to get what they want by casting votes. I am collecting such photographs and videos and also making one of my own where I will have some young volunteers prompting India to wake up and make the desired transformation. A month before the elections I’ll begin with my sharing.

On the week of election till the D-day of it, my status on the apps will be “Election Week; # of day/s to go”. This will act as a reminder to all of my contacts of the day they will contribute to the change and
not to take the Election Day as a holiday to chill but to get up, walk into the polling stations and cast their votes to the candidate they feel is apt to win. This will ensure that they can chill after the right government is in power. 

It's our duty and its up to us to make India the country we want to live and to let Her set as an example to the world as a great country to look up to and with the right use of these latest technology, the mobile apps, we can bring in the CHANGE.  

 

This post has been written for the motivating contest held by We-Chat and Indiblogger; "Indian General Elections 2014 with social mobile apps".  

*****

Acknowledgements: The Times of India and Wikipedia.
Illustration: By Namrota (Me, the author of CoffeeBeans).

Chanakya's Chant: A Review.

Author:      Ashivin Sanghi
Publisher:  Westland Ltd.
Pages:        448
Price:         INR 250
Genre:       Historical-Thriller
Rating:       2.5/5

Ashivin Sanghi's best-seller Chanakya's Chant is two analogous stories with a lean thematic connection in one book. One story acquaints you with the historical Chanakya's legend and the other Chanakya's contemporary avatar, Gangasagar.

Though the book has an interesting concept and could have made an incredible read, but due to some hiccups it loses its prospective. 

The novel falls flat as the characters of the fictional narrative has nothing much to offer. I wanted to loath a few characters because that is why they were built to, but, I couldn't. The characters were not much explored. 

I wanted to skip to the historical narration many times, as I felt I was better off not reading the present one. The past gripped my interest, and often I just flew to the chapters of the history and read and reread them.

Furthermore, as the contemporary narrative begins to progress, it loses its tightness. Even in the Historical narration, the dialogues are too contemporary. It's weird to imagine people from that era specially a learned scholar uttering words (particularly abuses) that we hear from the current generation. 

Moreover too many quotes uttered by both the protagonist, cripple the story further. 

I will read this book many times only for the chapters that begin with the title "About 2300 years ago".
I'll take off a few stars from this book for making the half of the narration a tiresome read and giving a few stars for igniting my interest in Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya again.

*****

This is a part of a review program by MysmartPrice/books