Can I Hijack your New Year Resolution to Indian Fashion??

Hello,  As the new year approaches, I see tons of contents one the web regarding new year resolution. Some positive, others reflecting reality. Though it is true that most of us badly fail in keeping up our own resolution every time we still try something new every year. I think I would not be wrong in saying that the new year is not just a fresh start to our calendar, but a birthplace of hope in our lives. A good positive hope and energy that we commit ourself to cherish for the rest of the year.

A good sum of this positive hope can bring about enormous change within us and outside us as well, allow me to take the privilege of hijacking your positive hope this year to bring about a good change outside us in the field of clothing or fashion. Yeah, please don't assume that rest of the write up as an attempt to preach someone what to wear and what not to wear on grounds of society and morals, it is absolutely not.

When I started to contemplate on clothing and fashion it took me way back in time when the majority of trade done across the world was primarily for clothing, usage of the term silk road or silk route that we saw in our middle school history book meant route by which silk got traded from South Asia to Europe.

South Asia in past is only synonyms with India and China, I cautiously left the latter and was taken aback with economic excellence that was cherished by us in the textile industry till the post-colonial era, the textile was the major exported good from India till the 1800s

There was a time when almost the entire known world was aspiring to wear Indian cloth because we produced the best textiles. It is a fact that Indian textiles have clothed the world. we can still find evidence of that at ancient sites in Syria and Egypt, for example. Still, there is no other place on the planet that has as many weaves and as many ways of dyeing and preparing a cloth as our culture has.

Sadly, the British systematically broke the textile industry in India to sustain their cotton mills in Manchester. In sixty years, between 1800 and 1860, India’s textile export came down by 94%.

Post partition period coupled with the aftermath of  world war two bought its own set of problem to textile trade in  India, Indian weavers who were dependent on the organic fabric material like cotton, wool, linen for weaving textile are now made to compete with synthetic products like nylon, acrylic, polyester which are made entirely or partially from chemicals and plastics 

Recent studies have predicted that 98% of the world's fabric will be synthetic by 2030, rapid adaptation of this inorganic product has resulted in the fashion industry being the second largest polluter in the planet now.

Contemplating further, it is surprising that we have also cut-down the demand of Indian weavers by wearing all western cloth all day in a year. Wearing a pyjama and a Dhoti though being a symbolic part of Indian clothing is now only considered as a fancy cloth that we wear once in a year for posting it in our social media accounts along with hashtags culture and tradition.

The only option left for Indian weavers and Indian Organic textile industry survival is to increase its demand, considering all these I was left with these basic questions. why can't we replace our informal synthetic round neck t-shirt to pyjamas once a week ??  Why can't we wear Kurta on a casual day at the office? Why can't we replace our synthetic informal shorts to dhoti once a week??

I again take the liberty of hijacking your positive hope and positive energy in making a commitment to wearing Indian at least once a week.

If we misplace our hopes and energy, our parents would be the last generation of our great civilisation to wear clothing unique to their own geographical, cultural and ethnic identity. I am very sure that our new year energy will not make that happen

Let the almighty bless us all a wonderful year ahead !! Thanks a lot for reading!! Happy new year!! Jai Hind!! :)


Akshayaram Viswanathan

BALANCING ALEXANDER AND A YOGI

A story heard from a ted talk took me to my own world of contemplation and urged me to write this, before we begin I would like to establish it that am a no scholar in philosophy nor politics, but a decent observer.  Balancing is an art that gives superior result to everyone, be it an individual or a country. The success of China's economy should be given to its approach in balancing traditional communist ideology in setting up capitalist institutions to grow itself as the fastest growing economy, likewise, successful or a satisfied person is one who masters this art profoundly

The story dates back to 350BC when Alexander the conqueror met a naked yogi at padmasana posture on the banks of the river Indus, present-day Pakistan. Greek called the yogi Gymnosophists.( gumnos = naked , sophists = philosopher)

Alexander the conqueror enquired about the state of his being to the yogi, to which the yogi replied that he is experiencing the nothingness from within, Alexander could not understand the meaning behind the yogi state and felt abhorrent.

Yogi after observing Alexander along with his warrior men enquired about him, to which Alexender replied that he is the great emperor the history has ever seen and is on a mission to conquer the world,
hearing this yogi laughed and felt pity for Alexender state of being

This story left me much contemplation not only of the extreme that is highlighted but also made me realize that there is no one size to fit all.

I also realized that there is an Alexander and a yogi in every one of us. Alexander the great who wants to achieve the material gains, make a name for himself, who is solely driven by a motive to establish himself at the top above the rest. He is our great Alexander who urges to conquer everything outside to him to put himself on the top

We also have a yogi who is kind, loving, compassionate primarily driven by the motive to achieve goodness for all, he is our yogi for him there is no self - attached, he urges to conquer ourself first to understand the purpose of oneself

It will be a waste of time to debate or comment which one of in us here is correct, be it Alexander or Yogi we need a right balance of these two to make our journey of life meaningful. We can't ignore Alexander as he is the one who pumps adrenaline to grow better than yesterday, at the same time we can't ignore the yogi as he is the one who adds value to our being every day

Let the almighty bless us all with a perfect calibration of  Alexander and Yogi within us

Thanks for Reading!! :)



Akshayaram Viswanathan

Ideal Leader, Virtuous Human, A Good Society- Saint Thiruvalluvar

 "To err is human, to forgive divine". said Alexanderpope an eighteenth-century English poet. Any system of government namely democracy, autocracy, aristocracy or monarchy the system of governance is based upon an image of a leader leading the society.

Leaders are humans who have a certain quality that sets them apart from the common public. what are these qualities that make us go aww on some personalities, In this blog, I have tried to find the answers for the same by referring to great Tamil saint Tiruvalluvar

   

அழுக்காறு அவாவெகுளி இன்னாச்சொல் நான்கும்
இழுக்கா இயன்றது அறம்.

( அறம் = virtuous act, அழுக்காறு = jealousy,  அவா = desires driven through five senses, வெகுளி = Anger, இன்னாச்சொல் = unpleasant words)

Instead of listing the virtues of an Ideal leader Saint Valluvar chose to list the trait that makes one unqualified, man free of these sinful traits namely jealousy, desires, anger, unpleasant words is a man of great virtue said Valluvar. Valluvar should have thought that it is important to identify the problem to eliminate it. 

A good society is in which we see a majority of people with good virtues, at times where we see religious violence, bigotry, extremist actions getting unfolded at various part of the globe, one must free himself from the  mentioned traits to not only make him virtuous but help his society become one

Let us all act on this call of a virtuous society by trying to make oneself more virtuous in every progressive day. Let's act within and create a brighter future

Thanks for reading, May he bless us all.

Akshayaram Viswanathan

LORD KRISHNA ABOUT CASTE

I would like to begin writing this article by quoting the father of our Indian constitution. "Caste is a state of mind," said Babasaheb. Both the colonial rule and Islamic invasion has left us with few inspiring leaders and has replaced the benevolence in our thinking with parsimoniousness, it is this mindset that Babasaheb is trying to abolish and thereby annihilating the entire system of caste as such

I strongly believe that Indian society and ancestors at large were more concerned with global harmony than their personal desires or greed. It seems to be a contradictory statement if we say that we were largely kind and benevolent but still followed the caste system which is a symbol of tyranny in today's standards. When contemplating this contradiction I came to observe the quote of Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita

                                                     चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः

This sloka is commonly used to criticise Gita as a text which creates unrest in society, but the explanation to caste comes from this sloka. In the opening part of the sloka, Lord Krishna admits that the four varnas were created by him when he says "चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं"
                                                          

This came as a shock when I thought why should Lord Krishna himself create such a tyrant system, but the real explanation rests in the later part of the sloka "गुणकर्मविभागशः" This part of the sloka takes us to two criteria with which Lord Krishna designate the work namely, guna—quality; karma—work, no part of this explains the intention to divide the varna by birth.

The sloka itself does not end here, as I have revealed only the first part of the sloka, let us see  what Krishna has for us in the next part


                                                  तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम्

This latter part of the sloka was hard to digest, hence I turned to the explanation given by prominent people, I find the great sage of Kanchi explanation to it more relatable. Lord Krishna may seem to disassociate himself from the four varna's when he says "विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम्". But in reality, Lord Krishna means that the non-doer of the actions(Karma) frees oneself from the Varna's become one in God himself.

On further reading the great sage of Kanchi I found that the non-doing of actions advocated is not to remain idle and let the time pass, but do our action as much as our duty and by only acting as an agent to that actions. This eliminates the worth attached to any action as every action is done by Lord Krishna himself and we are only the agent to those actions, and hence pride that we attach for this karma also gets eliminated as we are no more the owner of this pride.

This explanation though a lot of philosophical has enlightened me with the selflessness that we should carry in our life. Let us hope that the selflessness advocated by Lord Krishna be a guiding motive to all our actions.

Thanks for reading, let us all pray to kill our "I " within to make this globe harmonious again.

"

   

TALIBAN TALKS - A GLOBAL DISASTER IN MAKING??

With Afgan presidential election around the corner mid-July this year, the united states have announced the withdrawal of more than five thousand of the fourteen thousand troops in Afghanistan, to ease the tension of the chaotic state the United state has initiated peace talks with Taliban and believe to reach a peace deal before April 2019

Though the Taliban government in Afganistan between 1996-2001 should be largely attributed to the civil war that followed the fall of the soviet union and major involvement of Pakistan's ISI and military in training, supporting and funding Taliban from its birth. When the long civil war has devasted the country and had turned the state to penury, the Taliban government did very little or nothing for the country's growth

It is indeed that these five years of Taliban rule in Afghanistan should be described as a dark age of Asia, these five years made Afganistan a safe haven for Al-Queda, witnessed the demolition of thousand five hundred-year-old Bamiyan Buddha statue,Islamic Sharia law being followed as a state law resulted in an increase in violence, misogyny against women

Taliban also funded the appointment religions policing as a state policy primarily to forcibly impress profoundly immoral sharia law against its own women, some of the punishment given by religious police has been highlighted below to highlight the autocratic atrocity committed by the Taliban regime under the pretext of observing sharia law with a motive to bring back the times of Mohamad

In October 1996, a woman had the tip of her thumb cut off for wearing nail varnish.

In December 1996, Radio Shari’a announced that 225 Kabul women had been seized and punished for violating the sharia code of dress. The sentence was handed down by a tribunal and the women were lashed on their legs and backs for their misdemeanor

When a Taliban raid discovered a woman running an informal school in her apartment, they beat the children and threw the woman down a flight of stairs (breaking her leg) and then imprisoned her. They threatened to stone her family publicly if she refused to sign a declaration of loyalty to the Taliban and their laws.

In 1999, a mother of seven children was executed in front of 30,000 spectators in Kabul's Ghazi Sports stadium for murdering her husband (see right). She was imprisoned for three years and extensively tortured prior to the execution, yet she refused to plead her innocence in a bid to protect her daughter (reportedly the actual culprit)

All the evil things happened in the Taliban regime when the UN has objected to considering them as the official government of Afganistan. Infact Pakistan, UAE, and Saudi Arabia where the only initial countries to recognize the Taliban as the official government of Afganistan

with such a history of the irrational regime, it is highly unlikely that the promise made by the Taliban will really be kept by them, in an environment wherein no trackers have been put in place either by the UN or the United States to ensure Taliban is keeping their promise. Hence any talks with the Taliban at any point of time to be considered as a mockery of peace, unless the Taliban de-associate themselves from imposing strict Sharia law and Islamic fundamentalist ideology in the state

The recent talks held at Moscow have noticed that the demands of the Taliban have not been changed much. The peace talks resulted in the Taliban demanding the outset the current president of Afganistan, complete withdrawal of Nato troops in Afganistan, establishment of Islamic Constitution in the worn-torn country. It is also to note that the current president of Afganistan Asharg Ghani has been sidelined from the peace talks

Apart from the geopolitical advantage, Afganistan carries with its connectivity to central Asia , rational government in Afganistan will also help India to leverage upon its friendship for having greater connect to central Asia and contribute towards the greater cause of global peace. The Indian government has made a significant investment in Afganistan over the past decade like Construction of Afganistan National parliament Investing in Afgan health care etc. Having a Taliban led government in Afganistan will make India in the weaker hand to that of its counterpart
terror state Pakistan

As our doctrine of the nation once said
"The day a woman can walk freely on the roads at night, that day we can say that India has achieved independence" let us with all positivity and optimism believe that our neighboring state will get truly independent one day and prosper.


Akshayaram Viswanathan