Source : Google photo of unheard cries of old people Synopsis:Old age comes with its own set of challenges that vary from one social group to other from one country to the next. The challenges are related to the values that are practiced by the people who have to take care of their old parents so either they keep them at home or admit them to old age homes for a fee if they can afford. When the old people are utterly abandoned by their own sons and daughters and are left to die in the old age homes, it becomes a social issue that needs to be paid attention to.
There are some 90 million people in India who are old. This blog looks at the challenges some of them have to face in their old age and exposes the bitter reality of their plight so that people can hear their cries and feel compassion for them because tomorrow it may be your turn to live in an old age home where your children do not go to visit you. The old age spares no one so most people who are old meaning over 75 years of age become dependent on their sons and daughters and live with them although some old people receive their pension which may be just a pittance considering the cost of living now. By and large most old people manage to live with their children who look after them and their needs but not all old people are so lucky. Today I want to discuss their status in the society and how taking care of old people by their children is facing serious challenges that the younger generation is failing to meet resulting in a serious social nightmare for the old who feel neglected and abandoned by their own children they raised with love and care. The neglect of old people by their own sons and daughters is a worldwide phenomenon that is a very serious subject for discussion because it affects a very large number of people who need help. The degree of neglect varies from country to country ranging from some care for the old people in old age homes to extreme neglect and even physical abuse of the parents who are feeble and in need of serious medical attention. The businessmen have opened up private old age homes that are run purely as money making ventures and have proliferated in many countries including India where they are run professionally by competent staff . There the old people are well fed, well taken care of and have 24 hour nurse and medical service available. The old people live together and play chess or other games, read books or write. They celebrate each other's birthdays or such events and have their own comfortable rooms for privacy. They are surrounded by beautiful green gardens where they can go for walks and enjoy the nature. But such homes come with a heavy price tag so it is not for those who have no money of their own or no one to pay for them to stay at such pricey homes so where do they go? There are some NGOs that run old age homes where they shelter such people and do what they can to feed them and care for their medical needs but they depend on charity so they can only take care of a few people. In India such NGOs are restricted to receive foreign funding so they have to depend on their local resources that may be a limiting factor. Then there are the religious institutions that run old age homes due to their duty to help the poor and the destitute but they too depend on charity and the donation money they can raise from the kind and charitable people so they too struggle from day to day to give shelter, care and medical help to the poor old people who have been abandoned by their own children. Many temples in India feed the poor everyday but do not provide their shelter. The Sikh gurudwaras feed thousands of people for free but they too do not provide the shelter. Lastly there are some government run old age homes that are poorly funded and poorly run by indifferent staff so we hear of neglect and appalling conditions under which the old people stay and suffer. This kind of neglect due to lack of funding and incompetent staff who are indifferent to the plight of the old people is found in many countries including the so called developed countries. Today I want to focus on India that is rapidly growing economically and industrially to become one of the top 5 countries in the world in terms of GDP growth but this rapid transformation of India has brought with it a fundamental change in the social structure that had previously supported the people in their old age. I must say that there has always been the problem of how to take care of old people in India but now the degree and the extent of abuse seems to increase as more and more people become selfish and neglect their filial duties towards their own parents. Now it seems that people are increasingly becoming self centered and are motivated by their greed for material well being for themselves and their children but not their parents. In the patriarchal system found in India, the parents usually stay with their sons in their old age and feel ashamed to stay with their daughters because the daughters leave the family after marriage and call another family their own. But in some cases where they do not have sons to take care of them, they are compelled to stay with their daughter who in her turn depends on her husband for the living expenses so it complicates the matter further. No self respecting person likes to depend on his son in law for his sustenance. Where the old people stay with their sons, a second factor emerges when the sons get married and bring a third person from an unknown family to live with them. This person who joins the family through the arranged marriage system is not expected to show any care or concern for her in laws if she is not compassionate , is very selfish and who thinks only of her own welfare creating problems for the old people. Those who can afford can live in fancy old age homes and pay for it from their savings and pensions but not all can do so. There is a sad story of an old woman who lived in a poorly run old age home where she was often neglected. When she was about to die, the manager of the home informed her son to come and visit her before it was too late so one day her son came to visit her which was rare when she said that he should put an electric fan because it was so hot and keep a refrigerator for some food to be kept. The son asked her why she was telling him so when she was about to die, she answered " Son, it is not for me but one day you too may come to live in a home like this so my soul will cry for you because you will suffer from the heat and lack of food". As your mother it will cause me anguish to think of you suffering here like me in your old age." It is pity to think of old people as useless because in their prime, some of them were great artists, pianists, musicians of note, authors and athletes. Some were great thinkers, philosophers and astute politicians and some were the leaders in their own right but the old age makes them feeble with numerous medical problems that need constant attention. If they managed their financial affairs well when they were earning then they could pay for the pricey old age homes where they could retire in comfort keeping their dignity intact but this is true of only a few people. The vast majority of old people still depend on some one to take care of them because their small pension does not pay for all the expenses specially the medical bills. Those who were self employed and do not have any pension or savings find themselves in dire straits when they are old so they seek shelter in old age homes run by the NGOs or some religious organizations. I feel sorry for those men and women who in their hour of need totally depend on someone but do not get the help they need and are forced to beg on the streets to survive. There is a case of a once well known movie star in the Philippines who was abandoned by her children in her old age so poor and destitute, she took shelter in a grave yard where she covered herself with plastic sheet sleeping on card boards and scavenged for scraps to eat. People had totally forgotten her and no one could recognize here in her present state. There are many such cases that come to notice every once in a while when a reporter notices someone unusual and reports. Women who are dependent on their husbands for their sustenance are perhaps the most vulnerable to abuse in their old age when they become widows and are often chased out of their own homes by their greedy sons and daughter in laws. I mentioned the daughter in laws who do not show any compassion toward their mother in laws and treat them badly but the sons are also complicit and cannot escape social disapprobation. A beautiful woman who becomes mother and raises her children with love and care finds herself living the life of poverty and neglect someday when feeling abandoned by her own children. This is the cruelty of those who have lost all love and compassion for the very person who gave them life and nurtured them. Why such compassion and love is in short supply in societies where people have become so greedy that they have lost their moral compass? Is it because the parents did not raise them well and teach them good values? Is it because they were aloof parents who were very busy running their own affairs and relegated their children to the care of nannies who acted as surrogate? It is not unknown in some societies where women refused to nurse their own babies and hired lactating nannies to feed the kids but normally the poor women do a better job of taking care of their kids than the rich. Such kids who are raised by their nannies also become aloof to their parents when they grow up and feel no bond with their biological parents which in some cases explains their behavior. I have seen this growing dependence on nannies to raise the kids in families where the parents have no time to look after their kids. The result can be seen later when the kids grow up learning nothing from their illiterate nannies who come from poverty and have no good values themselves. Children absorb like sponge anything they observe and are taught meaning they absorb good as well as bad things . Good parents teach good values that they themselves practice. They teach compassion if they are compassionate toward others. They teach frugality, honesty and love for others if they are frugal, honest and love others. You cannot teach others what you do not know yourself or practice. I think this is the root of the evil that later comes to haunt them in their old age. But a mother instinctively loves and cares for her children even if the father may be a complete rascal so people tend to love their mothers more than their fathers in such cases and become very defensive toward their mother. An abusive father who beats his wife and children , is alcoholic and squanders his money on gambling and bad habits can except no love and care from his children when he is old because he is hated. But a mother is rarely hated unless she too was neglectful in her duties toward her children. What then causes the rift the kids feel toward their parents when they are old and why we see more and more old people who feel abandoned and seek shelter somewhere when they should have been at home and looked after? The answer may lie in the changing structure of the traditional societies where old values are discarded in favor of self interest and excessive greed for money that allows people to buy the modern comforts like a nice home , car and other things. The sharing, caring and nurturing others is sacrificed because now the focus is on self and no one else. You will see this in a family where a son lives in comfort far away from his family where his other brothers or sisters and parents continue to live in misery. He and his wife feel no compassion for them because the focus now is on themselves and not others. This selfish focus is often encouraged by the woman who comes from a different family and feels no responsibility for her in laws as I wrote earlier. His children learn the same thing and feel nothing for their grand father and mother. This scenario is particularly true in the patriarchal system that still practices arranged marriage where love is not required. A woman who marries a man for love is not normal in such societies where such marriages are called love marriages that are not encouraged. One boy was seen making a coconut shell bowl for his father who asked him why and for who he was making the bowl. The boy answered that he was making it for him for his old age because he saw how his grand father was treated by his father and made to eat from a coconut bowl. But I have also seen the pitiful conditions of old parents in the matriarchal system as well like here in the Philippines where you will find neglect and lack of compassion for the old people no matter how much they brag about their families. There are pitiful old age home here as well that are poorly funded and managed. I found this video where the old people explain their sorrow, their grief and their pitiful conditions living in the old age home where no one comes to visit them. Once the proud, beautiful people with talents are now reduced to this so watch it and try to understand their unheard cries.
Behind Closed Doors; India's Elderly are Abused and Neglected
https://youtu.be/pQ6Zuxrt8xg Source : U tube video The following blog called Old age deserves respect is perhaps worth reading in this context.
Source : Google photo of Rajeev Dixit Synopsis :We have seen that in spite of political repression, jailing of activists who dare and the police brutality to suppress people who only want to know the truth ,there are brave-hearts who come forward fearlessly knowing the risks involved. Such a man was Rajeev Dixit in India.
Rajiv Dixit (1967—2010) was an Indiansocial activist. He launched a movement in the early 1990s as a campaign to protect Indian industries.[2][3] An aide to Ramdev, he also served as the national secretary to Ramdev's anti-corruption organisation, Bharat Swabhiman Andolan. He was a tireless crusader against corruption in the country, in it's social and political system and even the judiciary. He was highly educated and was from my hometown now known as Prayagraj. Dixit founded the Azadi Bachao Andolan (Save Freedom Movement) and was a campaigner for the protection of Indian industries[2] from the 1990s when multi-national corporations were increasing their presence in India as a part of a trend towards globalization.[4] Dixit demanded decentralization of the taxation system, saying that the existing system was the core reason for bureaucratic corruption. He claimed that 80 per cent of tax revenue was used to pay politicians and bureaucrats. He compared the budget system of the Indian government to the earlier British budget system in India, presenting statistics which he claimed showed that they were the same.[5] ( Source : Wikipedia) The world has perhaps never heard of Rajeev Dixit but he was a well known social and political activist in India who was known for his fearless oratory skill and his vast knowledge of India, its history, its political leaders and its issues. He never shied away from speaking the truth no matter how unpleasant in any forum and spoke with great conviction and passion that got the attention of his enemies . He spoke about the Nehru Gandhi dynastic rule, its excesses, its failures and its rule over India as a feudal party using the Muslim appeasement as its policy. He spoke about the corruption of the Congress party members who looted the country through bribes taken from government contracts, nepotism , numerous shady deals and protected itself from inquiries by being the party above the law. He spoke about the shame of the words in the Indian national anthem that was written by Rabindra Nath Thakur in praise of King George V because Thakur was a sycophant of the British who rewarded him for it by nominating him for a Nobel prize. It is a matter of national shame that the song sung in the praise of the British King by a sycophant became the national anthem that everybody is required to sing at every occasion . It is not known outside India that there was a fierce opposition to this blatant sycophancy in the post independent India by people who wanted Vande Mataram as the national anthem but Nehru prevailed and insisted to make Jana Gana Mana the anthem. He was called a brown British who only served their interest just like Gandhi. I will post a translation of the Indian National anthem here for you to understand the words that the Indians are ashamed of. Jana Gana Mana lyrics Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, ( meaning King George V ) Dispenser of India’s destiny. Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha, Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal; It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Jamuna and Ganges and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea. They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise. The saving of all people waits in thy hand, Thou dispenser of India’s destiny. Victory, victory, victory to thee. Now read the translation of the real anthem that was never to be and feel the depth of the words that makes every Indian proud . It was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and is now considered the national song of India. Vande mataram lyrics “Mother, I bow to thee! ( meaning Mother India ) Rich with thy hurrying streams, bright with orchard gleams, Cool with thy winds of delight, Dark fields waving Mother of might, Mother free. Glory of moonlight dreams, Over thy branches and lordly streams, Clad in thy blossoming trees, Mother, giver of ease Laughing low and sweet! Mother I kiss thy feet, Speaker sweet and low! Mother, to thee I bow.” He spoke about the betrayal of the greatest national heroSubhash Chandra Bose who gave independence to India by marginalizing him and his sacrifice for the country by Nehru and the Congress party in order to promote Mohan Das Gandhi and exposed the lies of Gandhi and Nehru about the freedom struggle of Indian patriots like Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh and all those who died for it. Please read my blogs on them here called My heroes :Bhagat Singh and My heroes Veer Saverkarhere. He spoke about the betrayal of a true patriot Sardar Patel by Nehru when he laid the foundation of the Kashmir problem that has claimed thousands of lives and still festers as a deep wound that does not heal. Read my blog called The curse in Kashmir here. And he spoke fearlessly about Gandhi and Nehru's historic mistake to divide the country on the basis of religion and create Pakistan that has caused 4 wars and thousands of deaths through active militancy of terrorists so Rajeev Dixit was a true activist who through his speeches exposed all the dirty laundry of the ruling party called the Congress party and the shenanigans of the political elites who were above the law . He often said that he is not going to live long because he felt that the shadow of death was constantly following him and could take him any day because people he exposed were very unhappy with him and his speeches in the U tube that millions watch. He often said that today this may be his last speech because tomorrow the goons may silence him but he also said that he had no fear of dying and only wanted to tell the truth that the bad people in India are trying so hard to hide. So one day his premonition came true and the assassins took his life . No one has ever found out who were they and who sent them to kill Rajeev Dixit because it works just like the mafia where they protect themselves with layers of buffers and hire people to do their dirty work. No one can ever pin down the masterminds so a great activist who only wanted to serve his country by telling the truth is now dead but his numerous speeches are recorded in U tube for anyone to download and watch. He spoke in Hindi so there is no translation for the outer world but I understood every word he said and developed a great respect for him and his fearless speeches that will move you in a way very few people in India or anywhere can. He has left behind a legacy that can't be erased by the bullets. I wish I could post some of his videos but he only spoke in Hindi that you may not understand so I have posted some other videos that support what Rajeev Dixit used to say. It is not possible to present his videos in English. Source : Google photo of Rajeev Dixit's bullet struck body . India is a fascinating country because every inch of its soil is steeped in history from a very ancient time. It is not possible to narrate its long history in a blog like this or even in twenty thick volumes. Many books have been written about India and its long history, its struggle for freedom, it's great personages and its sufferings in the hands of cruel invaders from Alexander down to the last British with many Muslim invaders in between who drenched its sacred soil with blood of the innocent who only wanted to live in peace. The world knows very little about India and believes even less about India's achievements due to the bias in the western press and the news media. To them India means a vast over populated country where the poor people sleep on the side walks , where cows roam freely, where people defecate in the open, where the snake charmers and dancing bears go about and where poverty is paramount. They are still stuck with Kipling's narrative that has lost its relevance in modern India. Some of it is still true but the country is changing rapidly and has made great progress in developing its infrastructure and is poised to become a 5 trillion dollar economy in the near future. Watch the video of Karolina Goswami here called India the next economic super power But today I want to go back to Rajeev Dixit and analyse his words to let you know what he said and why. I will start by posting a video of an interview of Arundhati Roy who is a Booker Prize winner writer of great renown who explains the myth of Gandhi and the false image projected of him to elevate him to the status of a Mahatma that he never was. This is what Rajeev also said with justification so watch this video and listen to Arundhati Roy who is also fearless .
https://youtu.be/ddKzcrwC9os Source : U tube video of Arundhati Roy talking about Gandhi and Ambedkar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sBEfixrCL8 Source : U tube video of Arundhati Roy speaking about democracy and Kashmir One day she too may be silenced because she dares to speak the truth so it takes a lot of courage to speak the truth in India that claims to be the world's largest democracy where the freedom of speech is guaranteed. Why then Rajeev Dixit was killed? Rajeev Dixit spoke about the so called Mahatma a great deal and exposed him as a fraud who beat his wife, was a sexual predator, a firm supporter of British interest, a hater of blacks ( Negroes), a strong believer in the Hindu caste system that discriminated against the untouchables, a supporter of the British war effort during the World war II that sent hundreds of thousands of untrained young Indians to die in Europe, a supporter of the Muslim appeasement policy that created Pakistan and the resultant deaths of one million people due to partition. His own son became a Muslim in disgust he felt for his father. The list of Gandhi's misdeeds is long but it was carefully hidden by the ruling Congress party that promoted him as Mahatma or the great soul because it suited them politically to do so at that time. Nehru being the sycophant of Gandhi desperately wanted to become the Prime Minister of free India although Sardar Patel was the favorite of the party. Nehru was a known womanizer and exposed as a fraud that did not sit well with the Congress Party in power so Rajeev Dixit was eliminated. Now India has honored Sardar Patel with the tallest statue in the world in Gujrat state. Here is a video of another famous son of India Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who wrote the Indian constitution and spoke freely about Gandhi that validates what Rajeev used to say about the Mahatma. Speaking against a national icon like Gandhi and Nehru is still very risky in India but the times are changing so the new generation wants to know the truth that was long hidden from them. I too was a victim of the massive government propaganda as a child because no one dared to speak the truth then.
https://youtu.be/TrS8vkRQhSQ Source : U tube video of Ambedkar saying why Gandhi was no Mahatma Rajeev Dixit used to say that the myth of a Mahatma wearing only loin cloths and taking up a great adversary like the British with nothing more than non violent movement and fasting was so appealing to the Western World that they started to believe him and not in his faulty character that was not a secret to many. But in the video above Ambedkar says that Gandhi has mostly disappeared from the consciousness of the Indian people except for the fact that the Congress Party made his birthday a National holiday with celebrations to remind people how great a man he was who brought freedom to India but that too is a lie that has now been exposed. British Prime Minister Atlee clearly said during his visit to India that Gandhi's contribution to India's independence movement was minimal at best. They left India because of Bose. For the first time since independence the flag of the Indian National Army of Netaji Bose was raised in the historic Red Fort by the Prime Minister Modi to remind the nation who brought freedom to India that the Congress government had never acknowledged because it went against their narrative. They did not like to put up a statue of Bose in Delhi but later the new government established a grand statue to honor the greatest son of India right near the Red Fort in Delhi. A grand museum showing the freedom struggle of Bose and his INA has been opened in Red Fort recently. I will always miss Rajeev Dixit because he was so brave. He will be always remembered. No one may put up his statue anywhere but he will live on in the hearts of all.
Source : Google photo of dirty habits Synopsis : A habit is always acquired because no one is born with it. It can be a good habit or a bad habit that one learns from others .Collectively it then becomes a part of the culture of people like drinking tea or chewing pan. When such habits are practiced in private, it is no one's business but in public ,it becomes everybody's business. The blog looks at some bad habits that affect others in public places and some means to curb them. In every culture in any country you will find certain habits that are linked to it. Thus you will find people patiently waiting for the green light at the zebra crossings but in other countries they ignore the lights and cross wherever and whenever they want causing accidents and chaos. My French teacher was so used to crossing anywhere she wanted back in France but was very surprised when a traffic police in Washington ,D.C. gave her a 5 dollar ticket for illegally crossing an empty street. I saw the policeman hide behind a post and wait until the infraction was committed so that he could give the offender a ticket thus filling the coffers of the city with millions of dollars in fine collected from unsuspecting people. A simple show of face could have prevented the fine from us but they were more interested in collecting the fines than preventing the so called jay walking. That is their capitalistic way. In other countries they may use less persuasive but equally effective ways of preventing a misdemeanor. But what I want to write about today is about dirty habits found in some cultures that are quite repugnant. People visiting Singapore for the first time are very surprised by the heavy fines for spitting on the roads or throwing chewing gum, wrappers or garbage anywhere because to them this habit back home is unnoticed and unpunished so they carry this habit with them to other countries where they are punished for it with hefty fines. The strict rules and regulations have made Singapore a clean city and the locals try hard not to violate the rules because doing so is quite painful for their pockets. The foreigners with bad habits learn it to their dismay that urinating in public, spitting and throwing garbage in the streets anywhere is not tolerated in many countries. Source : Google photo India is one country where the old habits die hard because the habits become a part of their culture so they see nothing wrong in spitting on the streets anywhere because they chew pan that makes them salivate profusely so they spit anywhere they want including hospitals. Chewing pan is a national habit that gives employment to millions of people who sell pan everywhere and hundreds of thousands of farmers who grow pan plants and sell the leaves to the pan makers. Pan is a leaf that they use to fill it with some lime, bits of betel nut , some peppermint, shredded tobacco and many other things that people chew making their saliva red that they have to spit out. The result is seen below in the photo of a big city. Source : Google photo of pan spits on walls everywhere . So the pan makers support the habit of chewing pan because their livelihood depends on it. When I visited a big hospital in Lucknow one day, I noticed the entire wall inside the hospital covered with thick spit of pan and saliva that was truly horrific and disgusting so I brought the matter to the administrator of the hospital. He was very apologetic and promised to get the wall cleaned up and post some warning to visitors not to spit inside the hospital. But the guilty party was right outside the hospital who was happily selling the pan to anyone who would then go inside the hospital and spit on the wall ignoring the hospital hygiene. These pan sellers do a brisk business because chewing pan is a habit people can't seem to quit even if they know that it is a bad habit and the tobacco they chew causes mouth cancer. It is like smoking that some people can't quit no matter what the doctors say or the label on the cigarette packet says. They also support millions of tobacco farmers who make a fortune selling their tobacco to cigarette and cigar makers. The hand rolled cigarettes, bidis or cigar makers employ millions of people so some habits support the industry that in its turn supports the tobacco farmers and employs a lot of people who earn their living this way. Bidis are hand rolled mini cigarettes wrapped in a leaf that are quite popular with the poor people in India. The British brought the culture of snuff to India so the young people imitated the British and thought that it was the cool thing to do and got hooked because taking powdered tobacco to stuff your nose with is very addictive and causes cancer but nobody cared. So the snuff became available everywhere and the spread of nose cancer followed. Some people bragged about their bejeweled snuff boxes they carried in their pockets but over a period of time, it became not so fashionable anymore except some die hard snuff takers who can't quit. The government of India now has started a program of cleaning up India and has made sustained efforts to educate people so that they can be aware and change their bad habits but it is easier said than done. It is not easy to change people their ways of doing things because it has become a part of their culture that they all support and see nothing wrong with it. Indians are very clean when it comes to their homes but they see nothing wrong when they throw their garbage out on the streets and spit or urinate in public so now the CCTV cameras are being installed to catch them and fine them on the spot. The penalty of heavy fines makes people think twice before they spit or throw garbage anywhere. In south India , a thriving business is now flourishing because they have built public urinals where they collect a fee before anyone goes in. They money they collect helps them maintain the urinals and keep them clean but it also forces people to change their behavior of urinating anywhere. So you have ask how does a culture develop? Before the British came to India , there was no culture of drinking tea. It started when the British found that the hills and cool climates of north Indian hills like Darjeeling, Shillong and Assam were ideal for growing fine quality tea so they started developing large tea farms. The Darjeeling tea is now exported to many countries and earns the country a lot of revenue and employs millions of people in growing and processing of tea. So taking tea became a part of the Indian culture. If you visit someone in India and say that you do not drink tea, they are embarrassed because they do not know what else to offer you. In the north it is the tea culture and in the south it is the coffee culture because they grow coffee in the hills of south India. Drinking tea or coffee is not bad. It may even be good for your health but when you throw away your tea cup from your train or bus windows then it becomes a problem. Source : Google photo of water pipe smoking The smoking of tobacco in water pipes was introduced by the Muslim rulers who smoked perfumed tobacco in their elaborate silver water pipes before the advent of cigarettes and cigars. Slowly the elites and the rich people started imitating this practice so the poor people not to be left behind started making their own water pipes. This was cheaply made using a coconut shell, a stem of hollow wood and a baked clay cup to hold the embers and the tobacco. The coconut shell is filled with water and you inhale the smoke through it giving it the name water pipe or hukkah. Now anywhere in rural India and Pakistan you will find poor people using hukkah because it has become a part of their culture. If you go to any country in the Middle East, you will find well dressed women and men in restaurants or such public places happily smoking their water pipes that are quite elaborate like the ones Mughals used long ago. It is now a part of their culture. But when you smoke in public, others who are non smokers are inhaling your smoke that is harmful to them , then it becomes a problem. So go and smoke in your house and pollute your house. Who cares? Just don't do it in public. A culture develops over a period of time accumulating behaviors that are at first alien to them but accepted and popularized that become addictive like smoking or drinking alcohol or stuffing snuff into your nose or chewing tobacco or pan. When people say that it is a part of their culture and use it as an excuse to spit everywhere then it becomes a dirty habit. Since it is very difficult to change people and their culture, the method of penalty and stiff fines are used to curb such practices like in Singapore. The bad habits can be changed or entirely given up as I have done myself. I used to smoke fine tobacco like Amphora in my beautiful pipes that I collected from many countries but I quit smoking some twenty five years ago because I came to realize that smoking is not good for my health so I gave it up. I was not addicted to tobacco like some people are so it was not difficult for me and I do not chew pan but I can understand how difficult it is for some to give up their bad habits. Now you may chew pan , drink alcohol or smoke in private but when you make yourself a nuisance in public then it becomes mandatory to curb such habits even if you claim it to be a part of your culture. No culture anywhere should tell you it is OK to spit anywhere or urinate anywhere or smoke anywhere because it affects others. When you throw a banana peal mindlessly on the road, someone may slip and fall and get serious injuries. When you spit anywhere on the road , it creates pollution, spreads germs and spreads disease. When you urinate anywhere in public, it creates stink and very unhygienic conditions. When you throw chewing gums on the road, it gets stuck to someone's shoes and is quite unpleasant. The municipalities spend a lot of money to clean up other people's mess so now they have started collecting fines from errant people. I think that a system of penalizing drivers who do not follow road rules is quite effective so it should also work for those who dirty the public places. People change when it hurts their pocket but not otherwise. Creating awareness through schools, bill boards, media and public forums can go a long way to change people in the long run. Just ask the Singaporeans. If they can do it then it is quite possible in other countries. Please also read my blog called the dirty habits that is related to this blog.
Source : Google photo Synopsis : People speak many languages in the world that makes communication difficult with them but with effort and hard work we can learn their language in order to overcome the language barrier. Nothing is impossible if we only set our mind to it.
There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 1,213,000,000 people in theworld that speak that language. ( source : Wikipedia) I have always been interested in languages so I had to first start with my mother tongue that happens to be Bengali but living in a Hindi speaking state of India, I became fluent in Hindi as well. Our medium of instruction was Hindi in primary and secondary schools where most of my classmates spoke Hindi as their first language. Our text books were in Hindi save the ones for English so our teachers who were native Hindi speakers expected all of us to understand them well and write in good Hindi. One day our Hindi teacher gave us a topic to write on an essay called "The art of conversation" which was a topic titled in English but we had to write on it in Hindi so we all tried our hands and I was judged to be the best in the class because apparently what I wrote quite impressed our Hindi teacher. He did not believe that a Bengali boy of 14 could write in pure Hindi an essay that could impress him but apparently I did so he said that I have cut off the nose of everyone ( metaphorically speaking) meaning that I had put to shame all the native Hindi speakers in the class. It bothered me that he believed that I was not a native Hindi speaker that I really was but later he praised me after reading my essay in the class. So I have always been fluent in both Bengali and Hindi from the very young age and still speak it well after having lived abroad for over 55 years in many countries where they speak neither Hindi nor Bengali. Bengali parents taught their children the Bengali alphabets, words and grammar so we learned to read and write Bengali as well and spoke Bengali at home but that was then. Now I see many Bengalis speak only basic Bengali with a mixture of Hindi and do not know how to read and write in Bengali because their parents did not teach them the Bengali alphabets, grammar and conjugation at home. They do not understand classic Bengali or the Bengali of high literature because their vocabulary is limited. Then came the third language called English. In India learning English for us was a must because it was a subject in high school but none could speak it well although we could read it well and understand the meaning. The speaking ability improves when you can converse with someone in that language so we found the students of English medium schools like St.Joseph, St.Mary's , St.Anthony , Boy's and Girl's high schools who were taught in English were very good in speaking the language although I am sure their degree of fluency varied among them. I remember a funny incident when our English teacher gave a lesson in our high school class one day and asked a classmate if he understood the lesson to which he answered "No Sir." Exasperated , the teacher then asked him what the word "understand " means . He said that it meant "stand under" Sir ( in Hindi ) that made us all laugh. There seems to be a great discussion among the non native speakers of English in many countries about the relevance of English as a modern language and its merits as a lingua franca or as a world language. A lingua franca, also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language is a language or dialect systematically used to make communication. The protagonists who are fluent in English and write it well are for it while the antagonists who do not speak it well and understand even less the spoken and written English claim that they do not need to learn it and are quite happy with their mother tongues whatever they may be. There is a third category of people who do not speak, read or write English well but bristle at the suggestion that " they are poor in English". who have very poor comprehension of the language. You will find such people in many countries. So today I would like to write about the language that can be a formidable barrier to proper communication anywhere in the world today where people speak only their language and do not understand yours. When I am in France, I get very good service almost everywhere because I can communicate with them in French but you will not be understood if you speak in English. It happens in many countries in Europe where English is not spoken and where people are very proud of their language. Now more and more people everywhere have started to learn English so many spurious coaching centers have opened up to cater to such people charging hefty fees so it has become quite a good business. In many countries the schools employ native English speakers to teach the subject so that the kids may learn the language well and imitate the accent. They believe that the non native speakers of English are not as good as the native speakers which may not be far from the truth although I am sure there are wonderful speakers of proper English who speak it as their third language. With over 6500 spoken languages in the world today, it is no wonder that the languages may become a barrier to communication between two different people anywhere. In India where we find many languages spoken in different states, a great discussion is going on right now on the merits of a national language but many do not agree to make one language for all the Chinese way because it is a democracy. I have found that learning any language requires a devoted effort to learn it well meaning if you really want to learn a language , you have to spend a great deal of effort to learn to speak, read and write it well. A half hearted effort will not do. While some people may learn a language faster than others and learn it well, there are those who simply find the task too daunting and challenging so they give up easily. I tried once to learn the Russian and Arabic alphabets but gave up because I found it hard to self study . Now if I had a teacher then perhaps I could have learned them so it all boils down to the teacher afterall. If you take the learning a language as a skill like typing or driving or carpentry then you will find that like any skill you get better with practice and time. But you always need a good teacher. In a mixed language family like ours where my wife and I do not speak the same language, we chose English as our family language so our two kids are absolutely fluent in English who have won first prize in extemporaneous speaking when they were young leaving other Filipino children miles behind. They are also fluent in Tagalog and our daughter went to Dijon in France to learn French for a while. But I also found that it is very difficult for a non native speaker of English to learn the language properly and speak it well because a factor called the mother tongue influence kicks in and becomes a barrier or a hurdle that they can't seem to overcome. In some languages there are no alphabets like L or R or Z so L and R and Z words are very difficult for them to pronounce. In some languages they do not have past tense so it is very difficult for them to speak in the past tense let alone would have, could have or should have had. It confuses them because a language is heavily influenced by the culture it represents. When the missionaries tried to teach the native tribes in the Amazon the Bible, they had a difficult time to explain what a cross was so they finally explained that a cross was sort of like a tree so the natives laughed and said that it was a horrible way for Jesus to die in a tree. They had no word for cross . So the understanding of a language is heavily influenced by the culture of the people who are trying to learn a foreign language. I keep mentioning English because I feel that as a language it has made the most progress toward becoming a truly international language so it has become the choice language of the media, of schools and universities of higher learning, trade and commerce, of the Internet , of programmers who write popular computer programs, of entertainment industry like Hollywood movies etc. Now the movie industry of Hollywood has understood that their English movies dubbed in the local language of a country makes people enjoy them so they are gaining their market share this way. Another way is when people watch movies and understand when they are sub titled but it is a slow process that makes people miss the dialogue especially if the translation is badly done with poor grammar and a lot of spelling mistakes. The advent of worldwide Internet, chat rooms, free skype and similar video calling apps, e mail , messaging service and many such programs that people anywhere can use is now making the English language more popular than ever before but it still has a long way to go before becoming a true world language. Amazon provides free e book downloading to anyone who loves reading English novels and books. I am sure there are similar downloads available in other languages as well. Google translation service: I really love Google because I use it extensively and make my blogs available in 6 languages through its translation service. It has enabled me to reach my readers all over the world in more than 127 countries who read my blogs in their language of choice so Google is trying to break down the language barrier in a big way these days. It does so in written language but it also allows to hear the language as well just like the Microsoft translation service which is a wonderful way to reach people in other countries. That is the beauty of technology but for the most people in the world, they still depend on the face to face speaking and understanding of a language that is foreign to them .This is the greatest challenge people face especially when they are saddled with their mother tongue influence and their cultural baggage. I found that developing a reading habit very early meaning when you are in your pre teen years is a very good way to learn a language. I started reading Gogol, Dostoevsky and Rider Haggard novels at that age and never stopped. It opened up my eyes to the beauty of the language and its myriad nuances. Please read my blog called " Forming habits" that is related to this topic. Now the Japanese have come up with a gadget that instantly translates into many languages with sound and correct accent when spoken into so you can now meet a Japanese and talk to him in Japanese through this gadget although I do not trust such gadgets as yet. If the gadget makes a wrong translation , it may create more mischief than intended so you have to use these new fangled gadgets with caution. You may have to ask Google translation of the phrase " I am so sorry if the translation this stupid gadget makes is not perfect so forgive me " (Kono orokana gajetto ga tsukuru hon'yaku ga kanpekide wanainode totemo mōshiwake arimasen.) just to ward off any potential problem. In conclusion I can say that there is no short cut to learn a foreign language. It requires a lot of hard work , long studies and practice before you can speak it well and write it well. The good news is that it is not an impossible task. As the world gets smaller through connections, understanding each other becomes all the more important because we no longer live in isolation even in North Korea.
Source : Google photo of book burning in Germany during war Synopsis : The intolerance of other ideas expressed in books has led to massive book burning in many countries under authoritarian rule. You will never know your past history if it is systematically erased by those who want to rewrite it. This practice of intolerance to new ideas and contrary views has now become outdated so those who practice it should be condemned. There was a time long ago when people wrote on animal hides or palm leaves. Some made clay tablets to write on that were baked to preserve them. Thus we have found numerous clay tablets with Cuneiform inscriptions in the Middle East but they were bulky and difficult to move from place to place. The Egyptians took the art of writing on the walls of their tombs and palaces to a new height by using dazzling colors and figures to record their history but they remained unseen in underground chambers of tombs while the chiseled Heiroglyphs on stone monuments and palaces were ravaged by the passage of time and vandalism. Man has always been interested in recording his stories since antiquity so used different methods and media in different parts of the world some of which still remain and can be seen and often deciphered but a revolution took place when paper was discovered some say in Egypt where they ground dried papyrus reeds to make an emulsion that they spread layer after layer to make crude paper that was then used to write on by scribes. In India their ancient texts of Vedas , Puranas and Upanishads were written on palm leaves that became brittle over a period of time so was not considered a perfect medium until paper was introduced perhaps after the Egyptian invention but the Chinese continued to live in isolation for a long period when they used silk or leather to write on. The invention of paper as we know it today was truly a revolution to preserve art, science, history and religious texts of many religions that survive even today but with the invention of paper came a giant step toward the freedom of expression when free thinkers started to write down on paper what was in their mind on a given subject. There was a time long ago when every book or journal or document was hand written by scribes who were experts in the art of calligraphy so they took their time in writing and embelishing texts with art, flowers and other visual graphics to turn any hand written book into a masterpiece but it was a very slow process that limited the number of such books that could be written. The kings and queens patronized such scribes and employed them in large numbers in their courts to write , translate or copy other books from other countries so they built large libaries like the one in Alexandria that was world famous for its collection of hand written books of all sorts. But a period of intolerance to ideas represented in such books led to the total destruction of the Alexandria library by fire so all the valuable knowledge gathered over a long period vanished overnight. The same thing happened to the library of the Nalanda University in India where the hordes of Muslim invaders made a bonfire of all the books there because of their intolerance to the knowledge preserved in those books. It is said that it took more than six months to burn all the books and manuscripts in their vast library that had taken centuries to fill but the intolerance led to its total desctruction and the slaughter of peace loving people who taught there. You can now visit the ruins of Nalanda to see the immensity of the campus and various structures and examine the burn marks on the stones still visible. This brings me back to the subject of my blog today and examine why we burn books and why some people feel threatened by the knowledge preserved in books and destroy them. The ancient pharaohs ordered their scribes to write on the walls of their tombs their glorius past and wins in battles but the subsequent pharaohs often ordered the defacement of such history if it did not suit them. You can still see such defacements in monuments in Egypt giving credence to the fact that the history is always written by the victors to glorify their rule that failed to tell the whole story or the truth. People say that the truth can be subjective and depends on who is telling it so there may be many interpretations of the truth . The truth does not always prevail because some people may choose to ignore it if it does not suit them or their agenda. Often a person chosen as the national hero for political purposes may be far from being a hero but such a hero serves a purpose for the ruling class that glorifies him to help them stay in power. You will find such examples in almost any country where the powerful political elites who rule their country set up grandiose monuments of such fake heros in public squares and hide the truth that the so called hero was a child molester who beat his wife and was a total pervert. Dictators put up their own statues that are torn down by the angry people when he falls. But burning a book is far easier and more complete because when it is reduced to ashes, you also separate people from knowledge forever. So people started storing the parchments and scrolls in jars and hid them in secret caves to preserve them and protect them from destruction by people who showed intolerance to such books and documents. The classic case of Qumran or the Dead Sea scrolls discovered by accident by a goatherd in Israel throws light on a period that would have remained obscure had it not been discovered. The Cultural revolution in China saw the nationwide systematic destruction of Chinese books and ancient documents at a scale not seen since Nalanda and Alexandria because the Chinese leaders had decided to erase their history this way and start writing a new one that suited their agenda. The Red Guards misled by their leaders to go on a rampage led to the destruction and public burning of books everywhere that was a dark period in their ancient country where so much was written and preserved for thousands of years but destroyed in a moment of insanity. The fact that the perpetrators were later judged and punished was too little too late because the damage was done just like in Nalanda.
The question therefore to ask here is why some people deliberately destroy their ancient heritage preserved in books and scrolls even today when such destruction is considered a crime against the collective heritage of the humanity? The youth brigade of the Nazis burned books in public squares to wipe a part of their heritage to rewrite their history to glorify the ascent of Nazis to power. Source : Book burning rallies in Nazi Germany There are no easy answers but it has something to do with the political agenda of the rulers of the moment when such people decide to sacrifice their heritage in the name of preserving their own power. It is said that there are no honest historians because the honest historians are punished if they try to record the truth. An infamous case comes to mind when a world famous historian in India published a book that showed Nehru in a bad light referring to his many shortcomings that did not suit Nehru so he forced this poor man into exile. He was given a fellowship by the Oxford University because he was such a noted scholar .He died there never to return home. But often the book burning or banning certain books are linked to religious intolerance of one group toward another. It is the irony that during the period of Haroun al Rashid, the famous Khalifa of Baghdad centuries ago , the art, culture and science was at its apex in the Muslim world because the Khalifa was a patron of art, culture, science and astronomy. He ordered his scribes to translate into Arabic many ancient books and literature and built his library full of hand written books. He valued knowledge and rewarded hondsomely the scribes who brought in ancient texts from somewhere and made it a law that scribes and teachers were to be protected anywhere and gave them gifts and safe passage firmans. Then came a period when the hard core Islamists who saw things differently and enforced their intolerance to anything “unsuitable” by burning, killing and reducing ancient libraries to ashes and the ancient monuments to rubble like in Bamiyan in Afghanistan and Palmyra in Syria recently. The books printed by any government to propagate their version of history and make such books available to childern in their schools is an obvious effort to brainwash the young generation into believing a fake narrative but it often backfires. Children are told many lies because they are impressionable at a tender age but they grow up and become capable to make up their own mind later. Some become activists and fight fake history and fake news. Others constantly seek the truth and speak in public forums to force people to rethink about the lies they were told. The story of Netaji Bose comes to mind in India where the Congress government paid historians to write text books that mentioned very briefly the sacrifices Netaji made to make India free and very elaborately the contribution of Gandhi for the freedom of India whom the British found unimportant. Thus they deliberately marginalized Bose who brought independence to India and promoted Gandhi for their political reasons. This happens in many countries. Will the children ever learn about the way the native Americans were decimated and marginalized by the white immigrants or the fate of the native Australians ? Their children were taken away to “civilize them” and treated brutally by the whites. Who will write the real stories so that the children learn about them ? The written history is always skewed by those in power to push their own agenda that glorifies them and downplays the importance of writing what is the truth. Now we see that the journalists are killed by those who do not like what they write or publish because the fundamentalists have their own agenda that includes suppression through any means of any one who dares to write and exposes the fallibility of certain religions. Salman Rushdie had to hide from his assailants for several years after he published the Satanic verses that is still banned in many countries. The Harry Potter books were burned by those who thought that the books were promoting witchcraft. Books of all kinds have proliferated beyong belief since the movable types were invented that made printing easy so books were mass produced for the common people who were learning to read and could afford low cost books. People for the first time could write something that could be published as a book for others to read so it opened the door for the flood of knowledge. It also opened the door for the critical writers who were not afraid to freely express themselves on any subject especially on religious matters that brought them to the cross hairs of the fundamentalists who opposed them. The future : Presently there is an enormous amount of knowledge available on line that anyone can access freely on any subject including proscribed subjects that irritate the religious zealots. Amazon and many other websites offer free download of millions of books on any subject that anyone can read anywhere so the era of public book burning is mostly over although some people still do it for symbolic reasons. The point is that no one can now stop anyone from reading on line because the internet is free and easily accessible in most part of the world. The wikipedia offers articles on any subject and allows you to add your own input on the subject as well. So buying expensive books is less popular now than in the past when so much information was not available. I have read hundreds of books and bought them in many countries but now you can read in Kindle or similar e book readers in color . That is how I downloaded for free Mein Kampf by Hitler that sells for 70 US dollars in stores if available. So the book burners have a harder time to supress information they do not like. In this age of internet and free downloads, book burning and intolerance to other’s point of views have lost their relevance. I think the internet and e book publishing has done the mankind a great service by making the book burning irrelevant today although the ISIS terrorists and other fundamentalists still do it to show their anger at contrary opinions on their religions because they mostly cater to the sentiments of people who do not read anything. Such people will tell you that all you need to know is written in their holy books so there is no need to learn anything different. The book stores are still in business because some people still buy books but you will also notice that they do not sell the controversial books like the Satanic verses or books like Jesus in Kashmir because it may provoke some people into doing foolish things. I only feel that the massive book burning in Germany and China or other parts that destroyed great source of knowledge forever was a great loss to the humanity because what they destroyed could not be replaced. Rare books and manuscripts, hand written books centuries old and other valuable source of knowledge was destroyed in the name of making a clean slate by cutting the link to the past which is a great tragedy. If the mankind wants to make progress , it can only do so by preserving its past and learning from it. Book burning is definitely not the way to do it.
