You Can't Read These Books

Today morning while going through the newspaper The Hindu, I came across an article titles "You Can't Read This Book." Turns out that a British journalist named Nick Cohen has come out with his new book which is titled "You Can't Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom." Finding the first few lines interesting, I read further to find out that the article gives information about many books which have been banned over the period of time.

After reading the full article I was able to pinpoint only 3 reasons as to why books are banned

1. Religion
2. History
3. Truth

Religion
In any and every corner of the world you go, you'll find this 8 letter word creating controversy in some or the other form. Some author comes up with his/her opinion about some religion which does not quite fare well with a bunch of people and there you have it, a perfect recipe to prepare a well cooked controversy which will indeed be followed by a lot of fuss, media attention, riots and an eventual ban imposed on the book.
The wings of the authors imagination are clipped even before he could demonstrate how high he can fly.

History
Just one word out of the 16000 odd words (Wikipedia says that an average novel has 16000 words) is enough for your months and years of hard-work and research to be banned forever. Just because you metaphorically called a historical king or war hero a rat or maybe something similar. The author was perhaps being clever and tried to use the best metaphor possible to describe a particular quality.  But perhaps he was being "a little too clever" for a few people's liking.

Truth
I believe some of the books are banned just because the truth uncovered by the author in the book is just too hard for the people to digest. That is why we add the adjective bitter before the word truth. But we must remember that most of the medicines which are used to cure diseases also taste bitter (considerably less in todays world, thanks to artificial sweeteners).

But the questions till remains, how appropriate is it to ban such books?
In most of the cases the books are banned because a certain group of people do not want the rest of the world to read the book because the author has written something which has hurt their sentiments. So if you do not want the people to read what the author has written, then why create such a huge fuss about the book and bring it in the spot light in the first place? Not only bring the book in the spot light but also globally disclose what is it that the author has written which has hurt you sentiments. HELLO!!! Was it not the same part that you wanted the people to not know in the first place? Don't you think by doing so they end up gaining more attention and a whole lot of people coming to know about the stuff you didn't wanted them to know? So how exactly did the ban serve its purpose?


The "Censorship in an Age of Freedom" part in Nick Cohens books title does indeed make you think, "Just how free are we, in this Age of Freedom?"

I Promise ! ! !

            Two words we use so many times in our day-to-day life. In fact we have started using them so casually that they have totally lost their depth and purity. A dictionary defines a promise as “A declaration assuring that one will or will not do something; a vow.” But nowadays the definition seems to go something like this “A declaration made to get out of a sticky situation and to be later broken into pieces at your own convenience not caring about the feelings of the people to whom the declaration was made.” Nowadays promises are broken like small children breaking glass windows while playing cricket: too often and then acting innocent as if we don’t know what happened.

Here are some of the promises which people tend to break:-

   “I promise I’ll quit smoking”

   “Oops I forgot to do it. I’ll definitely do it tomorrow. Promise.”

   “I promise I’ll wake up early from tomorrow.”

   “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you, I promise.”

   “I’ll be there, promise.”

   “I’ll study sincerely from tomorrow, I promise.” (Students Favourite)

   “I’ll take you to a picnic this weekend, I promise.”

And the biggest promise which people tend to break consists of just two words and the word Promise does not even appear in its declaration. Its none other than

   “I DO.”

                Breaking of promise usually results in pain. The promise is not the only thing a person breaks when he/she fails to keep his/her word, its the trust of the person to whom the promise was made that breaks along with it. And it is this cracking and shattering of trust that hurts a lot. Hurts deeply.

                As I previously mentioned nowadays promises have been reduced to nothing but a means to get out of a sticky situation. Just say “I Promise” and get out of it. And the funny thing is that even the person to whom we promise somehow finds those 2 words very convincing as if they were some kinda legal bond/contract. A French writer Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld once said “We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.”

                But looking at the rate at which people are breaking promises, I personally am now hesitating to believe any person that says “I Promise.” People should understand that a promise is not merely a word, its a symbol of trust, a symbol of assurance, a symbol of respect and more importantly, it is a coin having its two opposite faces. If fulfilled, a promise can give immense pleasure but if broken can hurt more than walking over pieces of broken glass.

                Make promises only and only if you have the courage, strength and the will to fulfill them. Let us end this with a beautiful quote I came across

“Promises are like babies:  easy to make, hard to deliver.”  -Author Unknown

Pain : The Anti-Venom

What is the first thing doctors do when they encounter a Snake Bite (Or a Spider Bite/Insect Bite/Scorpion Sting/Jellyfish Sting etc) victim? The first thing they do is identify the snake which bit the victim and infer if the snake was a poisonous one or not. If the victim is unlucky enough to get bitten by a poisonous one, the docs bring in the stuff that fights the venom of the snake. Better known as Anti-Venom. And you’d be surprised to know what is the stuff which is used as Anti-Venom, its the venom itself. The venom is then diluted and injected into a horse, sheep, goat or cat. The subject animal will undergo an immune response to the venom, producing antibodies against the venom's active molecule which can then be harvested from the animal's blood and used to treat envenomation. It is quite possible to immunize a person directly with small and graded doses of venom rather than an animal. According to Greek history, King Mithridates did this in order to protect himself against attempts of poisoning, therefore this procedure is often called  mithridatization.

All this information about Anti-Venom because I came across an article somewhere that says can inducing more pain helps you get rid of the existing pain. Just like in case of Anti-Venom where a poison is injected to fight an already existing poison, can some new pain fight an already existing pain? Can it make a person immune to pain? The new pain may not be of the same type or  something which would aggravate the existing pain, I mean I’m not saying punching on a already bruised area will make you feel any better :-) thats never gonna happen. Also the new pain may not exactly cure your existing pain, all it can do is maybe divert your mind from it, which may be quite useful because a major portion of the pain is psychological. If induced in a controlled manner, I feel this tactic may prove to be effective against severe pain i.e Pain to Fight Pain. Hope they do some more research on this.

Genghis Khan And His Falcon

I was reading some short stories and came across this story of Mongol warrior Genghis Khan and really liked it. So would like to share it with all of you.
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One morning, the Mongol warrior, Genghis Khan, and his court went out hunting.  His companions carried bows and arrows, but Genghis Khan carried on his arm his favourite falcon, which was better and surer than any arrow, because it could fly into the skies and see everything that a human beiong could not.
However, despite the group’s enthusiastic efforts, they found nothing. Disappointed, Genghis Khan returned to the encampment and in order not to take out his frustration on his companions, he left the rest of the party and rode on alone. They had stayed in the forest for longer than expected, and Khan was desperately tired and thirsty. In the summer heat, all the streams had dried up, and he could find nothing to drink. Then, to his amazement, he saw a thread of water flowing from a rock just in front of him.
He removed the falcon from his arm, and took out the silver cup which he always carried with him. It was very slow to fill and, just as he was about to raise it to his lips, the falcon flew up, plucked the cup from his hands, and dashed it to the ground.
Genghis Khan was furious, but then the falcon was his favourite, and perhaps it, too, was thirsty. He picked up the cup, cleaned off the dirt, and filled it again. When the cup was only half-empty this time, the falcon again attacked it, spilling the water.
Genghis Khan adored his bird, but he knew that he could not, under any circumstances, allow such disrespect; someone might be watching this scene from afar and, later on, would tell his warriors that the great conqueror was incapable of taming a mere bird.
This time, he drew his sword, picked up the cup and refilled it, keeping one eye on the stream and the other on the falcon. As soon as he had enough water in the cup and was ready to drink, the falcon again took flight and flew towards him. Khan, with one thrust, pierced the bird’s breast.
The thread of water, however, had dried up; but Khan determined how to find something to drink, climbed the rock in search of the spring. To his surprise, there really was a pool of water and, in the middle of it, dead, lay one of the most poisonous snakes in the region. If he had drunk the water, he, too, would have died.
Khan returned to camp with the dead falcon in his arms. He ordered a gold figurine of the bird to be made and on one of the wings, he had engraved:

“Even when a friend does something you do not like, he continues to be your friend.”

And on the other wing, he had these words engraved:

“Any action committed in anger is an action doomed to failure.”

How was it? Do leave comments your......

Root Cause

Yay!!!!! The Americans did it again!!!! The US Navy Seals boldly conducted a 40 min operation and managed to make this world a safer (by a miniscule quantity) place. They not only conducted the operation on foreign land but also managed to carry it out with minimum fuss.
      The scenes that followed were very touching. Citizens of US gathered on the streets near the White House and the "Ground Zero", all of them chanting "USA, USA." Very happy and enthusiastic indeed.
     But the thought that crossed my mind after watching this was a little different. The question which flashed in my mind was "How many days will this enthusiasm last?"
     We humans just need a reason to unleash that force inside us from time to time. Now recently we had this whole nation wide revolt against the Lokpal bill with people from across the nation coming together to show their support to Anna Hazare. People showed a lot of eagerness and enthusiasm in supporting such noble cause. They participate for a day or two and then get back to their regular life.
     But the question which I want to ask is "After getting back to their normal, how many of those people will resist giving bribes?" If a certain officer asks for bribe to complete their work, will they comply? Or wont they?
    The question in not only about this particular incidence. These things happen all the time, some or the other person ignites a spark and just when you start to think that this spark will give rise to a revolutionary fire, it sadly dies out.
     The Root Cause of all problems in the society are the people living in it. Our enthusiasm and dedication towards such problems is too short lived to bring about any kind of change.

Some Other Beneficiaries of the WC

     The previous 2 months saw one of the biggest sporting events unfold in the history of Indian Cricket. THE ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP 2011. Yes!!! We did it !!!! India won the World Cup after a period 28 years. And thus started the showers of prizes and awards. The ICC and various state governments announcing enormous cash prizes and other awards to various players. The players hugely (and make no mistake, they deserved it) benefited from this gesture. It was not only the players but it was the whole nation who was benefited from the WC. The audience was treated to some fantastic cricket.
But the list of beneficiaries does not stop here. Oh no it doesn't !
      Yesterday i visited a place (public place) and it was for nearly the fifth time i wondered "Hey, these folks didn't have a TV set, right?" And I was right all the 5 times. The TV set was specially installed in the month of February esp for one thing and one thing only: The World Cup. You have TV sets being installed everywhere, hotels, gyms, shops, everywhere.
     This made me wonder and I decided to run a search on our beloved search engine Google and the results were surprising. The sales of TV sets in India shot up by as much as 50% during the World Cup period.
     Now that made me think, if there is a new TV there has to be a new cable/DTH connection. So I went back to our beloved search engine and ran a search about the number of DTH subscribers during the WC period and no surprise this time, The number of DTH subscribers also shot up by 30% .
     So it was not only the players and the audience (not to mention ESPN STAR) that benefited due to this sporting extravaganza, but the list of  beneficiaries goes way beyond including the TV and DTH companies.

Dig Deep

     Depth.... It has a deep meaning. Depth is very important in ones life. Depth can be associated with many things in our life. And it is this depth that decides your personality.
     Depth of  knowledge for instance. I know people always say that knowledge, no matter how small or about any topic, never goes waste. But having an in-depth knowledge about anything adds a new dimension to your knowledge. Depth of knowledge gives you confidence
      Then there is the Depth in Feelings. Superficial feelings for someone/something are never genuine and never last. Feelings that come from within, from the depth of ones heart are that ones that make a difference. Depth of Feelings makes you human and makes your life worth living.
     Then comes the depth which i believe is one of the most important: Depth of Thoughts. The ability to think beyond. This depth is clearly reflected in everything a person does, from his conversation to his behavior and that is why I believe is the most important of all. It is this depth of thoughts or thinking that separates the wise from the rest. Also, unlike the previous two depths, this one is very difficult (almost impossible) to develop/learn.
     DEPTH, its just a 5 letter word but has a deep meaning to it......