Deny To Affirm

A recent re-watch of the 2006 movie “Stranger Than Fiction” was, well – a strange experience. The movie is self-referential and high on literary criticism - yet very engaging. The premise of the story is that Harold, a taxman suddenly starts to hear a voice-over reciting his life. And as it turns out, the narrator is a fiction author with writer’s block who nonetheless is famous for killing the main character in her books. Harold figures it all out along the way and meets the author in order to stop his “imminent death”. By the third act of the movie the author has finally devised a method of knocking off Harold – albeit with a “poetic” & “meaningful” death. After reading the draft - where Harold runs in front of a bus to save a young boy - Harold reconciles with his own death and accepts what is coming.

As I saw the movie, the constant thought I had in my mind was that this was a familiar tale - a man communicating with an omnipotent voice that finally convinced him to willingly accepting his own death for the “greater good”. In fact it is the most widely told tale in human history – the story of last days of Jesus. The part that conforms to this movie is of course that of Jesus’s dialogue with God, specifically - The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The theology of the conversation is the content of all Good Friday sermons. But at its crux is the acceptance by Jesus that his death was necessary for a higher purpose.

A graceful last act is not always afforded to people. Imagine other living things at the end of their lives and how they die. D H Lawrence in his poem “Self-Pity” once wrote –

I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

An alternate form of life (a more natural form of life perhaps!) is proposed here – not only unfettered by the wallow of self-pity, but also unbound by the sentimentality in getting to the very end of life. A lack of awareness of one’s mortality, as is the case for non-humans, may help here. People on the other hand are hyper-aware of their mortality. A large number of life choices are made with that knowledge. People do altruistic acts to make the pain of leaving the stage more bearable, maybe in the belief that they can rest in the knowledge that they played their “part”. Public service and any other forms of “helping out” maybe means of finding closure and meaning. In a sense people may not mind abiding by the maxim - “What would Jesus do?” when it comes to dying. Since what the Bible says Jesus did at the end is – accept the hand dealt and died in the service of mankind.

Another famous incident on the topic of altruistic suicide is that of British Captain Lawrence Oates during an unsuccessful expedition to the South Pole in 1912. Story goes that a gravely sick Captain Oates willfully walked out of the tent into a blizzard and to certain death in order for his team to have a better chance of survival – given their dwindling rations and them having to care for him. His understated famous last words were – “I am going out and may be some time”. To qualify it as simply courageous – seems to be doing a disservice to the act. The difference between the choice that Harold or Jesus faced and that Captain Oates made is that in the case of the Captain we do not have a record of the inner reasoning that went into such a momentous decision. 

 In December 2014, news carried the story of a Chinese woman Qiu Yuanyuan - who died by opting out of chemotherapy for treating her cancer in order to give her unborn child a chance to survive. Admittedly there is an element of vicarious living here for the cynical minded. But it is also true that this form of altruistic suicide is the most commonplace and relatable of all the other instances cited above. The notion of “greater good” that is normally seen as a valid justification is modified here into the hopes and possibilities that a child brings. Therefore in this act of denial of life, there is also affirmation of life.

Tributes to Qiu Yuanyuan

Links:
"Pregnant Chinese woman with cancer dies after refusing chemo to save son" - The Hindustan Times
"Antarctic mission: Who was Captain Lawrence Oates?" - BBC News 

But it is only Rs.100!

Selling insurance is a strange proposition. In a month, I have sold around 600 accident insurance policies. I have a standard pitch that rolls out like a tape. And then there is a more persuasive/ aggressive pitch. If the prospective customer is still not convinced, then I usually say something like "...if Rs.100 is too high for annual accident insurance cover for you, then put your faith in God!"

 Like everyday, I had yet another customer walk-in asking about the 'four lakh insurance'. Once the customer is willing, its a short routine for me. I make a mental calculation of their age, since the policy only applies to people between the ages of 18 and 65 years. Then I am required to ask the line of work the client is engaged in, since police and armed forces are excluded.

So once again I do my usual assessing and ask this particular forty-something thin bearded individual the same "what do you do?" question.

He replies "I am a pastor."

I start to smirk and asked where his church was. He answered.

In about five minutes he was insured against accidental death, permanent total disablement and permanent partial disablement and temporary total disablement. I handed his policy to him.

Before he got up to leave, I couldn't help myself so I told him that I sometimes promote this insurance policy by comparing it favorably against faith in God and that in his case I couldn't do that.

In an unflustered manner, he said "But it is only Rs.100!"

I quickly added "..and it has been extremely popular with the customers..."

Link:
http://www.sbigeneral.in

Trust, But Verify

Business transactions take place because the parties involved agree to act in good faith. This is an essential requirement for trade just as it is for most other human interactions. Placing faith in another is an endeavour that is fraught with perils. But that is the price of trust.

To emphasis India's approach policy toward Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh often repeats former US President Ronald Reagan's Soviet-directed phrase - "Trust, but verify" . The phrase actually brings out the inherent vulnerability in the whole exercise of engaging 'the other'. The insurance industry actually factors this feeling of 'being taken for a ride' in calculating the Moral Hazard in a transaction.

This jeweller's ad on the back of a bus picks up on this notion of trust. It reads -
                   
                                 "Our Gold is as Pure as your Trust".

Thus placing the onus of the quality of their product on the customer's belief. The statement works just as well when the word 'Gold' is replaced by 'God'. All the religions willfully put their followers in that position of having to conduct their own self-appraisals in order to enjoy the benefits of their faith. Here, suspension of disbelief has to always occur first at the individual level.

The larger irony in the advertisement's message though is that while the benchmarking of gold itself as a metal of value to humans is an exercise in trust, still within that taken-for-granted trust - doubt persists on the details. And hence the phrase "Trust, but verify".

Threat Perception

Today, on the roads I came across this evangelist's vehicle with a "for any prayer request" call sticker on its rear window. It also featured the following eerie verse from the bible (in upper case,bold and underlined in red!) :

"PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD"

With this disconcerting message stickered on the burly vehicle, it sort of felt like a direct threat to the safety and well being of fellow motorists and pedestrians who were to get in its way. And in the context, the prayer call request made more sense as one final opportunity to beg for mercy!

Thankfully I kept my distance and we parted ways without incident. Praise the Lord.

"Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. "
-Amos 4:12, Bible

Road Movie Links:
Duel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel_%281971_film%29
Death Proof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Proof
Joy Ride: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Ride_%282001_film%29

Persian Version of Sexism

The Hindu's editorial section today deals with the issue of Capital Punishment, especially the extreme version followed in the Persian Gulf. Although the writer is clearly of the abolitionist persuasion, a secondary contention raised in the piece has to do with the lack of equal opportunities among the sexes at the most critical juncture in a convict's life.

The heady mix of dogma, intolerance, parochialism and random silliness can lead to the law in places such as Iran allowing the following:


"..male victims of stoning are buried only up to the waist and if they can pull themselves clear are allowed to go free; women are buried up to the neck lest their breasts be exposed, and almost certainly cannot escape"


Link:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article568673.ece
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/wear/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_8911000/8911844.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/14/iran-must-stop-executing-people

Christianity: Indian?

In the show "Goodness Gracious Me", this British Indian immigrant guy is basically convinced that everything around the world is Indian. Well, Isn't it?

Fear and Loathing in Hyderabad

My day yesterday was spent racing through some of the newly expanded riot-hit areas of Hyderabad. All very exhilarating but also extremely annoying at the same time. Communal rioting has returned as the current flavor of the city and all the regionalists of yore seem to have missed the latest bus of political hooliganism. Politics just as fashion, is fickle.

The social engineering required to generate and sustain mobs is an art that cannot be taught. In these scenarios the street coordinators and leaders show great creativity, adaptability and fortitude. But for such mob-making, a cause is necessary. In India there exists a sometime latent, sometime blatant communal antipathy where the biggest reason for the existence of peace is not common understanding but pathetically, plain survival. In such a context, the instigators are squarely labeled as the villains of the piece every time there is a break down in this delicate peace.

Here I propose an alternative. I say that the villains of the story are in fact each and every person who holds dear thoughts that allow that person to be instigated. Therefore if you hold views that are derisive, condescending, hateful/fearful, discriminatory or bigotry then you are part of the problem. This holds even in the case of such privately held opinions - despite the fact that you may be a fair individual, yet you set yourself up to be a candidate with that 'potential'.

The conspiracy regarding who benefited and who instigated are matters that pale in comparison to the kind of long-term antipathy that these incidents create. People's experiences shape their outlook. So when someone goes through a full blown riot, a glimpse of the barbaric and animal nature of man is observed. This generally brings about a de-evolution of behavior on part of the victim too, who waits then for his turn to play his hand. Thus the language of violence is what perpetuates the relation.

In all this, being secular is no help either - candle light vigils cannot extinguish hatred. Instead, providing for a designated field of battle might actually get better results than wishing the issue away from the confines of a sterilized quarantine that is secularism. The cold nature of secularism, where the religious identity held by the people is brushed under the carpet, is in fact a major cause for conflict. The Indian version of secularism is on the one hand embarrassed by its religious subjects but is proud of the diversity of this embarrassment.

Links:
http://www.thehindu.com/2010/03/31/stories/2010033161350100.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%282004_film%29
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/us/25mobs.html?scp=1&sq=flash%20mob&st=cse

Essential Delusions

Imagining forward and projecting into the future is a difficult thing to do. Only the very brave or the very reckless venture to spell out what is not yet there. Having a vision therefore is a motivational strategy to coax others into acting, sometimes even against their better judgment or will. Selling these delusional visions hence becomes very important. There are various methods of selling these delusions, indeed there are many different delusions to be sold:

The Personal Variety:
A more confident, rich, popular or better looking future-you. This is the generic illusion through which the individual should end up buying the products and services advertised. Thus a brighter future for you is what the manufacturers predict (only if their production-line goods are bought). Hence even the most disturbing insurance products try to tempt you into cheerfully betting on your untimely death in order to experience a windfall gain - here your future is great even without your presence in it!

The People Variety:
The populace is made to believe that they will collectively be transported to the "promised land". This is the domain of the government, politicians and leaders. In this future everything surrounding the individual is better. There will be freedom from want and there will be nothing to fear. The developments of science & technology are shown as signs of things to come. We are left to extrapolate the progress graph of civilization to see what the future holds. Glories of the past are reaffirmed and emulation is seen as possible.

The Other Worldly Variety:
The future here is seen from some transcendent place. This is the bastion of non-rationality. The concern for the future is replaced by a concern for something beyond (or beneath) normal explanations. The delusion sold here is that the destination to be arrived at in the future is already known. The organized religions are the main peddlers of this fantasy and their tools vary from inspiration to fear mongering.

A combination of these and other delusions are the essential fuels to the keep the engine of human endeavor running. Ultimately though it has to be recognized that the buyers and the sellers in these transactions are inevitably the same.

Being Certain

Buying insurance for my bike is a question hanging over my head for a few months now. The old policy expired around march and for various reasons I have not bought a new policy. Factoring in a 10% depreciation over the last years value owing to wear and tear, the annual premium would come to around Rs. 1100. More than the amount, I have not been able to convince myself of its need. Ofcourse if I get caught on the roads on that bike, I will be fined for not currently being covered.

Insurance is a science with its origins in human psychology, it is a materialistic method of dealing with uncertainty as opposed to the spiritual method - religion. In this regard insurance today is a powerful force leading people away from simply having "faith". Instead of ignoring its corrosive effect on religion like most other religions do, Islam is one faith that deals with this threat to belief with tact. Therefore Sharia law permits "Takaful" as form of basic insurance. This provision is useful in circumventing the contradiction between a benevolent God's omnipotence and human effort to mitigate perceived uncertainties. Yet the primary form of insurance that Islam prescribes is the goodwill of fellow believers.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" - Hebrews 11:1, The Bible


Insurance is an area where psychology, statistics, marketing, finance and economics converge, perhaps even a bit of metaphysics. But the pessimistic, morbid and cold approach insurance adopts towards its subjects is what puts off most people from trying to understand its need. The statistics behind life insurance is the use of actuarial tables which ascertain the probability of the subject's demise before his next birthday, hardly a cause for cheer. Therefore according to the World Health Organisation's actuarial tables for 2006 in India for a 24 year old male, there is a 1.3% chance that I would not make it to the age of 29 (assuming average health).

Coming back to my bike, my reasons for not buying insurance are more mundane. Firstly, the risk of theft. For this threat, I have a simple safeguard mechanism - my dog. Blacky guards and sometimes even chews on parts of the bike as it would a toy and hence I am assured of the bike's safety. Next, damages - with the kind of policies that are on offer for motorcycles, it is practically impossible to get insurance to pay for damages to the vehicle. It becomes too tedious and the amount paid up is paltry. Third party coverage - with the decreased use and shorter trips that I take these days on the bike, third party involvement is a remote possibility. Hence the only good reason for me to get auto insurance is that the law requires me to do so if I plan to use public roads.

More reading:
1. http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/MotorVehiclesAct/S146.htm
2. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Excerpt_from_CDC_2003_Table_1.png
3. http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l264-Third-Party-Insurance.html
4. http://www.slowpokecomics.com/strips/insuranceinsurance.html

Ramayana and The Searchers

It is interesting to juxtapose stories from different cultures and times to observe the varying conclusions drawn from very similar circumstances. These conclusions serve as a mirror of the values held dear by the different cultures and help us understand how we view the same world from different places. Here is an exercise in this endeavor.

Ramayana
The ancient Indian epic by Valmiki is centered around the abduction of Rama's wife Sita by Ravana of Lanka. The word "Ramayana" mean Rama's Journey. It narrates the tale of Rama's search for his wife. In this search Rama is aided by his brother Lakshmana and disciple Hanuman. The posse set out to ascertain the abductor's identity and then make the journey to Lanka to confront and defeat Ravana. On rescuing Sita, Rama asks his wife to prove her chastity after which he accepts her.

The Searchers
The Searchers is a 1956 western movie starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford. The story is about Ethan Edwards whose young niece Debbie is abducted in a Comanche raid by Scar. Ethan then wanders the American West along with his kin Martin Pawley for years to find Debbie . On finding her, they kill Scar and after initially trying to kill the now Comanche-raised Debbie, Ethan has a change of heart and accepts her.

Commonalities
The common threads running through them are of violation, abduction, retribution and redemption. The stories are primarily told through the eyes of the wronged man and not the woman who was the target of the act. Both Ravana and Scar are seen as savages, one as a demon king of Lanka and other a wild Native-American Comanche chief. The abductor in both stories have a back story which explains their actions and project them in a new light of moral ambiguity. In a more primal sense, they depict an innate fear of dispossession. Finally towards the end, the main characters of Rama and Ethan are shown up to be less than impeccable and fighting demons of their own.

Contrasts
Given the similar situations encountered, the tales do diverge in many aspects. Sita never accepts her fate and believes that her husband will come to her rescue while Debbie is forced to live her new life as one of Scar's wives. Rama is portrayed as someone who can do no wrong yet on succeeding in his quest he doubts his wife. Rama's behavior though is regarded as somewhat understandable by both the characters in the story and the audience at large. Whereas in The Searchers, Ethan is an outlaw and the motives of Ethan's search turn from finding his niece to killing her within a few years with the realization that she must have turned more Comanche and less "civilized". His fellow searcher, Martin does not approve of Ethan's intentions and this disapproval is reflected by the audience. Therefore we see Ethan as a character more true to his beliefs irrespective of others' approval as opposed to Rama.

Another point of contrast is the climactic transformation. Rama has historically been seen as an avataar of God, hence all character flaws have been brushed aside. Throughout Ramayana, even when asking Sita to prove her chastity Rama does not doubt his own actions. Whereas Ethan with his sure intention of killing, when finally facing his now Comanche niece has a change of heart. Ethan goes from a man who is sure of his action to a man doing the right thing - an antithesis of Rama's Dharma.

Interesting Readings:

1. Review of The Searchers : http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011125/REVIEWS08/111250301/1023
2. Read the Plot of The Searchers here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Searchers_%28film%29
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana
5. "Epic Proportions" by Ethan Gidsdorf : Contemporary themes and interpretations of Epics

Is More Less?

Birth Control is a touchy subject around the world, but not so much in India. Although public discussion is absent but there is no real opposition to it either. If we were to take up the argument of population as a bane, then contraception would be an effective arsenal at our disposal. Especially considering the more disturbing alternative to get the same result: Abortion.

But if we look at population as an asset regardless of the economic and social implications then the morality of population control comes apart. The Roman Catholic faith is a vocal proponent of this opinion and their justifications are derived from the scriptures, although other Christian sects might not agree. Islam too is a not very keen on the idea of contraception and this is plain to see through the prevalent fertility rate in most Islamic communities. But Hinduism is a major religion which does not prescribe to any particular view on the subject. The lack of a moral compass from the Hindu faith on the subject has driven India's policy on population control into the hands of economists and scientists.

Therefore from the time of abortion being made legal in 1971 in India it took just a few years for the unpopular sterilization program under the Government's Family Planning initiative to get operationalized. Although the actual program was shelved due to its implementation, but the idea that population is India's burden has persisted. Today birth control is a common practice, couples are encouraged to use contraceptives, some local body elections do not allow candidates with too many children. The popularity of contragestion apart from contraception is a testimony to growing perception that population control is necessary.

The one-child policy adopted by China as a method of policy implementation is debated widely. But successive governments in India have tried to achieve similar results without creating a law. Therefore the mission of birth control was sought to be achieved through engineering consent among the public. Hence a generation was taught that excess population is a liability. And this effort has worked, although not to the levels of the Chinese extremes but to the extend that was possible without twisting arms.

Today there is practically no debate on birth control, none of the manifestos in the recent election had anything of note in this direction. The deficit of voices on this crucial issue is a matter of grave concern since birth control defines the structure of future societies and it has the power to fundamentally alter the institution of family.

A great telugu poet Gurazada Apparao once said : "Desamante matti kaadoyi, desamante manushuloyi" meaning, A country is not made of land; a country is made of its people.

But the LORD ponders the hearts

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD ponders the hearts. - Proverbs 21:2

How does one justify dishonesty? By being dishonest to the self too, perhaps. Our actions and words may not always coincide with our intentions. But to live with that disappointment, one has to start down the difficult road of forgiving oneself. And forgiving self is nothing like absolving others, it means that one has to understand one's limitations, vacate long held dreams and ambitions and wake up to bitter reality - an end of innocence. This is such a trial-by-fire process that many times we choose not to accept reality so as to avoid the pain, by refusing to recognize the shattering of a dream. And to this end a logic builds in us justifying our actions or inactions. By avoiding the truth we give ourselves reprieves for the transgressions committed against the self since no law holds in such a domain.

If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows - Paul Eldridge

Doing the right thing is a tough decision to make. It is hard not only because of its consequences but more because the right choice is so difficult to identify. Indeed, it is almost impossible to define this notion of "right", but even with the assumption that it is defined and known, with all the inherent limitations that we are bestowed with, it would become crippling if every decision had to be weighed to the extent that it is determined to be infact "right". Yet it is the responsibility of everyman to own up to the decisions made, imperfect as they may be and understanding that there are consequences to actions and learn to understand and forgive oneself for not being right.