Forgiveness the way forward?

For once I had to pity Rahul Gandhi. For all his theatrics and stupidity, he came across today as some one who was genuinely sad. He had seen his dad blasted off at a pretty young age. And today when somebody unrelated to him decides to forgive his dad's murderers to get the votes which spills out of this, I can understand his sadness.

A Prime minister and some policemen with him were killed. The killers were given capital punishment and after the supreme court's intervention the punishment was reduced to life imprisonment and suddenly they were freed.They were forgiven. Forgiven of the murder charges. Forgiven of the death penalty. Forgiven of the reduced life imprisonment.

As one part of the world celebrated the decision, another part felt sad. Betrayed! Why forgive? they ask. They have actually murdered the prime minister of the country. Then why not forgive Kasab? and Afzal guru? Why selective forgiveness? And why forgiveness in the first place?

Alright, they were forgiven as they have spent enough time of their lives in prison. Then, how long is too long? I mean, why not forgive after 5 years and not 25 years? How many murders will be forgiven? I mean, if I kill one person and I am forgiven, what if I kill 7?

Ha! the question marks are becoming too many and too complicated for comfort.

Because it became complicated I shut my mind off and decided to listen to the heart. And the heart says forgive. Forgive 7 murders. Forgive 77 murders.Forgive after 5 years. Forgive after 15 years. If the judicial system intends to be reformative instead of being retributive, it has to forgive.

I'm not in anyway against punishment. But just saying, forgiveness has to come at some point after punishment.

I'm sorry Rahul. I can feel your pain. I know it is easier for me to say 'forgive'. But forgiveness alone promotes the humanising belief that even the offenders can be saved and not just be punished.

Of weekends and a best friend's wedding!

So what happens when one your best friend decides to get married? And it happens on a weekend with a choral performance on the morning of the weekend? Fun! is the best word i can put in here. And what fun it was!

'J' Decided to get married two months ago. No! He decided loooooong back......The bride searching went on for some time.I surely know how long it takes. Believe me, I am going through it. After the usual 'yeses' and 'Nos' he finally settled down on this girl 'P'. It took a long time coming though. And so in the last two months of his pre marital life, we had 6 treats, innumerable discussions on the wedding plans including the gifting, the travelling etc etc.

All of a sudden the day came. We friends had arranged a car to take the long 500 Km, 7-8 hour drive. 'J' as usual joined us, without informing his parents and 'P' of course. I mean, he was supposed to take a train and that is all the parents and 'P' knew. So we started around 3 PM, and had to pick up my cousin on the way. The car was packed to its brim. Indian style! When we took our first break we realized we had a punctured tyre. After all we are IT professionals; Changing tyres should not be an issue. But, IT professionals do not change tyres, do they? It was an incredibly difficult job and we had absolutely no clue how we did it. After changing tyres we realized the spare tyre also is out of air. I again don't know why we did not find that out before replacing the tyres.I told you, we are stupid. I mean, we are IT professionals after all. So, both the tyres were repaired and we reached the place were my cousin is 2 hours late. And it was already dark!

Thanks to my aunt we had some poori's for dinner, though I still doubt its veracity. Some said it was 'appalam'. I'm confused! As soon as we started 'P' called 'J'. Remember, he is in the train? So all of us had to do a train journey impersonations. 'P' believed. She is naive after all. Girls are,usually before marriage! After a good, (Ok!) decent dinner we reached home at around 1:30 AM. When i entered another cousin of mine who had come for a choir programme the next day was wide awake. So the chatting started! and the laughing! and it was 4:30 AM. Time to go to bed!. I had to get up at 7:00 AM for the choir programme and it was worth every bit of effort to get up. Listening to Handel's classics and Theodore's modern Tamil numbers were just out of  this world. At least 'Out of this world' is the phrase the choir had asked me to use here.

So, After the mandatory sunday afternoon biriyani, we were up and running again. In the mean time the car had another puncture and so another hour of running around with the tyre. We had a 2 hour drive after the tyres got repaired and were in time for the engagement ceremony. After the engagement ceremony, we realized the best friend had not booked rooms for us to stay and we have to move to your uncle's place. I understand him! He is after all my best friend. There is always the time to reciprocate:)

Then again a night of chatting and laughter in the uncle's place. Another early morning getting up after having a few hours of sleep means severe headache. But, can't rest! after all our best friend is the groom. The marriage ceremony went on really well!  It can't go wrong! We were there. And then the reception happened. Of course we had our gifts ready by then. Hell no! I can't reveal the gift here. Immediately after the gifting is done we started back. Did not even wait to eat the biriyani. Of course we had a sumptuous lunch on the way, whose bill will be as usual claimed from 'J'.

The drive again was 10 hours! The car had a sensor malfunction which made the engine switch off once it cross 80 Kms per hour. All this we bore in the name of our best friend 'J' and his wife 'P'. And we reached home at 1 AM again.

 Now we are all geared up for the first treat after he settles down. This is the wedding treat! Don't ask me what the others were.

Life those two days! It was what life was meant to be. Fun!

Is education the cure?

Two days ago I left my 'American Tourister' bag outside the huge library in Chennai and went inside for my daily ritual. When I came back my bag was missing. It was such a good bag that one of my best friend always fought for it. Somebody found it to be too interesting and decided to steal it.

Bag getting stolen? In a library? where the best brains in and around Chennai are supposed to be slogging it out in pursuit of a brighter future? My brother said, may be the security personnel or some library staff could have taken it. He is right, I told myself. The educated youth can't be stealing bags.

Is it so? The educated youth don't steal? My mind struggled with that logic. In fact the biggest thieves this country have seen have been the more educated. The doctors, the lawyers, the engineers, the business managers and of course the highly educated bureaucracy and the saintly politicians. The great American D.L Moody said this and is n't he bang on?

                         " Take a child stealing bolts and nuts in a railway track and give him education,
                            he will steal the whole railway track!"

Then from where have we got the idea that education is going to cleanse humanity? Why do we instantly think that the poor and the uneducated steal more? Why do we feel that the rapes and murders this society is becoming accustomed to happen because of the illiterate migrants?

May be we are to put our thinking caps on again! and think a way out of the mess we are in. 'Education', in its current form is not the cure.

I could hear the former BBC journalist Malcolm Muggeridge murmur,

                                                "We have educated ourselves to imbecility!"