Too Young For Nuptial Tie

Will Child Marriage be Again in Vogue? 

There is no difference in many advance and backward countries of the world so far as the law related to marriage and divorce is concerned. Just like every state in US can make its own law to decide the age of marriage, In India every religion is entitled to adhere to Personal Law.

The Personal Law deals with marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance and adoption laws. Despite repeated commands by the Supreme Court the Government in power is avoiding Uniform Civil Code. The main reason is minority status of all other religions in India except Hindu. Minority constitutes a vote bank to whom no political party in power wants to displease.

The Gujarat High Court has decided that a Muslim girl can marry when she attains puberty or 15 years of age.

Almost every girl attains puberty when she is still legally minor. How a Muslim minor girl deservs to be married when girls of other religions are restricted?

According to a Report “The onset of puberty varies among individuals. Puberty usually occurs in girls between the ages of 10 and 14, while in boys it generally occurs later, between the ages of 12 and 16. In some African-American girls, puberty begin earlier, at about age 9, meaning that puberty occurs from ages 9 to 14."

"Adolescent girls reach puberty today at earlier ages than were ever recorded previously. Nutritional and other environmental influences may be responsible for this change. For example, the average age of the onset of menstrual periods in girls was 15 in 1900. By the 1990s, this average had dropped to 12 and a half years of age.”

On one hand the age of attaining puberty has declined and on the other hand, there is a sharp rise in the cases of child abuse. In US 3 million cases of child abuse are reported every year out of which 49% or physical or sexual abuse. In India 53% of children face one or more forms of sexual abuse. If we include unreported cases the number is unbelievably high.

You may ask in what kind of society we are living? In India child marriage, which once was very common is now seen as a social stigma. There is a law prohibiting child marriage.

The prevalent practice is that after marriage the bride was not sent with the bridegroom and lived with her parents till she attained puberty and was emotionally mature to adjust to new life. The actual departure of the bride took place after a small ceremony of Gauna associated with the consummation of marriage.

This system remained in vogue for many centuries. It had certain logical advantages

1. Economy -  The women were assets in most of agrarian communities. They were generally more laborious and methodical than their male counterparts. Girls were best in taking care of cattle and milking animals. Cows and goats had more productivity when tended by girls.

The parents of the girl tried to postpone Gauna, even after she attained puberty. Though they kept a close watch on her activities and when they found her taking an interest in the boys of her age or eager to meet her bridegroom on one pretext or another, they thought it was high time she may be delivered to her rightful owner.

A lively story Empty Cocoon explains issues related to marriage and sex in rural India.

2. Auspicious Day - The ceremony of marriage has to take place on auspicious days. The astrologers and fortune tellers used to charge money for deciding the day. The Akha Teej is one such day when marriage can be performed even without consulting a priest or astrologer.

3. Advantages of Bulk Marriages - The marriages occurred in bulk on such days. Often all brothers and sisters of one family got married on the same date. It saved a lot of money. A huge feast to all the members of the community was most expensive affair in a marriage. That feast had to be given only once if all children were married on the same day.

4. Family Bondage - A marriage was seen as bonding between two families. In ancient time wedding in royal families was solemnised for strengthening the kingdom. By early marriage the clan was expanded to take care of any kind of emergencies in both the families.

5. Advance Booking - Now a days, in case of arranged marriage, it has become a Herculean task for the parents to search a suitable boy/girl. Most of the suitable bachelors are thronged and have a variety of options to  choose from depending on their taste and temperament.

The basic choice is between money and beauty as envisaged by Daniel Defoe in Moll Flanders. Moll says “ I have the money and I want the beauty, but as Times go now, the first will do without the last.”

Child marriage was used as an instrument to curb the desire of child abuse and sustain a sane society. In The Old Man and The Nymph a young girl who is a divine spirit brings a new ray of hope in the life of worn out old man. Such symbiotic relationships are exceptions, and society silently approves such discrepancies in which male is major beneficiary.

Child marriage is circumvent way of committing child abuse.

Poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, competition, consumerism and insecurity are some of the reasons of manic depression in youth of the world. The manic depressive youth finds an outlet in the child abuse. The elimination of  socio-economic causes is no more in the hands of society.

A male chauvinist may opine that any girl out of cradle is old enough to get married. The age difference between spouse is important biological and social issue. Is mature older husband more suitable for innocent, emotional girl? Please give your opinion about "ideal age difference" to expand the article.

Other related post

Marital Rape

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India 

Selfie and Good Manners ~ Learn from Kate Nash

Good Manners are important or not?

The views of song writer Kate Nash about Selfie has ensued a fresh debate about good manners versus modern manners.

 There are already well defined set of manners for all occasions. We are taught Table manners, bathroom manners and Bed Room manners. There are well defined manners for host and guest, children and elders, for male and females for every activity under the sky.

When net became popular netiquette were formed, when Social media became popular more rules and Do's and Don’ts were imposed upon users not only by society but by websites also. Many accounts were deleted on account of violation of terms and condition, by many social media websites. All those manners were later enacted by society so that violators can be prosecuted. It is called the Information Technology Act 2006, in India.

Other manners were codified but not enacted, since they were not dangerous to society. If you do not say Good Morning to your teachers or parents, they could mind it and may rebuke you, but they can’t compel you to do so by law. If a soldier or constable does not salute to his superior officer, disciplinary action would be taken against him.

When any activity becomes popular and it has some dangerous side effects than people show their concern and a caution is issued. This is what happened when Kate Nash condemned the selfie taken at memorial service of Nelson Mandela.

Selfie is now an obsession. There is nothing wrong with it. A fine way to show self dependence. But something wrong has also happened. Some people have died while taking a selfie. They were drowned in a lake or sea, crushed by passing vehicle or fell down from the roof. Some young teenage girls were blackmailed by ex boyfriends for private clicks. Society needs security. They want to find out a way to stop the misuse of selfie. Many countries have imposed the ban on use of selfie stick. It is a metal rod which can take selfie from forty inch distance. Mumbai Police does not find it appropriate that unmarried men and women should take selfie. They think that their closeness to "fit in" the picture is immoral.Belfie or bottom selfie has been banned by many social media websites. Instagram has banned women buttock selfie or belfie causing some uproar in feminist. What would be next, is anybody's guess.

The celebs have played a great role in promoting the craze of selfie. Prince Charles did it with 12 years old school girl and seasoned politician like Barak and Modi also do it frequently.

Selfie is Narcissistic phenomenon. It shows extreme selfishness and self centeredness of society. There is no doubt in last few years we have become that.

W.B.Yeats in his poem “The Second Coming” says

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

T.S.Eliot in his long poem The wasteland has depicted a vast panorama of futility and anarchy, for which Yeats says “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold”. The present age of emotional sterility, void due to lack of purpose and fear due to advancement in technology is shaping our future. The Third Wave or The Second Coming is expected.

Dangerous Selfies are killing people every day. In the picture below all of them died because one lost his balance while getting up and pulled others. Sa

In another similar incident at Murud Beach 14 students drowned when a big wave carried them away while taking Selfie.

 Why Good Manners? Does manners makes a man ? Or man makes manners?. We created God who created us. How simple? Egg or Hen?

OK, take selfie, but be little less selfish. Think of less privileged from you and don’t take selfie with them, if really you don't have any compassion for them.

© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

High Profile Crime and Punishment

High Profile Murder Cases Mystery

 Property is Murder~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

According to an old Indian proverb there are three root causes of all crimes viz. Money (Jar), Woman (Joru) and Jameen (Property).

Dostoevsky encapsulate all the three into one-property. Money is a kind of property, and in patriarchal society women were also property.

Excessive wealth, money or property and beautiful wife or wives, concubine, mistresses or affairs lead to crime. Otherwise also first is a prerequisite for second vice.

You cannot be rich without being criminal.

It is a bitter truth. Violation of law, tax evasion, blackmailing, enticing a rich partner for marriage, forgery, conning, hiding a fact and playing immoral tricks with competitors are the games people play to be successful.

Unfortunately in this world success has become the only criterion of right or wrong. Worldly achievements are the yardstick of success.

We have witnessed many high profile murder cases in the past. Tandoor Murder case, when a husband killed his wife and roasted her in tandoor. Jessica Lall a high profile bartender girl refused to serve wine after closing hours and was shot dead, Arushi Murder Case when a Doctor couple caught their minor daughter  in an awkward position with home servant and killed both of them Sunanda Shashi Tharoor, who was found dead in her hotel room in mysterious circumstances and Bhanwari Devi Murder case in which Bhanwari a medical nurse was murdered and two suspects one of whom was powerful Minister are still behind the bars. 

Pramod Mahajan a BJP leader and fundraiser for the party was shot dead by his own brother Parvin Mahajan. Parvin Mahajan was a stooge who also died in dubious circumstances when he was on parole. Bibek Maitra who was secretary to Pramod Mahajan was killed by overdose of drugs in the bungalow owned by Pramod Mahajan. Pramod Mahajan was charged by an IPS officer's wife for killing Shivani Bhatnagar, the Indian Express journalist. Rahul Mahajan, son of Pramod Mahajan is prankster, divorced his first wife and selected second wife through a reality show.

The family saga can put any crime thriller, suspense, treachery, lewd story writer to shame.

The list is long, cases continue in the court for many years till long channel of Judicial system is exhausted by top lawyers hired by high profiles and the whole purpose of justice is defeated.

Common man already knows, what would be the end of it. He reads the news as he reads some crime and thriller magazine  story without correlating himself with the incident.

The poor and middle class crime riddles are solved easily. First, they do not have enough money to hire top advocates, and second, Police does not hesitate in using third degree method to extort the truth from them.

If you have enough money to spend on Police and Judicial System, and have no political enemy, chances are that you would not remain behind the bar for a single night  even if you have committed some heinous crime. Even by chance, if your custody is granted to the police, you can manage five star hotel treatment in Jail.

William Congreve in his book “Way of the World” has shown many hidden faces of elite society. Multiple marriages, illicit affairs, forged documentation are also part of the game the goal of which is to acquire property. Love without money is an empty dream. Money may ultimately corrupt even the pure love.

Shobha De an Indian author had been writing novels and stories about socialites and their private life.

After the success of  soap opera “Missing” a similar TV serial “Trisha” was produced in India last year. It was a high profile drama of young girl Trisha who was kidnapped by her own uncle for property disputes followed by the murder of Trisha's father.

Indrani and Sheena

Two years back a young high profile girl Sheena 24, was found missing from a suburb of Mumbai. Now her mother, Indrani Mukherjee ex-cine star has been arrested for alleged conspiracy of her daughter’s murder. Indrani's  husband Peter Mukherjee, who is Ex-CEO of Star India TV channel has expressed ignorance over the fact that his wife was already married twice before she married him. Indrani introduced Sheena as siblings to her present husband. Peter had two sons from his ex-wife. One of them Rahul is said to have incestuous relation with her step sister Sheena. Are you intrigued? Wait, more facts are yet to be revealed.

1 September 2015

Some shocking facts have come to light: Indrani was sexually molested by her own father when young and Sheena may possibly have born out of  a physical relationship between Indrani and her father Upendra Kumar Bora. 

Indrani herself is not biological daughter of Upendra Kumar Bohra. 

Sheena Bora was pregnant at the time of her murder.May be by her own step-brother? 

One more in the series is murder of Hema and her lawyer. Hema is an artist and her husband is prime accused in the case. This case would meet the same fate as that of all other high profile crime cases.

The old man and the Nymph published in 2014 had exposed almost similar life style and it was severely criticised by puritanical reviewers. I wish they read it again in the light of these cases. 

It’s no wonder Truth is stranger than fiction.~ Mark Twain

© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

Mumbai Lovebirds will be extinct

Do You Hate Lovebirds?

Thanks to Mumbai Police soon the race of Mumbai Love Birds is going to be extinct.

Forty couples were caught by Mumbai Police from the hotel rooms in Madh Island Mumbai in a raid (storypick.com)

What a great news? Are we not satisfied with our limit of stupidity? Or we want to touch a new horizon?

Is hotel room, a public place? A public space is a social space that is generally open and accessible to people. Roads, public squares, parks and beaches are typically considered public space. (Wikipedia)

How there can be any public indecency when the place is not a public place.

According to Supreme Court of India consensual heterosexual relationship between two adults, including pre-marital sex is no offense.

They have just ruined forty beautiful lives. The perpetrator are not the couples, but the system which compels them for hideouts. Just imagine the trauma the parents, friends and relatives of those caught by police are suffering from. Someone is contemplating a suicide and others have eloped from social life to save their face.

The terrorist could give statement that they enjoy killing laughingly making mockery of the whole law and order system of a country, but Indian Youth cannot have conjugal pleasures in their privacy.

In every society there are always people who are averse to giving any liberties to youth. Most of them are those who themselves suffered from some trauma in childhood, which conditioned their mind to be vengeful for pleasure- seekers. Mahatma Gandhi has also confessed it in his autobiography.

The love birds are not harmful to society. Mumbai is so much crowded that couples don't have privacy in their own home.

The incident of Kozhikode stirred a movement in Indian Youth and Indian youth demanded their right to Public Display of Affection. That was an issue ! How much intimacy shall be permitted in public places. Even at that time my post Kiss of Love supported the rights of Indian Youth.

India has the largest habitation of prostitutes in Sonagachi. Mumbai is not far behind. If you consider all illegal activities like drug trafficking, flash trade and weapon smuggling it is the capital of India.

And we are hunting for love-makers and not hate-makers?

India has a rich cultural heritage. We have Khajuraho to explain what is acceptable by society and what is not. Almost all laws of the land are enacted keeping in mind the inheritance which is called precedents in law. That is why Hon'ble Supreme Court passed its verdict in support of consensual heterosexual relationship.

Just like the decision to ban porn sites was taken back by Government very next day, how wonderful it would be if all criminal charges against these lovebirds are lifted and someone somewhere whosoever is responsible apologize.

In "A Love Affair" Emile Zola has beautifully described how lovers find a rendezvous to consume the passions.

In Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci), the rented apartment becomes their secret meeting place.

In "Contempt" by Alberto Moravia the philosophical explanation of such relationships is found.

Moravia's novel is the quintessential example of "modernism," the movement that emphasizes the human limitation for self-understanding and the understanding of others.

The incident should ensue a sociological debate. If society is heading for Modernism, does it only want to reap the benefits of Technological advancement or is it prepared to have a broader outlook on all other related issues.

© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

Enjoy Your Superstition

                          Ten Tips to enjoy your superstition

Charles Dickens believed that if the gift of a knife is not reciprocated by some return gift the relation between giver and receiver is terminated. So when he received a set of cutlery as gift from famous company, he sent him back his own publisher's first copy of David Copperfield. (Telegraph)

Man has always been intrigued by supernatural in one form or another. Initially, it was magic and later when civilized it was religion. The underlying idea is same "that by creating the illusion that you control reality you can actually control it". Second, man’s eternal quest to understand and control the nature played important role in inception of magic and thus religion. 

Man as Homo sapiens is evolved form of the Apes and so did his mimetic art . All music, all dance forms and all paintings are examples of mimetic art. Whether it is Tandava  dance or Caterpillar dance man has mimicked the thunders, lightening and movements of animals. The roots of superstitions are in magic and religion.

Superstition is nurtured in the belief that the course of events in nature has elasticity and they can be deflected or diverted from the path of their natural flow for our advantage by some external factor. That external factor could be a colour, number, person, event, animal, gesture or anything expected or unexpected. Popular Elizabethan superstitions like sneezing, spilling salt and pepper, Black Cats find place in Literature. Some authors like Murakami are obsessed with black cats and they find a place in most of his work.

Shakespeare plays like Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Hamlet etc. proves how an author can make some orthodox, unscientific, baseless belief more acceptable in society and establish their credibility by the course of events in his work.

People assume that successful people are more superstitious than unsuccessful, old are more superstitious than young, rich are more superstitious than poor, uneducated people are more superstitious than educated, rural people are more superstitious than urban, females are more superstitious than males and beautiful girls are more superstitious than ugly girls.

Ten Tips to enjoy your superstition

1. Prepare a list of your superstition.

2.  Classify your superstition. Make your own classification. Some superstition could be harmful for society. If you believe in witches and doubt someone to be a witch and perform a drowning test on her, it is harmful for society.

3. Analyse your superstitions, scientifically. Analytical methods are same for all theory. Consider your superstition to be a Hypothesis and test on your parameters. Like if you think 13 is not a lucky number ( In the last supper of Jesus 13 were present, and Judas the traitor reached in last), keep a log of the times you were harmed by this number.

4. Implement the result of your analysis. If you find number one is lucky for you, change your cell phone number the total of which should reach to number one. Your SIM provider knows how you can have your lucky cell number.

5. Research would help you. Whatever is lucky in one country could be unlucky in some other part of the world. Every superstition has a story behind it.

6. Objectivity helps. Superstitions are totally subjective, but there is objectivity in them. Try to find that. Everything in the cosmos has a purpose.

7. Psyche is important. You need not to be a psychic to believe that some of your personal superstitions are deeply rooted in your Psyche.

8. Rationale people never try to rationalise their superstition.

9. Edit your superstition. Delete some old one and add few new.

10. Enjoy your superstition without any guilt, inhibition, rejection and tagging.

This is my 64 post on this Blog, which is a lucky number for me. Let me see how many readers like it, share it, and comment over it.

© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

Marital Rape

                            The art of wooing is never rusty

Those who are in habit to take their wives as granted are offended when they have to cajole and woo them like an infatuated school boy by flowers, cards, dinners and sweet talk to obtain something which once they thought was rightfully theirs.

Look at the whole Animal Kingdom. Do you find any other animal doing heinous crime of rape except man? Every time, every male has to woo the female to obtain a favor.

Marriage is one of the most important institutions created by society which is eroded day by day as human intellect and wisdom is evolving. We are able to perceive and changed the law accordingly. How far we can go socially and legally to control a relationship  between two grown up individuals which begins and ends on the same bed every night.

Marriage is for woman the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution. ~Bertrand  Russell, Marriage and Morals.

Any act that affects two individuals physically, mentally or socially and is nonconsensual is an offense.

Colonial countries were governed by laws enacted by their master countries. They framed different laws for each colony depending upon their backwardness. Unfortunately, those  countries are still unable to revise their laws in parity with advance countries. The politicians are publicly giving statements, "It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context."

Now is the time when human civilization must consider to make uniform laws applicable all over the world, irrespective of geographical boundaries, cultural heritage, religion and dogmas.

Any crime is a crime against humanity and human values are same all over the world.

In the US some states have separate and lesser punishment for marital rapes (though thankfully all states have accepted it as a crime), are also examples of  social hypocrisy. If at all different, marital rape is more severe crime than other rapes since it is also breach of trust between two individuals.

The Indian Law is still struggling to define the extent of assault & parts of anatomy of the female organ, while whole civilization has taken a leap and is unanimous about it.

Literature has repeatedly pointed out that marital rape is done by husbands who suffer from some type of deficiency, inferiority or complex that they want to compensate.

Here is famous paragraph:

“He swung her off her feet into his arms and started up the stairs. Her head was crushed against his chest and she heard the hard hammering of his heart beneath her ears. He hurt her and she cried out, muffled, frightened. Up the stairs he went in the utter darkness, up, up, and she was wild with fear. He was a mad stranger and this was a black darkness she did not know, darker than death. He was like death, carrying her away in arms that hurt. She screamed, stifled against him and he stopped suddenly on the landing and, turning her swiftly in his arms, bent over and kissed her with a savagery and a completeness that wiped out everything from her mind but the dark into which she was sinking and the lips on hers. He was shaking, as though he stood in a strong wind, and his lips, traveling from her mouth downward to where the wrapper had fallen from her body, fell on her soft flesh….She tried to speak and his mouth was over hers again. When she awoke the next morning, he was gone.…The man who had carried her up the dark stairs was a stranger of whose existence she had not dreamed. He had humbled her, hurt her, used her brutally through a wild mad night and she had gloried in it…. Rhett loved her! At least, he said he loved her and how could she doubt it now?”

— Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind(New York: Scribner, 2011): 871.

Ponder over it, till next time you read about "Ten ways to avoid marital rape." Suggestions are welcome !

Read more at Author's Diction

© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India

Does Utilitarianism Concedes Terrorism

"World is Conical" (Part ii)

The whole community could be wrong in perceiving a fact. Majority cannot be the criterion for determination of Truth. Many of the notions with the advancement of civilization have changed drastically and taboos turn into fad and superstitions are proved scientifically.

What is condemned today is revered tomorrow. What is mutiny for one country is revolution for another country. Why someone had to say Everything is fair in Love and War. And War there is, since Love is also having all the ingredients of war. The purpose is to gain a victory which is a stepping stone for Happiness.

According to John Stuart Mill  happiness is the sole basis of morality, and that people never desire anything but happiness. The people's achievement of goals and ends, such as virtuous living, should be counted as part of their happiness. The determination of Goal is a prerogative of all individuals, communities, cultures, ethnic groups and organizations. The rights of unorganized sectors are usually ignored by capitalists who configures Spherical Excess of this Spherical Triangle called World.

The unorganized sector has a hidden agenda. It needs to be discussed with an open mind and resolved with compassion. Instead of that the Capitalist Cruel Cons (CCC) draw sadistic pleasure in not only making Poor Poorer but also in making them crawl for meager means of survival.

Moreover, they feel offended if oppressed try to unite or try to draw the attention of the World towards their problem. The problems all over the World have become complicated by external intervention. The intervention is not with the pious objective of resolving a problem, but with some ulterior motive of taking advantage of some God gift like Oil or Diamonds or for selling weapons which also indirectly helps in occupying natural resources.

This greed is the sole cause of violence the humanity is facing today.

Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Remember what Robert Frost said in his Poem "Fire and Ice"

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Sun Tzu in his book 'Art of War' says

"Emerge from the void, strike at vulnerable points, shun places that are defended, attack in unexpected quarters"

"Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."

Even if despite Police protection, several threatening and  warnings the attackers succeed, despite a Police cordon one can escape it raises doubt about who is more organized and intelligent. If we have a history of appeasement the morale of law enforcement agency is already jeopardized.

Every one has a right to be more sensitive than others on certain issues. When advantage of this weakness is taken by one agency to earn popularity and money, it opens the door for another party to exploit your vulnerability. How the pain of one could be different from the pain of another when all shoes are pinching.

Mill in Utilitarianism says "The sentiments of justice, in that one of its elements which consists of the desire to punish, is thus, I conceive, the natural feeling of retaliation or vengeance, rendered by intellect and sympathy applicable to those injuries, that is, to those hurts, which wound us through, or in common with, society at large."

He concludes "Things appear either just or unjust, according to the light in which they are regarded."

What if we retrospect with an open mind and identify the acts that are responsible for our present situation, we may acknowledge the choices and free will Sartre talks about were not only applicable to individuals but nations also.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Excerpts from his unpublished book "World is Conical"

THE ORIGIN OF VIOLENCE

                                 From Ferguson to Peshawar

The whole world is in the grip of unprecedented violence. May be this is high time we resolve to spend  the year 2015 without any incidence of violence. The fire of violence that spreads from Ferguson to Peshawar has reached to the zenith of Shame for the Mankind.

Mahatma Gandhi was an epitome of nonviolence. The world and so called advance  civilization of the sense-fettered earth-bound mankind saw their mundane benefits in not appreciating the virtues of non-violence. Gandhi did not get any Nobel Peace Prize though he was the greatest champion of  Peace and non-violence. The violent people saw great opportunity in this and they not only shot him dead, but also replaced Gods with Guns in temples, mosque and churches. The violence got its shelter in the arms of religion.

Violence is not the irrational killing of a non white youth or innocent children, but is also hurting feelings of anyone by thought, words or action.

Gandhi went one step ahead and said "Poverty is also violence". So those who become rich by exploiting poor are the most violent type of people.

In the list of 183 countries published by IMF Afghanistan stands at rank  166 with GDP 678 USD per capita against  9 Rank of USA with 53001 USD GDP per capita. Not that it needs a Statistician to draw the conclusion. If some Economies are 1000 times stronger, obliviously they have overlooked some of their fundamental duties.

The racial prejudices are hampering the growth of certain races. In US $33,321 is the  annual median income of black households in 2012, compared with the nation at $51,017 and 27.2% is the poverty rate in 2012 for blacks, while nationally it was 15.0 percent.

Two data to understand two incidents. To own the responsibility. To face the situation squarely. To shift the paradigm. To plan the future of mankind with an open mind. To get rid off blame, counter blame game. Who would do it. Politicians. No, Never, their vested interest is not in the suffering of the mankind, but in popularity that would enhance their grip on their vote bank.

There would be no use of scaling the problem as a politician, sociologist or economist. The solution lies in understanding the problem  Philosophically and Psychologically as a human being. All solutions are very apparent provided we come over our prejudices and see the emergence of  the New Planet Earth.

In the novel The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoyevsky the revolutionary chooses Nikolai as the main target since he thinks that Nikolai has no sympathy for mankind.  The author was inspired real life revolutionary group "People's Vengeance".

In The Penal Colony by Kafka the "condemned man" is found guilty without any procedure or trial. It could be same as Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp or "The Torture Garden" of Octave Mirbeau. May be the person who tends to be violence are having the same opinion as Jean Paul Sartre's  "L'enfer, c'est les autres" or "Hell is other people". The "Terrorist" by John Updike remains one of the despised books by Americans, though the author has wisely woven the plot to understand the problem through Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy.

Paulo Coelho on his blog has expressed his views in dubious language about fighting injustice.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Author is also Advocate at Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur

Simplicity Personified in Literature

                  Simplicity is not Stupidity

One of the side effects of rapid advancement and consumerism is the extinction of simplicity from society. The youth is sapiosexual and is aroused  by intelligence only. It is also taken for granted that all successful people are intelligent or vice versa.

The qualities like an opportunist, cunnings, street smart, hypocrite, snobbery which were once looked down upon by the society are now being appreciated. Some rich people act modestly and people take a note of it, but for too small of a man, modesty is in vain.

The word simpleton has originated from simple which means a foolish or gullible person. Homer describes a combination of socialist and simpleton as 'knowing many things, but knowing them all badly'.

The Idiot by Feodor Dostoyevsky is said to be an autobiographical novel. Prince Myshkin had spent time in mental sanatorium. He is subjected to many disasters just because he is a simple man. Author confirm the view that sanatorium is the only secure place for stoic saints who do not believe in the power of money and sex.

How bad it is to be innocent in this corrupted world? The command  'Let child be thy father' is in the praise of innocence and purity of heart. No child is born crook, we make him so. We don't want to take responsibility so we say he is born like that. The age of innocence of children is also thinning out fast. The time is not far when only a nascent child would be innocent.

Michael K in J. M. Coetzee's book "Life and Times of Michael K"  is such a person. He is a pure soul untouched by perils of the world and fails to understand why anybody would harm him when he does not want to harm anybody. Actually, this innocently simple man is a depiction of our inward journey that wants to take its dead mother (conscience) back to its rural home (purity).

Harper Lee in "To kill a mocking bird" suggests to kill a mockingbird could be a sin because mockingbirds simply provide pleasure with their songs, saying, "They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us."

 To kill a mocking bird is to kill someone simple and harmless. What was once prohibited is now a treasured game of rich and affluent. The coming generation (not youth, but middle aged neo rich) is haunted  by the ruthless savagery of cut throat competition and has already put all values at stake to win the race. Simple people happily provide their shoulders to aid them in climbing the stairs of success.

William Barrett in his book "Irrational Man" writes about a story by Kierkegaard. The story is told of the absent minded man so abstracted from his own life that he hardly knows he exists until, one fine morning, he wakes up to find himself dead.

 The whole civilization is that absent minded man, busy in creating a weapon of its own end. Would you call it smart or simple?

Kalidas is an Indian Scholar who created literature in Sanskrit was simple to the extent that he cut the same branch of the tree he was sitting on, thus he would fall as soon as he cut the branch.

The modern society does not dare to be philosophical. 

Milan Kundera, who claims that Nietzsche's hugging of the abused horse to be a symbolic gesture against the dominance, the arrogance of the human mind over nature, against the blind worship of progress.

The cycle of comprehension goes like this. Simple to Complex to Simple. The initial Simplicity is of ignorance. When learning starts the things become complex, but with the dawn of ultimate knowledge the simplicity reoccurs. That is the Wisdom.

It is easy to be complex. In fact, everyone around us is complex. We have forgotten the taste of simplicity. A simple man is queer, incomprehensible and easily rejectable. His humble acceptance of rejection  proves our theory that he deserved to be condemned.

Authors tend to appreciate simplicity in their text. They want to save the world from the madness of so called progress.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said "In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity."

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Author is also Advocate at Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur

Read more at: http://vipinbeharigoyal.blogspot.in/