Clarity of thought and single minded focus are clearly attributes that are necessary for making one an adept in whatever one does. In Kalaripayattu its called ekagrata . Eka means One and it signifies single minded focus. It is no more exemplified than in the Mahabharata story of Arjuna , his arrow and the eye of the toy parrot. In modern times, in a recent interview, Sachin Tendulkar stated that he batted best when his mind was blank and his only focus was on the ball. He found himself transported in the Zone. Many a sportperson has experienced that. So what is it do with nations?
So what drives the objectives of nations? I believe it stems from a core value system which drives the nation to first protect and then proselytise the others to adopt its ways of life. So to have a core value system defined, one needs to have clarity of thought and the ability to articulate it unambiguously and the fortitude to ensure it is not violated.
I don't raise a candle for the USA but it is instructive to see how they pursue this clarity of thought. The bedrock of the so called "American way of life" is capitalism and the life blood of capitalism is commerce and the integral part of that is the stock market. Now if people were to lose their faith in the stock markets then the bedrock could turn out to be very rocky. So they ensure that an iconic figure like Rajat Gupta finds himself in the slammer for insider trading despite the work and pedigree he brought to the table.
The other bedrock is the right to expression. So much so , they have protected the right to burn the flag because they in their wisdom have defined the right to freedom as something much more relevant than burning a national symbol. I am not arguing over the right and wrong of it. All I am saying is that the nation has clarity on its core values and has the fortitude to pursue it and crush their adversary , be it another idea like communism or another person like bin Laden.
Now lets come back to India. If we believe the cliché that the three things that bind India are cricket, Bollywood and masala dosa, and in a manner of speaking is core to India or at least a subset of India, then why aren't we going the whole hog on this spot fixing fiasco.
Let me extend the logic further. What is the core value of India? If it is pluralism, then why doesn't the state machinery just come down like a ton of bricks on communal riots and bring the perpetrators to book. A child born in 1984 almost 30 years old. 7 persons have been convicted for the killing of 3000 people.
If it is commerce, and as a Western friend told me , we are a commerce driven nation, then why did we not go with our entire might on the attack on Mumbai, our commercial capital. Have we ever heard that so-and-so attack was an attack on our way of life.
Does it reflect our lack of clarity or are we intrinsically ambiguous? It drives the other country people ape when we say 1-2 days as a measure of accuracy for completing a task. Or is it convenient to be ambiguous considering the huge diversity that India has. One may argue that even the US is diverse but then the US has only a baggage of 300 years to contend with, notwithstanding the Native American genocide.
I don't know and the answer might lay somewhere in between. Alternately there might be no precise answer. Hey, you might say I am not exhibiting clarity or rather am exhibiting ambiguity. Then I am Indian. We are like that only!!!!
So what drives the objectives of nations? I believe it stems from a core value system which drives the nation to first protect and then proselytise the others to adopt its ways of life. So to have a core value system defined, one needs to have clarity of thought and the ability to articulate it unambiguously and the fortitude to ensure it is not violated.
I don't raise a candle for the USA but it is instructive to see how they pursue this clarity of thought. The bedrock of the so called "American way of life" is capitalism and the life blood of capitalism is commerce and the integral part of that is the stock market. Now if people were to lose their faith in the stock markets then the bedrock could turn out to be very rocky. So they ensure that an iconic figure like Rajat Gupta finds himself in the slammer for insider trading despite the work and pedigree he brought to the table.
The other bedrock is the right to expression. So much so , they have protected the right to burn the flag because they in their wisdom have defined the right to freedom as something much more relevant than burning a national symbol. I am not arguing over the right and wrong of it. All I am saying is that the nation has clarity on its core values and has the fortitude to pursue it and crush their adversary , be it another idea like communism or another person like bin Laden.
Now lets come back to India. If we believe the cliché that the three things that bind India are cricket, Bollywood and masala dosa, and in a manner of speaking is core to India or at least a subset of India, then why aren't we going the whole hog on this spot fixing fiasco.
Let me extend the logic further. What is the core value of India? If it is pluralism, then why doesn't the state machinery just come down like a ton of bricks on communal riots and bring the perpetrators to book. A child born in 1984 almost 30 years old. 7 persons have been convicted for the killing of 3000 people.
If it is commerce, and as a Western friend told me , we are a commerce driven nation, then why did we not go with our entire might on the attack on Mumbai, our commercial capital. Have we ever heard that so-and-so attack was an attack on our way of life.
Does it reflect our lack of clarity or are we intrinsically ambiguous? It drives the other country people ape when we say 1-2 days as a measure of accuracy for completing a task. Or is it convenient to be ambiguous considering the huge diversity that India has. One may argue that even the US is diverse but then the US has only a baggage of 300 years to contend with, notwithstanding the Native American genocide.
I don't know and the answer might lay somewhere in between. Alternately there might be no precise answer. Hey, you might say I am not exhibiting clarity or rather am exhibiting ambiguity. Then I am Indian. We are like that only!!!!
