Er.Rajan C Mathew : Sharing Random Thoughts...

2011-12-08

Mullapperiyar Dam Issue-Fishing in Dirty Waters : I do not know when actually this issue got my attention. As I live some 3000 KM away from my home state, Kerala, I do not get the Malayalam news papers. My only link is the internet and the one or two TV channels the DTH provider allows me to watch. Too less a time to watch the TV and when I have the time, the TV channels do not show the news. Even when they do it, it is like a puzzle. They always 'break' the news and flashes the 'breaking news' ad in prominent red many times than the actual piece of the news. Then I have to keep all those pieces in my already jammed brain for a later spare time assembly, which is not always possible! The effect ultimately is that I get the substance of the news much later. I just cannot catch up the modern day fellows. This reminds me that I am an old moron from the generation past !

But yet, I admit that I caught up with this serious issue of this century, at last. There is a mass outcry of my statesmen there in my small state-Kerala- in the south west corner of India. The cause-there exists a century old legacy of a masonry dam, (built by the British for irrigating the dry lands in earstwhile Madras province on the land owned by the earstwhile Maharaja of Travancore by entering into a long lease agreement) profusely leaking for the past few decades, somewhere in the highlands in the western ghats of Kerala, mostly hidden from arial surveillance of the satellite eyes due to the thick rain forests.

The dam and its catchment areas lie in the Kerala territory, while the water it contains irrigate the vast fertile but arid lands that lie in the territory of Tamil Nadu state. As India is a federal country, both states virtually function as independent countries for all practical purposes concerning the common man.

The dam has been leaking for the past few decades. the Leaking rubbles did not cause much effect in the past, but for the frequent earth quakes in the recent past which made all awake and alarmed at the possible out come of the rubbles of the dam crumbling and crashing! If that happens, the water that is stored upstream between the valleys of the high ranges would flow down through the dry streams below in a fury like a tsunami wiping out the homes, shops, roads and vegetation on the sloppy banks of the streams till most of it get arrested in the dams that are down below. The effect would be so catastrophic that within minutes an estimated 30 lakh people might vanish from the surface of 'God's Own Country'. If the shock of the gushing waters together with the silt and debris that they carry is beyond the load bearing capacity of the dams below, they might also collapse causing a cascade dam failures making the better part of God's Own Country a forgotten story of history in the years ahead!

This is what the fear mongers and pessimists predict, making the lives of all those living on the direct course of the water path filled with constant paranoia. As I was not much conversant with the geography of the area, I wanted to check it myself. The wikimapia maps helped me in this [ See this map Here] 

From a study of this map, I now found that the fear that the people have is genuine. A masonry gravity dam like Mullapperiyar, which has sustained over a century with many leaking cavities inside, can collapse any time under water pressure triggered by the effect of an earthquake. It is simple commonsense. Not much engineering is required. Even engineering science does not have that much of a capability to predict the exact time of a collapse of the dam in such a situation. Any concerned authorities would have taken immediate actions to alleviate this genuine anxiety of the people, even without a mass awakening!

But then it has not happened that way. The pity is that the legitimate owner of the dam-the kerala government- is making a hue and cry together with its people. The government functionaries, including the minister in charge of the dam is leading the people in protest marches and fasting strikes and the like. They are protesting against the user of the water on the other side of the high ranges-Tamil Nadu- which lies in the rain shadow region, starved for water. On its part, the Tamil Nadu government pooh-poohs the concerns of the people of Kerala. They vehemently argue that such fears of the Keralites are not substantiated. They also have the Supreme Court of India in their side for the time being.

The powerful water consumer state would not allow any measures by the owner state, making the dummy federal government and the apex judicial authorities in a fix. Whose side they should stand now? If democracy means majority rule, then they should be with the majority. And the majority of people power is incidentally with Tamil Nadu, and not Kerala. And that is what they are all doing now.

No wonder, india is the largest democracy in the world. Here every thing is decided democratically, even when it concerns with the lives of millions of people. So long as this millions happens to be a minority in the billions, the democratic governement of India will take much time to decide what to do. They may even keep the issue pending till every thing is decided naturally !

What a wonderful country ! Is n't it ? 

22nd December 2010.

More than two years have passed after I ventured into creation of this personal web site of mine. This diary page was introduced today, thinking that I would use it to type some random, but meaningful thoughts that come into my mind which I feel as sharing with all in the world. At times great revelatory thoughts come into my mind and I myself would feel fortunate that I got an answer or solution to a problem, but since I didnot spare time to note it down, the precious thought go into oblivion.

It is like the beauty that keep arising in the universe always, but go un noticed. Just see the pictures below, courtsey NASA. They have worked hard to send those unmanned space crafts to the space beyond our earth to watch our sister planets and found some like these which they are pleased to share with us. The picture on the bottom left looks like black worms, but they say they are huge rocks on the mars surface, smoothened and made randomly by the martian winds. The one at the right , they say, is the picture of the smallest moon of a planet caught randomly on its way around its mother planet. I won't say them beautiful, but they are intriguing. Aren't they?

My random thoughts would also be like that ! At least for me !

23rd December 2010 : Haindava Keralam ( Hindu Kerala) Online: Today I happened to visit an online movement of affluent and educated Hindus from my home state Kerala  devoted for developing and upholding the pride of Hindus and bash all those non-hindus including soft-hearted hindus, not entirely agreeing to their view-points. The site is Haindavakeralam.

All news, national and international, are presented here which promote the ego of the affluent people belonging to this religion, with an opportunity for blogging and commenting under judicious administrator scrutiny. A big and dedicated effort by well educated men and women trying to affirm their culture, just as the christians, the moslems, and other religionists in the world have been doing and are doing still, in various other or similar forms and means.

Does God need such strong and dedicated volunteers to protect his domain? I am not sure !

24th December 2010: Christmas Eve at the closing of the First decade of the 21st Century: Today is Christmas Eve, the day (or night) before Chritmas and the day when millions or billions of people on earth would celebrate with all their might in the name of Jesus Christ or Joshua ben Joseph, the incarnation of the first born son of God Almighty on earth to redeem the sinners! The Bible does not say this date as his birth date. History says the date was adopted much later when the modern calendar came into existence later, with the birth date of Jesus as the 'zero-date', further corrected of errors, etc, etc.

In any case, Christmas eve and Christmas has become a reasons for big business in the name of the greatest personality our world has seen in the near history.

The book I rever most, the Urantia Book, clarifies all these positions and affirm the actual date of Jesus' birth as 21st August, 7 BC according to the standard era what we follow now. It is not the Dec 25th. But is it going to make any difference? For me, not at all. If people enjoy on this date and celebrate, let them be happy and enjoy, I am with them. But, for a moment I feel that I should at least give a thought to what Jesus has taught the people, as recorded in many places including the Bible.

For those interested in reading the version of Jesus birth episode as recorded in the Urantia Book, it is a wonderful reading. It is in Paper-122 ' Birth and Infancy of Jesus. Just click on this hyperlink to read it online.

Wish You All a Very Happy Christmas !!

March 21st, 2011

For something, today is going to be a nostalgic one for me. I am relieved of my duties from Bhilai Steel Plant and am supposed to move to another organization of my company situated at Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand State. Though the transfer is on promotion, I would have to leave many things in Bhilai, my home for over 30 years, ever since I reached here from Roorkee way back in mid April 1980.

March 22nd , 2011 

I have joined a new organization in Ranchi. I left Bhilai yesterday taking the flight to Delhi from Raipur. And from Delhi took the morning flight to Ranchi and reached in time to join the new office. New faces, new culture, I am an observer now. Past is past. New things waiting to be learnt. I am going to be alone here for some days, till my wife joins me here and we set up our new home here!

April 5th, 2011

Back in Bhilai again. I am going to be here for some days. Have to do the final packing and shifting home to Ranchi. Lots of planning and work to be done !

April 13th, 2011

New home life started in Ranchi. Good place. Good people. We are learning to adapt and like it.

April 22nd , 2011

Attended the full Good Friday church service at Ranchi, perhaps for the first time, attending from beginning to the end ! The new surroundings and new friends' circle making things work!

April 24th, 2011

Happy Easter 2011 !  Attended morning service at the Marthomite church at HEC colony, Sector-3 Ranchi, inside the famous St Thomas School campus. Had a memorable day spending some time at Hotel Radisson Blu, the 5 star deluxe hotel under finishing touches waiting to be opened shortly with Mr & Mrs Ayon Bhattacharya, the enthusiastic young GM and front office manager of the hotel and Mr Anil Daniel, the cheerful Finance manager ( who planned this exclusive go around and ofcourse the lunch !)

2011-12-08 I do not get time to write here on a daily basis

Amazing. The time runs very fast than what we actually realize. An year ago, I was happily settled in Bhilai. Now for more than a year, I have been in Ranchi. During this time I got into Twitter. You can follow me on Twitter Here!

22nd December 2010: Why do people want to rule over others ?

Is there an innate desire in man to rule over others ? I often wonder about this. I do introspect myself on this- do I have this desire to rule over others ? The answer would be in the affirmative. In nature we find this tendency in the animal kingdom. In the lower forms of life, there is a natural leader or king or queen. Insects, animals, birds and fish fight each other to establish superiority of one among it in the group. In a beehive, two queens cannot remain. In a herd of elephants, there can be only one tusker and head of the herd.

We are much more than the animals in our intellectual endowments and naturally we are all natural leaders. We too want to be ruling over others and would do all things possible to make it a reality. Poverty or richness is of no consequence. We want to rule over others, and aspire for it and scheme over it to make it true.

We won't let any opportunity go, if possible. We want to be the kings. What will happen if all of us are kings ? Where would be the common citizens ? That we do not want to waste time to think on such useless thoughts. Our aim is to control others, whether in family, society, office, workplace, anywhere and everywhere, if possible..

We are not bothered to follow the loving advices of great leaders like Jesus Christ about our insatiable ambition of becoming the kings. He had instructed us politely and set an example by himself on this very issue. He said ministering means serving and not ruling. Oh! we do not understand the difference !

We understand rulers as grave looking, non-smiling and serious rough-n-tough people who find sadistic pleasure in making the life of others around them miserable. If we can not make others cry, what is the use of such power to rule? We admire and like to worship great rulers, kings, presidents, prime ministers and the those down the heirarchy who posess such powers to kill, destroy and create havoc for the less powered. We just cannot admire those weak, graceously smiling or pious people who care for all and are compassionate. For us they are cowards!

At the most we may try to imitate the Jesus attire of peace and love till we capture the power! Then, we come to our 'powerful' true attire!

We use our religions, even if it is taught by Jesus himself, for the purpose of gaining the self importance. If we are not the leader ourself for the time being, we would like to be with the powerful groups!

We don't agree with others, even when our inner self finds points for complete agreement in others views, because, we are afraid of losing importance and our opportunity for self ascertainment and leadership. Had we been agreement, we could have done great things! But we just don't care!

If we cannot be leaders in the larger group, we try to make smaller groups and try to be kings there. In any case, we need followers, not comrades nor equal partners !

Look at our religions. If our leadership aspirations are at stake with one god, we prefer to make as many gods as we like, or make as many postulates about god as we like to make our inner ambition realized.

Our governments, business corporates, enterprises, governmental and non governmental organizations all would go crumbling if we do not have this inbuilt desire of ruling others in our minds. If that is the case we won't have the politicians, the top officials and the tycoons to lead us. They won't do the tricks and the leg pulling they keep doing to reach the top ruling positions to lead the others!

There could be varying degrees of satisfying our instict of controlling and ruling others. Some might go to the extreme of killing and exterminating and torturing his subjects to fulfill his desires. Others might be polished to a lesser degree, yet fulfilling the desire of ruling.

My mind keep asking me, is this natural instict of mine be nourished ? Or is there any other way ? My inner self, tells me yes. But I am yet to find a compassionate and caring brother or sister or human who has conquered and eliminated the compulsion for acquiring leadership without ego.