Editor,
Roads are the lifeline of any town, city or village. When visit any place, the first query is, ‘How are the roads?’ In Shillong, one can say that the roads are not so bad considering its geographical size. However, coming to the traffic today, that’s another story. With the number of cars going up every day and the roads remaining the same due to lack of space and planning, traffic literally comes to a standstill during peak hours. And now with traffic rules being changed whimsically by our ever efficient traffic personnel, things are going from bad to worse.
Take the Don Bosco square for instance. This is the convergence point of cars during peak hours in the morning and afternoon because most schools are located here. The entry point of cars going towards St. Mary’s School and Shillong College has become hazardous especially for students who have been used to empty roads for many years during the morning and afternoon hours. Without footpaths, children are literally a foot away from the drains and are inches away from being knocked over, if they or the drivers are not careful. With loud decibel honking from cars, tempers are bound to flare up and unpleasantries shouted at.
I hope the traffic in charge sees the situation and applies his wisdom to call the general public for consultation before putting new rules in place. Since their implementation this year, these new rules seem to have led to logjams rather than smoothen traffic flow. Being a concerned parent and citizen, I hope this problem is resolved soon, else it is a catastrophe waiting to happen and we can’t play with our children’s lives can we?
Yours etc.,
Angela Lyngdoh,
Shillong-14
Prejudices against Indian wisdom
Editor,
If you doubt your Mother’s riches then check with your trusted masters. Well, the most celebrated poet of 20th Century TS Eliot had once said — “Indian philosophers’ subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like school boys”. This proclamation should sufficiently establish the depth and subtleties about the wisdom of India. Yes this Nobel laureate was so impressed by the profundity of the ancient texts that he himself determined to learn Sanskrit language so as to go deeper and understand the oriental literature firsthand, not like some Indians today who selectively pick up a few ambiguous terms or anecdotes and start to criticize the ancient knowledge Very interestingly, in his epic poem “The Waste Land” Eliot thoughtfully invokes the fundamental truths governing life and its purposes as described in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. To perfectly resonate with the higher meanings from the ancient texts he chooses to end this particular poem with the Sanskrit word “Shanti Shanti Shanti”. In the same vein another front-ranking German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer had said, “The Upanishads have been the solace of my life and they will be the solace of my death, they are the product of highest wisdom”. Schopenhauer, whose works later inspired Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Schrodinger, Carl Jung et al, had experienced a tremendous awakening when he had got the opportunity to study the Latin version of Upanishads in 1814 which were translated by an erudite French scholar Anquetil Duperron. Duperron had painstakingly translated Upanishads from Persian to Latin and published them in 1801-02. Victor’s cousin, Hegel, Herder, August Schlegel, Schiller, Hermann Hesse, Ralph Emerson were other European giants who were captivated by the universal wisdom of India such as the Oneness of Universe and continuity of life as explained in the Upanishads. What struck them most is that every human being is capable of realizing God, irrespective of caste, belief, and colour. So, there is no question of any discrimination.
But it’s a paradox that some intellectuals, without any serious study of their ancient literature, which, of course, is very complex, delight in misinterpreting whatever comes their way. They keep bitching about and mislead the gullible masses. Hence I’m not surprised to go through a letter by Sujit De, ‘Racial prejudices’ (ST, April 12, 2017). He laments – ‘racial prejudice owes its origin to our age-old caste system.’ However, to encourage discrimination, or any kind of inhumane acts that hurt the heart of others, or bring social disharmony and chaos are doubtlessly an unpardonable sin according to the ancient Indian scriptures, as other religions. Well, the Bhagavad Gita, which is considered as the sum and substance of the voluminous Vedantic wisdom, clearly points out that the society has been broadly classified into four classes (Chaturvarnam….. Gita 4/13) “based on” one’s attributes and action, not colour. ‘Varna’ is not colour in this particular context; it refers to class. Will it not be one’s stupidity to understand “black market” verbatim as “black car”? Black market is illegal market, not painted in black colour. There are many terms in Sanskrit which have been deliberately misinterpreted by certain biased individuals and showed their own Mother’s literary heritage in a poor light. Why the society was categorized then, I shall ask, why do we have the elaborate “Taxonomy” in Science in order to minutely classify and divide the countless kinds of plants and organisms?
Of course I do agree that there are self-centered and morally corrupt privileged groups who have misinterpreted scriptures to hurt and exclude other less privileged folks. They are totally condemnable. These kinds of corrupt elites and their ill-treatment towards the poor and underprivileged are ubiquitous. History is rife with such instances. Yes, that is why in the ancient treatises we have inescapable and all-leveler ‘laws of karma’ which only can commensurately hammer the evil-doers hard as retribution. Finally, I would sincerely suggest that all those who have a penchant to harbour a load of prejudices against Indian system of knowledge first to unlearn some of the things that are lying ossified in their mindsets for ages. Or else, they will see only “flaws” in their Mother’s heritage.
Sir William Jones, a pioneering philologist who first discovered a relationship among European and Sanskrit languages, had rightly said – “Human life would not be sufficient to make oneself acquainted with any considerable part of the Indian ancient literature.”
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali
Shillong-2
Political rhetoric!
Editor,
The claim by the UDP that it would go it alone in the 2018 Assembly polls is not unusual. Every party says that before the elections. This is something that other parties too have been saying but end up contradicting their own words. Much of this political talk concerns the BJP party and revolves around issues like beef ban, so-called saffronization, religious linked politics etc. However the point is that any sort of ban or policy related towards the state ultimately depends upon that particular state government in power. For example just like the uranium issue where the state government and the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council have objected, is a clear indication that the central government cannot by-pass the state on such subjects and neither can it impose its will upon the people. Therefore much of this ‘hungama’ is only a method to divert the people’s attention from recognising the failures of the ruling party and the opposition on both sides of the divide.
Yours etc…
Dominic S. Wankhar
Shillong-7