Tenny Thomas

The Love Series: Eros

“Everyone, meet your new classmate”,
Words of my teacher that made me look up,
To a sweet, confident, cute girl, in a new place,
My eyes were fixed on her and her pace,
As she made her way to a seat beside me.
Looking to me, she released a smile.
That sparked in me rays so serene,
Tender, pure, and yet so rare,
It lit the dark corridors of my heart,
And ushered in me an eclectic feeling,
Of completeness and belonging!

Quickly I became to her a friend so near,
Laughing our way through happy times,
Enduring ourselves together in difficult times,
Destiny ensured that we were there for each other.
We grew comfortably in togetherness,
Our friendship steered the stormy waves,
Of childhood with confidence and resolute.

As we grew in age, we started to change,
Being together and holding hands,
We felt ecstatic as emotions piled up.
Being away there was longing and dreadfulness,
We felt incomplete as emotions piled up.

Questions suddenly started to be asked,
Thoughts started to stare us less placid,
We started to talk more, care less,
Talks that betrayed a pure intent,
Arguments that became fights,
We drifted ourselves apart.

In time, we traversed to newer pastures,
Yearning to forget the past,
We fastened ourselves to a fallacy so great.
As life and fate looked on us in disbelief,
We felt good in drowning ourselves in rivers of Hades.

As time and tide never waited for us,
We never waited for each other,
We moved on to lives with mates,
Never meant for either the other.
In less time, my wife left me for a life better,
Her spouse beat her to a flight so bitter.

Here we are again, sitting on a bench,
Bruised and broken,
We look at each other in remorse,
Tears falling from each eyes in repentance,
I held out my hand to hold her broken life.
As life and faith looked on us in comforting belief,
We hugged and kissed each other in love.

Eros means the intimate or romantic form of love. Everyone have been or have fallen in love at least once in their life. The first love is always special as it unleashes inside one a myriad of both positive and negative feelings: hope, pleasure, intimacy, friendship, possessiveness, care, worry etc.

Image courtesy: http://funlava.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/love2.jpg

The Love Series: Agape

As I looked on, the door was slammed in front of me,

With a thud that resonated failure,

Of a life I lived together with one whom I loved once.

A single drop of tear made its way freely,

From my eyes, down to my face below.

Once a drop, now a stream,

Tears rolled down and down.

I turned back, and looked on,

Life as I knew, changed then.

Heavily it snowed,

Fiercely the wind blew,

Holding my jacket tightly,

Lonely I walked in the isolated streets,

Of a city brought to standstill,

By nature with its relentless downpour.

Denied I was of love,

Bursting open reservoirs of sadness,

Tears rolled down and down,

From the face of my wronged existence,

In front of me, the nature poured,

Incessantly and fiercely,

Sharing with me, my pain lovingly.

Briskly walking down the street,

I see a homeless man,

Shivering and suffering,

The incessant winter brute.

Without a jacket, moaning and crying,

He looked to me resigned,

To a cold fate, harsh and horrible.

Ignoring him, I walked on,

Dwelling in my problem then on.

Slipped then I did,

Fell I did on my back,

Landing with my face to the sky.

Looking up, I could see the snow,

Falling and falling on me now.

I tried to get up, yet the slippery ground,

Let go of me again, with my face up,

Closing my eyes, I thought of my life.

Times of happiness and sadness,

Flashed in mind without recess.

Sure of my innocence, I began to think,

I can either live my life in despair,

Or move on, and repair.

Making my way up and looking forward,

I decided to walk onward.

Resolute in my decision,

To let go and live on.

“Help me, please don’t walk away,

I don’t want to die in this way”.

Cries from my homeless friend,

Stopped me then in my tracks.

Turning around at the desperate moans,

I looked at an unfortunate and lonely soul.

Looking at him for a minute,

I removed my jacket and clothed him.

“While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.” Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah

Image courtesy: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/031/a/f/gloomy_winter_by_crtan-d38b72a.jpg

Act of Random Kindness

Recently while I was browsing through Netflix, I came across an old movie released not so long ago by the name ‘Evan Almighty’. This movie is a sequel to the blockbuster movie ‘Bruce Almighty’ released in 2003. It chronicles the life of Evan Baxter who was an antagonist in the first movie. Evan Baxter in this movie moves on from being the news announcer to being a first time senator. As the perks of moving to Washington and an improved profile in society begins to dawn on the Baxter family, ‘God’ (played by Morgan Freeman) from the first movie pays a visit. This time his demand is simple at asking Evan Baxter to build an ark. Before he could even protest, animals start following him, he grows a beard which much to his chagrin refuses to go away. He is forced to attend the senate meeting sporting one and during one of the sessions for a land reform bill announced by Senator Long, he magically transforms into the Biblical Noah with flowing robes and all. Publicly humiliated, he decides to follow his true calling and builds the ark all by himself and his three children. His wife who in the beginning of the movie was seen earnestly hoping for more family togetherness, is disappointed by how strangely her husband has been behaving of late, decides to leave him. She is met by ‘God’ in a restaurant, who reminds her about how he answers people’s prayers. The following dialogue spoken by ‘God’ is nothing short of revolutionary and are the best lines in the whole movie.

God: Sounds like an opportunity. Let me ask you something. If one prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If one prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

The movie then shows how Evan goes on and builds the ark and on the day of the flood, people who were seen belittling him are taken in for a great surprise when the dam erupts in Long Lake and it ends up destroying their homes. The ark saves them just in the nick of time and the movie reveals how Senator Long in cohort with private building contractors flouted all rules of construction safety for profit. His bill to privatize and take over national parks where all the animals lived, was defeated by God who acted through Evan in building the ark. The movie though heavy in religious overtones, had enough comic elements to keep you interested till the end.

‘Give and you shall receive’ is a common refrain I’ve heard from childhood. It is said that more you give, the more you will receive. I used to remember while growing up, a common prayer thread in daily prayers was “God we pray for the sick, poor and the needy. Please heal them, care for them and provide for them, just as you do for us”. I used to wonder after years and years of prayers, the numbers of the sick, poor and the needy never ceases or changes. Times change, countries prosper, people grow, yet it seems that there will always be some poor, sick or needy person desperate for help and attention. This paradox always used to amaze me.

Slowly this paradox clears itself to an understanding that these people are kept in front of us by God as opportunities on how to be good in our life. Our ability to consider and empathize with these people epitomizes our true worship. Religious worship has always been defined as chants and prayers to an unseen God and never as acts of service. Even Jesus during his ministry emphasized on service by devotion rather than devotion through rituals. The events during and after his death epitomizes this very fact.

Everyday in our life, we come across many opportunities that would enable that one random act of kindness, which is disguised and waiting for us to unravel. Most of the time, the intricacies and demands of modern life, makes it tough for us to realize them. Even in the movie, it was seen how Evan in the beginning was shooing away a stray dog that wandered into their brand new property and how God opens him to accepting this animal to be part of their family.

To conclude, I would like to showcase this video of an US veteran, Jim Wolf who having struggled for decades with poverty, homelessness and alcoholism, sitting in a chair as he gets his beard trimmed, a new haircut and new clothes. This random act of kindness by total strangers to Jim Wolf, changes his life from then on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a6VVncgHcY

Freedom

Everyday I look into the mirror,

Of my life yonder,

I see chains, chains that bindeth me,

Chains of my mistakes,

Chains of what I did and didn’t,

Chains of what I said and didn’t,

Chains by those I loved and didn’t,

Chains that tied my life to a destiny like no other.

Freedom, where art thou hiding?

Why have you left me in despair?

I cannot face this all alone by myself,

For the pain is too much to bear,

The agony of captivity shreds my soul,

Where will my respite come from?

Looking up, I pray to my Lord,

Please free me, or I will lose myself,

To the bondage of my past,

Unsure of my today,

I am confused about my tomorrow.

I wait and I wait,

In patient retreat,

Yearning for redemption,

In silence, I collect my thoughts,

Fearful of the retribution of my sins,

And unable to endure its punishment,

In silence I grapple with myself.

Earnestly yet prayerfully,

Connecting with divine powers,

That I cannot fathom, yet I seek help,

I wait and I wait,

In patient retreat.

Finally, O finally she has come,

Galloping with the promise of better times,

She breaks open my chains,

She erases my mistakes redeeming myself,

She liberates me to do what I need to do,

She clears my thoughts and makes me complete.

Freedom you have come to save me,

Crafting me new, you mould me,

To live my today in victory,

And my tomorrow with salvation.

Freedom, you make my life complete,

You make me look into the mirror,

To show me my life full of hope,

Full of promise, full of cheer,

There are no chains,

There are no bondages,

There is only but happiness,

There is only one realization,

My salvation is nothing but complete.

Image courtesy: http://consciouslifenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/m.jpg

Rebuild our City

Hey all you people,

Here is the sad lore,

Of our city in fire.
It was quick; Oh and it did happen.
Took everything with it sudden.
We are doomed they say,
Like Sodom and Gomorrah,
The Lord himself hath,
Punished us so severe.
Will we ever rise again?
Will we see tomorrow again?

Come my people,
What has happened, has ended!
What is to happen, hasn’t yet started!
Darketh is the hour just before the dawn,
For once dawn cometh,
Forgotten is what has happened,
And what has come,
Is our soul’s new battle cry.

Let’s rebuild our city,
Listen all of you without any sway.
Today, together we write our destiny,
Unwavering and unflinchingly,
With our heads up to the sky,
To a loving Lord ready,
To lead us to our victory.

We awake to lead,
We rise to rebuild,
Arise will our city,
From the ashes away.
With love on our side,
Courage in our hearts,
Pride in our deeds,
We build our destiny.

Larger be our goals,
Taller be our ambitions,
Broader be our aims,
Wider be our hopes, and
Bigger be our dreams.

Today as we build our city,
We will never remember the pity,
Showered on us by the laity.
We will remember our sacrifices of today,
As we rebuild our city.

Image Courtesy: http://www.wallpaper4me.com/images/wallpapers/cityrebuild-144393.jpeg

I wrote this poem after watching a video behind the construction of Willis Tower on a recent visit to Chicago. The video mentioned about the Great Chicago Fire. It was an unfortunate event that burnt from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about 3.3 square miles (9 km²) in Chicago, Illinois. It was one of the largest disasters of the 19th century, Chicago was rebuilt and continued to grow as one of the most populous and economically important American cities. This poem is dedicated to Chicago.

Microsoft: Through the years

Let me start with saying that I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Microsoft and it’s Windows OS. From time immemorial, I have used both the Macintosh and Windows platforms alternatively. I remember starting my computing voyages with Macintosh, but it was during the beginning of 90s and as Mac was slowly becoming irrelevant with crass programs and hardware, I began using Microsoft Windows. I started with Windows 3.1. I loved everything about it then and was hooked from the word go. It dint have a start button and it had minimum programs. It was this minimalism that made this system really memorable.

Personal computing changed with Windows 95. It was an awesome computing leap. Even today I still get goosebumps of fond ‘nerd’ nostalgia when I speak about Win95. Everything about it was outstanding. It brought the now famous Start button and all the programs loaded smoothly. With Microsoft Office, it was a productivity nirvana. Microsoft followed it up with Windows 98, another blockbuster of a software OS. To me it was also the beginning of the internet age with the freaking awesome but ill fated Netscape browser. Slowly but steadily, Microsoft attained the ultimate monopoly with almost all the computers in the modern world at that time with its services.

Then Microsoft just became greedy. Innovation was sacrificed in the altar of economics. Multiple versions of Windows started creeping in with Windows NT, 2000, ME etc., all of which were just mere cosmetic updates. One lousy product after another, the monopoly behemoth began to be hated by one and all.

Microsoft dint just give up. They came out with Microsoft XP which became the gold standard but by that time people were beginning to show signs of fatigue. An old foe, Apple just reemerged in the horizon. They started challenging the status quo with some of the most dauntingly beautiful marriage of both hardware and software. Things were just beginning to get interesting.

Then something happened. Microsoft began a series of massive mishaps. The much publicized Windows Vista became a huge resounding flop. By that time the customers were beginning to get tired of Microsoft’s ‘old wine in a new bottle’ strategy. Apple became aggressive with some excellent hardware, software and also commencing the transition to a post PC era with iPods. Google that started off as a mere search engine began a quest to harness all the available knowledge and information in the world and repackage them as services for many of their web offerings. Even though Microsoft ruled the web with the gateway of choice-Internet Explorer, the email of choice- Hotmail, the web service of choice-MSN and the chat client of choice-MSN Messenger, Google began successfully challenging and making it irrelevant in almost all sectors where it had a monopoly.

With the post PC era fully on, Apple started an unassailable onslaught of hits with iPods, iPhones and iPads. Google began its successful onslaught with Chrome browser (later a cloud OS) and Android. Microsoft started burning itself with Zunes (it’s extremely unlucky iPod challenger) and Kin (it’s delayed and much hated iPhone challenger that it shutdown within a week). It’s buggy Windows Phone OS 3.5 was virtually decimated by the iPhone despite the fact that it had a head-start much earlier in the smartphone category

Due to its successful placement in almost all of the computers in the world, Microsoft still made tons and tons of money. It owned such a good deal of patents in mobile technology, that it even, to this day, makes money from Android phones! But the warning signs were beginning to show as Apple surged ahead to become the most valuable computing company in the world.

Microsoft then began a much delayed but a calculated response to this onslaught with Windows 8 platform and a radical new interface. With Windows Phone 8 and deft partnership with Nokia it began challenging iPhones and Android. It started challenging the web hegemony of Google with bing, Skype and Onedrive services. It began manufacturing it’s own hardware with Xbox and the Surface. It underwent a major restructuring, yanked out dominating yet powerful leaders who owned fiefdoms in the company including its CEO. Slowly and steadily it transitioned into a devices & services company.

The future of Microsoft from now on will be very interesting to industry pundits and observers all over the world. It is a mammoth company with a huge stake in the personal computing interests of the world today. It has massive cash reserves unlike any company in the world. It has the talent (remember Microsoft Certified Software Professional and how arduous it was), it has the best productivity suite ever developed by man (Microsoft Office), it has the most advanced cloud service (Azure) etc.

Even though being an Apple fanboy, I have to admit I’ve equally loved Microsoft for all it’s imperfectness. I had a Zune player which I still use till date and I still feel was reasonably good. I once owned a Nokia Lumia, which I felt was an elegant but incomplete piece of software with huge potential. I had to return it quickly as it had poor and meagre number of apps. This year I purchased and returned a Surface which was buggy as hell, but was again an incomplete yet fascinating piece of hardware.

All these experiences prove one thing. This is an incredibly amazing company which has lots of potential. Yet it still struggles to release ‘that perfect product’. When Zune was released, it never had an iTunes-type store. When Windows 8 was released, it never had apps. When Xbox was released, Microsoft made some compromises that would enable it to beat Sony for the holiday season, which it did at the cost of quality.

But still I feel this company has an insane drive to succeed. The new Microsoft Surface Pro 3 hardwares especially the spin off projects like Remix etc., look really promising, the Xbox One really exciting and the beautiful integration of Bing, Office 2013 , OneDrive and Skype integration on Microsoft Windows 8.1 absolutely exhilarating. There is no single software UI out there currently that can pull this off in desktop, tablet and phones simultaneously.

This is a company that has failed as much times it has succeeded. Over the decade, it made some good choices and many bad choices. It had always played the role of a follower than an innovator. But it is in the DNA of this company that once it has followed others with so much passion and an unbelievable drive, it eventually becomes a leader.

Image Courtesy: http://www.xgn.nl/images/articles/original/2012/40270-microsoft-legt-patent-op-draagbare-controllers.jpg

My experiences with Corruption in India

Corruption is a pandemic in India. Every sector of the Indian society has been gravely infested with this malaise. Last year because of the slew of corruption scandals under the Indian government, there were widespread protests by a very frustrated middle class.

I had a memorable experience with corruption during my time in India. It was way back during the years 2001-2005. It was during the days when dial up connections were your only source to be connected with the internet. My hometown was on a hilly terrain and the telephone cables were aboveground drawn through plastic conduits. This had both a positive and negative side to it. Maintenance of these lines if there were faults was relatively easy. But the above ground pipes also proved heavily fault prone, especially when large vehicles had to traverse through the narrow roads.

We had a really cocky telephone operator. If at all there were any faults with the line connection, it was really difficult to get him to come and have a look at them, without persuasion and in most cases wads of cash. If one dint pay up, he never returned in the future should there be any problem with their connection. Thanks to the monsoon season and the bad state of roads in my hometown, problems were frequent.

This corrupt telephone operator made it a habit to fleece everybody and with time, newer bad habits were developed. He made a list of the homes in the area where their sons and daughters worked outside India, and ensured that their telephone lines failed frequently, most of the time on the advent of visits by these children to their hometown. He promptly showed up once the rich children on holidays availed of his services, and pocketed huge amounts of money for his ‘efficient’ services.

I was also a frequent victim to his machinations. Most of the time it was easy to blame it on the state of roads or the weather. But slowly I started realizing a pattern. It was most of the time when I was in town or we had cousins or relatives over, that the telephone lines kept failing, even when we had good weather or roads that just returned from periodic maintenance.

Many times, I did confront him on his alleged misdemeanours and he sheepishly looked away, ignoring them most of the time. I yearned for a time when I could teach him a lesson. It wasn’t easy to report him to his superiors as the erstwhile Department of Telecom was corrupt, lazy and a bureaucratic quagmire.

Things started changing as the DoT was rechristened into a public company called BSNL. Since it was a full fledged company and once the sector was opened to private entrants, they had no choice but to change and become professional. But the protagonist of our story never changed.

Later on I moved out of India and I kept hearing tales about him with alarming regularity, as he perfected his art. I kept thinking to myself, ‘this is simply not right’. Whatever he is doing is not right and by not doing something about it, I am allowing such habits to go unpunished. After spending some days thinking about what I need to do, I decided on a plan. I drafted up an email to the higher-ups in BSNL, clearly explaining what he has been doing, and how his actions are becoming a social evil that was affecting everyone. I also explained to them in detail how helpless parents (whose children were working abroad) were held hostage by his machinations. Though a great deal was made in the media about the professionalism of this newly formed company BSNL, I dint expect anything great out of that email and quickly forgot about it.

Within a week, I heard something that made me startled. There was a huge delegation of BSNL managers, police and anti corruption squad (within BSNL) who took this telephone operator into custody, temporarily suspending him, that descended into our hometown. With just a couple of months to go into his retirement, his entire life and career looked jeopardized.

This delegation headed to our house and gently met up with my (now late) grandmother. She saw the pitiful condition this telephone operator and having known him for many years, denied all allegations out of sympathy for him. The delegation did exonerate him, but the whole experience just months before his retirement, unsettled him.

When I visited my hometown years after this, I heard that he changed a great deal in his last months and the whole tale of his experience was a warning to his successor who became an effective operator to this day.

This story always reminds me about how it is important for us to fight these vices of the society head on. I learnt a lot of lessons from this experience. Some of them were:

Corruption happens because as citizens we allow it to happen. Both hands are needed to make a clap.
In any modern society, it’s always about the people. They are the foundation of any modern society. The social institutions are there to serve the people and not the other way around.
Corruption can be tackled, if we the citizens gang-up to fight it.
Corruption is also a result of ineffective democratic systems and practises. Think about this for a change: Which is more easier, fill up paperwork and spend days chasing the paperwork across the inefficient bureaucratic chain for days and weeks-or to pay up and get the work done within hours? These ineffective democratic systems and practises arise from inept and lazy political representatives who are busy filling their pockets than to be worried about some actual work, that they were elected to do in the first place.

To conclude, participation in the democratic process is not merely casting a vote on the day of election, but a continuous and aggressive demand for better vision, services from their representatives.

Image Courtesy: http://www.themebin.com/hd-wallpapers/corruption-hd-wallpaper/

Why politics needs reform…

Someone once said that politics is the last resort for scoundrels. Today world over, this saying has been painfully more than accurate. Being in civilian politics these days, is never a profession to brag about.

Why are the politicians so hated? First they come to you during the time of elections begging for votes. They behave like a long lost friend, your most loved relative and try every trick in their book to coax you for that one vote. They amazingly repeat the same with scores of people minus any disdain. The common man is all forgiving and all the prior transgressions committed by the former are quickly forgotten. The smartest of these politicians get the vote and are elected. It doesn’t take much time after which their true colours come out and they forget the people who voted them and only remember the ones who funded them.

This is the sad state of affairs all around the world in various democratic societies . Politicians are among the least moral compass of the society that they claim to represent. When calamity happens they cash on it for personal gains; in India when a girl gets raped, according to them it’s her fault and they find reasons to blame her; in Italy the prime minister sleeps with minors; in Syria the president is more than happy to gas his own citizens; in China while the country is developing, the politicians are more than happy to loot the wealth and prevent its flux into the common people who needs it the most; and it goes on and on. There are simply no rules, morals or ethics in politics.

Politics needs reforms, or to be explicit-urgent reforms. Just as professions like engineering, medicine etc., are regulated in many parts of the world, politics shouldn’t be any different. It needs to have its own set of rules. It needs to have a system that creates leaders, visionaries and not crooks and sycophants. It needs to be a welcoming platform for the cream of the society, to partake in the decision making process.

‘One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors’.
Plato

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

What does Modi’s coronation mean for India?

Last Friday, September 13^th 2013, the chief minister of Gujarat, Shri. Narendra Modi was crowned as the BJP’s presidential candidate for 2014 General Election. This decision by the principal opposition party of India to anoint a highly polarizing figure of Indian politics, has been welcomed across the country with jubilation and acclaim. Ten years ago, this same person was accused of playing the fiddle while his state burnt in the aftermath of riots.

A week is a long time in politics, and hence a decade-an eternity. During this time period, while his accusers happily looted the country and destroyed every single establishment of this democratic country, Modi worked hard to ensure that his state remained prosperous and development oriented. It was tough since he was an untouchable in politics due to the riots; being the son of a tea vendor, he was an outsider in the Lutyen’s bred caste of politicians in India. In order to understand how important his coronation is, one needs to understand the Lutyen’s bred caste of politicians.

As mentioned in this blog post earlier, there has been a concerted effort since colonial times to ensure that the affairs of India lay in the hand of a privileged few. It is so astounding that one family has literally ruled India for more than three quarters of its time as an independent nation. This very family has promoted a culture of nepotism, corruption, communal appeasement and sycophancy the likes of which have never seen anywhere else in the modern world.

India today is floundering. As the wheels of time move to a new dawn, when the Asian dragon and tiger come relevant as world powers once again, the tiger is being slowly decimated due to well orchestrated struggles from within.

Narendra Modi has been thrust into these times when the hardworking Indian middle class, rendered toothless and spineless for ages, is frustrated with a country in decline due to its own doing. Stories of rapes, corruption scams and scandals fill the news headlines each day. The growth story of the country has already been stunted. Should Indians all around the world and in the country sit and watch what is happening, or change history this time around ?

Barack Obama was an outsider in the Washington nitty gritty political scene. He was elected in an amazing campaign to be America’s first black president by an electorate desperate for change. He inherited a country in shambles, burnt by two expensive wars and an economic recession caused by greed. In his second term as a president, the unemployment numbers are falling and US is on track to be an energy superpower by 2030.

The same applies to India, the world’s most populous democracy. Democracy should be of the people, not of a family; by the people and not buy the people; and for the people and not against the people.

The present Congress party that rules India from an umbrella of coalition is filled with people whose only objective is to cling on to power at any cost. For them the country is immaterial, the societal progress is unwarranted and the upliftment of the people immaterial. It is India’s time to change from the demons of its past, learn from its mistakes of history and forge a new future of hope.

Image courtesy: http://www.straitstimes.com/sites/straitstimes.com/files/imagecache/story-gallery-featured/20130906/09modi06e.jpg

Why do modern societies need any armies ?

“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.”
Thomas Paine

Armed forces are the pride of any nation. Millions of armed men keep a constant vigil on our borders so that you and me can get along with our business of making a living and creating value added lives. From time immemorial, man has always been prone to constant bouts of war and peace. If the 19th century was dominated by the world wars and the cold wars, the 20th century just a decade into its existence has already seen armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, Syria and now finally Egypt. In addition to huge losses of life and property, these wars have also altered our modern society due to a never before seen penetration of information, thanks to advances in technology.

Being a silent spectator to many of these wars from the safe confines of my home, I’ve always felt for those tales of incalculable losses and sufferings. I have keenly observed many of these wars and found that people talk till they fail, then fight till they tire and then talk till they compromise. This has been the scenario in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In many other cases, talks or diplomacy have prevented many an outbreak of war. This leads to an important existential question. If wars don’t result in a resolution of conflict and talks do, then shouldn’t we be trying for the latter, rather than the former?

In other cases, just as what is playing currently in Egypt and many other countries like Pakistan et. al, is the fact that the army becomes an existential threat to the whole idea of a nation, when it goes beyond its mandate to protect its citizens and grab the power. Most of the time this happens because of an over ambitious army chief with an insatiable lust for power. When this happens, the country finds itself in a descending spiral of gloom and disrepair.

A good percent of a country’s GDP goes in maintaining these huge armies. Look at the case of the developing countries and potential superpowers of tomorrow, India and China and the huge amounts of money that is being spend to maintain their huge armies. Their contribution here is about 2.5% (249 billion) and 2% (119 billion) respectively of their GDP. All these amounts can be used to bolster the social spending in these nations, rather than the upkeep of a few.

It is easy to sit in the confines of one’s home and write about millions who toil day and night to ensure that we live well, work hard and have a good night’s rest. The intention of this blog is not either. When a good amount of the financial and human resources of a country is invested in maintaining a huge governmental enterprise such as an army, it needs to be structured in a way that it benefits the citizens and not the other way round.

Having a reserve force is a great idea. Compulsory military training along between the ages of 18 and 25 is even better. This would instill in the youth of a country a sense of love and belonging in addition to the advent of a disciplined and responsible society. These trained individuals would form an integral part of a reserve force that would be assembled in case of an emergency. Diplomacy should be the first step in the face of an external aggression. If it fails, the reserve force should be used to enforce peace.

In today’s world, wars are destructive, brutal and leaves a trail of devastation, hopelessness and depression. The objectives of a modern society cannot be met by killing each other in name of an idea or ideology. It doesn’t need a large standing army that gobbles up much needed capital which would have benefitted the least fortunate.

Image courtesy: http://pixhome.blogspot.ca/2013/02/us-army-military-hd-wallpapers-armed.html