powers with forces

Off late I have been reading quite a few articles on the powers bestowed on the armed forces, whether they need to be given that, whether they abuse the powers and whether they use their powers against the innocent. While I don't have any direct experience, I do feel pretty strongly on what they face in their work and what they face in public and the press. One thing we all forget while criticizing the armed forces is the people they are against. I am not for the atrocities and misuse of power. Its all the more important that the armed forces don't do it because such acts means life and death for people.

But for a moment we need to think what they are pitted against. They are not playing a game of football where everyone plays by the same rule. Here their opponent is a criminal who care nothing more than their immediate mission. And that's to kill. In such circumstances, the forces certainly need some leeway. The rules and laws are not exactly in conjunction with the reality that the forces operate in. From my little knowledge of how things operate, it would be very very difficult to catch criminals and terrorists if the forces were not given extra judicial authority, given some leeway in the way laws are interpreted. We should remember that they put their lives in danger and cannot always be worrying if they are obeying every law that applies here when they have to fight for their lives - and ours.

Its another issue that the leeway and flexibility should not be misused. And all the deference should be justified before competent authority. We do it all the time. When we have a patient who needs immediate medical care, we really don't care to follow all the road rules. We may break them, and can justify that. I think the armed forces deserve a little bit of that. As with most areas, and professions, the personnel at the armed forces are also bound to deviate from the norm and misuse it. Dealing with criminals day in and day out can make you a little bit of a criminal yourself. Its not a justification. Its the sorry state of human mind.

The examples are numerous with respect to misuse. Yet it might have been a misuse and abuse that would have saved a million lives. We don't hear about them. When the abuse consumes an innocent life, its news. It should not have happened? What should not have happened? The misuse by itself or the misuse on innocent people?

If things don't work at our jobs, big deal. The outcomes are predictable. There in a battlefield, its a horrible world. Actions have consequences beyond our comprehension. The risks and threats are too great for any law to provide protection to the armed forces and their family. There is nothing to stop the criminal from acting on a soldier's family. We don't face that in our work.

I do believe they need some leeway and advantage given where and how and against whom they operate. Misuse of power is wrong. Whoever wherever whenever. The solution is not in denying them the power. Or in handicaping them and yet expecting results in a tough dirty playground. Its in educating them what it means when they misuse it. Sounds simple. But in a moment of pressure and life and death, when thousands of life are at stake, they might think sacrificing a single innocent life is ok in order to save a 1000 innocent lives. Its for the society to decide whether they would be ok with it or rather not have even a single innocent person get wrongly punished.  

Good bye to Minneapolis

Its tata to Minneapolis for now. A city I love so much. A sort of hometown for me. Three full years and a lifetime of experiences. People. Activities. Things to see. Things to learn. The most important being - 'Shovel off the snow and get on with life'. This place is truly a hidden treasure. So are the people. What can I say. I am going to miss all the people I know here. Quite a few that is. Thanx to all the shramdhans, AID activities and the U. (To the uninitiated, at Minnesota, U implies the University of Minnesota).

My new job is taking me to Chicago. Don't know where I will be next month though. I am happy I would get to work at different places in different organizations as part of my new company. Promises to be fun. Would be nice to try and get involved with the local community in short durations. It took me more than 2 years to establish all my contacts here, get to know people from different sections of the society - both geographically and otherwise - students, professionals, indian owned businesses, etc. And suddenly I have to let go all of it.

I was always a proponent of 'charity begins at home' and hence concentrated my involvement with AID to things that deal with the people right here. Be it organizing events using local talents or getting funds for that through local businesses or helping local groups in their events. To me, these kind of activities directly connects me to the people I am involved with. And it gives me a sense of doing something useful without the feeling of feeling superior.

You may wonder why. Its so good to feel superior, better, helpful, in a position of
being able to serve rather than served. To me, all that would deny me one thing I value the most - the opportunity to learn. Unless and until we are humbled by our actions, we are not going to learn much from it. If we swell our chests with pride, it will only lead to one thing - elation. We would think about the result and feel happy. But the actions that got us there would be forgotten in the celebration. Results as such tell very little. They are poor teachers. Its the actions that got the results - whatever may be the outcome - the real enlightener. In a state of joy, and in a state of sorrow, it is very difficult to think rationally, leave alone learn something from that experience. In success we are happy. In defeat we are sad. By the time we get over those feelings, we are already into our next project. Very rarely do we squeeze some extra juice from that success or defeat by reflecting on our actions and the outcome. I always believed it is very imperative to be even headed in order to observe, learn, and use it in our future endeavours.

With all the exposure I had here, I am hoping things would be better. More enriching and sophisticated. Sophisticated in terms of my expectations from what I do and what I experience and get.

Chicago, here I come. After experiencing all the winter here, I am sure your heavy wind would be a breeze :)

Ms. Roy

If it gets any slower, it would stop. That’s how the week was. Went so slow that I feel I am sitting at exactly the same place on the time scale as I was last week. Or may be it was the book I was reading last week. Power Politics by Arundhati Roy. It’s a collection of a few of her articles. I have read a lot of her pieces online but I can keep reading her work again and again. Yes. I hear people seething their teeth over how she goes on and on with long sentences filled with words found only in an unabridged dictionary. And I vividly remember someone saying her writing would get failing score from a 5th grade English teacher.

And I, like a true gentleman, am going to jump to her defense. I shall not discuss her views. I am not exactly in conjunction with her opinions. I will only discuss her style. Agreed whatever she says could be said in a short simple sentence that can be understood by a 6th grader with English as his second language. But where is the fun in it? Where is the entertainment? Why do we have long winding dialogues in our movies? Why do we have punch lines in movies? Politicians make sure to include sound bites worthy of publication in next day’s newspaper in all their speeches. Why? To convey a picture. An opinion. A point of view with a bang.

If I am writing a research paper, a scientific article, I would be concerned about conveying the facts right and the right facts. Every word would count towards conveying something coherent. A sentence would be scrutinized independently and needs to stand the scientific analysis. There is no room for flowery flamboyant language. Each sentence would be like the ten individual 1's that add up to 10. Each one is vital. Each one is simple. No debate what so ever in what they mean.

When it comes to painting a picture with words, I am not too bothered with the individual facts and minute details. It’s the big picture that I am concerned with. I would be more worried about making the reader think about what I am thinking and less about what exactly I am thinking. I want them to address issues I discuss but not necessarily understand or know fully how I address them. That requires, if needed, drugging the reader with magical words, creating an aura and mystic around the issue, so that the reader is motivated to think about it. Not so as to embed my ideas. But to bounce it off him so as to see those thoughts in a new light. Those meandering words are like rainbow. No two person ever sees the same.

Ultimately it’s a question of personal choices. Like choice of food or clothing. Her writing to me is like long Chinese noodles with lots of spice. Ya they are difficult to eat. Clumsy especially to those who use the chopsticks to try and learn to use it till the food arrives and drop it at the sight of their food. Yet we enjoy those long winding spicy noodles. May not be relished in our everyday hurry. But certainly a nice choice when you want to enjoy not just the food, but the atmosphere you are having it in, the people you are with and the discussions that are ignited by all that and more. Her writing is like that. It needs to be enjoyed at its pace. Used as a beginning to discuss what she attempts to open your eyes to. You may spend more time reading a sentence because of the construction and the choice of words. That’s more time to ponder and form an even more convoluted opinion on the discussion. They are writen to make you aware of issues. Not to educate you on them.

And think about all the impressions you can create with your new found command over complex sentences. No longer can the English major in the marketing department fool you. Instead you can fool around him/her and get away with a date. You can bulldoze your way to the top by talking complex, correct and inexplicable sentences to 'will not confess I didn’t understand' managers.

Whoever said KISS (Keep it simple, stupid)…