After the intense and enlightening discussion on an earlier post - An Unquiet Mind Over Matter - I couldn’t help resist sharing today’s Quote of the Day from The Quotation’s Page. It’s a perfect rejoinder that serves a sumptuous dessert of humor!
- Kurt Vonnegut
US novelist (1922 - 2007)
A few weeks back, I read Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion say:
I want us to flinch when we hear of a ‘Christian child’ or a ‘Muslim child’. Small children are too young to know their views on life, ethics and the cosmos. We should no more speak of a Christian child than of a Keynesian child, a monetarist child or a Marxist child. Automatic labeling of children with the religion of their parents is not just presumptuous. It is a form of mental child abuse.
I’ve been thinking about this ever since, when I was asked the following questions by Ashok in comments on his Temple Matters post:
1) What is your opinion on children being taken to temples but not encouraged to ask why?
2) At what point do you think parents/elders should leave the decision of finding personal meaning in religion to the individual? What would you do with your children?
For a novice parent, these are profound questions, and it is important for any parent to think about these.
To start with, there is no doubt in my mind in fully agreeing with Dawkins. I was indoctrinated as a Hindu child, and chose atheism only in my teens, after I discovered and studied other philosophies. I did not have to go through a tenacious struggle myself, but I can well imagine different experiences for others. I would disagree with indoctrination of any kind. One must encourage one’s children to think for themselves, and choose what they think is right.
Given that religion is based on blind faith and not reason, it is hardly surprising that most religious parents blindly indoctrinate their children in what they themselves believe is the best for their children’s good. But what about atheists? Do atheists equally provide an open environment for their children to let them choose between religion and atheism?
Even as an atheist, I believe that I should not indoctrinate my child with atheistic principles. Even if I was raised as a Hindu, I will let my child attend a Christian convent school if it offers quality education, even though it may expose her to Christian traditions. I will let her grandparents take her to Hindu temples and let her see and have that experience. I will teach her not to discriminate among her friends based on religion if I find hints of any such thing. Over time, I would encourage her to think critically for herself.
So my response to Ashok’s questions is: #1 is pure indoctrination. Not encouraging children to ask questions is bad parenting. Not allowing them to, is mental child abuse, as Dawkins points out. #2: From the birth of the child. You can provide facts, information, and knowledge. But the decision of finding personal meaning in religion or elsewhere is a birthright of the child.
Of course, it’s not as simple as it sounds (who said rational parenting was easy?). When she asks me for the first time (whenever that is), “Dad, what is God”?, what will be my response? Will it be “Dear, God is a fictitious entity that many people believe in?” No, I suspect I will point at an idol somewhere and say “That is what people call God”, and thus side-step the question of his existence. If after a couple of years she asks “Dad, where can I find God?”, I’ll say “I don’t know dear. I haven’t found him yet. If you do, please let me know.” As she grows up, I will continue to encourage independent thinking. When she is mature enough to understand how different people can have different values, I can then explain what my values are. Well, I hope so! 
What are your thoughts?
Update: 11th Oct: I realize that comments section on this post can be too restricted a space for many people to espouse their ideas. I have also learnt that this is a universal topic for parents who think. Hence, as can be seen from the comments section below, this topic is now a meme, open to all.
It has already been taken up by The Rational Fool, La Vie Quotidienne, and AgelessBonding. Feel free to take up this meme on your own blog and write on this topic.
Cartoon Credits: David Horsey, via The Primate Diaries
The Indo-US Nuclear Deal has become like the story of The Blind Men and an Elephant.
Let’s see how.
Thinking that this was the end of the rope for energy ambitious India, Singh decided to hold on to it. He warned others “not to miss the bus“.
Alas, he didn’t know he’ll have to cling on to it for his dear life as he had no idea of the ride that ensued. He probably hoped this was not the end of the rope for his government.
Used to being a superpower, the Bush Administration thought it was on top of the situation.
With someone having read about The Dragon & The Elephant and told Bush about it, he thought he could make friends with the Elephant to fight the Dragon.
Alas, some observers thought he was trying to tame it instead of befriending it!
Having bet their money on this slow moving beast is now worrying them.
Looking at Bush on top, it first decided to join the ride, but the ears flip flopped, and so did the BJP. Having held onto the ears for so long, it thought everyone around would be all ears when they protested and brought down the parliament.
China has been aware of this elephant for ages, and fears being trampled by it. While not openly attacking the elephant, it tries to surreptitiously overpower it. It’s afraid of striking a spear into the leg, fearing that the elephant may go berserk.
The Left soon realized that it can easily arm-twist the trunk. Riding in the air for a while distanced them from ground reality, not to mention getting used to a lot of hot air.
Finally, the Left decided to blow its own trumpet, giving a deaf ear to the discordant trumpets from their own group.
Moral of the Story? Feel free to use the comment box!
There was once a Rambodoc
Who twisted word and mind
Along came An Unquiet Mind
And soon they were one of a kind
Not forgetting herself, Aikaterine joined
Oemar’s random musings entwined
Thiru was perched on a spot
No wonder as he was on blogspot
Priyank was flying in the cloud
While Arun thought out loud
Sree’s views, and Nita with her wide angle view
Brought many topics in everyone’s purview
Prerna loved life and explored
While we all many times deplored
The numerous human gaffes
Using philos(ophy) in Paul’s Cafe
Monday Morning Power had an attitude
Not unlike Harsha, the gentle dude
Ergo with reason as his leading motive
Held his blog readers captive
On top of all this assorted mix
Was Krish Ashok, a lover of Asterix
Dressing it all up with salsa
Using his inimitable Jalsa
This eclectic mix of characters
Reminds me of Lagaan
And that’s why on Independence Day
I say, Mera Blogosphere Mahaan!
(PS: For benefit of non-Indians, Mera Blogosphere Mahaan means My Blogosphere is Great!)
Share this post :
After the Munnabhai style Gandhigiri worked in the case of American green card seekers, his “magic hug” resolved another problem (thanks to GF’s blog):
The Washington Post reports:
It started about midnight on June 16 when a group of friends was finishing a dinner of marinated steaks and jumbo shrimp on the back patio of a District of Columbia home. That’s when a hooded man slid through an open gate and pointed a handgun at the head of a 14-year-old girl.
“Give me your money, or I’ll start shooting,” he said. Everyone froze, including the girl’s parents. Then one guest spoke.
“We were just finishing dinner,” Cristina Rowan, 43, told the man. “Why don’t you have a glass of wine with us?” The intruder had a sip of their Chateau Malescot St-Exupery and said, “Damn, that’s good wine.”
The girl’s father, Michael Rabdau, 51, told the intruder to take the whole glass, and Rowan offered him the whole bottle. The robber, with his hood down, took another sip and a bite of Camembert cheese. He put the gun in his sweatpants.
The story then turns even more bizarre.
“I think I may have come to the wrong house,” he said before apologizing. “Can I get a hug?”
Rowan stood up and wrapped her arms around the armed man. The four other guests followed.
“Can we have a group hug?” the man asked. The five adults complied.
The man walked away a few moments later with the crystal wine glass in hand. Nothing was stolen, and no one was hurt.
Once he was gone, the group walked into the house, locked the door and stared at each other - speechless. Police classified the case as strange but true.
Bollywood is not so much “fantasy-world” after all!
The Leaning Tower of Pisa no longer leans quite so much after a £20 million project to save it was hailed a complete success yesterday. The tower, which was on the verge of collapse, has been straightened by 18 inches (45 centimetres) returning it to its 1838 position.
Did you know that the Tower is actually curved, because its builders tried to compensate for its subsidence during construction?
Meanwhile, plans for a second leaning tower are not only angering residents, but received flak from the British engineer who helped save the original.
So, keeping aside our own obsession with fairness creams, when are we applying the deep cleansing facial mud pack to the Taj? Unlike those other fairness creams, this one is actually proven to work!
Another factoid, in case you didn’t know: unlike the Tower of Pisa, which leans unintentionally, the Taj’s minarets lean outwards intentionally, to protect the main tomb in case of collapse. When I visited the Taj Mahal in my childhood, I was most fascinated by this wisdom of the architects.
Courtesy Email by a friend:
Q. What did the Big Ben say to the Tower of Pisa?
A. I’ve the time if you’ve the inclination!
Time for some humor before we begin the week at work! Received this in an email forward, is quite hilarious!
It was the first day of school and a new student named Chandrashekhar Subramanyam entered the fourth grade.
The teacher said, “Let’s begin by reviewing some American History. Who said, “Give me Liberty , or give me Death”?
She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Subramanyam, who had his hand up: “Patrick Henry, 1775″ he said.
“Very good!” Who said, “Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth?”
Again, no response except from Subramanyam. “Abraham Lincoln, 1863″ said Subramanyam.
The teacher snapped at the class, “Class, you should be ashamed. Subramanyam, who is new to our country, knows more about its history than you do!”
She heard a loud whisper: “F**k the Indians!”
“Who said that?” she demanded.
Subramanyam put his hand up. “General Custer, 1862.”
At that point, a student in the back said, “I’m gonna puke.”
The teacher glares around and asks “All right! Now, who said that?”
Again, Subramanyam says, “George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991.”
Now with almost a mob hysteria someone said, “You little shit. If you say anything else, I’ll kill you.”
Subramanyam frantically yells at the top of his voice, “Gary Condit to Chandra Levy, 2001.”
The teacher fainted. And as the class gathered around the teacher on the floor, someone said, “Oh shit, we’re fucked!”
And Subramanyam said quietly, “George Bush, Iraq , 2005.”
Imagine being in charge of AIDS-prevention in India, where you’ve to market condoms to the masses, amidst this country’s socio-religious-conservatively charged atmosphere. Rather than cringing at the thought, some people actually rise up to it, and produce some great advertising campaigns.
Condoms for the India’s trucking community, are branded as “Dipper”. They are inspired by a request for dimmed headlights painted on the back of trucks in the country, “Use Dipper At Night,” which S.Y. Quraishi, head of the National AIDS Control Organization, hopes will provide plenty of free advertising.
Another one showed three cricket stumps, sheathed in condoms, beneath the slogan: “Save your wicket from the unwanted googlies of life!”
While on this topic, some heartening news came out this month. The estimated number of AIDS victims in India has, er, dipped. And what a dip it was - between 2-3 million, instead of almost 6.
Back to the ad, I actually haven’t seen this particular request to use the dipper at night. It’s all mostly “Horn OK Please” and other stuff that I never read. Well, I work during the day, and, um, have better things to do at night than read signs on the back of trucks right? 
No, no, I meant, things like observing the visibility of Alcor, the tiny companion to Mizar in the Big Dipper, to assess the level of pollution! I like to watch the sky before dipping off to sleep, don’t you?
I’ve always enjoyed Amul Butter’s ads. Did you know you can view most of the Amul ads right from 1976 to the present on Amul’s site? (Disclaimer: this blog author will not be held responsible for the hours of time a reader may waste following this link).
“For 30 odd years the Utterly Butterly girl has managed to keep her fan following intact. So much so that the ads are 
now ready to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for being the longest running campaign ever.
India looked forward to Amul’s evocative humour. If there was an Indian Airlines strike Amul would be there again saying, Indian Airlines Won’t Fly Without Amul.
“We ran a couple of ads that created quite a furore,” says Sylvester daCunha. “The Indian Airlines one really angered the authorities. They said if they didn’t take down the ads they would stop supplying Amul butter on the plane. 
So ultimately we discontinued the ad,” he says laughing.
Then there was the time when the Amul girl was shown wearing the Gandhi cap. The high command came down heavy on that one. The Gandhi cap was a symbol of independence, they couldn’t have anyone not taking that seriously. So despite their reluctance the hoardings were wiped clean.
“Then there was an ad during the Ganpati festival which said, Ganpati Bappa More Ghya (Ganpati Bappa take more). 
The Shiv Sena people said that if we didn’t do something about removing the ad they would come and destroy our office. It is surprising how vigilant the political forces are in this country.”
Heroine Addiction, Amul’s little joke on Hussain had the artist ringing the daCunhas up to request them for a blow up of the ad.
Er, um…wait. Didn’t Hussain take them to court for defamation and hurting his public image and sentiments? Folks like him have no self-respect or dignity - shouldn’t people like him be banned? 
“He said that he had seen the hoarding while passing through a small district in UP. He said he had asked his assistant to take a photograph of himself with the ad because he had found it so funny,” says Rahul daCunha in amused tones. Indians do have a sense of humour, afterall.”
Read the full story behind Amul’s 39-year old ad campaign here.
When worms were found in Cadbury’s chocolates, Amul ran a campaign with a punchline that read “Cadbura” (implying Cadbury is bad).
For more on the ad agency and people involved in creating Amul’s ads over the decades, read this blog post.
This Hindu Business Line article is a good discussion about a brand’s staying power (discussing Amul, Onida, Liril, etc.). Among other things, it reveals “What’s more, Amul’s ad agency has carte blanche to say what it wants in its ads, a unique feature in client-ad agency relationships across the world”.
Lastly, coming back to the original topic of this post, did you know that Amul is the largest food brand in India with an annual turnover of US $868 million (2005-06)?
Currently Amul has 2.41 million producer members with milk collection average of 5.08 million litres/day. Amazing feat, considering the history behind it. And yes, they’re really rooting for the Guiness Records!
(All images from Amul’s site)
“I remember my first week in india. I could not even drink water. Everything tasted so spicy to me. I went hungry for three days until a friend whom I had come with found out this hotel called Paradise. They specialise in serving biryani. From my first taste of that dish I can’t pass that hotel whenever I’m in that area.
Although it was a bit spicy as one would expect, but that is something I was ready to bear, considering the fact that I was hungry for days and that the aroma of the food could have awoken even Mahatma Gandhi from his grave. It had such a strong and fresh aroma of different spices that was so soothing to the taste buds, I actually forgot the burning on my tongue until I finished eating.”
What a humorous, unselfconsciously innocent expression!
Read the full account here!
