Rumi Nations

I thought to jot down a few thoughts on some of the folks I admire ... Jawaharlal Nehru — Some people are skeptical about Nehru. They say: “what did Nehru do?” Often, of course, they tend to have minimal knowledge of history. I happen to be truly a ‘student’ of history as I never studied it as part of a curriculum but have tried to read some of it as an adult. As I try to learn a little more about the man, I realize how ignorant I was and my admiration for his increases by leaps and bounds. It’s easy to be skeptical … particularly in the modern Indian context where people in public life are so mired in corruption and all sorts of unethical practices. But one should not take one’s skepticism too far and latch on to some minor human imperfection of a man like Nehru and proceed to pass judgment on him on the basis of that slight imperfection. Well, I don’t know if I ever will get the time to get to read enough about Nehru and by Nehru (remembering that he was a prolific writer as well) t...

In traditional societies like that of India, old people are accorded a lot of respect. Is this well-deserved or a relic from the past? I believe the 'tradition' of respecting one's elders is a relic from a time in our past when society was essentially agrarian. If you think of how such a society functions, skills are handed from generation to generation — farmers' kids grow up to become farmers and carpenters' kids grow up to become carpenters, and so on . . . In such a society, kids acquire their 'professional' skills from their fathers . . . so, obviously they need to 'respect' their elders as the elders are the ones with the 'knowledge.' In the modern world, kids acquire their life skills in schools and colleges and make of their lives whatever they wish to by learning the necessary skills. As far as the color of the hair goes, scientists can tell you about the technical reasons behind hair turning gray. Black hair is black because of the ...