My Hippocampal Vehemence!!!!

I write this letter after I settle down from my routine journey back to home from office...only that today I was reading your op-ed in The Hindu (http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/id-rather-not-be-anna-arundhati-roy/), as i was greeted by IAC(India Against Corruption) workers who were hopping from one bus to another guiding people on Lokpal bill.

To start with let's go back by a few months- that was when Ms Roy you had pitied the nation..the same nation that you are so concerned about now.

Nevertheless having read through your entire article which perhaps is very typical of how some spotlight craving scoffer should put to pen her hurt sentiments...u seem to have written as if Anna stole your thunder.

Now as the entire nation talks about lokpal, what stands out in this entire episode is not a freshly minted saint leading the campaign but the fact that entire nation seeks a debate, a freshness to bring to closure the flaws that we are all so mindful.

The outcome of the protest even the usefulness of lokpal is debatable but certainly not the intentions.

Continuing to spew hatred, you draw an analogy of the protests with India's world cup victory, success of nuclear tests. I for sure would be extremely proud if the flags for these protests are borrowed from the world cup victory parade or nuclear test celebration ...for each of these represent a victory of nationalism ..each of these events united the Indian in all of us ...they gave common man a moment to cheer about, to raise his head with pride and to celebrate an achievement which was not his but of a fellow Indian.

I am but awestruck by your investigative disclosure on source of IAC's protests. It would be great if you could make us more knowledgeable on the source of maoists' and naxalites' funding --those that you so rightfully cherish.

While u r so concerned for Anna's silence on farmer's suicides, nandigram, lalgarh. Ms Roy when you stood and raised your new found concern for Kashmiri nationalism didn't you too forget about the kashmiri pandits who were chased out from their own homeland by the sympathizers and proponents of the same movement of “Azadi” that you so choice fully support. I am waiting for you to speak up for kashmiri pandits,to voice your opinion for one of the greatest planned ethnic cleansing of minorities in recent times (just that these minorities happened to be on the wrong side of fence where secularists like thyself seldom tread)

Then, it’s overwhelming to see the skepticism towards western world and free economy .Especially from someone who had no qualms accepting a booker from a body represented mainly by westerners and for a book with thick anti-communist undertones.

Your entire article is ripe with contempt for the urban elite getting together...let me remind you Ms. Roy the same elite has time and again been criticized by people of your flock to remain quiet and be too self involved, once they come together for a cause skeptics like you are quick to brand the protests as elitist and detached from reality.

In this my cause is bigger than yours argument of yours, you perhaps forgot that The same people you so often embrace for the glamour (or lack of it)..the naxals, the bodos- have directly or indirectly resulted from the institution of corruption.

Let me tell you Ma'am there are many like me who have reservation against Lokpal bill but who definitely are unanimous in their protest against corruption.

Yes Ms Roy you'd rather not be Anna...sine we are convinced the nation cannot rally behind a cynic like you...this country needs hope and not cynicism...it needs people who enthuse it with their positivity and not conspiracy theorists. After years people have risen for a cause that affects the future of our nation, let not skepticism infused by an unworthy scoffer dampen the spirits.

I agree largely with one part of your article..You’d rather not be Anna. And thankfully for our nation you are not and cannot be an Anna!!

“Money is the greatest of all virtues”, I came across this statement in Atlas Shrugged, when Fransisco d’Anconia talks about money as a virtue. As I read past the whole speech that Fransisco makes to Rearden, this one line stuck into my brain. As I linger on this statement I realized that this statement in fact could be debated over endlessly. We as children have had the fortune of witnessing India’s progression from a trouble torn socialist economy flirting occasionally with capitalist virtues and then moving into a liberalized economy. We have our parents and teachers all those who have been a part of yesteryear’s economies telling us how wide the disparity was and how the socialist ideology was driving the country. But is that all over today, I mean how many people agree with the statement that money is greatest of all virtues and do not consider the industrialists to be unethical looters. Probably the number is few but still many people have not been able to come out of the nehruvian socialism which we have nurtured for so long. So till date a person who makes profit and claims that he makes it with no guilt and for the reason of just making one is contemptuously looked upon as a looter for he could not have made profit by simple means and if he is not willing to part off with the money in the name of welfare he is a sinner.

Let us just consider why do we have to tell tales of Narayan Murthy being a simple man, who does the cleaning of his toilet on his own, has a soft corner for charity- to reaffirm that he actually is a great man and that he does great service to the nation through the company’s CSR initiatives, we don’t look at it this ways --that the greatest service he has done to the nation is by launching a profit earning company Infosys which employs close to one lac people.

This effect remains more so with the people born into the ages of our parents who continue to see things in socialist light and the sad part is the current bunch of politicians who are ruling us are all byproducts of that era which has learned to celebrate poverty and treat money with contempt. Though this discussion is bound to be distracted in numerous directions right from populism to socialism. The main point is that whether money and profit are getting their due in society- well I believe things are changing rapidly and for good. Money being regarded as the greatest virtue can still be open for debate, but if at all there was a debate on the greatest inventions of all time- I think Money definitely should win hands down for this is one invention that has changed the course of mankind, with so much energy at our disposal and the evolutions gift to man-- his ability to think, all made it necessary to have something that is the product of this thinking mind and is a means of survival but nevertheless is not a match to the mind. And if it was not for money the endless energies would have been directed to overpowering and killing each other to establish supremacy of one person over the other so if it was not for money it would have been for killing. That’s when I think the discussion is narrowing the gap and the greatest invention starts appealing like the greatest virtue.