There is the ignoble part of me that envies the youth in India. More particularly the youth in Bengalooru. They are living in a world that I thought Iwould never see again and they are living it brimming with the youthful energies that I once had. In the words of the song, it smells like teen spirit all up in here.
A heady scent, that. It is one that I and my generation, encountered, experienced, infused into ourselves, better than half a century ago. And in so doing changed the course of human social history. I believe for the better. The Youth of B’loor (Yo...) – no wait, that’s an unfortunate acronym – Youth in B’loor (YiB), stand on the threshold of doing the same.
There is that dusky undertone of Travel, Adventure, New Experiences, and Unpredictable Delights that happen when strangers start living next door to each other. In B’loor that happens because of all the cities in India, B’loor ranks among the newer ones. India’s older cities, the large ancient ones, grew over the centuries. With their various sectarian and ethnic agglutinations domiciled in enclaves of sameness, those older cities perpetuated, and still do (to one degree or another), the mildly xenophobic attitudes of the rural and traditional backgrounds of the denizens. B’loor, on the other hand, exploded into city-dom. Young Information Technology worker bees swarmed B’loor from all parts of India, bringing with them bits and pieces of their ‘native’. Without Mom, Dad, and the parivar looking over their shoulders these youngsters, Youngistan, to give them their generational label started mingling. The huge advantage to mingling is that in its Brownian motion it knocks of those edges that don’t fit, leaving a well rounded organism that merges into the larger whole of Modern India, or MoIn, as I prefer. (Get it? I did, it is a close relative of a pun). Next thing you know, and to quote Bobby Darin, you’ve got 2 butterflies, casting their eyes, both in the same direction with the resulting butterfly collection. That’s what happens when you’ve got young singles living in close proximity to each other. In MoIn, in B’loor, it is getting increasingly difficult for the ‘native’ to be identified by physical feature. Ask the children of the YiBs for their ‘native’ and you’ll get as confusing an answer as you would from any USian of my generation.
“Let’s see now. We started out in Syracuse, and then moved to McHenry, but I went to school in Iowa, California, Montana, New York, spending considerable amount of time in Amsterdam and Haight Ashbury.”
Except, of course, the names will be Indian. The music, the laughter, the love, the heady scent of The Possible, will have a B’loor accent.
World peace may not be that far away.

governance

So, I’m watching a news show the other night, and hear the moderator of the expert panel, say, with laudable passion, “I make no apologies for thinking with my heart”. She then went on to ask, in so many words, whether anyone had a problem with that. The statement and the question were in response to the rather baldly stated averment of a, no doubt eminent, panelist, who was trying to point to the emotional basis for an earlier exchange on Governance. Nobody, including the panelists, had a problem with thinking with the heart.
Except me, non-panelist that I am. I have a problem with that.
The heart, classically known as the Home of the Noble Humors, is not, as far as I can tell a particularly good thinking organ. For one thing there is altogether too much Nobility and the ancillary (nobility always has ancillaries) humors sloshing around, impeding Governance. Which, it can be argued, requires a fair degree of balance in the competing forces extant. Humors, qua humor, and the energies they generate are the motive force for the connections that need to be made in the brain that allow for the actions necessary to sustain, protect, and Govern. For that to happen we seem to need the corpus callosum, which the heart does not have  
. For those that might not remember, the corpus callosum is a mass of tissue in the form of a large X that connects the two lobes that comprise the brain. I’m told that its main function is to “facilitate”, [n.b. I’m quoting, not ironically emphasizing], the transfer of energies from one section of the brain to the other; a freeway interchange, if you will. I’m also told, by those who should know, or at the least be able to make intensively educated guesses, that our symmetrical bi-pedal Life is controlled by the opposing lobe. Which implies an interchange of some sort where gland generated energies mix, merge, and otherwise align into conscious thought and coherent communication. Which, as far as I can tell, is at the core of Governance.

god

Man, i wish we could get religion out of India's governance. Governance anywhere, actually. [If i could run things, i'd make religion join the list of private acts between consenting adults extant. If religion becomes a matter of conscious choice there may be less of the wretched excess that passes for worship. Not that the wretched excess would stop, but it would become less public. The moans, groans, and exhortations of religious ecstasy would be relegated to designated locales with Public Decency Laws keeping them indoors. Think of it as a sort of a purdah for the soul.] Where was i? Oh yes, religion, governance, India. The thing is, India hasn't yet gotten over her feudal mindset. No. Wait. That's a lazy thought. Most of India is now under the age of thirty-five and not particularly impressed by their elders and their shenanigans. Except when it comes to the religion. Indian youth don't seem to have made the differentiation between god and religion. Throw governance into the mix and...and... what you get is an unholy mess is what. I was going somewhere with this but i'll be damned if ...actually, now i remember. 
It has to do with this story i read, update notwithstanding.([http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/margaret-doughty-atheist-citizenship_n_3469358.html?ut]

Turns out religion, that is to say, Religion, is becoming necessary in that Citadel of Separation of Church and State. And now that i think about it at greater length, i should have more faith in Youngistan and their ability to separate the governance from religion. Especially since the religious governors of India are the ones insisting that early closing hours and modest attire are the pathways to progress and peace. Naaah, the kids will never buy it.