of cars, thoughts and rats.

Continuous comparison,

city life of crowds and competition

no space to hear yourself think

others breathing down your neck

the heat grit smoke dust

choking all life around.

The seat of government and diplomacy,

madness and no mercy.

To thrive: a miraculous task;

most just barely survive.

The dream and drive of making it big,

the unbeatable will to stay alive.

Against all odds the craze continues

rewarding few

crippling many.

Delhi, do you have any idea

of where you’re leading the country?

You are an unsettled head

in an aching body.

You are trying too hard to keep up,

to prove yourself to the world,

and leaving too much behind.

Delhi, in my belly, on my mind:

are you aware of what you’re doing?

Mr. Geithner has his work cut out for him, economists and policy analysts in both India and the United States say. Reaching economic agreements between the two countries has traditionally been an arduous task.

“On principle, they both agree on everything,” said Jahangir Aziz, chief India economist at J. P. Morgan in Mumbai. “It always comes down to the nitty-gritty and that’s where things get stuck. Part of the problem is neither of them wants to give the other side an inch.”

Shouldn’t the US go a little easier on India, given the size of its market?

It took nearly 20 years for the United States to lift a ban on imports of Indian mangoes, for example, and a deal to allow energy-strapped India access to American nuclear technology, agreed to in principle four years ago, still has not cleared all the legal hurdles that would let American companies sign contracts here. The two countries remain far apart on American farm subsidies and India’s unwillingness to open its markets to foreign farmers, because they both want to protect their agricultural sectors. The countries’ disagreements there helped to scuttle global trade negotiations in 2008.

A funny & relevant tweet from Sadhguru’s public talk yesterday:

When you start thinking only I am right and everybody else is wrong, this is the first step towards madness.

Surely the US qualifies?

India as a culture has invested more time, energy and human resource toward the spiritual development of human beings for a very long time. This can only happen when there is a stable society for long periods without much strife. While all other societies were raked by various types of wars, and revolutions, India remained peaceful for long periods of time. So they invested that time in spiritual development, and it became the day to day ethos of every Indian.

The world looking towards India for spiritual help is nothing new. It has always been so in terms of exploring the inner spaces of a human being-how a human being is made, what is his potential, where could he be taken in terms of his experiences. I don’t think any culture has looked into this with as much depth and variety as India has. Mark Twain visited India and after spending three months and visiting all the right places with his guide he paid India the ultimate compliment when he said that anything that can ever be done by man or God has been done in this land.

So definitely as humanity, today we have reached many peaks in terms of science, economics or technology but if we do not heal the inner damage then all the power that technology has given us will only be used destructively. We are already on the verge of threatening the extinction of the planet. If human beings are not tempered from inside there will always be conflict.

I don’t know about the other gurus traversing the globe, but my endeavor is and theirs should be also, to aim at the political, economic and other areas of leadership. If some element of spirituality enters the life of these leaders, it could change the complexion of the world in a very short time. It is a priority and is beginning to happen but not significantly.

From Kavita Chhibber‘s interview with Sadhguru.

India

She wore a raiment of so many a hue An unfamiliar eye would think she is madness true Her children are such multi-flavored stew This amalgamation of culture a heady brew Isn’t man just an outcrop of the land that his forefathers slew It’s antiquated history of blood & beauty knew A faraway visitor here saw what man or god could ever do Now it is time that you & me blow life & breath anew. –Sadhguru

“Individual transformation is the way to global transformation.”–Sadhguru

For those of you who may not recognize this icon, it was popularized by Obama during his campaign for ‘change’ in America. Sadhguru has said, though, that change is temporary whereas transformation is permanent.

“If I show you a seed and say, this will become a great tree, if you don’t know the connection between a seed and a tree you will only see it as an insignificant little seed that can never transform into a huge and strong tree. Disbelief is all you will feel. But if you nurture it, you will see the seed transform itself into a strong tree.”

From a Q&A session posted on Kavita Chhibber’s site.

Check out the below video, “Sacred Seed”:

All of us are given a seed that has the possibility of boundlessness. You are very careful and good, so you preserve the seed. I destroy the seed and make it into a tree.–Sadhguru

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If you want a sacred seed to sprout and prosper you have to weed the place, cultivate the land, manure it, and you have to make sure enough water and sunlight finds its way. If you are afraid of the harshness of the sunlight and avoid it, you will also avoid the life-nourishing warmth of the sunlight. In your enslavement to the instinct of self-preservation you would like to avoid the sunlight; go stand in the shade. But you will miss the warmth of the life-nourishing light, too. That which is the basis of life is also that which ends life. That which burns also bakes. If you’re a good cook, you bake. If you’re a bad one, you burn.–Sadhguru

“A patriarchal ethos dominates both the societies, American and Indian, but they operate in different ways. In India, despite the patriarchal ethos, powerful women leaders have emerged,” says political scientist Imtiaz Ahmed.

The most famous examples are BSP chief Mayawati and AIADMK head Jayalalitha. Both emerged from the shadow of iconic godfathers, to establish themselves as leaders with grassroots support.

It is not enough to be someone’s wife, sister or mistress in Indian politics. Neerja Gopal Jayal, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s centre of law and governance points out that “Even at the panchayat level, we have had women from the member families being nominated. But the first time, patronage may work but not the second time. And this is true at the national level too.”

I myself have often wondered how, especially in the super-conservative state of Rajasthan, female leaders have established themselves. (See today’s article about Sonia Gandhi criticizing “the corrupt and inefficient [Vasundhara Raje] government.”)

Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research says, “What is unique to India, is the fact that women have the space to grow as leaders. Maybe, it has to do with our cultural ethos, where women are worshipped as goddesses.’’

I’m not so sure about the goddess worship argument, considering the low status of the majority of women; I think it could be more likely the ethos of ‘Mother India’ and the self-sacrificing stereotype of mothers/women.

I wanted to discuss another documentary film I recently saw called ‘Chitti Hatia’ or White Shops. It was a brief (one hour) but moving film about a man’s search for his grandfather’s home in what is now Pakistan. About humanity and humility, simplicity and forgiveness. From the film’s blog:

Chitti Hatia, the story of Bittoo Sondhi, a Delhi based biker and his triumph over the unknown. Bittoo’s father, at the age of thirteen, migrated to India during the partition. This 52 minute film explores the streets of Rawalpindi, to help Bittoo fulfill his fathers’ long cherished dream of revisiting his birth place-a wish which could not be realized till his death. Bittoo however got an opportunity to fulfill his fathers dream when his cartoonist friend Sharad Sharma received an invitation to run a comics workshop in Lahore.
Once the workshop was over, both Bittoo and Sharad set out on a mission to search for Bittoo’s ancestral house in Rawalpindi. Chitti Hatia is not just a search, but rather a chronicle which talks about partition and a family that was forced to migrate from Pakistan and as well helps to break the stereotypical image of Pakistan. It takes the viewers on a journey across the border to show them that the people there are as friendly as they are on this side of the border-helpful, hospitable and compassionate.

See this interview with the creators (in Hinglish):

The film gives us a multi-dimensional look at partition. It starts with the personal psychological turmoil of Bittoo at not being able to help his father’s wish, then presents a series of interviews with his elderly family members to give us an idea of how his father got to India–by himself at the age of 13. The suspense builds as they set out for their search in Pakistan, and the audience is gripped by the uncertainty of whether or not he will actually find the home. I won’t spoil the ending, but I will just say that I was really struck by the poignancy of this film which speaks the simple truth that we are all humans linked together, regardless of what has happened in the past to make it seem like we are separate.

The film was shown by the Jaipur branch of an organisation called Pravah which seeks to promote youth leadership and civic action.