Rays, Reflections & Refractions | Pushkar Sane » Roots

TOI disrespect for Lord Ganesh

Pushkar Sane — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:08:31 +0000

Today is Ganesh Chaturthi and I was shocked to see an ad released by The Times of India Bangalore edition. It distorted the image of Lord Ganesh with different objects including building, buses, trucks etc. I was shocked to see that and my feelings were hurt. Being a secular country does not mean that you show disrespect to Hindu Gods.

I’m sure pseudo-secularist will argue that it is ‘modern art’ and ‘freedom of expression’ but would the Times dare to do the same with Jesus or Mohammed? Then why Ganesh? I wonder how would editors/publishers of The Times of India react if we were to portray their family members in a distorted fashion. Show some garbage coming out of their mouth, their hair made of wires, their legs made up on tubes etc. I’m very sure that they won’t take it nicely.

My religious sentiments are hurt and I’m for sure thinking ways to make The Times of India responsible.

Here is the image that hurt my feelings.

God’s Debris & Indian Philosophy

Pushkar Sane — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:26:00 +0000

Today we finally landed at the FIPHK Literary Group meeting – small group from Forum of Indian Professionals in Hong Kong who meet on a monthly basis to discuss a book or two and talk about their own reflections on the books under discussion. Today’s book under review was God’s Debris – written by Dilbert creator Scott Adams… it was presented by Hrishikesh Kulkarni. I’m yet to read the full book – I have just seen parts of it and seen the discussions on blogs & other social media platforms. I think Hrishikesh did a great job in bringing alive the book – lot of work gone into putting the entire book in a presentation.

The book made me think & I felt quite a few philosophical concepts were inspired by Ancient Indian Philosophy. I personally thought that some of the issues were handled very superficially. Not fully equipped to comment as I’m yet to read it fully but that was my first impression. Also I don’t claim to know Indian Philosophy but my exposure to people who know it is pretty high. I somewhere feel that there are a series of Western authors are taking inspiration from Indian Philosophy & then trying to interpret it in their own way. Nothing wrong in that but what disturbs me a bit is that most people try to interpret ancient Indian Philosophy in a very literal manner & thereby missing the deeper meaning attached to different philosophical constructs. Their exposure to India is through translated literature – so they essentially see India through the eyes of the translators (and their perceptions).

Losing Languages

Pushkar Sane — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:01:57 +0000

Today we had an interesting discussion around speaking, reading, writing Indian languages. I realized that many people in my generation do not really know how to read & write Indian languages including Hindi. Also their spoken languages are flooded with English words. It kind of made me sad because Indian languages do have very rich literature & sweetness of their own. It surprised me because I do know how to read/write/speak Hindi, Marathi & Gujarati. I can read & write Sanskrit but can’t really speak because of lack of practice.

The most educated people of Indian society are shying away from using our local languages and switching their interactions to English. That’s sad because the educated ones are supposed to nurture languages & knowledge. If we lose the ability to read, write & eventually even speak them purely then we would be doing the biggest dis-service to future generations. We are currently depriving ourselves of knowledge & literature documented in these languages. And chances are – at a later date – some foreigners will come – learn these languages and RE-SELL our own heritage to us – exactly the way its happening in case of Yoga.

I have decided – I’m going to try & speak Sanskrit – it will require some practice. Also I’m going to learn one more Indian Language – Bengali. And also teach Marathi to my wife.