Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

Yesterday, a western elderly foreigner man at an outside-ashram Puttaparthi eatery, got overcharged for some dish. He asked about it at which time the eatery owner said that he had thought that he had taken some other dish, and the owner then paid him the additional money owed. Then this Western foreigner said words on the lines of, you are behaving like a regular Indian (by overcharging/cheating), implying that "regular Indians" are cheats. As I was standing next to him at the payment counter, I could not tolerate this barb and told the foreigner in a calm tone that his comment was very offensive/objectionable. The foreigner did not apologize or say that he had mentioned it jokingly, and did not withdraw the words. I then told him that I could complain about him to the police. He laughed at me and said that he has lived in India for twenty years! I did not want to exacerbate the issue and actually go to the police to complain about a foreigner who is making racist com...

Last updated on 19th Jan. 2016 The article, http://www.deccanchronicle.com/current-affairs/180116/hyderabad-university-student-ends-life.html , dated Jan 18th 2016, has his handwritten suicide note where he does not blame anybody else but himself. An extract from it: I have no complaints on (about) anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science. Like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write. --- end extract --- What a terrible waste of life! As a former teacher in a deemed university in India I know how much pressure students come under if university or campus administrative authorities even threaten to take stern action against students (like expulsion/suspension). The threatened student's world comes apart. Perhaps this young man got into that sort of dark territory once he was suspended/expelled. His parents would...

Last updated on 2nd Oct. 2022   21st Sept. 2022 Update:  After over six years, I reviewed this post and made suitable changes. So I am now modifying its status from Working-Draft version to final version.  This post has the following sections: *) Why I put up this post? *) Summary of major events in the British colonization of India *) Factors which allowed the British to colonize India (as it seems to me) *) Detailed note on how the British colonized India *) Repeat of section: Factors which allowed the British to colonize India (as it seems to me) Some readers may want to stop reading the post after the section (first occurrence) "Factors which allowed the British to colonize India (as it seems to me)" and skip reading the loooong detailed note section and later (repeat) section. Why I put up this post? In a Facebook conversation, I wrote a comment which had the line, "But, it seems to me, that it was weakness in defence equipment/technology due to Western powers bein...