Curiouser and Curiouser...!

In India there are the cow vigilantes who kill you for eating killing cows for meat and there are protests  against this culture in the form of beef parties... in France now many schools are being made to put Pork back on the meal menu... in the name of secular France. Why should we give up our cuisine  just to pander to Jew and Muslim concerns, these people feel. Some years ago Pork and wine parties were held in France, at times close to Muslim dominated areas to make a point about being French. In Saudi Arabia of course no one can eat Pork (i guess).

Denmark recently decided that Kosher and Halal are less humane ways to kill animals for meat and effectively banned it. It is not the first country in Europe to try or actually do this. So there is a tension and debate about what is the best way to kill. A man responds to this news by saying animals should not be bred in captivity and killed anyway. So he prefers to hunts his animals in the wild and then eat them. This is the romance of past days - how we used to hunt and eat non-chemical meat of wild animals who grew free and happy. There is also this great discomfort about the quality of life animals have and then what is the use of eating the meat of animal that has grown in captivity. A sad animal makes for sad meat, innit? 

Some others remind us that who are we to decide more humane ways of killing when we do massive lab-testing using animals across the world. So there is a violence by man endemic to the world already - we are living in the Anthropocene, not a natural world in which humans adapt, but a man-made world where increasingly nature and animals have to adapt. Some vegetarian Hindus avoid meat for religious and non-violent ideologies, but gorge on dairy products and look down upon meat eating religions as being violent. Vegans meanwhile want to avoid any form of cruelty to animals. They tell us its not just about the killing of animals for meat. Even the dairy industry is terribly cruel to animals. So they give up both meat and dairy, a devise many strange kinds of meat and dairy substitutes that are often expensive.

The matter of street dogs is a big unsolvable. Long ago we destroyed their habitats anyway. Now, semi domesticated, they live among humans, their life dependent on human kindness. Still street dogs are wild and can bite and hurt. So is it good to feed them and take care of them? If we do that they become territorial in our colonies and bark and bite at people who come form outside - strangely mostly the working classes. Classist dogs! If we don't feed them we watch them suffer or eat garbage and get diseases or simply see them becoming ferocious. So do we neuter dogs? Maybe yes, but it continues to feel queesy. How does mankind have such power over the populations of another species, to decide if they should breed or not. But then we do that to our fellow humans too, eh? In some countries women are encouraged to breed more, in others they are restricted, all to create optimum population levels. 

Recently in a zoo in Denmark a young giraffe Marius was 'executed' (yes that's the word they used). then they chopped him off and fed him to the lions publicly. He was executed because he was not genetically desirable for breeding... they have done this a few time with other animals like goats, zebra and snakes too... for the benefit of their breeding programme for future generations of animals. Marius was executed even while there were many protests and demands to send him to another zoo.
And then the same zoo killed 4 lions. 2 old because, well they were old... and their two cubs because a new male lion was on his way to the zoo to breed advantageously with two females and would anyway have killed the two pups. This now is a growing logic. Already with us humans too, in the West there is a great push to check if your unborn fetous my be carrying a disease or even you as parents may be carrying one and thus ought not to reproduce. 

Wow! 

We seem to be violent both when we care and when we don't! Sadly man has too much control and too much intervention in the propagation of life. This control itself is violent, however we end up using it. 

The Understanding I had about time while reading the section in Sophie's World was fascinating...

Yesterday the man at Ramana Center talked of Raaga, Dukkha and Moha. I found it quite useful... esp. the fact that Moha arises of Dukkha, sense of loss for something or possible loss... and that Moha itself is to be understood as 'lack of discrimination' .. between too much and too less and so on. 

The attitude to another...

Sometimes one is really humbled by the clarity and sensitivity of someone, whom you have often taken for granted!

Yesterday my father was discussing how the conversation occured between him and a prospective tenant for the house. This man who wanted to rent the house, had shown much interest and almost made it clear that he wanted the place... yet he had been taking my father for a bit of a ride with unclear statements and dilly-dallying on the rent amount. He wanted to pay less than what was the rent amount and also not increase the amount each year as is the norm. My father had made some adjustment for him but only to an extent. Having taken a liking to the man he was also giving him more time to think.

What I firstly found amazing is the understanding of the background of the person. He learnt that the man had been living in government quarters before and that too a bigger house. He was middle aged and seemed to be taking a house on rent for the first time and his own HRA fund was limited. Knowing this he already understood that this man will take time to buy into the idea of living on rent and the procedures that go along with it.

Now finally one day when they were trying to arrive at a decision and he was still dilly dallying, another family trouped in. They too had liked the house and after seeing some more option had come to say they were willing to make the deal. They were also ok with the rent. Seeing this occurrence, our man immediately fished out a token payment and gave it to my father... realising that he will loose the house. Now my father could easily have accepted the new tenants who were paying the correct amount. But surely he felt more comfortable with this other person and also had given him the time to think. But given the uncertain nature of this man, there were still room for worry.

I think I would have instead said to him, are you sure, you wont walk out on me right? Now, surely my father had this worry too... but he expressed it so differently. He told him listen you don't have to make a quick decision which you will regret later. Are you sure... He told him that you can get houses at the lesser rent you want as well, if you take the ones on higher floors or in a different colony nearby. Are you sure... I don't want you to decide in a pressure situation.

This was absolutely amazing for me. Because somehow we are often thinking for ourselves and not in a large context. We must of course never forget our own interests... but in that process not have to see ourselves as victims or in need to defend our interests against someone who is naturally going to use us. Yes, right at the start, he rejected some families which seemed more aggressive by nature and could cause trouble later. but having invested some time with this man he was able to then give him room to think.

This is a great lesson. Shivangi was recently telling about her grandfather who used to sometimes fold hands in front of people while negotiating with them. She said that only years later she understood the power of such surrender in front of people as a wonderful way of both strategy - of getting one's work done and also a powerful transformation in one's standpoint towards others and one's own 'ego'. It takes, she said great courage... and perhaps a skill that many in India (and surely elsewhere) had and we have forgotten. 

Arjuna...

Ibne Kunti-waaliye Gaandeev-ae-shehzaure-Hind
Do jahaan ki daulaten teri shujaayat par nisaar
Braj ke Shehzaade ko bhi khatir teri manzoor thi
Khud Tamasha ban gaya tere liye Parwardigaar