The WikiLeaks and the Jesus truth

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Jesus attests to his own authenticity in the wake of him being questioned by those in authority. He blows his cover and comes into the lime light with these series of revelations which embarrass many and challenge the authority and power of some. The official version is challenged by an unofficial claim to truth. The unofficial man who makes this high claim comes from an ordinary family which has no claims to any immediate royal authenticity. Those in power are usually unsettled by claims of ordinary people, that they too have the power of the truth with them. This claim by Jesus was indeed unsettling. So unsettling that the leaders got together and plotted his death!

The WikiLeaks are being talked of as irresponsible, anti-national, misleading, and intended for character assassination of those in power. The embarrassment it has caused the U.S. is understandable. The freedom curtain has been exposed even as the U.S. has maintained all along that there is no curtain apart from the erstwhile iron curtain! The leaks also read like gossip stories on various countries. Truth is always bitter and even in this case this is what has come out. The bitter truth is too hot to handle. We are faced with the reality that the U.S. is everything opposite of what we have imagined and been tutored to accept.

Julian Assange is going to be hunted down. He is too hot to be walking free. Especially for those who are into the business of constructing truth and selling it! As usual he is being charged with crimes he hasn’t committed and faults which have nothing to do with the WikiLeaks. Whether he is a world hero in opposition to a national hero remains to be seen! What is fascinating is the role he is now living. The role of someone who has exposed the truth as it is. I don’t know whether the leaks are selective and only against a few, whereas others are taken out of the radar. And I don’t know whether he has an ulterior motive in all this.

What is rather interesting is that the WikiLeaks have destabilised the lies that we have considered the truth. We have got so used to the lies, that they were the truth for us. We have been woken from that slumber and are faced with the truth in all its broadness. The WikiLeaks have indeed brought out several issues. Does diplomacy mean that we lie to each other, will people of different countries come together in the culture of lies or the culture of truth, do we have to lie to be stable countries or will truth eventually stabilise any instability?

The church, like many governments would also not encourage any WikiLeaks like situation. Where does that leave Jesus in a Christmas season commemorating his birth? Should we side line him for the stability of our constructed lives or should we take him seriously and live in the beauty of instability, but peace of mind that we are offered? Can we be religious and sincere at the same time or is religion all about being politically correct and doctrinally sound? Should truth be guarded in a multi security prison or should it be free for us to see and decide?

Where on earth is the truth?

As a young boy everything I saw and heard was the truth. My parents gave their part of the truth which later on was shattered by my peers and school teachers. As I grew closer to the church I was given a different shade of the truth which I considered rock solid. With my foray into the field of communications, the media toyed with my representation of truth and challenged my concepts and notions of truth. Somewhere along the way there were these single individuals who continued to inspire me while never trying to impose their version of the truth on me. Truth had to be found and there were several dimensions to it.

This reminder comes back to me as I read about the Radia tapes and how the industry, media, and civil society always get together to influence governments and ruling dispensations. The truth seems to be manufactured by a select few and then sold to the less suspecting majority of others. We are that way consumers of a product named truth and not free participants in the natural and causal way of truth. But should I buy what others want to tell (sell) me or should I go behind the truth which I consider important and sincere?

This revelation puts out a few questions which have to be discussed in public. Is truth always manufactured? Are we being sold lies in the guise of truth? Can the guardians of truth change truth for their own gains and selfish wants? Can truth be redeemed or will it become a myth which really never existed?

All religions claim to have truth in their possession and yet there seems to be a move towards making people see only a part of it! This makes truth into a claim and not truth itself. Shouldn’t truth rather be something that people should discover for themselves? It shouldn’t be stage managed but left alone to be discovered. The presence of truth also suggests the presence of lies. By making exclusive claims to truth, aren’t all religions trying to cover up the lies that exist in them? Truth is being used for the selfish aims of those in power. This even suggests that truth is being converted into non-truth. Should we then lap up non-truth which is packaged and advertised as truth? Will religions and the media eventually destroy truth itself and convert it into lies? In such a context, truth will become a myth, something which is talked about but which no one has personal experience about.

This is where we should look for truth in the least expected places. Our established religions and institutions have been corrupted beyond repair. Finding truth in them is like finding a needle in a hay stack. It is not impossible but it is not easy either. Religions and the media should start talking and reporting about life stories from the margins. These far off stories are not about leaked tapes, conspiracies, corruption, high handedness and misuse of power. They are instead stories of courage, sacrifice, love and poverty. These in fact are the unreported and unsold stories of India. These are the stories which contain truth for those who are willing to dig deep. With each passing day our faith in religion, the government, judiciary and the leadership is shattered. But truth never the less remains and is existent. But only for those who are willing to search for it. For the others it is as good as dead!

Cause and effect: The Indian juggernaut’s moment of truth

India is the country to watch say experts across the globe. It’s the most happening place, recession or not. There are deadlines to meet and milestones to pass. So in all seriousness, the makeover has to be there. But what happens when the soothsayers are embarrassed with incidents like the Mangalore attack on women? The causes are laid on the table and the effects are then justified!

So what happened in Mangalore? It depends on which side of the fence you are. There are sane voices trying to say that this is an open and shut case of violence against women and that is that. But believe it or not there is the ‘cause and effect’ argument. The attack happened because the women were doing something immoral, they were not dressed properly (whatever that means), and they were performing something not befitting them? This then is the ‘cause and effect’ argument. ‘I’ did it because someone else did something else. What ‘I’ did then goes into the background conveniently.

How long will we go along with the cause and effect argument? How long will we justify violence in all it’s forms by hiding behind others? This then is India’s moment of truth. How far have we come? Who are we really? Where are we going?

The truth shall set you free: The Obama-isation of American society

(Picture from FANPIX.net)
Forty five years later, Martin Luther King’s vision has come true. His now famous speech in which he said “I have a dream” has found resonance in the American people. Senator Barack Hussein Obama has been elected as the 44th president of the United States of America. With a Kenyan father and an American mother he not only represents Afro-Americans but goes beyond by bridging the black and white divide.

For several people, King’s dream has come true. Their dream has come true. Forever they have lived under the shadow of racial discrimination and unequal opportunities. In it’s bid to change all that, America has indeed voted for change through Obama. The “change we can believe in” slogan has echoed all through, with hundreds of thousands of people congregating and supporting this chance for change.

Like in all countries, truth has been distorted in the U.S. for the benefit of a few and therefore truth itself has lost it’s meaning and importance for ordinary people. But nevertheless truth still maintains the scope of changing and setting free. The same truth which has been used to keep people in bondage has the immense power to set people free. And this is what comes out strongly in the U.S. election.

What does this mean for us? After all the Obama chanting and celebrations, we have to come back to our context and use this result as a source of inspiration. Just as the blacks, hispanics, the Asians and numerous other groups hope for a change in the way society treats them, we have to work towards change in Indian society. Change which will give every single citizen of this country equal rights and opportunities to live life in fullness, independence and security.

Truth lies!!!

‘Don’t look at her. She’s bad.’ I still remember the few doctrinal-like words which were injected into me at a young age. Like any young one who would twitch and twist at the very sight of a shining needle, I too twitched and twisted, but stole a look nevertheless at the woman. Along with foundational letter recitals and rhyme learning, I was also told, by not only my mother and father, but also by the unending list of uncles and aunts that some people were good and others, more importantly, were bad. Like a cloth absorbing water into its parched self, I, too, took in everything that came my way. I was being the good student, the one who would accept everything and make others happy.

This was followed by the phase where I would imbibe whatever I saw, still staying in full view and control of elders and advisors. I noticed that certain people could not sleep on beds that we slept in, could not drink from the same cups and glasses that we did. I did find it a bit strange but who was I to question the cultural diktat being implemented by the rich and the fortunate ones?

Years later, with the guidance and help of numerous people and books I learnt that I was part of a huge conspiracy. (Not the one that the politicians in our land talk about!!!). I was a discriminator, lock, stock and barrel. I had discriminated against the woman I was told not to look at. I had discriminated against those with whom I had not shared my bed and my glass. It was a time when I felt sick of myself and confusion added to the predicament. All my life I thought I was doing the right thing, following the truth word for word.

The media too are like our parents and family, telling us who is good and who is bad, what is fashionable and what not. Our perceptions of different people are based on what we read and believe. We think we are adding on to the big reservoir of truth that we update everyday. But are we? What is truth? Is it what someone constructs or is it what we have to learn for ourselves? Is truth conditional and made up?

The same struggle to understand truth continues today. ‘She is a loose woman’, ‘Stay away from him.’, ‘That community is illiterate’, ‘This group is violent’... The clichés are unending. But on the other hand, what is true for me is the reverse for someone else. Truth itself keeps changing with time and place. What then is truth? Is it what keeps us together or is it what keeps us from keeping together?

Handling truth

As a child I was kept away from reality
From the fire, water and the truth
Growing up in a vacuum of protection

As a teenager I learnt true and false, right and wrong
What I had to do and what I should avoid
The words that were absolutes and the others that were taboo

As a youth I re-defined what I was told
Broke them down and build them up again
Breaking free from a cage of responsibility

As I went further I realised that truth was what I thought it was
True one day and false the other
Worked up by one and denied by the other

As I live on each day, the only truth that gains visibility everyday
Is the truth I can handle in my own way
While I sort reality in shades of grey