Do We Really Bribe God ?

So Aakar Patel sees alms to god a form of bribe. He writes in mint:

“We give God cash and anticipate an out-of-turn reward. Our plea acknowledges we aren’t really deserving. The cash compensates for our lack of merit.
In the world outside the temple walls, such a transaction has a name: “bribe”.
In India God accepts cash from us, not good work, for which there is no reward. We don’t expect something from God in return for sweeping our neighbourhood streets. We go with money.
Observe this in another way.
Why does the wealthy Indian give not cash to temples, but gold crowns and such baubles?
To ensure his gift isn’t squandered on feeding the poor. Our pay-off is for God. It’s wasted if it goes to man. See what this has produced.”


I think the ‘sleeping partnership’ conjecture plays a grater role when rich make offerings to god. It is an assured way to success, rich perceive.

It works this way: Suppose I am a businessman. I make Sai baba a stake-holder in my venture. The entire investment is mine; but I maintain 10 per cent on Sai’s name anticipating that god's share would bring luck. When Sai baba is my business partner, what’s the worry ? As venture flourishes and profit levels increase, I give proportionate earnings back to Sai.

Patel's Theory Of Abuse And Mahabharata

Indian abuses are often laden with creative copulative nuances. Those against whom such abuses are hurled don’t take them as insulting as the one that has religious subtext.

Akar Patel in the latest Lounge issue put to rest some doubts on this subject. However it raises fresh few ones.

Akar Patel:

Perhaps men did not abuse one another during the Heroic age. There is not a word of sexual abuse in Iliad (though Achilles does call Agamemnon kunopa: dog-face). Presumably this is because they could settle it with swords.

…

All abuse attempts to dishonour. Abuse is a male weapon, because honour is a male virtue. Most words of abuse are coined to hurt men. A woman is attacked through allegations of promiscuity, not incest. A woman using sexual abuse is not convincing and her words do not sting, because she cannot penetrate.

Here, am I the only one to stuck at some contradictions. Wars from puranas are mostly fought to regain honour – the most conspicuous among them Mahabharata where Draupadi convinces Yudhistir to take on to Kauravas. Though immediate provocation to 18-days war is to reclaim lost kingdom, the real roots of Mahabharata war, we discover, are in Draupadi vastraharan act. It leaves Pandavas sulking.

Here I let myself enter into realm of fantasy to draw some interesting conjectures, though the extended ones for personal consumption.

If Duryodhana indeed wanted to dishonour Pandavas, how heroic character would have reacted during Mahabharata eon. Elsewhere, what could have been Shukracharyas reaction when he learns Yayati has entered into adultery by mating Sharmishtha. Imagine if Amit Varma belonged to same epoch, how his peppered WTF remarks would evoke reactions from Bhishma, who sermons the rajsabha on dharma post the dice game.

Way towards sound journalism

Recently I had an opportunity to share Reuter’s guidelines on sourcing with my journalism professor Kiran Thakur. He put those guidelines along with a small comment of mine on his blog.

That post later led to a small debate with participation from senior journalist Mahesh Vijapurkar. Vijapurkar insisted on clarity and responsibility while writing news. I pointed out some good practices being adopted by newspapers, especially mint.

Now, this latest post by mint editor Raju Narisetti tells us how ET too has decided to stick to “fundamentals of sound journalism”.

I have a mix reaction though, and a couple of questions:

1. Whether it is possible for mainstream media to hold on to such practices (formal or written reply from concerned parties before releasing the story), especially when everybody in India do not have access to email and fax ?.

2. As we see ET editor Rahul Joshi emphasizing on: “give at least 24 hours to a company to respond”, another question pops up: If mainstream newspapers too follow this, arn't they denying readers their right to know and to know at the earliest ?.

I am not really sure which way to go.