The Law of diminishing credibility..

In a world that thrives on symbolism and hollow words the danger of tokenism replacing real effort is very much on the rise. The Nobel Peace Prize being given to the US President Obama has sparked off a debate in the contemporary world, and rightly so. Obama rightly recognised the award “as a call to action” rather than as a reward for past accomplishments. Still, I think such prestigious and globally acclaimed awards need to be conferred for past accomplishments and not as a motivational prize.

The absence of a phenomenon known as The Mahatma among the list of awardees speaks volumes about the relevance and logic of Nobel Peace Prize. For, most of the time an award is a decoration for the recipient and only rarely it is the other way around.

Some musings on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti...

October 2^nd is a day when the nation remembers the Great Mahatma. Year after year various functions are held across the country, speeches are made and the lack of Gandhian values on contemporary world is lamented with strong words.

Like all Indians, I too learned about Gandhiji when I was in school. But I got a better glimpse of the phenomenon called the Mahatma several years later, when I had the opportunity to read his autobiography, ‘My Experiments with Truth’.

At this point of time, Gandhiji’s ideals and teachings are very much relevant. Perhaps the most basic of them all, that of being accountable in public life is the one that needs to be rejuvenated if India and the world at large is to progress. The way I understand it, Bapu’s idea of being accountable is not the mere’ resignation owning moral responsibility’ when something goes wrong (which in itself is so rare these days). It is more about owning up responsibility, taking corrective actions with well laid out targets and time lines and then report the results to the common man.

I must admit this line of thought is more like a prelude to my next post, to be out shortly...