All Politics Is But A Stage

( With apologies to William Shakespeare [Jaques' soliloquy from 'As you like it'] 

There are politicians who are exceptions to what is written below.  Apologies to them too.  But this is the general reality.)

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 All politics is but a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

 They have their entries into political parties, and their exits, when another party makes them an offer they cannot refuse.

 And one man in his time plays many parts.

At first he plays the raw, starry-eyed new entrant to the world of politics. Dreaming of someday getting elected so he will be able to ‘serve the people’.

 And then the errand boy to some ‘leader’, waiting for his chance to step up the ladder to his goal.

 And then, slowly becoming accustomed to the realities of politics, he learns to wheel and deal and cultivate influential people.

Then he gets his chance to stand for election. Issues of principles, economics and development fly out the window and are replaced by those of castes, religions and ethnicities.

If elected, he slides into the next stage, that of amassing as much wealth as he can while he can. He realizes that an elected representative is in a position to dispense ‘favours’, and he does so, extracting  much in return as commission.

His influence begins to decline after some years, and he thinks of ways to retain his position. He may ingratiate himself to his party’s High Command, or maybe dig out some dirt on influential party members and threaten to go public if they do not support him.

The very last scene can be played out in either of two way- either he retires gracefully, or- which is more common- he clings to his chair until pushed out by a younger rival politician, and then disappears into oblivion.

What Would You Ask For?

I recently saw a movie, called Shortcut to Happiness, starring Alec Baldwin. The movie tells the story of a failed writer, Jabez Stone, who agrees to sell his soul to the devil in return for success.

The Devil transforms his life. He becomes successful beyond his wildest dreams. Rich, famous, and irresistible to women.

However, he soon realizes that success isn’t all that it’s made out to be, and regrets the contract he has made with the Devil. When he gets the chance, he leaves no stone unturned to try to break the contract even if it means he will have to sacrifice his success.

Many Ways to Reach One Truth

“Yoga is the Devil’s work. You think you are doing it for stretching your mind and body but it leads to Hinduism.”

So declares Vatican’s  Father Gabriel Amorth.  

Well, I guess he must know all about the Devil, having conducted 70,000 exorcisms in his 25 years career as Chief Exorcist at the Vatican!

But nothing about Yoga, apparently.  Pardon me, Yoga does not lead to Hinduism, It is a part of Hinduism.

Though it is a mystery why anyone would think that Yoga or Hinduism is the Devil’s work.

So What Do You Think?

This morning’s newspaper brings the astonishing news report that the CBI is enlisting the help of school and college students to help the agency fight corruption.

In a recent directive, CBI Director A P Singh asked all anti-corruption units to visit schools and colleges — following the Vigilance Awareness Week from October 31 to November 7 — raise students’ awareness and urge them to help with information about corruption in Central government offices.

Monkey Business

The Infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.

In this theorem, ‘monkey’ does not mean an actual monkey. The term is used to denote an abstract device which produces letters in a random sequence without stopping.

The probability of this randomly typing  device producing the complete works of Shakespeare is extremely low, but not zero. In other words it was thought that it would take a very long period of time for this event to take place. 

The Bell Tolls for Thee

This is not really a post, but just some verses that I came across.  

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

- John Donne

Looking to the Past for the Future

A Guru once set a task for his students. One morning he gave each one of them a fruit, and told them to eat it during the course of that day. There was one condition though- they were to eat their fruit without anyone witnessing it. They were to report back to him in the evening.

That evening the students assembled in their teacher’s hut once again. One student told the Guru that he had gone deep into the forest and eaten the fruit where no one could see him. Another said that he had climbed to the top of a tall tree and eaten the fruit. One shishya even said that he had dived to the bottom of the nearby lake and eaten the fruit under-water!