Wealth creation ! Is it wrong ?

Functioning of a democratic society depends on the workers as well as the wealth creators. The present day economic crisis has given birth to a school of thought that the people who creates wealth are people who is doing something morally wrong !

Without the people who creates the wealth there would not be wealth in the country to be divided among the population.

It is true that in recent past there have been people with greed who gambled with funds which in turn has resulted in financial turmoil. But that does not give licence to attack every individual who strives hard and make money for themselves as well as create wealth for the nation.

The present economical situation is the combination of various facts.Any single event or party cannot be held responsible for the present situation. It was the culmination of short term policies by various governments to sustain them in power.

as the general opinion for the cause contributing to the latest debacle of the economy is thought to be the excess practices undertaken by certain financial institutions in their investment arm, the wrath of the affected people is unleashed on the people who are creating wealth in the banking industry.

The argument I am keep hearing from several people is that, the investment business only making certain individual rich and does not create employment opportunities or wider opportunities for the general public.

Manufacturing base in UK has started to shrink long before the present difficulties. The reason for that is production became expensive and certain wrong policies were pursued by the governments of that time.

It is ironic that the blame for the lack of manufacturing industries in Britain is suddenly blamed on people who try to create some wealth in the way they know how . It does not mean that I am condoning bad practises and illegal dealings . 

My view is that financial institutions success is the only positive side of storey that we have in Britain today. 

unfortunately we live in a totally different world to what we had about 20 years ago. It is a fact that what we had working very well for us 20 years ago will not hold today. Hence we need to get better and smarter in what we do best.To that extend I welcome our Prime minister`s resent visit to India.

The balance is tilting to countries like China, India, Brazil, Mexico so it is imperative that we need to have a firm footing in these countries so that our services can be sold in emerging economies which in turn can finance our ventures in UK.

Our wealth creators should be encouraged to expand their horizon and widen their vision and embrace the global concept otherwise we will be left behind in the race and it will only put our younger generation on a back footing.

For a country to succeed and democracy to flourish we need all kind of people including the rich people while I totally agree, that wealth should not be created to be shared between few people and on the back of suffering of the middle class workers, the fact is, if anything the people who has the know how to create wealth should be encouraged.

However much we do not like it, the fact is, it is the wealth creators who are the vehicles that would probably take us out of this dire situation.

Wealth creating ! Is it morally wrong ?

Sakthi Sakthithasan

28.02.2013

THIRUVALLUVAR

 

who is Thiruvalluvar ?

 Is he a poet ? a saint ? a philosopher ? . Well the answer is Thiruvalluvar is a composition of all of this .

Thiruvalluvar was a celebrated Tamil poet who composed poetry called "THIRUKURAL" in all aspects of life which helped man to lead a morally justifiable life.

The beauty of Thirukural is that he has buried very powerful ethical rules of life in mere two sentences stringed by beautiful Tamil words.

There is no factual details of Thiruvalluvar`s origin but from purely the linguistic analysis of his writings it  is thought that he lived somewhere between 2nd century BC and the 8th century AD.However there is no
archaeological evidence when he is lived.

There has been some field research done by The Kanyakumari Historical and Cultural Research Centre in Tamil Nadu , India. They have corroborated that Thiruvalluvar was born in Tirunayanarkurichi in the erstwhile Valluva Nadu . But another theory says that he was born in Mylapore in Chennai and then moved to Madurai to submit his work "Thirukural" to the Pandiya King who at that time was promoting Tamil literature.

However in general it is thought that Thiruvalluvar lived about 2000 years ago. His acclaimed work is Thirukural. It is one of the most revered ancient works in Tamil literature. "Thirukural" is a combined word joining of two words Thiru ( Honourable) and Kural ( Form of poetry writing).

Thirukural is translated into several languages. In 1730 Constanzo Beschi translated in into latin. Which made this known in European intellectual circles.

Thirukural is divided into three sections. Section one explains "Aram" containing good ethical behavior with conscience and honor.section two discusses Porul, the right manner of conducting worldly affairs; and section three dwells on Inbam, love between men and women.The first section has 38 chapters, the second 70 chapters and the third 25 chapters. Each chapter consists of 10 couplets or kurals, for a total of 1330 couplets. Although two sections, Aram and Inbam, are devoted to the private life of an individual more than half the couplets in Thirukural are grouped under Porul which discusses ethics in public life. Thus Thiruvalluvar gives more importance to righteous living in public life.

Apart from Thirukural it is said Thiruvalluvar has written "Gnana vaithiyan" and Pantcharathnam in field of natural medicine. But there is also a school of thought that these were written by another person with the same name.

Some examples of Thurukural

In the division of Aram

Those who follow the light of nobility , live

in fame that survives the world

In the division of Porul

The journey of life is secure in the family with a mission

of hospitality, and wary of blemishes

In the division of Love

Is there in life a brighter joy than the comfort of

arms of the loved one , beaming like a lotus

In the division of futile wealth

What legacy they can leave behind, who are

despised by society as unhelpful misers

It is Thiruvalluvars Guru Pooja (Thanks giving Prayer) day today . In future I will come with some of his beautiful two line poems.

Thank you very much for your support

Sakthi Sakthithasan

27.02.2013

Mahakavi (Great Poet) Bharathiyaar

who is this Maha kavi Barathiyaar you may ask ? this is my attempt to bring the greatest poet ever lived in the recent history in Tamil Nadu,  South India  into the Western Media circles .

It is with sadness I wish to state that a great talented man like Bharathiyaar has never been known famously in the Western media circles.

 

Barathiyaar was born to Chinnasami Subramanya Iyer and Lakhsmiammaal in a small town called Ettyapuram to the south of Madras near Tirunelveli. He lost his mother when he was 5 years old. his father was a strict disciplinarian who wanted him to excel in English and Maths thus becoming an engineer which would enable him to live comfortably.

But from the small ages Barathiyar was a dreamer was interested in Tamil and poetry. At the age of 14 his father got him married to a girl seven years younger to him. As you would have heard at that time these sort of early marriages was a common occurrence in the Indian Society.

On the death of his father he moved to Varnasi known as Kasi and continued his education there. He studied English and Sanskrit.In here is where he was exposed to Hindu Spirituality.

He was born into a higher caste known as Brahmins and soon realised the harsh facts of caste divisions with his society.

On his return to his native place he met Sister Nivedita who was a adopted daughter of the saint Swami Ramakrshnar.

During his exchange of views he was made aware of the injustices that the women in the Indian society suffer. He started to believe the emancipation of the women is the only key to a society that advances in civilisation.

Barathiyar awere also heavily engaged in the non violent struggle of mahatma Gandhi towards the Independence of India.

He was despised by the elders in his own Brahmin society for standing up for the rights of the so called low caste people and hailed the equality of the women.

Even though Barathiyaar advocated the emancipation of the women his fight for the advancement on the education of the women rather than becoming self independent in order to live a immoral life.

He spent his entire time in writing poetry and articles reflecting his pronciples towards the independence of India and abolishon of the caste system along with education of women. Hence his family constantly suffered in poverty.

Because of his involvement in the Indian Independence struggle Barathiyar was wanted by the then British Administration and he lived in exile in Pondicherry which was under French rule.

Often he is misunderstood to be a person who loved only Tamil. In contrary he loved English poetry specially Shakespeare and Shelly . He has translated few of their poetry in Tamil. He often advocated that good literary works in other Languages specially English should be translated and introduced to Tamil people which would help them to widen their horizon.

Apart from Tamil he was fluent in English, French and Sanskrit. He has written Poems in Tamil celebrating the Russian revolution and also about Belgium.

In one of his acclaimed poem he has stated ,

" Amongst the languages I know

 I have not found any as sweet as Tamil "  In this poem he has clearey stated that he knows other languages as well .

It is often misunderstood in the Western world that the so called "Independence activists" are somewhat people with narrow view. The reason for my article about Barathiyar is to highlight the fact that he was a person with a global vision who embraced every country and their people. 

What he was against was that the Indians are being occupied by England and wanted India to be ruled by Indians.

He worked as journalist in several Tamil publications and also in a English daily. He was arrested in November 1018 on his return into British India near Cudalore and was imprisoned for three weeks. On his release from the Prison the following year he met with Mahatma Gandhi.

he was attacked by the temple Elephant in Triplicane, Madras and was bed ridden. He finally died on the 11th of September 1921 in Madras.

This great man has never been recognised for his genius while he was alive now among the Tamil scholars and the Tamil literature world he is held in high esteem.

It is my intention to introduce him and try and translate few of his poems in English so that every one can enjoy the immense talent our great Barathiyar had.

Sakthi Sakthithasan

24.02.2013

 

I also want to live

World goes around
We walk along
No Idea
What tomorrow brings !
Did not know where
Yesterday went .....
Present is the only
present nature gave us
Then ... Tell me my friend
Why is this hatred  ....
Why do we race against
each other .......
No answers .......
No explanations ...
But we do not stop
running to a place that
we do not know
Oh ! this is what we call life !
So
Let me start running .. because
I also want to live

Sakthi Sakthithasan