Its been blogger's block for me and I hate myself for not writing my blog more regularly. Lots has been happening since I last blogged and most of it is rather negative if I may say so.

In July 2004 I went about setting up an e-group for my buddies from school so that we could all be on the same page and actively stay in touch as often as possible. This actually followed from my having done a similar thing for my University buddies some two years earlier - by July 2004 I had some 60 people connected from among those who went to my old University in the Himalayas, on the University e-group. The growth in membership in my University group was rather poor considering that we had thousands of students in the University when I was there. Nevertheless the University e-group functioned like a well oiled group and it was seen by one and all on the group as a great way of staying in touch. That is why I went about initiating a similar e-group for the old school and it shocked all of us that the school e-group could grow so large so fast - by Dec we had over 250 people on the school e-group and in a year it had hit 500+ and in another year we were at 750 and today it is over 1100 people strong! People from all over the globe, from every continent and plenty of mailings and lots of action every where. I was so proud of the growth of the school e-group that at a meeting at my old University I chided my university buddies for not growing the University group into something larger! How wrong could I have been??

Suddenly the scenario is no longer as rosy as it seemed on the school e-group because some people realized that this is a very easy way of sending out political messages and before you know it the system is so severely vitiated that no longer is it fun to read the messages going about on the school e-group. There are always folks (mostly those with very little stake in the positive functioning of the e-group) who are going to use it for nefarious purposes and its nearly impossible to rein them in without using strong arm tactics.

I'm now convinced that e-groups that are larger than a certain critical mass will always be impossible to manage because of elements that will use the system for their own purposes. So, in hind sight, the old university e-group is just perfect for its size, we have never had a negative email there and it has always been used for positive purposes unlike the school e-group! I'm beginning to think I've created a Frankenstein here in the form of the school e-group! To conclude, I guess I must say 'one lives and learns'!!!

Propitiating evil

Not so long ago I came across this blog by Jug Suraiya who happens to be a columnist of repute for the Times of India - he goes on to talk about the issue of Gods needing to be propitiated in every religion of the world. He wonders what kind of creator this God has to be if He must constantly be told of His virtues by his subjects in order for Him to feel good and favour those who propitiate him! He also goes on to say that if it is alright for mortals to 'bribe' God then it is perfectly ok for people to bribe people to get their work done faster or remove obstacles in their way!

Now, I could not agree with the blogger any more - this is something I have maintained as my thesis against the construct of God - any God who is bribe-able is an evil God and you don't go about propitiating evil! Now, it becomes clear why so many of these religious folks are capable of such evil.

Then there is the peculiar situation where only man is required to appease his God - all the other millions of life forms that 'He' is supposed to have created do not need to waste time with propitiating their God! They get by fine without the construct of God!! By that token humans too will get by just fine without the need for God and therefore religion. But then how will those thousands of people who do the work of priests and their assistants make a living? In the end its about God being 'of the priest, by the priest and for the priest'!

And then the priest goes out and makes that statement that 'my God is better than your God' and before you know it there are religious wars and communal flare ups! Can't we simply do without religion and live peacefully thereafter? Guess, I am not the first to think of it that way - Lennon with his 'Imagine' thought about it much before I did - I sure wish more people would 'Imagine' like Lennon did. Am taking the liberty of reproducing his lyrics just so the reader might ruminate on its beauty!

Imagine there's no Heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one