My Birthday

( I had written one blog in Marathi on my birthday. I am giving its English translation, for readers not knowing Marathi)

Today is my birthday. Even though I am not so young to celebrate my birthday, thoughts got crowded in my mind. Realising that it is a minor event, I tried to divert my attention but the thought of becoming elder created uneasy feeling every now and then.
I thought of preparing abalancesheet of what I gained and what I lost during the lifespan elapsed so far. But the question propped up “Who am I?” The question created a host of answers; I in my own view, first son in view of my parents,Husband in view of my wife, father in view of my children, friend in view of my friends, teacher in view of my students, a common citizen in view of my nation, a male human being living in this time period in view of all human race, a fragile and temporal living being in view of earth, a small speck with momentary existence in view of universe. As I started moving away from myself, my importance,my achievements, whats more, even my very existence also started diminishing rapidly and found myself lost in the vast expanse of universe. The thought made my mind numb but in the next moment, I realised that ranking is completely reverse in view of my grasping and experience. Though my presence was insignificant in universe, in view of my knowledge and experience, expanse of universe was insignificant to me. Thinking in the same line and traversing backward, I could visualise my true identity completely in myself.
Still my scientific reasonng was not ready to give me special importance than others. I realised that understanding of self and feelings and aspirations must have been equally strong in other human beings also. Naturally feeling of superiority than others had no place in my mind. When such false feeling of superiority becomes more prominent, man tries to retain memory of achievements and experiences and thinks of writing autobiography. People write autobiography. Should I write mine? Why should I write? Are there any memorable events in my life which will help to guide others? Or atleast entertain them? Is my achieve so great that other people will aspire to become like me? Am I honest enough to describe all events without prejudice or self ego? Do I have courage to write about others without caring for consequences? What is guarantee that I shall not justify my wrong action or praise myself? If answer to any of these questions is “No”, then logically thinking I do not have right to publish my autobiography. I know really well that my mind is not so strong to say “Yes” to every question. Hence, I shall not try to write my autobiography.
I feel that there is other better option; i.e. to write about our feelings and thoughts. Memory of thoughts needs to be preserved not the memory of person. Because memory of person without thoughts is just lifesketch. If thoughts are wrapped in person’s personality, then they become tagged and difficult to extract objectively. Do my thoughts are so advanced or important that they are worth preservation ? There is no necessity that the thoughts and feelings should possess these qualities. If they are objective, they can help others in enriching knowledge and process of thinking with high assimilative capacity. If the thoughts display a strong mind and logical reasoning they will guide the mind in confusion. If they represent frustation and pessimism, they will guard against negative thinking.
If all people express their thoughts and feelings in this way, there will be a rich collection of human perceptions without personal or time attributes and such a knowledge treasure will become a great asset for future generations.
Hence, I have decided to express my thoughts not with personal glorification point of view but in generalised objective way without bothering whether people will read or not . At least today, on my birthday, my thoughts guided me come out of my self-ego cage and prompted me to become impersonal write down thoughts without tag of “my thoughts”.

Organisation or Herd of Animals

(I had written a blog named कळप (Herd) in Marathi comparing it with human organisations. I am giving translation of it sentensewise for the readers not knowing Marathi.)

माणूस हा कळप करून राहणारा प्राणी आहे.
Man is an animal who lives in groups.

जात, धर्म, पंथ, राजकीय पक्ष, सामाजिक संघटना, संस्था, वसाहत, गाव, राज्य, देश म्हणजे जन्म, आचार, विचार, साहचर्य, स्थान, नोकरी, ध्येय, उद्योग यापरत्वे निर्माण झालेले माणसांचे कळपच आहेत.

The cast, religion, cult, political party, social group, habitat, city, state, country are groups or organisations based on birth, behaviour,thought, contact, place, service, objective and business.

कळपाचे काही नियम असतात. काही फायदे असतात.
Organisation has some rules. It has some benefits.

एका कळपातील लोक स्वत:ला श्रेष्ठत्वाचा मान घेतात व इतर कळपांबाबत कनिष्ठता बाळगतात.
People belonging to one organisation consider themselves as superior to others and despise others.

हा एक आत्मप्रौढीचा सार्वत्रिक आविष्कार आहे.
This is manifestation of self ego.

कळपाच्या चालीरीती त्याचे नियम बनतात.
Working Methods of organisation turn into binding rules of organisation.

कळपाच्या बाहेर गेल्यास कळपातील लोक त्याचा तिरस्कार करतात.
Person going out of organisation invites wrath of its members.

कळपातील पक्षी बाहेर पडल्यावर त्याला कळपातील पक्षीच चोचींनी घायाळ करतात तीच तर्‍हा माणसांच्या अशा कळपात होते.
Just as bird leaving the flock is tortured by those in the flock, the same thing is observed in organisation of men also.

समाजातून बहिष्कृत होणे व त्यांचा रोष ओढवून घेणे इत्यादी धोक्यांना अशा माणसाला सामोरे जावे लागते.
He has to face extradiction and anger of members.

त्यामुळे सर्वसाधारणत: माणसे कळपात राहणे पसंत करतात.
Hence people generally try to remain in the organisation.

कळपात राहिल्यास माणसास सुरक्षितता लाभते.एकटेपणाचे भय रहात नाही.
He feels secured in the organisation. There is no fear of solitude.

स्वत:चे स्वतंत्र अस्तित्व विसरून माणूस कळपालाच स्वत:चे प्रतीक समजू लगतो.
Man forgets his separate identity and assumes identity of organisation.

कळपातील माणसे कळपाचे नियम पाळतात एवढेच नव्हे तर कळपाच्या रक्षणासाठी व वाढीसाठी तन, मन, धनही अर्पण करतात.
Members of the orgaisation not only obay the rules of organisation but try to protect and grow the organisation even at the cost of life and property.

म्हणजेच ती माणसे कळपाचा एक अविभाज्य अंग बनतात आणि तो कळपच एक स्वतंत्र प्राणी बनतो.
In short, the members become an integral part of organisation and the organisation becomes a new animal.

कळप किती घट्ट विणीचा, किती चिवट आणि जाज्वल्य यावर त्याचे अस्तित्व वा वाढ अवलंबून असते.
The sustainance and growth of such organisation depends on how the organisation is built ; ie close relationship in members, tenacity and strong belief.

मात्र असा कळप शिरजोर झाला तर इतर कळपांवर आक्रमण करून स्वत: मोठा होण्याचा प्रयत्न करतो.
But if the organisation becomes sufficiently strong, it tries to attack other organisations and become stronger in terms of members and resources.

यातून नवे प्रश्न निर्माण होतात.
Many problems are created due to this situation.

सर्व कळप एकाच प्रकारे विभागले नसल्याने एकच माणूस एकाच वेळी अनेक कळपांचा सदस्य असतो.
In case of human organisations, as the organisations are formed on different criteria, one man is member of different organisations based on objective and behaviour.

या सर्व कळपांचे नियम पाळणे त्यात समरस होणे त्याला शक्य नसते.
It is not possible to obey rules of all organisations.

त्यामुळे त्याची ओढाताण होते.
It becomes very difficult for him to satisfy requirements of organisations of which he is member.

माणूस व कळप किंवा दोन कळप यात संघर्ष होतो.
Then there occurs clash between man and organisation or struggle between two organisations.

असा संघर्ष टाळण्यासाठी प्रत्येक प्रकारच्या कळपांसाठी आदर्श नियमावली केली जाते.
To avoid such clashes, ideal rules are formed for peaceful coexistence of organisations.

पण तरीही कळपांवे एकमेकांशी संघर्ष चालू असतात.
Still the struggles between organisations continues.

या संघर्षात यशस्वी होण्यासाठी प्रत्येक कळप आपली ताकत वाढविण्याचा प्रयत्न करतो वा अनेक छोटे कळप एकत्र येऊन मोठ्या कळपाचे रूप घेतात.
To succeed in this struggle every organisation tries to build strength and small organisations come together to fight against big organisation.

एकंदरीत मानवी समाजव्यवस्था कळप करून राहणाऱ्या इतर प्राण्यांप्रमाणेच असते.
Thus human organisations behave similar to animals who live in flocks or groups in the forest.

त्यांच्या वर्तनात विलक्षण साम्य आढळते.
There is a great similarity in their behaviour.

समाजातील अनेक घटनांचा आणि मानसिक ताणतणावांचा कार्यकारणभाव शोधण्यासाठी मानवसमूहाची प्राण्याशी व अशा प्राण्यांच्या कळपातील संघर्षाशी तुलना करणे अधिक उपयुक्त ठरेल असे वाटते.
Such comparison of human organisations with flocks of animals will help in understanding the reasons of incidents and psychological warfare.

या संकल्पनेचा अधिक विस्तार केल्यास निसर्गातील पदार्थ हे देखील एकप्रकारचे कळपच असतात व ऊर्जा म्हणजे त्यांच्यातील संघर्षाचे दृष्य स्वरूप असते असे म्हणता येईल.
If this concept is extended it can be said that all materials in nature are organisations of tiny particles of matter and energy is the manifestation of struggle between them.