Seed makes Jungle

There is nothing called good or bad, thinking makes it so. I think what this has done is put the responsibility on the people who analyze and comment and not on the doer. Good Taliban and Bad Taliban, Good business practice and bad business practice, Migration of Jobs to the developing economy to unemployment in the very recession stuck developed economy. There are different views on each side of the story making it good for one and bad for other. I will leave this debate for some other day. What is for sure all this mentioned above were once the seed before becoming a dense jungle of thoughts, processes, people, culture and practices.

Let’s see something from the story of now famous son of a school teacher, a part from his biography “He was the second son of a school teacher. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden, Yemen. Initially, he worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co. Two years later A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products and he was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden...”. The biography continues “Yemini administration realized that their main unit of currency, the Rial, was disappearing fast. Upon launching an investigation, they realized that a lot of Rials were being routed to the Port City of Aden. It was found that a young man in his twenties was placing unlimited buy orders for Yemini Rials. During those days, the Yemini Rial was made of pure silver coins and was in much demand at the London Bullion Exchange. Young man bought the Rials, melted them into pure silver and sold it to the bullion traders in London. During the latter part of his life, while talking to reporters, it is believed that he said “The margins were small but it was money for jam. After three months, it was stopped. But I made a few lakhs. In short, I was a manipulator. A very good manipulator. But I don’t believe in not taking opportunities.”. His most famous quotes are “You do not require an invitation to make profits” and the one that I like the most is “Think fast, Think big, Think ahead, ideas are no one’s monopoly”. So what was the seed? Probably the appetite to do big and the fuel came from the silver in Rials. Today those seeds have graduated in jungles (divided into two and both are growing) I must say. There were tons of allegation on his business practices but so it be the seed kept on getting its fuel and it grew to a tree and then to a jungle.

Some love it, some envy, some get there daily bread and some are simply proud of it. I am talking of what “Bangalore” stands for today, it again started with a small seed. Mysore Maharaja wanted electricity for Kolar gold mines(KGF), he did set up a hydroelectricity plant, the wires were crossing Bangalore and they decided to replace the oil/gas street lights with the electric one with the surplus electric production. This made Bangalore to be the first city in the country to have electricity. This proved to be an important resource for fuelling scientific, academic, research and technology around Bangalore. Finally when the India’s time came in the flat wired world it was actually Bangalore which was ready to grab this opportunity. Surely the small seed planted by the Maharaja has grown into a full-fledged jungle.

There was another seed sown way back in 1947. The formation of Pakistan was on the non proved theory of its founders that Hindus and Muslims cannot stay together in peace. They thought that the religion they represent will be in danger. Sometime I see merit in the famous communist quote “religion is the opium of masses”. If there is tasks unachievable just add religious mix and there will be a lot of buyer for that. A famous columnist and writer comments in his Sunday column “The two strands within Pakistan's DNA began to slowly split its personality. The father of the nation, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, thought he had produced a child in his own image, but his secular prescription was soon suppressed. His ideas were buried at his funeral. His heirs began to concede space to mullahs like Maulana Maudoodi who asked, in essence, that if Pakistan had been created to defend Islam, then who would be its best guardians?” So thus started the religious bias which was further fuelled by the politicians and the dictators the country had from time to time. You should not ride a tiger as the tiger do not know how to help you in dismounting; all it knows is to have a morsel. Hence nobody in Pakistan dared to dismount it and they continue. I was hearing a famous Pakistani cricketer turned politician for his reason on “sariat” (Islamic laws) implemented in one of the province (Swat), he said that it was implemented because there was no remedy to the normal people for their legal woes and this is the most efficient way to provide them this facility, it was there long term demand and the Government just conceded. I some time pity the people appearing to defend Pakistan in the Indian television from the Pakistani side. It is left best to the readers to estimate where this country is heading. The columnist concluded his column with “I had a previously arranged speaking engagement at a university in Delhi before largely Muslim students. I began with the suggestion that every Indian Muslim should offer a special, public prayer of thanks to the Almighty Allah for His extraordinary benevolence - for the mercy He had shown by preventing us from ending up in Pakistan in 1947. The suggestion was received with startled amusement, instinctive applause and a palpable sense of sheer relief.” All I have to say is see the seed and its growing as a jungle .

Today, we all in our daily life sow a seed on quite a regular basis. It can be that of a thought in oneself, one that is in your work place, one in your home or your children, one in your community, state, country, world and so on and so forth. It is good to watch out these seeds, you never know which seed can survive and get enough fertilization to become a jungle. For seeds do not know good or bad they only know to grow and multiply albeit it gets its fertilization.