100 WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUT TAMIL NADU

Many of us often read about the Great Pancha Bootha shrines, the shrines sung of by the 12 Alvars (Vaishnavite saints), the Six Abodes of Lord Muruga, and of the hundreds of temples sung by the Great Four Saivite saints. For those people already familiar with Tamil Nadu, this is very much treading a well beaten path. Instead, in this article I would like to present a checklist of 100 alternative sites to visit beyond the usual tourist centres:

1. Connemara Library - Chennai

2. Saraswathy Mahal Library - Thanjavur

These two libraries host very rare books.

3. The Honey Falls - Courtalam (the other falls are well known - Shenbaga Devi, Five Falls, Old Courtalam Falls, Main Falls, Tiger Falls and Pongumaankadal)

4. Avudayar Temple Granite Ceiling - Avudayar

5. Thiruvallam Suzi Palakani/window

6. Tharamangalam Pillar

Whenever the ancient Tamil sculptors make a contract, they say that they would take on any work but items 4, 5 and 6 - they were such masterpieces.

7. The Musical Pillars - Madurai, Sucheendram, and other temples

8. The Big Nandhi Statue and 80 tonne granite stone in Thanjavur tower - Thanjavur

9. The Monolith Sculptures in Meenakshi temple showing Meenakshi's wedding scene - Madurai

10. The penance of Bhagiratha sculpture at Mahabalipuram

11. Macacue in the Kallakadu Forest. This kind of monkey is not seen anywhere else in the world.

12. Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary

13. Panban Bridge

14. Padmanabhapuram Palace. Don't miss the bed made up for 64 herbs and the wooden Ramayana sculptures.

15. Sunset and Moonrise at the same time in Kanya Kumari (also Vivekananda Rock, Valluvar Statue and Bhagavati's nose ring)

16. Kalaikudi Chettiar Palace

17. The Jewels of Madurai Meenakshi. Now they are likely to be worth several million rupees.

18. The 108 gestures of dance (Bharatanatyam) in Chidambaram Temple and the golden dome.

19. The huge pillars of Thirumalai Nayak Mahal (no wood or iron was used in this huge palace).

20. The world horoscopes in the Madurai Temple Kalyanam Mandapam (Bhugolam and Kagolam).

21. The Nataraja Statue made of five metals. The dance of Shiva has recently been interpreted variously by scholars and scientists.

22. Ramasethu - Dhanushkodi (even the Nasa pictures from the satelite shows this structure)

23. Nagaswaram made of stone - Alvar Thirunagiri and Kumbakonam

24. Thiruvarur Temple drum with five faces and ivory Nagaswaram

25. Sri Rangam Temple is the largest Hindu temple. It spreads over 156 acres and has 21 towers. The tallest tower is 236ft high.

26. Darasuram Temple sculptures - the delivery scene of a village woman, Ravana lifting Kailash and the ornamental pillars are remarkable

27. Hoganakkal Falls in the Kaveri River.

28. Silk Sarees industry in Kanchipuram and Thirubhuvanam

29. The Thousand Pillar Halls in Madurai, Thiruvanamalai and Thiruterunthurai

30. Chennai Kollywood Cinema Studios

31. The Cave Temple in Narasimham with 1500 year old Pandya inscriptions near Madurai

32. Sithannavasal Cave Paintings near Pudukottai

33. Kurinji Flowers in Kodaikanal and Nilgrais. They bloom once every 12 years.

34. The longest pod - Anaipuliamkottai (this is seen in Tamil Nadu forests and grow up to 5 feet)

35. Uttarakosamangai Maragatha statue (called emerald stone; it is always covered in sandalwood paste)

36. The gold coins of Chera, Shoza and Pandyas found in several museums

37. Vattakottai - the Fort in the Sea - Kanya Kumari District

38. Chenji Fort

39. Sripuram Golden Temple near Vellore. 1,500 kg of gold cover the temple.

40. Valampuri Conch (the big conches in temples are worth several hundreds of thousands of rupees).

41. The Ilmenite and Thorium sand - Kanya Kumari.

42. The pith sculptures - made by artisans all over Tamil Nadu

43. Rare musical instruments at Thanjavur palace

44. Wonderful trees - the Banyan tree in Adayar, the Mango tree in Kanchi temple, the Tamarind tree in Alvar Thirunagiri and the Redwood trees (exported to foreign countries due to resistance to radiation).

45. The oil well in Nanguneri and pure water well in Thiruchandur (on the seashore).

46. The mangrove forest in Pichavaram

47. The magnificent Rangoli/Kolam in front of houses during Diwali and Pongal (precise geometric shapes and patterns drawn without a ruler or compass by Tamil women - they are born with a gene for mathematics!)

48. The Tea estate in Valpari Gardens

49. Fossil trees in Sathanur and Thiruvakarai. They are millions of years old. Dinosaur eggs were also excavated here.

50. 24 Jain Theerthankarar statues near Chenji

51. Papanasam Waterfalls near Thirunelveli

52. Thirumurthi Waterfalls near Coimbatore

53. Thirparappu Waterfalls near Nagarcoil

54. Kolli hills - Puliyan Solai (72km from Thiruchi)

55. Namakkal - Durgam Fort

56. 18ft Hanuman statue at Sucheedram Temple (Also the big statues at Namakal and Nanganalloor).

57. Udayagiri Fort (Near Nagarkoil)

58. There are Samadhis of great people wherein the devotees experience miracles.

- Kulanthaianandar - Madurai

- Gnananandar - Thirukovilur

- Sadashiva Brahmendra - Nerur (near Karur)

- Kanchi Mahaswamigal - Kanchipuram

- Bodhendrar - Govindapuram

- Mother - Pondicherry

- Aurobindo - Pondicherry

- Thiyagabrahmam - Thiruvaiyaru

- Ramana - Thiruvannamalai

- Seshadri Swamigal - Thiruvannamalai

- Judge Swamigal - Pudukottai

- Swayamprakasa Swamigal - Senthamangalam

- Pamban Swamigal - Thiruvamiyur

- Ramanujacharya - Sri Rangam

- Vallalar -Ramalinga Swamigal - Vadalur

- Kaduveli Siddhar - Kanchipuram. There are 51 Jeeva Samadhis in and around Chennai.

- The following 18 great Siddhas are already known to many

- Pazani - Bogar

- Madurai - Sundaranandar

- Rameswaram - Patanjali

- Thiruvarur - Kamalamuni

- Mayuram - Kuthumbhai

- Sankaran Koil - Pambatti Siddhar

- Thiruparankundram - Macha Muni

- Azagar Malai - Ramadevar

- Thiruvannamalai - Yelaikadar

- Yettukudir - Valmiki

- Thiruvarangam - Sattai Muni

- Perur - Gorakkar

- Vaitheeswaran Koil - Dhanvantri

- Chidambaram - Thirumular

- Outside Tamil Nadu - Kasi - Nandeeswarar, Thirupathi - Konganar, Thiruvanandapuram - Agastiar

59. Gulf of Manar - Coral Reefs

60. Grand Anaicut of Karikalan

61. Bull fighting in Alanganaloor near Madurai

62. Flamingos of Point Calimere/Codikarai

63. Sculptures of hunters in Krishnapuram (near Tirunelvelli)

64. Colour changing Ganesh statue at Keralapuram

65. Ancient Jain University in Sitharal

66. Thiruchi - Rock Fort which is 271ft high

67. Kumbakonam - Rajaveda patasala

68. 14ft Krishna statue at Thipparamalai

69. Thiruvarur Chariot (also Kamalalayam Tank)

70. Sri Vallipathur - Andal Garland and the mirrored well

71. Kurusalay Island - Biologists' paradise

72. Ganga Chozapuram sculptures. The smile of the Nataraja statue reflects Appar's Thevaram hymn.

73. The houses of the Badagas and Thodas tribes in the Nilgris

74. Chennai Marina Beach

75. Chennai T Nagar - Ranganathan St (nowhere else in the world can you see so many street vendors in such a tiny place)

76. Thiruvattaru Koil Mandapa - an 18ft square, 3ft thick monolith base on which the mandapam stands. Its an engineering marvel.

77. Thiruvannamalai - Karthigai Light cauldron - 10ft high/5ft radius cauldron with a 300 metre long wick and thousands of kilos of ghee

78. Sivagasi - fireworks and calendar industries

79. Gulf of Mannar - Pearl diving

80. Panrutti clay dolls (Navaratri)

81. Poompuhar - Where the river Kaveri meets the sea

82. The temple vahanas (Particularly the golden horse/eagle/bull in several temples)

83. Othagamandalam Mountain Railway.

84. 3rd Century BC Brahmi inscriptions around Madurai

85. Orchideriums in Yerkad and Kondaikanal. Orchid flowers are rare and expensive.

86. Kavalur - Observatory and telescope

87. Madras AIR station

88. Guindi Rajabhavan Deer Park

89. Thanjavur - Golden Kamakshi Statue

90. Pallankuzi - the ancient Tamil game that has spread to far flung places such as Indonesia and Senegal in Africa

91. Pazani Hills - Siddha medicine centres

92. Kanchipuram has 124 temples. One of them is Varadharajaperumal Temple, which contains 357 inscriptions in one temple.

93. Sunlight entering certain temples on particular days. For example, in Srivaikundam Temple, sunlight falls on the deity on the 6th day of Chitrai and 6th day of Aippasi. There are lots of temples like this in Tamil Nadu.

94. Production of Wheat Halwa in Thirunnelveli

95. Chennai Music Sabha concerts

96. Kalakshetra in Adiar

97. Chennai Koyam Pedu vegetable market

98. Madurai Jasmine flower cultivation and export industry

99. Erode - Turmeric market

100. Thirupoor - vest and towel industry

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IS INDIA REALLY SHINING?

Yes! It certainly is shining in the malls, in the PVRs, in the pubs & nightclubs, in the flyovers and high-rises of the metros. It is shining in the glitz and glamour of the high income class living in modern luxuries. We have certainly come a long way from what we were. The revolutionary economic changes made after the 1991 economic crisis has certainly changed the face of the country for the better. BUT…..this is not the whole picture. This is just a very small part of the real picture of the nation taken as a whole.

Is India Really Shining ???

Still, people live on the streets and pathetic slums.

Still, the homeless are dying in the severe cold of winters and the burning hot summers

Still, dirty scantily clad little children of poor construction laborers can be easily found playing around, who have never thought of going to the school.

Still, women, even the educated & working women, are harassed for dowry, leading to dowry deaths.

Still, several villages are without electricity & roads.

Still, agriculture depends on the monsoon and farmers are committing suicide due to crop failure and debts!

Still, when a fire breaks out in a high rise building, trapped people suffocate to death, because the fireman do not have masks to enter the thick smoke!

The police fight over the issue of ‘whose area is it’, when an accident victim is lying on the road, bleeding to death.

Drains & manholes are callously left open for people to fall and die.

People are dying because of cranes and pillars of under construction sites falling on them.(The Delhi Metro work has claimed several innocent lives due to careless engineers and supervisors).

Parents kill their children for the sake of honor, if they marry outside their caste.

Parents hand over motor vehicles to school going children.

People rush in hundreds, to listen to fake self proclaimed Godmen.

We spend hours stuck in traffic jams.

Bribing is a common practice in the government circle.

We still have a long-long way to go, because still

Men smartly sit on seats reserved for ladies and senior citizens.

We feel proud in pushing others and breaking the queue.

Bullock carts, tractors and cycles still travel alongside the Mercedes & BMWs on city roads!

Govt. offices are still stacked with age old files, and work still crawls from one file laden table to another amid sips of tea and gossips.

A small screwdriver passes through baggage check in one airport, but gets caught in another!

The age old dhabas on roadsides have now become encroachments due to the Commonwealth games.

Walking or driving on our roads is an ‘out of the world’ experience. It is like ‘Moonwalk’. Full of craters!

Industries have become the backbone of our economy. Exports have taken over imports. Even the Indian slums shone in the Oscars.

In the midst of all these shine, we still have to polish a lot more sections of the society.

Education, the basis of social and economic prosperity, still has to spread and seep into the entire land of our otherwise beautiful country.

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A tale of being at peace with what one already has

One day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach, with his fishing pole propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the sparkling blue surf. He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.

About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach trying to relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family. “You aren’t going to catch many fish that way,” said the businessman. “You should be working rather than lying on the beach!”

The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, “And what will my reward be?”

“Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!” was the businessman’s answer.

“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman, still smiling.

The businessman replied, “You will make money and you’ll be able to buy a boat, which will then result in larger catches of fish!”

“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman again.

The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman’s questions. “You can buy a bigger boat, and hire some people to work for you!” he said.

“And then what will my reward be?” repeated the fisherman.

The businessman was getting angry. “Don’t you understand? You can build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all your employees catch fish for you!”

Once again the fisherman asked, “And then what will my reward be?”

The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman, “Don’t you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting on this beach, looking at the sunset. You won’t have a care in the world!”

The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “And what do you think I’m doing right now?”

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NINE THINGS THAT COULD POSSIBLY DISAPPEAR IN OUR LIFETIME

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come. 

1. The post office

Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The cheque

Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheque by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process cheques. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The newspaper

The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The book

You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The landline telephone 

Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.

6. Music

This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television

Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The "Things" that you own 

Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Privacy 

If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google StreetView. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again. 

All we will have left that can't be changed are "Memories".

And then probably Alzheimer's will take that away from you too!

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WHY RELIGION AND SCIENCE CAN'T GET ALONG

Almost after every prayer, five times a day and particularly after the Juma prayers, millions of Muslims in mosques and at homes, pray for the destruction of the ‘enemies of Islam’. This practice is going on for centuries, but today what we find is that the “non-Muslims” of the developed world excel Muslims in every sphere of life, while the circumstances are fast worsening for the Muslims of the world.

The reason is simple: While the majority of Muslims rely on the supernatural and the metaphysical, a greater number of “non-Muslims” in the developed world base all their inferences on naturalism, the foundation of science.

It was 1991, during the first gulf war that many of our top military generals were predicting defeat for the Americans, claiming that although the US forces were well equipped, they were not infused with the spirit of jihad which characterized the Iraqi armed forces.

The same predictions were being made during the Arab-Israel wars of 1967 and 1973. And “fathe mubeen” was also forecast for Pakistani forces in all the wars including Kargil. What we find is total defeat for the Muslim forces at the hands of the ‘non-Muslim’ armies.

The reason is again simple: The “non-Muslim” forces were better trained, better equipped and had superior leadership, whereas the Muslim armies were deficient in all respects.

Numerous students excel others in exams and achieve positions in various boards and universities in the Muslim world. When asked how they managed it, the response is almost always similar; “it was due to the prayers of the parents and the efforts of teachers”. Now the fact of the matter is that almost all parents pray for the outstanding success of their children and teachers put in comparable efforts for the entire class. Then why is it that only some excel while others are left behind?

The answer, yet again is simple: Some of the students have better opportunities and are hardworking than the others. It is however pathetic that instead of taking the responsibility themselves they attribute it to an external factor, a value which the regressive culture imposes on them.

The time when every phenomena like the rising of the sun or the blowing of the wind was attributed to an act of God or gods is long gone. Similarly, ascribing every success or failure to a supernatural being is also history in the modern world. Science is fast replacing religion. As our understanding of the universe increases, lesser and lesser room is left for the gods to function and fill the gap. The Greek god Helios and his chariot became redundant when man came to know how the Sun moves across the sky.

So, it is always the empirical evidence and the logical reasoning combined together to unravel the truth and not blind faith in a supernatural entity controlling everything.

Let us take the example of the mysterious deaths of more than a hundred people at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology. The deaths were not caused because the dead were any dear to God who wanted their early departure from this “temporary” world or due to some magic, but because the drug namely IsoTab contained a large amount of an anti-bacterial ingredient which triggered an unknown disease in heart patients who consumed it. The finding, pointing to the presence of an unusual amount of the anti-bacterial was made in a British laboratory and not through an unexplained revelation.

One major problem with believing in something without evidence and reasoning is that there is no way left to judge whether one’s belief is based on truth or not. Hence, in order to support one’s belief, one tends to be emotional and refers the matter to an unquestioned authority and not evidence. Believing in something supernatural is interesting, emotionally fulfilling and convenient.

On the other hand thinking logically is difficult while thinking scientifically is even harder, when you also have to support your assumptions with hard evidence. Moreover science has a dynamic character, whereas religious tenets and “holy text” is extremely resistant to alteration in an ever-changing world, where you are constantly subjected to a new set of values. Secondly, religious postulates are not falsifiable. Hence if every phenomenon is attributable to god then it cannot be falsified and hence is not testable. Moreover, no advancement in medicine, engineering and metrology, etc, would have been possible “if God does everything”. There had been no culture and no modern age.

Another big difference between science and religion is that in science if facts do not support the theory, the theory is modified. But in religion if the facts do not support the religious tenets, the facts are discarded right away. I recall one of my class fellows; while working on his PhD thesis obtained data which showed that there was no difference in the anxiety level of those you regularly say their prayers and those who do not. This fact was discomforting to him as he was a very religious man. So he manipulated the data to support his assumption; that those with religious inclination had, on the average, a low level of anxiety.

In our society it is almost unacceptable to question what the parents say as they had raised us. To challenge what the written word says is equally despised, as right from early childhood we are taught to respect the written text, for it comes from some authority. To defy what the teacher says is also not approved, as it tantamount to disrespect .The most uttered word in our classrooms is “silence”. Hence in a culture where traditionalism and religiosity has deep roots, it is extremely difficult to see natural phenomena in a scientific perspective.

Science and reason are self-correcting whereas adherence to a blind faith often leads one to inaccuracies and erroneous judgments. Dan Barker says that “If faith is a valid tool of knowledge, then anything can be true 'by faith,' and therefore nothing is true.  If the only reason you can accept a claim is by faith, then you are admitting that the claim does not stand on its own merits.”

Religious faith is the anti-thesis of rational thought and hence has no place in the modern world.

Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899), American politician and orator once said, “When I became convinced that the Universe is natural — that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, of the joy of freedom.  The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust.”

This is why religion and science can't get along.

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BANNING THE BURQA

Canada's ban on burqa follows that of France, Tunisia, Turkey, and Syria, and is meant to ensure that those taking the oath of Canadian citizenship are actually reciting the oath. The fact remains that wearing of clothing that completely or almost entirely covers the face is fundamentally at odds with public life.

Is wearing the burqa a religious obligation? Perhaps not! Women do not wear burqa when they perform Hajj. Does it have to do with Culture? Yes, but which culture? Is this Culture of tribal areas where women wear shuttle cock burqas, or Punjab where we find those black burqas?

 However, if the objective is “show of chastity” then for those women who are not allowed to leave their houses, the ones' wearing shuttle cocks are immodest. To the ones' wearing shuttle cocks, those wearing the black burqa are essentially culpable. To the ones' wearing black burqa, the one’s wearing a chadar are downright unchaste. To the ones wearing a chadar, the ones wearing a dupatta are promoters of obscenity So on and so forth.

In more than half the Muslim countries women wear skirts. But typical Pakistani women would prefer wearing a shalwar kameez worn by Hindu women, than wear a skirt put on by a Muslim Tajik or Turkish or an Iraqi woman. So local cultures determine the dress code and it is not appropriate to set universal standards of so called chastity.As every culture has its nuances and niceties, these have to be respected.

We find female visitors from the West coming to Pakistan and India wearing shalwar kameez or jeans while rarely visible in skirts or shorts.

Similarly the Western culture has its own values which should be respected by those who have opted to live there. Those who get remuneration in dollars, francs, pounds and liras! Who enjoy full social security benefits in the West! Who have sought asylum in there while their lives were not secure in their own countries. 

Those who enjoy the western lifestyle should also have respect for Western values and should try to assimilate them or should abandon the West and come back to Gujaranwala or Kabirwala and put on burqas of any color or texture. From a purely scientific perspective burqa is not suitable to wear in hot climates. It obstructs peripheral vision. It also deprives you from the positive effects of nutrients you get from sunlight. It also seems bizarre when we find pictures of burqa clad women on passports and NIC’s.

One should also remember that numerous acts of terrorism in many parts of our country were committed by women wearing burqas. Hence burqa is also a security threat.It also imprisons you and isolates you from your surroundings and distances you from those around you, creating a trust deficit. It also reminds of medieval constraints where despotic monarchs would hide their concubines from others lest they are exposed to an outsider, endangering their absolute ownership of the live object. As satti was banned by the English which did have sacred connotations, banning of burqa by Canada should also be welcomed.                                                                                                              

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Finally, if you have opted to settle in the West while begging for citizenship, you have no right to contaminate the West with nonsense. Or if you think it is good to wear a burqa put it on in your own country that is Pakistan or if at all you want to  enjoy the civil liberties and social security benefits and human rights and special allowance for the jobless and pizzas and burgers and Western standards of health and education and lavish housing and entertainment and sights of bikini clad babes on the beach then please for God's sake respect the cultural niceties of those who are providers of all this stuff which you cannot have here in Pakistan  or for that matter from  the so called heartland of Islam.

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IF DIVISIVE RELIGION IS THE PROBLEM, WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

Arguing with believers is generally futile and leads nowhere. But, just think of all the time squandered on argument for eons and consider how the individuals involved might have spent their time more productively. Nobody can deny the divisive influence of religion. No one and no institution has all the answers. Isn't that a fact?

Rather than argue incessantly, attack the problem at the root and branch. The difficulty directly stems from the forced conscription of children into prescribed belief systems they are commanded to follow. Leading children into heteronomy and away from autonomy does them a disservice because it places barriers between them and self determination. Moreover, exclusionary indoctrination sets limits and stifles intellectual flourishing. Instead, children deserve all doors and all future possibilities open to them. There is good evidence that early rigorous childhood indoctrination builds neuronal connections that are virtually impervious to change. Accordingly, a mindset can be crafted that is extremely difficult to modify and may stay with a child for life. It matters not if the belief system is religious, political, or eating vegan, but some systems are more powerful and exert greater force.

Demanding children believe anything because someone or some institution says they must is a problem. Even if that someone is a parent. Make that, especially if that someone is a parent, because parents are the controlling vector. Forcing children to conform to any dogma is a problem and when many groups do this to many children it is a recipe for strife. What we must have today are flexible adults, not trained automatons. 

Rather than bashing each other in futile fights, we must find a root cause to swing our ax at. The answer seems patently obvious. End the universal curse of hereditary religion. Allow children to develop the intellectual tools they must have to achieve autonomy. Teach them to think critically and question all authority. Never dull their curiosity one tiny bit. Always encourage free inquiry, empathy and kindness. Guide them, do not command them. They are not property, but persons with rights that may indeed legitimately conflict with their parents. An adult that can use powerful intellectual tools and knows how to reason is most able to protect themselves from all manner of charlatans, scam artists, fear mongers and psychological manipulators.

Ending hereditary religion does not mean ending religion. For one thing that would mean ending the positive benefits people enjoy by belonging to a faith. It would end the community that faith groups provide their members and the mutual support people get would be sorely missing. The goal is to keep the baby and throw out the bath water. If the practice of forcing faith on vulnerable, hapless children could be stopped or even seriously impaired the institutions would have to reform or go out of business. Conscripting non-consenting children is the primary tool they use for gaining new adherents as oldsters inevitably fall  into senescence and die. Flocks need constant replenishment. It simply means the seers and sages who control the faiths will be forced to seek new revelations that instruct them how to reform. Reformations are nothing new. The reformed organization will have to face mature people armed with the ability to demand respectable answers to pointed questions before they commit. 

"While some might see it as a matter best left to parents, the negative influence of religion and its subsequent contribution to child abuse from religious beliefs and practices begs the question of whether organized religion is an institution that needs limits set on how early it should have access to children." Narisetti, Innaiah -- Forced Into Faith: How Religion Abuses Children's Rights

Thousands of activists around the world will stage the third 24-hour protest against hereditary religion on January 20, 2014. Speakers from many nations will explain the vision of the project and invite comment from the audience. The ultimate goal is to radically alter the religious landscape to make it more equitable for children, parents and communities around the globe.

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