According to today’s N Y Times “President Obama welcomed the Dalai Lama to the White House on Friday morning, provoking a sharp rebuke from the Chinese government, which warned that the meeting would severely damage relations between Washington and Beijing.”
I will never understand the Chinese hatred for a man who has always shown compassion and empathy to those around him. They may hate organized religion in a communist state, but the Dalai Lama has not aspired to head a religious state in China or anywhere else.He was born into his cosmic role and since a young age has been trained to spread the word of the Buddha and his eight fold path.
There is a far greater cause for misunderstanding between the self-made man who heads the vast entitlements and forces of a great nation, and the childhood priest who has his robe and little else. There is a far greater inequality here between the ruler and the learned man, both peace prize winners, but of different pursuits. The inequalities that Obama spoke about have grown not reduced and despite the best efforts; there is less compassion and empathy, for the pain and suffering of others. The path that the Dalai Lama speaks about is one of detachment, renunciation and  nirvana.
According to a study carried out at Berkley in a rigged game of monopoly, the winners exhibited signs of posture changing to becoming excited and showing signs of victory, eating more and later claiming their wisdom had helped them win a clearly rigged game. They were trying to answer the question “Does money make you mean?” and answered affirmatively. It raises one’s self interest and sense of entitlement.
In other studies they have shown time and again that when inequality goes down; we have greater social mobility, better economic growth, a more engaged community life leading to increases in social harmony allowing innovation to flourish, and even reduced cases of obesity and drug abuse.
From the meeting of these two great leaders we do not expect world changing announcements, but how I wish we did. If they can resolve their extreme positions and come to a harmonious meeting of the minds, then I guess we all have a lot of hope for the future of mankind. How do we make the self-interested and the entitled to change and part with their wealth for a more equal society? Obama who is the most powerful man in the world is a prisoner to his own state has great external power. Dalai Lama on the other hand is free from the karma of lifetimes and shows the old new way and has great internal power. How does a stateless man state, that compassion and empathy for all living creatures is our prime dharma, while the most powerful man agrees with him that it is also the right thing to do. I guess we are all Pharsiees now and the death of grace is upon us!

She called me while I was in a meeting with my boss and surprised me as I turned off the ringer. Later on when I came down for a smoke with my buddies I called her back. She said it was a bad timing as usual as the kids had just returned and now she had no time to talk to me. Oh I could not recall the last time that she had called me, just to spin a yarn or pass the time. I am now less than nothing, as I feel the time to talk and remiss about our love and our desires and our hopes is gone. Why do we fight incessantly, when we are together and the kids have to tell us to calm down. I know no other whose love is so important, yet I am the one who instigates and presses those buttons that she hates.
Tomorrow will be another day and I will call her and we will discuss as she watches her serials and answers in those hun hun hun monotones as I spill my life history to her. The time is not now and the timing is off as usual. I do not talk about her hair being long or short or the beauty of the sunset or the sunrise, on the Pacific. There is no time to discuss the passage meditation course that I want to take up with Easwarn Ekanath’s group in CA as she has no interest in it, even though she forwards me daily snipets from Brahmakumaris. I read the email and am lost as to who is this person and why does she continue to improve me after all the decades that we have spent together. I am who I am and will never live up to her expectations. As Bob Dylan sang “its not me babe that you are looking for,” but she never knew him or his music and I wonder if the Sufis ever experienced my pain.
It is a celebration of life and I ring her back and she acknowledged my existence and also warns me that if she ever sees my behavior deteriorate beyond her acceptable limits that I might as well pack and leave. I know no other love and am devastated as this is my reality and talk to my son and he says Dad why can’t you just move on and make Mom happy. Happiness I want to tell him is so ephemeral, but do not have the words to express myself. I dare not talk to my daughter as she is rearing my beloved granddaughter and she will surely rake me over the coals, even though I love her more than life itself.
So I am here alone in my hotel room and enjoying the view of the Pacific and the waters are no longer peaceful and the lights of the city of angels is a vortex that draw me to the depths of my soul. I reach out and touch none and only Brahma is here with me, in this endless space. I repeat the gayatri mantra and then the void takes over. I am who I am and this hopeless crud of humanity is my very soul. Who will recognize this time or this space for I am lost and she is so far away. I crawl into bed awaiting tomorrow, as I know today will never end and the lotus of the heart will not blossom and the Buddha is there on my horizon, and just a hair width out of my grasp. Life is full of despair; but hope is never lost, till I talk to her again and can express that I am sorry for whom I am. She will respond with her hun hun hun and I will be ecstatic in the Sufis dance, for I am the one who will finally find life’s ecstasy at just her one hun.

There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration. -Andrew Carnegie, industrialist (1835-1919)
Andrew made a fortune during his life time from Steel making but he left behind one of the largest library development in the history of modern man till then. He was instrumental in spreading knowledge across the cities of America at a scale never done before for the masses as till then libraries were for the elite of society only. Thus the great philanthropists spoke when they donated a great deal of their personal wealth; for funding libraries, museums, and research and development, so that the mind of man could be free to grow, and imagine great things for our future. From time immemorial the spoken word has been the key to communication, and as languages developed so did the nuances of cultural affiliations; that are the inherent property of a language. The libraries house the literature and also the architecture, art, music, attire, sculpture are housed in the museums; for all of us to see and share equally. These bring about a transformation 0f the history of the civilizations long forgotten by the common man; that have gone before but their achievements are brought alive for us today.
So to bring equality educate girls, boys, youth, old men, old women and anyone else that you can find hiding behind the veil of ignorance. The internet will be the next big enabler; as the poorest of the poor, and the weakest of the weak, will get access to information from around the world. As local languages catch up; with the world of technical information available, in say English or German, knowledge will spread. Human ingenuity is a strange phenomenon, and surprise game changing discoveries and innovations can come from anywhere. As the World Wide Web expands, the information will reach more and more people; who in turn will add their own native knowledge, to it. We are on the cusp of a revolution; and there is no force on earth, that can stop this progress.
The whole world is our own and we need the equality and knowledge sharing for our own survival. In an interconnected world pandemics will spread faster; and so will desired and undesired outcomes, of the use of this knowledge. There are twisted minds everywhere; who will try to subvert security and privacy, of their fellow humans for personal gain. There will of course be the wise few who will continue to use the power of charity for good, to spread compassion and hope. I know for a certainty that if we just keep faith; and pursue the path to knowledge sharing and opportunity, the future will look a lot brighter for all of us! We are all indebted to those who have opened the pandora box of knowledge; to the world’s masses, and now have to overcome the evil and let the good prosper, for the benefit of all our suceeding generations..

Google India plans to get 50 million women in India using the Internet within one year through a new initiative that aims to bridge the gender digital divide by providing women with easier access to technology, the company said.
With more than 200 million Internet users in the country and growing, India is set to overtake the United States as the world’s second largest market after China. Yet only one-third of India’s online users are women.’
From personal experience I can safely say that Indian women are far more sensible than the Indian males; and will be able to use the world wide web, to its great potential. Women world wide remain our greatest resources for development; especially in countries that are entering development, and need to build institutions and enterpenuers, to service human needs. Women can become the creators of the family wealth; if they are given the opportunity, to run independent services. They are quite capable of running services for small fees; in small village or towns, especially services where no one else has the facilities. Adding 50 million to 500 million women users eventually; will transform how the people of India, will live. As more interconnectedness expands, we will see more of ‘It takes a village’ attitude of the female species; where the children and family needs, will come to the forefront. Consumerism and incomes of the females will rise faster than those of the males (partially a catch up effect), as woman become economically independent. With micro finance, crowd sourcing and NGO and venture and public funding should help Female owned businesses to get off the ground and even become success stories for others to follow. Property ownership shifting to women will be the first awakening; that this is startiing, to happen at large. Given opportunities women will rise to the occasion and better support each other; and theri groups and organizations, to succeed.

With the bridging of Solar\Wind\Bio gas\fuel cells\energy sources and the greening of the environment as females are much better husbanders of our natural environment, we will see steady improvement in our relationship with the Earth. Natural produce and distribution systems catering to the family’s need will spring up; as women go more online to find life’s necessities, in an organized market, which will be more open. Banks, markets owned by women will become the new reality as modern logistic systems will be built out using the latest electronic markings and readers will move through automated delivery systems that ensure quality and speed of delivery. A person’s digital foot print will become the story of their lives as food, water, household goods and any output of spending will be tracked; and suggestions provided for what else people bought, who also bought what you bought.
With wearable.devices like glasses, or watch or phone or a bendable tablet; the internet will become ubiquitous in our lives and in cities, cars, trains and airplanes will provide instant access to information. It is how this information is used to form a community and a market place and a business that uses traditional skills and provides employment to the masses will be largely determined by such women entrepreneurs. We have to accept the fact that even in Gandhi’s land, urbanization will happen and women’s equality will no longer be at a lower level than all the other ‘reserved classes’. There is no grand plan that anyone has for this future in India; the closest we can look to is in China; where their cities exploded in the last few decades after Deng. It was of course Mao who established gender equality under communism, at a greater scale than anyone before him. In India the supreme builder is still hidden in the history books of the Taj Mahal or has not revealed himself as the next avtar of the God of cities. We have far smaller land holdings and they are fragmented and do not confirm to modern large spaces; with soaring skyscrapers for many miles, and underground and overhead public transport, to move millions around, required on a scale, unimagined before. Our planning commission and Lok and Rajya Sabha should learn from the scale of the projects carried out by the politburo of the Great Hall of the People. If you want to do something grand then you need to do it, on a grand scale.
Despite the bueauracratic bungling and political posturing in the great houses of Indian parliament; eventually saner heads will prevail, and enough land will be acquired for modern development at an unheralded pace. Modern cities within giant urban areas will stretch out around Mumbai\Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh etc. Steel, Concrete and Glass will finally rise to challenge the Nilgiri, Aravali and Himalayan peaks; in their own rights, as we have to go vertical. What will this urban jungle unleash; on an already lawless mentality, is a big moral question for our society to consider. Where women are routinely assaulted; and a girl is afraid to walk around alone in her own home town, is not a great society. Gender Equality is not something that can be given lip service to; but will need a complete social upheaval in the attitudes, towards women in society. A land where women are free to worship, learn and work in dignity is essential for a modern society to develop. As Tagore so eloquently ended his famous prayer/poem, I too state to all Indians ‘let my country awake’.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

To all the publishers of editorials and writers of intellectual writings currently prevlant on the subject of Women’s Equality; I would just like to remind people of the importance of thinking in a great society and learn that the future can be better; if we all think of what we can do, for our country and our women:
Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. -John F. Kennedy, 35th US president (1917-1963)