Hola mis amigos! Que tal? Ok, for those who are spanish illiterate it means Hi my friends, whats up? Anyway, this title being inspired from the Simon and Garfunkel's song Sound of Silence. Really struck with me with this line.."and the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made..and the sign flashed out its warning..".."people listening but not hearing..".. I wondered what are they referring to when they say the "neon god". Are they ones that we see on TV, the glitterati and social elite? Are they the ones that we see perform superhuman feats? I was wondering about who do we consider as heroes nowadays? Are the days when we considered scientists and all heroes gone? ( I remember saying as a kid I wanted to be Einstein and all, never mind that it never happened) Especially in India where there is a lack of the hero ethos. Sure we have Sachin Tendulkar(who was my hero when I was a kid), Abdul Kalam etc. but most of the heroes we have nowadays are the ones created by media for one defining moment only to be brushed off until the next hero comes along. I mean if you look at the careers that were lifted by the media to heights reserved only for the greatest and the best, (ex. Sania Mirza, Narain Karthikeyan) only to crash and burn in the outset of their careers. These could have been heroes for a generation had they been allowed to grow properly. With the pressure of a billion people watching them, the fact that they were able to compete itself is a great achievement. I mean do we as a country truly have a "Hero" we can look upto? I would venture to say that yes, we do. Call me old fashioned or cliched, but Mahatma Gandhi was one such person. His ideas and ideals were ones that truly lifted our country and they still continue to be relevant to this day and age. Anyway, so are these the neon gods that we made?
Also, with the background of the Olympics, I wanted to express my joy in the Indian athletes that won medals abroad, and I sincerely hope this is a point which will spawn a generation of athletes to come and compete at the highest levels. Something out of the lines of Kryptonite by 3 doors down.."If I go crazy then will you still Call me Superman If I'm alive and well will you be There holding my hand I'll keep you by my side with my Superhuman might" I just hope that these people wont be forgotten quickly by our short attention span society these days.
Anyway, more on these things later.. Recently i read a book by Albert Speer, the Reichminister for Armaments in Nazi Germany, Inside the Third Reich. Actually this is what got me thinking about the Sound of Silence. How silence from the crowd propelled mad men to take over the reins of a state, convert a country that produced Beethoven and Bach to creating instruments of genocide. This is what got me thinking about who do we look upto, whom do we see as our saviours in this modern day and age. In the 30's the German people turned to Hitler for that. I was trying to understand, how did they as a people were lured by the wiles of a mad man. Albert Speer explains how he was perfectly seduced to the point where he cared neither about his life nor limb when he went to visit Hitler a last time in his bunker just to tell him that yes, he disregarded his orders and was waiting for the punishment. Not of friendship, and not out of loyalty but rather hypnotism was his explanation for it. For that he spent 20 years in Spandau(a prison for the Nuremberg trial prisoners). At Nuremberg where the German leaders were tried for crimes against humanity, the first ever such trial held, these people were found guilty on all charges and the higher leaders being hanged whereas the second level leaders receiving long terms in prison. Again business sense got the better of the Allied forces here as well. They released the business leaders quite quickly as Krupp, Thyssen etc were released barely three years into their prison terms. These were the people whose finances made the German war machine possible. I.G. Farben whose factories churned out Zyklon B, the terror gas of the prisoner camps used to exterminate the Jews, Krupp's factories which manufactured the incinerators, Thyssen whose shrewd finances helped the Reich amass a huge war chest in direct contravention with the Treaty of Versailles.. All absolved of their crimes against humanity.. They say trade brings two countries closer as they exchange their culture with each other..but two thoughts that could change that..1) In 1939, France was Germany's largest trading partner 2) In 1941, USSR was Germany's largest trading partner..They were such good partners that even after a month after invading USSR, the grain trains were still running west from the Ural mountains towards Germany.
Anyway, enough history lessons for now.. Off to lunch, bbye!
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