Featuring next month

To all my well wishers and motivators, this blog will become active in the coming two months. Due to lack of "Publishable" ideas, this page saw a lean phase.
But things are all set to change now.
Upcoming Attractions:

1. Victimised Genius ( The real guys )
2. Pen Review
   
3. National Game
4. Olympics in India

and many more.
So just keep visiting.

" To err is divine " & " To forgive is human "

Surprised? Agitated? Find it boring?
If you have these kinds of feelings, then I would advise you to not make premature views. Read on and then feel free to feed in your views in the comments section.

As children ( and for many cases even as adults ), we were always told ( mostly by our english teachers ), that
" To err is human " & " To forgive is divine ".
The first saying or rather proverb is often given as an example to people who ( apparently ) make mistakes and are ready to accept it. It is also used, by some very smart people, as an excuse when they commit a blunder.
The latter is often quoted as an epitome of greatness when someone is really angry on someone or is in a mood for revenge.

However, I think that the whole thing is quite the opposite.

Let us take the example of our Mahadev, The God of Destruction, Shankar Bhagwan. (Disclaimer: These thoughts are not meant to be demeaning to Hindu religion. I am quoting known incidents. So to those who find these as an insult to the religion or something, I would advice them to think maturely.)
It is said that He did not know his son Ganesh that well. On the fateful day on which he was returning, Goddess Parvati had gone for a bath ( or some similar work ). Apparently due to lack of doors at her house or for a similar reason, she asked Ganesh to guard and keep all visitors at bay till she completed her bath/work. So the obedient son sat outside the house with a 'Gadda' ( mace ) to keep an eye for the visitors. When Shankar Bhagwan came home, Ganesh, not recognizing the person, refused to let him in. Shankar Mahadev was enraged and in one stroke killed the 'meddlesome' boy. After this when Parvatiji made him realise what he had done, Shankar Bhagwan admitted his MISTAKE and brought back the child to life by fixing the head of an elephant on his body.
( Keeping the Indian Penal Code in mind, Mahadev Shiv can be booked for murder as well as poaching. I still wonder why the innocent elephant had to be killed for Lord Shiva's folly. )
Now, Shankar Mahadev is not a human for sure. But he did commit a mistake, which by all means ( I am sure people will agree ) was a BIG one.
We also have heard about Indra, the king of gods, who attacked Hanuman by......( Guess what ) a mistake. ( There are many tales about Indra's mistakes). We also find many incidents in our scriptures about God's mistakes.
So erring, instead of being confined to the set of humans, can be safely thought of as a part of the bigger universal set comprising of humans, gods, demons and all other creature we know of.

These things make me believe that to err is indeed divine, but because they are gods, their blunders and mistakes are deliberately overlooked ( They are supposed to set an example after all! ). So this highlights the flaw in the first proverb.

While it is always stated that forgiving is a divine act, at the same time, we are also told to believe that everyone gets punished ( eventually ) by the God for his misdeeds. But hey, God is divine. Isn't he supposed to forgive? Again taking the example of Lord Shiva, he should have forgiven the child for failing to recognize his hitherto elusive father rather than cruelly behead him. Again our scriptures are filled with many acts of punishments meted out by the God, who is supposed to forgive. Compare this with the case of human beings. Once a Human forgives someone, he never thinks of punishing him/her eventually like God. So isn't forgiving more an element of the human domain?
At least this what I think.

All theories or conjectures are incomplete without stating the assumptions made.
Here I have only assumed the literal meaning of proverb and have tried to make only literal correction.
Also, I consider forgiving as a great act ( no two thoughts about it ) and erring as undesirable.
And lastly I do not in any way claim to be a non erring or all forgiving person. ( This is for those who draw a character sketch of people from their writings and expression of thoughts. )

Conclusion: If what I have written here convinces you, then I believe that the following can be concluded.

" We were taught wrong english at school "
or rather
" The Englishmen got it all wrong from the beginning "

Looking forward for your views on the subject. The more views ( read feedback ) I get, the clearer I can think and the better I can write next time.

PS: The French eat more meat than the Americans and the English and yet suffer fewer heart attacks. The Italians drink more wine than the English and the Americans and still have lesser cases of heart attacks.
Conclusion: Eat drink whatever you want. It is probably speaking English that kills you.

Why start a blog?

There are plenty of helpless situations in which you can do nothing but waste time. A fitting example of this would be waiting in the queue to pay electricity bill or to buy yourself a ticket. ( Thanks to the Govt. of India, we no longer have to stand in queues to reserve our tickets for railway journeys. )
So all I can possibly do is think about some existing philosophies and try to analyse it with whatever little wordly knowledge I have gained over these years. ( Effectively, this can be labelled as nothing but wasting time. But by wating time on two things parellely, I end up saving time. So I have continued with this habit of mine.)
Initially, I discussed my thoughts with IITians on the mess table. However, merely restricting these thoughts to the mess table would not give me the desired amount of feedback. So I have decided to go global with my thoughts and I sincerely hope that the readers will give me the required kind of feedback.
With " Om Shree Ganeshaya Namaha ", I hereby begin this endeavour of mine.