[Reader-list] FW: FOURTH ESTATE CRITIQUE Fwd: Some QuestionsAboutThe Delhi Encounter

[Aarti Sethi]

Dear Radhika,

There is an old African saying which goes "It takes a village to raise a
child." Children are not brought up by their parents. Children are brought
up by and in the world. I would go so far as to say that whenever society
has made the mistake of assuming that a heterosexual monogamous family unit
(i.e one mother and one father) is sufficient to raise a child, disaster has
inevitably ensued. But that is a larger discussion.

I am in no way saying that parents are not significant influences. Of course
they are, and especially for the first few years, because of the extreme
vulnerability of the human infant, parents are the most important and
significant influences. But that changes, as it should, and every generation
does and must forge its values for itself. It is wrong to hold children
hostage to the values of their parents, and equally wrong to hold parents
accountable for the paths their children choose. There is much love and much
pain in all this, but the unfairest question to a parent is "Is this how you
brought your child up?", because the parent can only say "no". Because they
didn't bring them up you see...

So I'm afraid I cannot agree with you on this at all. And least of all on
your psuedo-aryurvedic food fascism.

best
Aarti





On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 3:46 PM, <radhikarajen at vsnl.net> wrote:

> Dear Aarti, thanks for a practical reply to a question of ethics and
> morals. Let me take you to  a parable I read in some scripture, later it
> came as story also.
>
>  A son was being tried a court of law for a criminal offence. Judge after
> the trial gave death sentence to that son. Mother who was in court wailed,
> son asked the judge to permit him to talk to his mother, he was permitted.
> When he went near his mother, he bit her ear hard, she started bleeding and
> as all were wondering why this action from a son towards his mother, that
> son told all in the court. - this is my mother, when I brought a piece of
> pencil from the school, this mother did not tell me it was wrong. She
> appreciated the theft. Later i stole a chain, she was happy, because we were
> poor, it gave us good food for few more days. later i never went to school,
> started my criminal life, now, when I fought with my fellow criminals about
> sharing the loot, I stabbed him, he died. Even then my mother felt that good
> lawyers can help me escape, so some more dacoities and robberies, now as i
> face death, if my mother had warned me even once that what I was doing was
> wrong, I would
> not be in ths position. !
>
>   As to food habits, the more one eats tamasik food the more is the
> interest to be in violence. Any thing in moderation is good for body, mind
> and soul. Even nector in access is poison.
>
>  Regards.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Aarti Sethi <aarti.sethi at gmail.com>
> Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 8:46 pm
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] FW: FOURTH ESTATE CRITIQUE Fwd: Some
> QuestionsAboutThe Delhi Encounter
> To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net
> Cc: Aditya Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>, sarai list <
> reader-list at sarai.net>
>
> > Dear Radhika,
> >
> > If your son was accused of a terrorist attack which killed 23
> > people what
> > would your first reaction be I am interested to know? Would you
> > not react
> > with horror just as she is? Would you not recoil from the fact
> > that your own
> > son might be responsible for such senseless violence? Would it not be
> > impossible for you to reconcile the person you knew and loved and
> > broughtup, with the fact that he might have planned the deaths of
> > two dozen people?
> > What is so strange about her reaction? I find it heartbreaking
> > actually to
> > see her cry on television. Just as I find heartbreaking reading
> > what the
> > families of those who died, those who are in hospital, are going
> > through.Terror and violence break and tear human beings apart.
> > Including those who
> > are the perpetrators and their families.
> >
> > I would react exactly the same way. How would you prefer she react
> > instead?Disown her son and immediately offer him up at the altar
> > of national
> > security?
> >
> > And there is no disinformation in my post at all. Unless you are
> > claimingthat the incident never occurred of course? Are you?
> > Here's a report:
> > http://kafila.org/2008/08/25/bomb-makers-of-hindutva/
> >
> >
> > not capable of killing even a cockraoch just as they eat iftar
> > with meaty
> > > kabas.!
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > What is this supposed to mean? What does what someone eats have to
> > do with
> > their capacity for violence?
> >
> > regards
> > Aarti
> >
>