prasad1
Active member
It believes that man will exhibit the signs of his evolution. He will
improve upon man. For this he must build—but what?
The Birlas built six temples (India always being in urgent need of
more religion).They built temples in Jaipur, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Patna and
Kolkata. Most of these are to Lakshminarayan, and these are only the
big ones. No Indian family has built more, or bigger, temples than the
Birlas, and that is their contribution to our culture.
Mukesh Ambani is building on Altamount Road a structure called
Antilla, the most expensive home in history. Its architects Hirsch
Bedner say their estimate for it is around $2 billion. That is Rs9,000
crore, and four people will live in this house. That is Ambani’s
contribution to our culture.
The Birlas built schools for the rich, and the Ambanis made a school
for millionaires. BITS-Pilani’s fee is Rs1 lakh per year, Birla
Vidyamandir’s fee is Rs1 lakh per year and Dhirubhai Ambani
International School’s fee just for classes XI and XII is Rs7.57 lakh.
At the Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital (“Compassionate Quality
Healthcare”), a check-up for headaches costs Rs2,850.
At the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (“Every Life Matters”), the
wellness check-up costs Rs5,000.
At the Tata Memorial Hospital, which treats cancer, healthcare is
free.
Rajashree Birla says Indians “don’t have the mindset to give away
large amounts of money to charity”. The act of leaving “just a little
bit for their children”, she says, “happens only in the US”.
“It calls for very large-heartedness,” she says, “I don’t see this
happening in the Indian context in the near future at least.”
She’s right about our mindset and culture, but wrong in assuming that
the problem is about large-heartedness: It is actually about a lack of
civilization.
She’s wrong also about this not happening in future: It already has
happened in India.
Of Tata Sons’ 398,563 shares, 65.8% is held by charitable trusts
(Ratan Tata owns 0.84%). How much money are we talking about? Tata
Sons’ net profit last year was Rs3,780 crore. Tata Sons owns 74% of
Tata Consultancy Services and 84% of Tata Motors. If wealthy Indians
want to give back to society, they need only buy Jaguar and Land
Rover, and not Mercedes and BMW. Tata Sons owns 31% of Tata Steel, 20%
of Tata Teleservices and 22% of Tata Tea.
Indians should buy their books from Landmark, their phones from Tata
Indicom, their television sets and washing machines from Croma; and
they should stay at the Taj. They should drink Tetley tea and
Himalayan mineral water. They should watch TV on TataSky and get
themselves insured with Tata AIG. Why?
Last year, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust gave away Rs201 crore. Sir Ratan
Tata Trust gave away Rs153 crore. This is not CSR (corporate social
responsibility) or other corporate varnish: It’s pure philanthropy.
Witness its quality: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Tata Energy Research Institute (Teri),
Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for the Performing Arts.
That is civilization.
In Europe, the ownership and efficient management of such a giant
corporate by charitable trusts would be stunning.
But we use the phrase “Tata-Birla-Ambani” easily, as if the words were
interchangeable. One of them has nothing in common with the other two.
JRD sent 81% of Tata Sons’ income to charity. We thanked him by
nationalizing his beloved Air India, firing him as chairman and
running it into the ground.
The Tatas set up Teri, India’s first green industry initiative, in
1974. Under R.K. Pachauri, in 2003, the name Tata was neatly excised
from Teri and replaced with the word “The”. Now, Teri’s magazine and
website are testament to the greatness of Pachauri, who will show up
to collect any award you give him, including GQ Man of the Year. But
that is our culture.
Parsis have civilization, but not culture. They cannot speak old
Persian and their Avesta they cannot read. For language, they lean on
Gujarati, for music they lean on Brahms. Their beautiful women wear
saris.
Their last names are Gujarati: Broacha (of Bharuch), Anklesaria (of
Ankleshwar), Surti (of Surat), Mehta (accountant) and Gandhi (grocer).
Their first names are great names in history, names that made Athens
and Sparta and Corinth tremble—Ksayarsa, Kurush Buzurg and Daarivush.
Herodotus and Thucydides called them Xerxes, Cyrus the Great and
Darius. Parsis cannot even speak their own first names.
From 500 BC, Parsis fought Europe. They spilt and drew blood in
history’s most famous battles: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and
Plataea. Hollywood’s cardboard Leonidas looks heroic in 300 (Xerxes is
shown as demented), but actually the Parsi Immortals butchered the
Spartans at Thermopylae and the terrified Athenians abandoned their
city. Alexander the Great conquered the Parsis in 334 BC and the Arabs
under Umar drove them from their lands in 644. But the real Parsi
surrender came in Bombay when they submitted to the individualism of
Enlightened Europe.
We hate sweeping statements about Indians, and generalizations about
India. The problem is that everywhere in India the same evidence keeps
slapping us in the face. We’ve become good at looking away. We think
we are Aryans, descended from the Caucasus. Parsis also believe that.
Zarathushtra’s god was Ahura and his demons were Daiva. But the Rig
Ved says Deva must be our god and our demons Asura.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.culture.indian.marathi/2caN1FhYbTc
improve upon man. For this he must build—but what?
The Birlas built six temples (India always being in urgent need of
more religion).They built temples in Jaipur, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Patna and
Kolkata. Most of these are to Lakshminarayan, and these are only the
big ones. No Indian family has built more, or bigger, temples than the
Birlas, and that is their contribution to our culture.
Mukesh Ambani is building on Altamount Road a structure called
Antilla, the most expensive home in history. Its architects Hirsch
Bedner say their estimate for it is around $2 billion. That is Rs9,000
crore, and four people will live in this house. That is Ambani’s
contribution to our culture.
The Birlas built schools for the rich, and the Ambanis made a school
for millionaires. BITS-Pilani’s fee is Rs1 lakh per year, Birla
Vidyamandir’s fee is Rs1 lakh per year and Dhirubhai Ambani
International School’s fee just for classes XI and XII is Rs7.57 lakh.
At the Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital (“Compassionate Quality
Healthcare”), a check-up for headaches costs Rs2,850.
At the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (“Every Life Matters”), the
wellness check-up costs Rs5,000.
At the Tata Memorial Hospital, which treats cancer, healthcare is
free.
Rajashree Birla says Indians “don’t have the mindset to give away
large amounts of money to charity”. The act of leaving “just a little
bit for their children”, she says, “happens only in the US”.
“It calls for very large-heartedness,” she says, “I don’t see this
happening in the Indian context in the near future at least.”
She’s right about our mindset and culture, but wrong in assuming that
the problem is about large-heartedness: It is actually about a lack of
civilization.
She’s wrong also about this not happening in future: It already has
happened in India.
Of Tata Sons’ 398,563 shares, 65.8% is held by charitable trusts
(Ratan Tata owns 0.84%). How much money are we talking about? Tata
Sons’ net profit last year was Rs3,780 crore. Tata Sons owns 74% of
Tata Consultancy Services and 84% of Tata Motors. If wealthy Indians
want to give back to society, they need only buy Jaguar and Land
Rover, and not Mercedes and BMW. Tata Sons owns 31% of Tata Steel, 20%
of Tata Teleservices and 22% of Tata Tea.
Indians should buy their books from Landmark, their phones from Tata
Indicom, their television sets and washing machines from Croma; and
they should stay at the Taj. They should drink Tetley tea and
Himalayan mineral water. They should watch TV on TataSky and get
themselves insured with Tata AIG. Why?
Last year, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust gave away Rs201 crore. Sir Ratan
Tata Trust gave away Rs153 crore. This is not CSR (corporate social
responsibility) or other corporate varnish: It’s pure philanthropy.
Witness its quality: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Tata Energy Research Institute (Teri),
Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for the Performing Arts.
That is civilization.
In Europe, the ownership and efficient management of such a giant
corporate by charitable trusts would be stunning.
But we use the phrase “Tata-Birla-Ambani” easily, as if the words were
interchangeable. One of them has nothing in common with the other two.
JRD sent 81% of Tata Sons’ income to charity. We thanked him by
nationalizing his beloved Air India, firing him as chairman and
running it into the ground.
The Tatas set up Teri, India’s first green industry initiative, in
1974. Under R.K. Pachauri, in 2003, the name Tata was neatly excised
from Teri and replaced with the word “The”. Now, Teri’s magazine and
website are testament to the greatness of Pachauri, who will show up
to collect any award you give him, including GQ Man of the Year. But
that is our culture.
Parsis have civilization, but not culture. They cannot speak old
Persian and their Avesta they cannot read. For language, they lean on
Gujarati, for music they lean on Brahms. Their beautiful women wear
saris.
Their last names are Gujarati: Broacha (of Bharuch), Anklesaria (of
Ankleshwar), Surti (of Surat), Mehta (accountant) and Gandhi (grocer).
Their first names are great names in history, names that made Athens
and Sparta and Corinth tremble—Ksayarsa, Kurush Buzurg and Daarivush.
Herodotus and Thucydides called them Xerxes, Cyrus the Great and
Darius. Parsis cannot even speak their own first names.
From 500 BC, Parsis fought Europe. They spilt and drew blood in
history’s most famous battles: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and
Plataea. Hollywood’s cardboard Leonidas looks heroic in 300 (Xerxes is
shown as demented), but actually the Parsi Immortals butchered the
Spartans at Thermopylae and the terrified Athenians abandoned their
city. Alexander the Great conquered the Parsis in 334 BC and the Arabs
under Umar drove them from their lands in 644. But the real Parsi
surrender came in Bombay when they submitted to the individualism of
Enlightened Europe.
We hate sweeping statements about Indians, and generalizations about
India. The problem is that everywhere in India the same evidence keeps
slapping us in the face. We’ve become good at looking away. We think
we are Aryans, descended from the Caucasus. Parsis also believe that.
Zarathushtra’s god was Ahura and his demons were Daiva. But the Rig
Ved says Deva must be our god and our demons Asura.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.culture.indian.marathi/2caN1FhYbTc
