A sponsored trip abroad while in service – 1987
This was a windfall, like all windfalls, reasons manifold, always open to self-satisfying guess. It was a trip to law teaching and law learning institutions in Manila, Tokyo, USA, with a short stay in the UK. My class fellow Sri R. M. Sahai who had become a judge of the Supreme Court of India was never selected officially for a trip abroad, Nevertheless, he asked his Chief Justice whom do you select for trips abroad. The reply was “those who have prospects of becoming Chief Justice” (page 97 his memoirs.) A principled reply.
In Manila, I read in the newspaper that a civil judge was warned on disciplinary grounds. Reading further, I found that he was running a restaurant in the neighborhood, had advertised vacancies of a few lady attendants, glamourous enough to attract old people, and was holding their interview in the chamber. Next, an official of our embassy told me that he wanted to complete his master’s degree in a particular subject asked the local university about the available timings. The University offered him his own choice of timing assuring him that they will arrange the course accordingly. I was told that there were over a hundred universities and research institutes specializing in fisheries alone. When I met the judges of the Supreme Court there, I found quite a few had their own daughters as their secretaries or as judgment writers. When I asked them about its propriety, they asked me who else could better maintain the confidentiality and secrecy of their judgments in the making. A serious study was being conducted that prisoners should be allowed a night with their wives in prison, all in the name of Human Rights. Later, I learned that marriages there cannot, and never, be dissolved at all.
In Tokyo, I found that the Government was looking for suitable land anywhere in the world to maintain and manage it at its own cost old population whose number was increasing. They were not finding any. Inside the country, I found all trees controlled to be shorter in size and straighter in growth, symmetrical in all respects. The latest that I read about old pensioners there was that they committed a petty crime to be sent to prison for a few days to have meals for free and to get the company of the inmates.
Immigrating to the USA
Landing in the USA for the first time, as an immigrant, my impression was that it is on the tip of a cultural volcano, which may erupt at any time. I kept on reading to find out when the volcano is likely to erupt. In that process, I found a political philosopher who had written “If you have one ethnic group to rule there will be tyranny. If you have two or a few more you will have anarchy. If you have twenty and above you will have peace.” I got peace, but forgot the name and particulars of the Political Philosopher.
George Washington (February 22, 1732, to December 14, 1799) remained the first President of the United States (1789 to 1797). He is the only one to have been elected unanimously. Congress approved for him the honorific title of “His Highness the President of United States of America and the Protector of Their Liberties”. Wise of him, he selected the title of Mr. President.
The President of America is the only President in the world who addresses each and every immigrant taking Oath of citizenship of America, through a letter of welcome and expecting from him as follows,
(i) I ask you to serve your new nation beginning with your neighbor
(ii) remember that what you do is as important as anything government does
(iii) Americans are united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, and that no insignificant person was ever born.
(iv) Our country has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by principles that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests, and teach us what it means to be citizens
(v) Americans are generous and strong and decent not because we believe in ourselves but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves.
(vi) When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no government program can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it (vii) welcome to the joy, responsibility, and freedom of American citizenship.
I have observed at least three cases where this Presidential commitment to its citizens has been exercised swiftly, effectively, finally, beyond its territories.
The second remarkable thing about America, to distinguish from the rest of the world is that one can return within the prescribed time, usually three months, any item purchased against the receipt of purchase.
Third, America is the only country of the world whose search and patronage for talent anywhere in the world knows no barriers, sees no color or size, sees no distance. It is the only country that encourages managed diversity in its population, at times, by resort to a lottery selection.
As I have written this, I am reminded of an incident that took place in my presence. In California I was attending Friday prayers, the sermon was being recited. Two persons from the crowd rose to call upon the cleric to mention as many evils of America as he was describing the good qualities, failing which they said they will leave the prayer. No response from anyone, so they left the prayer. I am sure they would not have returned to their native country to raise such a demand of prevailing evils there.
I am limiting here to three evils. The others I have mentioned elsewhere. First, the widespread possession of effective firearms and its use, particularly by uniformed officers entrusted with the duty of maintenance of law and order. My own childhood experience in the neighborhood of a British colonial police station was that the police were armed with a baton and a whistle, and these served the purpose very well. I was amused and felt nostalgia when a court in the USA modified the order of requisitioning armed forces for maintaining law and order to direct that because the uniformed force is required for assistance only, they should all be armed with batons and not firearms. I do not know what finally happened to that order of the court.
The other evil fast creeping into society is drugs. It has come to be seriously debated, doctors getting involved. More and more people are engaged in distributing it in younger groups. The controls and the restraints are not proving of much avail. It is hoped that the corrective mechanism will someday, in some manner, take over.
The last, by advocating, debating, wasting time on subjects like gay marriages among males and females, delinquent’s diseased sex activities of individuals, we are all moving towards the breakdown of Civil Society. We had a glimpse of it when gypsies, hippies, anarchists, and groups in between, attempted to take command and control of the people around them. Far better. it is not repeated anywhere else.
Experiences of a Lifetime 