Ideologies, you shall come to naught An all original poem by Sujay Rao Mandavilli

Ideologies, you shall come to naught

An all original poem by Sujay Rao Mandavilli

 

 

You were born nobly and were well-born as the 'science of ideas',

Though later regressed to the status of pariahs,

Of gentle birth and aristocratic pedigree,

Cloaked and masquerading as science by any measure or degree,

A noble and praiseworthy endeavor indeed, and for sure, 

Impressive and first rate by any measure,

Your claimed intentions were there for all to see,

Oh! wretched of the earth, you may indeed nut cases be,

Your ideas were touted to be pursued at leisure,

In a gentle and a genteel context birthed and gestated, paradoxically, 

But have not so thankfully devolved, diversified, digressed and scattered ever since pitifully,

And have horribly and irretrievably lost your way, 

And are doomed to grope in the calamitous shadows till death's day,

You have lost all your sense of direction and you have lost sight of all your goals,

And have run aground to the shoals,

Things gradually and steadily fell apart; you have lost your coherence and direction too;

Ideologies have the propensity to make you nutty, too,

You plod on aimlessly, and have generally failed to reinvent yourself anew,

Chaos, disorder and disarray are let loose on society at large,

You, your quotidian duties cleverly and deviously dodge,

 

Spreading your fangs like a venomous snake,

Depleted intellectual faculties, illogical, irrational ways,

As you bid your common sense farewell and adieu,

Loss of personal self-respect and dignity shall ensue,

You, your opponents and adversaries shamelessly berate,

And in vain the intellectual course of affairs try to dominate,

Your ideologies make you impervious to reality,

In spite of your apparent lack of shame and tenacity,

You turned against the very culture that fostered you and nourished you, 

And against the high tides of civilization itself, oh mind you,

Turned against the society whose cause you should have served,

Earning the praise that you should have deserved,

Time will no longer serve your cause, you pitiful souls, 

You understand little and know little,

You comprehend little and perceive little,

Profoundness and comprehensiveness are not your forte,

Profoundness and comprehensiveness are not within your intellect's grasp,

Puffing it all up under the vain cloak and garb of substantiated knowledge alas,

Ensconced prettily in your intellectual cul de sacs, 

You with your intellectual capabilities crippled, walked upon the land,

Throwing tantrums when cornered,

Proffering rants when pressured,

You ways may be subtle or gross,

Your subject matter at times barely discernable or out of the closet,

Your ways of the world may be stated or unstated,

Your techniques may be explicit or implicit,

Your recipe, though generally ossified, may be either discernible or intangible to boot, 

You may take on myriad forms and dimensions too,

And all qualms, inhibitions and subtleties overshoot, 

With external manifestations and pretensions that abound,

With many a complex declension if that is the word,

But ideologies you are all doomed,

Ideologies you shall perish only too soon,

Ideologies you shall stand no ground,

The vested interests you create will run you to the ground, 

Leaving chaos and confusion all around,

Deceit and calumny though your vehicle for propagation may be,

Deception and duplicity too may your name be,

You shall dissipate entirely in vain,

As you are already moribund, and therefore in trivialities deign, 

And are already a near-fatality,

Of the ever-escalating echelons of civilization and progress a casualty,

You shall come crashing down,

Without any lingering fame or renown,

With scarcely a remnant or a footprint left for posterity,

Born half-heartedly and purposelessly as that is the case, 

You shall vanish and be effaced from man's collective consciousness in any case,

You shall all but come to naught,

You memories shall be effaced from the ground,

 

And no cenotaph or epitaph shall bear your name,

You do not deserve the limelight, make no mistake,

That regardless of your sophistry is indeed unfortunately the case,

You are not erudite and well informed,

Dogma, rigidity of thought, and intransigence is what you chase,

You are only assuming and overbearing, indeed that is the case,  

Clumsy, ponderous, overarching and pedantic,

Ghoulish, hideous, and eccentric,

Pompous, naïve and vain,

You have been torn asunder and gone astray, you saboteurs, 

Oh! ideology-drenched and ideology-soaked practitioners,

Subtle or gross,

Half-awake and half-aware, or shrouded in utter secrecy,

Wedded into human relationships and institutions to a fault,

Often your thorny swords you do brandish, 

Seeking out the naïve and gullible to ambush,

Your endeavours shall only be in vain and come to naught,

Some have only highly misplaced intentions as that is the case,

The rest have gone awry or were birthed in cold blood, 

You are self-serving and self-seeking in the name of altruism,

Your activism academic or non-academic is a name for absurdism,

Pandering and catering to your respective egos alone,

You only pretend to be sacrosanct and are sanctimonious too,

Pretenses of impudent sassiness notwithstanding,

Your saving graces are none at all,

You are doomed to fail and doomed to fall,

You shall bite the dust with your trophies, bronzes, and them all.

It is only when ideologies expire or are made redundant and unnecessary,

More clearly will we be able to far and near see,

All things meticulously and creatively assessed, analyzed and said,

It is only then will the foundations of civilization will be laid.

 

"Man, be not proud": An all-original poem by Sujay Rao Mandavilli

 

Man, be not proud

An all-original poem by Sujay Rao Mandavilli

 

It is yet unknown how the universe stemmed from void and naught,

Or life from non-life arose without an explanation or a thought,

The mysteries of the cosmos, the self and the being are indeed, baffling and profound,

Man as yet wallows in his senseless arrogant proclamations and pompous naivety,

Unconvincing half-explanations in the wicked garb of truth and pretentiousness abound,

This is an attribute man has carried with him since eternity,

Therefore, hazy speculations are rife, and with great dangers are fraught,

The mysteries and origins of life are yet unknown and proven to be,

Conjectures are rampant, and substance not forthcoming as it perhaps never shall be,

 

Man knowest not how,

Man knowest not why,

Yet thinks or pretends that he does, and stumbles on without an inkling or a clue,

He still carries his egos and pompous vanity sky high,

Man skims on the surface shallowly even appearing pretentious and loony,

Man researches and blunders on dully and prodding drearily,

Yet thinks he comprehends all mysteries deep and profound,

That is why intellectuals may well be the greatest idiots of all time around,

Intelligence is subjective and relative truly,

His perceived intelligence may be no more deep than paganism, heathens and idolatry,

And no more wise at the outset than utter ignorance and stupidity,

 

That is why man botches up and fumbles on aloof and proud,

With his cronies, cabals, lead hands and all and sundry smitten,

Man is incorrigibly proud just as Donne on death had written,

Man in all his self-proclaimed glory nature bullies,

His reputation for posterity ever sullies,

Man, pompous, bratzy, domineering, will learn his lessons some time,

Even as he sullies and leadens the atmosphere with slime and grime,

 

Man proudly traces his life and existence from epoch to epoch,

From aeon to aeon and from age to age,

Claiming that he has become successively wiser with each epoch or with passing time,

Or successively more foolish, naive and petulant may we state,

Other species have plus points too but have carried them low,

Without haughtiness or even raising an eyebrow,

 

The earliest amphibians were accomplished in their own way too,

As were the earliest reptiles and the earliest birds in their primitive majesty,

Dinosaurs whether august and striding gallantly, gigantic, subtle-footed or puny,

Without waxing eloquent or raising their eyebrows unnaturally,

Stone age humans progressed and regressed a little both in equal measure,

with progress both material and non-material only slow and steady,

and flamboyance reserved for posterity,

 

We are ignorant still, and lack a holistic and a long-term view: man be not proud,

Each culture has its perils, just as its ego is unlimited and in sum remains infecund,

And tramples down on contemporaries with unfailing regularity,

Parochialism is always a new found reality,

Man has not learnt his lesson even with the launch and passing of industrial revolution or the internet age,

Each age thinks it is the greatest and the most triumphant till date, 

He has neither learnt any lessons from the past or may never even do so,

Nor can dream or aim a moonshot for the long-term too,

Bereft and devoid of a long-term and a holistic view,

Even as he makes claims of having conquered the depths of space anew,

He paddles on in his own self-proclaimed majesty and directionless stupidity,

He schemes his wicked machinations endlessly, deviously, and cunningly,

 

This despite all his pretensions of civilization and culture, is what man unfortunately is doomed to be,

This unfortunately speaks volumes about the capaciousness and caliber of man's intellect indeed;

In this regard and connection you may not be the pinnacle and epitome of creation, man,

Even so-called zeniths and nadirs exist in your self-conception only,

Man must not just be judged by his technological inventions or accomplishments alone,

Or by the senseless wars and battles he has waged or been privy to full-blown,

Man must also be judged by the perils and the limitations of his intellect; Man, be not proud.

 

Rules for awards, prizes and scholarships

Institute for the Study of the Globalization of Science (Registered as “Globalization of science trust”)

Mandavilli foundation (Separate dedicated website will be up at a later date)

Rules for awards and prizes

1.       Researchers must be active in any field of the social sciences. This includes anthropology, sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy, political science, historiography, etc. for any clarification, please write to me.

2.       Must have demonstrated a commitment to freeing social sciences from the shackles of Eurocentrism or laying the foundations of social sciences in the developing countries. This must preferably not be limited to one single country, but to developing countries, and to science as a whole.

3.       Must be from a developing country in Africa, South America, South Asia, South East Asia, Middle East, Near East and the Philippines. Due to technical and operational challenges, we are not accepting submissions from Pakistan and Afghanistan. For any clarifications, please write to me. 

4.       Researchers must have carried out research in the aforesaid regions, and must be still residents of those regions at the time of claiming the award.

5.       Must have had a history of research and research publications at least five years.

6.       Must have published at least five research papers in peer-reviewed journals.

7.       Publications must have been in English. In case the original paper was in another language, translation must have also been published in a peer-reviewed journal in English.

8.       Journal must be reasonably reputed, and must not be classified or categorized as fake or non-genuine.

9.       Researcher must be associated with a university, reputed research institute, or a think tank.

10.   Non-affiliated researchers may apply provided they furnish two references or two testimonials from reputed affiliated scholars.

11.   Researcher must have a valid Masters degree in any field.

12.   Copies of the papers must be submitted for evaluation.

13.   No registration charges are applicable at present.

14.   We will issue a certificate and a testimonial. These will be in soft copies only. There are no cash awards at present.

15.   Selection will be purely based on merit.

16.   There are no limits to the number of awards that can be given in a year. Alternatively, no awards may be given in a particular year in the absence of meritorious candidates.  

17.   The main categories of awards are “Global star award for the year …..” (Unlimited), and “Global Best researcher of the year award for ….” (only one)

18.   Special awards shall also be given for outstanding papers in Economics and Pedagogy for work that boosts economic outcomes in developing countries.

19.   The form attached must be fully and properly filled in.

20.   Claims may be referred to a subcommittee if required. The decisions of the judges and the panel shall be binding and final.

Rules for Ph.D scholarship

1.       This scholarship is applicable to researchers pursuing research in an Indian university.

2.       The Ph.D program must be approved by the UGC or the University Grants Commission.

3.       The Ph.D program must be in the humanities.

4.       The Ph.D program must be centered on the ideals of the globalization of science movement, and must benefit developing countries greatly.

5.       Letter of admission must be provided from the university.

6.       Research proposal must have been approved by the university.

7.       Letter must be provided from the guide.

8.       We are starting with one scholarship per year. Rs 5,000 consolidated for the course. Program may be expanded at a later date.

9.       The form attached must be fully and properly filled in.

10.   Proposals may be referred to a subcommittee if required. The decisions of the panel shall be binding and final.

 

 

Sujay Rao Mandavilli

Founder Director

Institute for the Study of the Globalization of science

(Registered as “Globalisation of science trust”)