[Assam] Mahanta Brothers & Umesh Sharma: Unreasonable Harvard Pres.?

Mon Jun 12 07:30:19 PDT 2006

C-da,

  Thank you for your kind remarks. I do believe that you are never unreasonably critical -if you were you would never be successful as you in your life and career.

  I do think I appear to be sometimes unreasonable as do you and I think all of us on the Net but there is a reason for that --as Harvard Pres. puts it in a speech to Graduating students : http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2006/0606_bacc.html

  "Stand up for what makes sense, and risk seeming unreasonable now and then. George Bernard Shaw once observed "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." 
  Live with the discomfort, sometimes, of having made others squirm, and respect and listen, too, to those who leave you ill at ease. Hawthorne thought this way, too. He said, "the world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease." ............

  "Galbraith once warned that "The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking," and he commented wryly on another occasion: "In any organization it is far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone." Galbraith thus urged: "In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also one should afflict the comfortable especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong." 

Regards.

  Umesh

Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
        *** Himendra Kaiti's outburst was a riot! I kept chuckling over the powerful arguments (NOT) he made against the persona of this pair of scum-of-the-earth siblings, Mukul and Chandan Mahanta, putting them under SCRUTINY!

  I have been the ISSUE in Assam NEt before. But not in this way. Not from someone who, one would be right to assume, is above the level of our resident 'sera-paagol'.

  But be that as it may, I give high marks to Umesh ( not something I am used to doing :-)--so he can be sure it is a hard-earned one) for being able to see the error he made after I pointed it out. That is a good sign. I despair at his seeming resistance to learning at times. But this time he did that quickly and gracefully. Can hardly ask for more!

  I also take the opportunity to assure Umesh ( and others whom I have tormented in the past) for their trouble with this 'damned' English language, that it is NOT a stigma. It is a FOREIGN language, and we had so little help learning it. That we learned SOME, itself is a small miracle. Some of us were luckier than others. They had better exposure, resources,  a desire to learn more or just listen more and pay attention, instead of being overly anxious to tell or teach -- whatever.

  Himen Kai wrote: >We need not "damn" the "English language."

  *** Is that an understatement of the day or what?  Also underscores Himen Kai's own trouble with the ordinary version of the language, not to mention its nuances. That my characterization " that damned English language" was tongue-in-cheek, eluded him entirely. Not surprising at all. His troubles are evident in most of his posts, in these two latest ones even more so than usual.

  I thought of having a little fun with them, but decided that it would be a gross overkill. That will amount to pouring 'ghee' on that slow-burning, Hinduttwa bearing psyche of his.

  I do realize why he is doing the slow burn, resulting in these outbursts. It was my bad! I was harsh with my criticisms of his poorly disguised Hinduttwa peddling scheme in assamnet.He tries hard to camouflage his wares with shades of vedic philosophy, love for humanity ( except them progeny of invaders), imagery of the Bard of Boston -- what have you. But as they say here in the midwest, you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig, but it still is a pig! A Boston Brahmin he ain't :-).

  cm

  At 9:21 PM -0400 6/8/06, Himendra Thakur wrote:
  Dear Umesh,     I must clarify that I wrote not only for your support, but also to appeal to the Assamese friends to scrutinize the Mahanta Brothers who are causing great harm to the safety of the Assamese people.     We need not "damn" the "English language." People will decide what to condemn.     With the best wishes,  Himendra  
  ----- Original Message -----  From: umesh sharma  To: Himendra Thakur  Cc: assam at assamnet.org  Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 8:57 PM  Subject: Re: Mahanta Brothers & Umesh Sharma  
  Himendra-da,     Thank you for the support but I think we can close the chapter. It seems it was due to communication gap --due to this "damned English language" to quote C-da.     Regards and Thanks.     Umesh  
Himendra Thakur <hthakur at comcast.net> wrote:
  BLOCKQUOTE {    PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } DL {    PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } UL {    PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } OL {    PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } LI {    PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px }  Dear Umesh,     You asked to Mr. Mukul Mahanta to explain some aleegations, which he did not. However, his brother Mr. Chandan Mahanta has come forward to explain on behalf of Mr. Mukul Mahanta.     At one time, Mr. Chandan Mahanta wrote to me that he did not represent his brother, Mr. Mukul Mahanta. It seems Mr. Chandan Mahanta was misguiding me and everybody else in the net.     There is one significant analogy. When the late Nathuram Godse was tried for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, he defended himself in the trial and submitted a 150-point defense plea. In consideration of a petition by the then Nehru Government, the Court ordered Nathurams defense plea to be kept in a secret archive for 30 years. Serving a jail term for
 20 years, when Gopal Godse came out of the prison in 1969, he went on giving public statements against Mahatma Gandhi, posing as a self-appointed advocate to explain Nathurams defense plea, which could not be verified because that document was sealed. Ultimately, when Nathurams defense plea was published in 1979, it was found to be very different from Gopal Godses  babble.  I have dealt with this idiocy in my drama The Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. The great Maharashtrian people of India are very worried that the Godse brothers and their unthinking supporters will bring down the reputation of Maharashtra.     Explaining on behalf of Mr. Mukul Mahanta, Mr. Chandan Mahanta has made personal attacks on you about many of your recent commentary, arguments, perceptiveness, analytical skill, critical thinking ability or even the ability to comprehend ordinary English.     Well, Mr. Chandan Mahanta himself displayed complete absence of perceptiveness, analytical skill,
 critical thinking ability when he ran a tirade against ATAN BURAGOHAIN SAKO with a comment that the Bridge would be ugly even BEFORE the bridge was designed. There are exquisitely beautiful bridges all over the world. How can he say that a bridge will be ugly BEFORE it is designed?  He is questioning your ability to comprehend ordinary English whereas he himself does not understand the basic difference of meaning between the simple English words BEFORE & AFTER.     Both the Mahanta brothers are propagating the idea that the Assamese people should take a stand against India. Due to gross lack of analytical skill, critical thinking ability they  fail to see that Assam is India and the Assamese are Indian people. The Mahanta Brothers made vociferous statements in support of the Bangladeshi Muslims who have been infiltrating into Assam. When I asked Mr. Chandan Mahanta to take responsibility for the consequences, it was discovered that he did not even think of
 any consequences when he made those statements, thereby displaying complete lack of his own arguments, perceptiveness, analytical skill, critical thinking ability.     Mr. Chandan Mahanta talks about a character fault of Kavya. In the interest of the safety of Assamese people, it is now a high time to remind Mr. Chandan Mahanta about his own character fault when he failed to take responsibility of the statements which were very harmful to Assam --- in fact this was a life or death question of the entire Assamese population who are facing a danger that the Kashmiri Pandits are going through --- a danger much more serious than Kavyas alleged fault of  copying without giving credit and the inability to 'fess up even after getting caught.     I appeal to the Assamese people to scrutinize the stand of the Mahanta brothers.     With the best wishes,  Himendra     ----- Original Message -----  From: Chan Mahanta  To: umesh.sh05 at post.harvard.edu ; mc mahant ;
 dilipdeka at yahoo.com  Cc: assam at assamnet.org  Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 6:24 PM  Subject: Re: [Assam] Harvard MBA Newsletter: For Mukul-da -- please explainallegations  
  Umesh:  
  If he had compared you with Kavya, that would have been a highly undeserved praise; considering many of your recent commentary, arguments, perceptiveness, analytical skill, critical thinking ability or even the ability to comprehend ordinary English.  
  Kavya is, without a doubt, far more accomplished in all these areas. Her fault was copying without giving credit and the inability to 'fess up even after getting caught -- a character fault, not a deficiency of cognitive skills or abilities.  
  Mukul-da wrote:  
  >Only about Harvard.-populated by Kavya-Umesh and now THIS  
  in response to Dilip's question:  
  >Does that make a difference in your opinion about George Bush?  

          What it meant was that his opinion about George Bush's academic          credentials and perceptions about his intellectual acumen have          changed, but that his opinion of HARVARD  has changed.          .          Obviously because people such as GWB or Umesh Sharma are alumni          of its grad. schools while Kavya was a stellar freshman.  
          He did not specify what the 'change' was, up or down. I hope I          don't have to get painfully explicit in explaining that, and will          leave that up to your imagination.  
          None of these involved ANY comparison. He did not compare you with          Kavya or GWB, or vice versa -- like you read. Either would have          been grossly inappropriate. Your perception here is a result of          your inadequate comprehension of this damned foreign language: English!  

  cm  

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Umesh Sharma
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Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

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