Ethics centre as temple Why I believe in the immense capacity of centre to transform individuals, build moral character and thereby serve communities well By: T.K. Mishra One needs to ask oneself why under his watch life sometimes becomes a fearful journey. Is one’s disregard to ethics a reason? Being an ethical must be the best thing to do in life. I believe adherence to ethics combines all the things that a personal need look for: Health, romance, travel, joy of learning and giving, the positivity of failure and the will to overcome it. Ethics provides good companionship and interest in relationships, nature beauty, soul strings of music and dancing — in short, just about everything that most people strive for. In ethically ethnic India every 20 km you would come across a change in language, food, dress, customs, stories, songs, buildings, even the design of the bullock carts and look of the ‘Jugaad’ changed. This immense variety, this richness that runs through the expanse of India is what can be loved more than anything else. Sadly, today through neglect of ‘ethic of care’ and ‘use of hatred' this “uniqueness” that we celebrate is getting fractured. Across the globe we find right-wing chauvinism, individualism, xenophobia, fanaticism and phony nationalism growing at an astonishing pace. The world needs its philosophers its ethicists, its storytellers and its poets who show us ways to fashion lifestyle with a conscience or being ethical beyond the mundane and banal. Who shine the light on the great achievements of modern mankind and yet equip us to deal with the dark side, the inevitable fallouts of technological advancements, globalisation, political machinations, media manipulations, as well as to embrace our fears, to have moral courage. At this centre at Ramanujan College, we need to know something more about the enigmatic nature of relationship between an individual and the values and between the values and what it stands for. I am also committed to working towards realising the dream of dealing with the fall out of money-market-media dominance, in whatever small way within my capacity. Not only because centre gives me immense joy but because I know its immense capacity to transform individuals, build moral character and thereby serve communities well.
