Yesterday, I read about the rather frivolous lawsuit
on who owns the phrase “How matters” between a business strategy author and a yoghurt
company? The ownership, copyrights
and the patent issues seem to be getting crazier by the day.There are numerous
such ridiculous lawsuits being filed on a regular basis.
Sometime back I had heard about a US based rice
company almost succeeding in patenting “Basmati”, then having to give it up
because “Basmati” happens to be an ancient Sanskrit word and is a special kind
of rice that has been grown in certain regions of India for ages. This issue caused
a brief
diplomatic crisis between India and United States. Then of course Yoga has been
around for centuries, but patenting certain Yoga poses under certain “brand”
names has become a fashion of sorts.
How
far are we willing to go to own any and everything we possibly can?
Possession
of land has been around for ages, however the futility of excess need and greed
are beautifully depicted in a short story by Leo Tolstoy, How much land does a man need, wherein the protagonist ends up
dying out of sheer exhaustion in the process of acquiring as much land he
possibly can by running from sunrise to sunset.
The
basic needs of a human being such as - water and air are meant to be free and
accessible to all, but are increasingly becoming scarce. Clean, drinking water
is perhaps a dream for many, which in turn has benefited the companies that
sell bottled water. With bottled water becoming a norm, what about clean air?
Especially with so many countries becoming virtual factories of the world…well
there is a solution again for the privileged - flavored Oxygen bars!!
Where are we headed, trying to own every little
thing we possibly can in this world when in reality we own nothing. Just as Alexander the Great conqueror
summed it up with his last words: “Bury my body, do not build any monument, keep my
hands outside so that the world knows the person who won the world had nothing
in his hands when dying“.
2 comments:
So true Ish. What we do leave behind when we go are memories in the hearts of the people who touch our lives. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we worked our socks off to fill those memories with love and care instead of claiming ownership as you pointed out? BTW, 'How much land a man needs' is one of my favourite 'gyan wali' stories that I quote to look more well read than I am- after all it's a Tolstoy!
Tolstoy is simply the best! especially his short stories...
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