Filter Coffee #015

On Adoption (contd.), Wisdom vs Intelligence, and Glass Ceilings

Dear Readers,

I was delighted to see that my last edition was well received. I’m glad you all liked it, and shared your insights on the topic. I am indeed very grateful for your engagement. In it, I spoke in some detail about adoption among Hindus. My reader and friend in Mysore, Nataraj suggested I briefly cover adoption among Christians and Muslims, as it is quite different compared to how Hindus adopt under the codified law of adoption.

✝️ Adoption among Christians

It is not as if no effort was made to enact a law that would facilitate adoption of a child by a Christian. In fact, Adoption Of Children Bill 1972 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha which was applicable to both Christians and Muslims but it was dropped following reservations expressed by the Muslim community that it would amount to creating a uniform adoption code. Subsequently, the Government introduced Adoption of Children Bill 1980 but it has not yet seen the light of the day. Reportedly, some Christian organisations mooted a law called the Christian Adoption and Maintenance Bill, 1990 but it too did not succeed.

There are two avenues open to Christians to adopt a child: 

One, under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2006 and the Rules made thereunder. (In fact, I had referred to this law in NL#14 to point out how orphaned or abandoned children could be adopted under this Act).

Two, a Christian could seek to be appointed Guardian of a child under The Guardians and Wards Act of 1890. However this is not the same as adoption, because it would only involve foster care and once the child attains the age of 18, the guardianship lapses. 

There are a few cases where the Kerala High Court has decided the issue of adoption, but those rulings are fact specific and do not crystallise the general legal proposition relating to adoption. It would, therefore, seem that the first avenue is perhaps the best and most reliable source for adoption.

If one is interested in the ancient practice of the son-in-law taking the place of a missing son, there was the system of aliya santhana (aliya meaning son-in-law) among Hindus, but it was abolished with codification of Hindu law on adoption. 

I am not sure if this had any influence among the Syrian Christians, but I gather that many years ago there used to be a practice whereby if a Syrian Christian had many daughters, the person whom the youngest daughter married became the ‘son’ and he then assumed the family name and lived with that family as well. I am sure some of my readers who are Syrian Christians will have something to say on this — please feel free to enlighten us in the comments.

☪️ Adoption among Muslims

The Islamic tenets do not recognise adoption for a variety of reasons but The Juvenile Justice Act (referred to above), enables a Muslim to adopt a child and this right of a Muslim to adopt a child under the said Act was upheld by the Supreme Court way back in 2014. Interestingly that particular case related to a Muslim lady who had adopted a girl child from an adoption home. The Apex Court observed: 

“The JJ Act 2000 is a secular law enabling any person, irrespective of the religion he professes, to take a child in adoption. It is akin to the Special Marriage Act 1954, which enables any person living in India to get married under that Act, irrespective of the religion he follows. Personal beliefs and faiths, though must be honoured, cannot dictate the operation of the provisions of an enabling statute.”

This ruling also enables Parsis and Jews to adopt a child under the JJ Act.

Capt. Sarma, a regular reader, asks this question:

Adoption: What is the legal position of the rights of transgenders to adopt? What will be the psychological impact on the child? 

I need to give this one a bit more thought. I may go into it in detail in one of the later editions.

🧠 Wisdom & Intelligence

I read somewhere that Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit but Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. That quip is said in jest to differentiate the two qualities, but is one superior to the other? Are they unconnected? Are they in a sense twins? Some say Intelligence is knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do. Quite intriguing, right?  

Let’s start with the ordinary meanings of these two words:

Intelligence: the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

Wisdom: the quality of having experience, knowledge, good judgement; the quality of being wise.

The following quote from the Tao Te Ching, a Chinese classical text, puts these two attributes into perspective:

“Wisdom always leads to truth while intelligence may be used to deceive”

My friend, who is a cricket buff, tells me that an intelligent bowler may throw a bouncer but the batsman acts wisely by leaving it alone. He extends the logic to the captain doing the field setting and calls it a function of wisdom and the bowler bowling to that field as intelligence. 

Roy Williams, a Marketing consultant in Texas has this to say:

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”

Napoleon Bonaparte had a different way of saying that intelligence can undo what wisdom could achieve. His famous quote:

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake” , illustrates this point.

I have observed, during my lectures, that the questions fall into three broad categories of querists:

1. They are motivated by the desire to know or learn

2. They are motivated by the desire to test the speaker

3. They are motivated by the desire to impress others

The first category is keen on getting wiser and being informed and I engage with them. The second category uses prior knowledge in a sinister way but I deflect that with a compliment. The third category does neither of the above but is aimed at creating an impression, which I ignore.

During my pre-school days, we were taught this idiom “Early to Bed and Early to Rise, Makes a Man Healthy, Wealthy and Wise”. According to phrases.org.uk, “the person most associated with the phrase and who brought it into common usage in the USA was Benjamin Franklin. Poor Richard's Almanack, which was an annual journal published by Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym of Poor Richard between 1732 and 1758. The idiom is found in the 1735 edition. I am inclined to infer that the import of this idiom is more relatable to wisdom than intelligence.

A word of  wisdom from Capt. Sarma who  says:

For those who are sixty plus: Pras has given wise tips to grow old gracefully. Some of these are narrated in detail by Zhou Daxin in his latest book "The Sky gets Darker" which is yet to be published. He adds an advice "Don’t say later, because it means never". You can watch the highlights of the book in this link: https://getjoy.in/old-age/

I request my intelligent readers to, in their wisdom, comment on how they would differentiate intelligence from wisdom. It would be a very interesting read.

🗣 What is a Glass Ceiling?

The glass ceiling is that unseen barrier that prevents career advancement for minority demographics or prevents minorities from occupying positions traditionally held by the majority. The phrase is most often used in relation to women in the workplace, with similar phrases coined to refer to other minorities over time.

You must have seen the recently released movie “Gunjan Saxena - The Kargil Girl” which demystifies the age old mindset that only a man can fly an aircraft. The real Gunjan Saxena was among the first batch of women to join the Indian air force in 1994 —  the year they started inducting female transport and helicopter pilots — and she was among two female pilots who flew reconnaissance flights during the Kargil conflict.

As was narrated to the BBC, in the summer of 1999, as India and Pakistan traded missiles and gunfire, Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena flew repeatedly over the Line of Control, the disputed border that divides Kashmir between the two South Asian neighbours.

Conflict had erupted after Pakistani forces infiltrated the Indian side of the de facto border and occupied icy heights in Kargil which is situated in Indian-administered Kashmir.

"I spent about 20 days in June flying a helicopter on recce missions," Flt Lt Saxena told the BBC. "My main job was to find out where enemy posts were, do battle damage assessment for the India army and evacuate casualty."

Gunjan’s case symbolises the breaking of that unseen barrier for women to become combat pilots.

On 6th October 1989 India witnessed yet another first. Fatima Biwi was appointed the first woman (a muslim at that) judge of the Supreme Court of India. In fact, she was the first woman to occupy that post in Asia. She later became the Governor of Tamil Nadu, an office she held from 1997 to 2001. She is now 93 years old and spends time in Pathanamthitta, Kerala.

There are many such firsts when women broke the glass ceiling:

Sub Lieutenant Shivangi became the first woman to fly a plane in India's navy. The milestone came three years after the country's air force recruited its first female pilots.

Mrs. Nirmala Seetharaman is the first full time finance minister of India.

Ms.PV Sindhu is the 1st Indian to win the Badminton World Championships

The list is endless. The fact remains that they challenged male domination in the careers of their choice. From politics to education, armed forces, literature, sports, arts and culture, these Indian women became the first to breach the gender gap. Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Pratibha Patil, Kiran Bedi, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal, M Fathima Beevi, Homai Vyarawalla and Sakshi Malik are just some of these names. Let us celebrate these pioneering Indian women who were the first to break the glass ceiling in their fields.

Potpourri

OH! English!

English is the only language where:

• You Drive in Parkways & Park in Driveways

• You Recite in a Play & Play in a Recital

• Fat Chance & Slim Chance mean the same thing

• Fingers have Fingertips but Toes don’t have Toe Tips

• You can TipToe but cannot Tip Finger

• Nose runs but Feet Smell

• Something sent by Truck is Shipment and but when sent by Ship it’s Cargo

• Jail & Prison are Synonyms but Jailer and Prisoner are Antonyms

Dear friends, please do take good care of yourself and your family even as restrictions become more lax. I will catch up with you again next Sunday, but until then enjoy the coffee!