Some issues

[Sankar Jayanarayanan]

Srinivas Sista <sista at ECN.PURDUE.EDU> wrote:

Ravi Mayavaram wrote:

> > 2) Reverence/Irreverence issues
> >
> > Few weeks back I sent a request asking members to avoid rude and
> > offensive postings[1]. In fact as a response to that mail,
> > Ramakrishnan Balasubramaniam signed out of the list. I requested him
> > personally to join back again as I thought his contributions are
> > important. He accepted my request and subscribed in again.  Last week
> > some of the members protested personally to me about the rude language
> > used by  Ramakrishnan Balasubramaniam. Since Ramakrishnan is no
> > longer in the list and has signed out, I did not bring up those
> > protests to the list. But if I receive a subscription request from
> > Ramakrishan I will request him to withdraw it. If you disagree with my
> > decision please let me know.
> >
>
> I would like to take the liberty of expressing my feeling about the
> language occasionally used by Ramakrishnan Balasubramaniam (Rama).
> I was a room mate of Rama for the past 3 years. I am sure people
> who know him personally agree with me that he has a unique way of
> expressing his opinions. He is not the one who goes for euphemisms,
> politeness or even being silent at the expense of diluting or
> misrepresenting the content. I can understand that the list members
> do not have any idea regarding the humorous/jovial side of Rama and
> his insistence on the `no nonsense' approach. So it is very easy for
> people who dont know him to construe that he is being rude when he
> OCCASIONALLY expresses certain opinions in the way he does. He is not
> the kind of person who wants to hurt others verbally.
>

I have known Rama for quite some time through emails, and have had the chance
to meet him too. I completely agree with Sista: Rama's words may sound harsh,
but he really does not mean to hurt anyone.

Moreover, his contributions to the advaita-l list in terms of substance is
far more than anyone else.

It's not right to bar such a person from this list.

-Kartik