c# - ODP.NET Oracle.ManagedDataAccess causes ORA-12537 network session end of file -

Every nation must have its heroes. Having lost its stars of the Independence age, Indians have been desperately seeking new ones who can inspire them in these dispirited post-reform, post-Mandal, post-modern times. Narasimha Rao, like Deng could have been one such hero. Deng has become a hero to contemporary China and has supplanted Mao in Chinese hearts. Although Rao created an economic revolution between 1991-93, he was not a visionary; he was only a reluctant reformer. Now mired in corruption cases, he is no longer respected. V.P. Singh could have been a hero. He released a social revolution as he attempted to raise the backward castes in our society. But most Indians saw through his electoral ambitions. In the end, he divided society and seriously compromised standards. If he had genuinely cared for the backwards he would have delivered them education and health, and that would have truly lifted them over the long term. Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram are hero candidates. Indeed, with a solid record of achievement in reform, they are already heroes to the young. But politics has not been kind to them and they have been languishing in recent years. We are shy of politicians today and look to individuals with narrower but concrete achievements--to V. Kurien, for example, for making India the largest milk producer; to Sam Pitroda for inventing the STD call centre in the bazaar; to C. Subramaniam for our green revolution. Who ought to qualify to be our hero in the post-reform age? Many would agree that it is individuals who succeeded by helping themselves, who made a difference to society through their own efforts rather than the patronage of others, especially the government. Leftist intellectuals call this ethic "selfishness" and "greed", but it is rags-to-riches stories like Narayana Murthy's that resonate with our times. Recently I was reading Ashish Nandy's fascinating, An Ambiguous Journey to the City, where he discusses Karna, and it struck me that the mythic hero of the Mahabharata, might qualify as a hero. Of uncertain birth, insecure and defiant, Karna represents the predicament of a self-made person in an insensitive society that is not quite ready for individualism and competitiveness. His fight against the Pandavas is an attempt to break out of his lowly status as a charioteer's son and affirm the values of personal achievement and competitive individualism. If we cannot find a hero in the flesh we might as well import one from mythology. Karna, as every school child knows, was born of the princess Kunti, who had a boon that allowed her to have a child by any god that she wished. Whilst still young and unmarried she invoked through her prayers, the sun god. As a result, she conceived and gave birth to Karna. Fearing a scandal, she stealthily placed the child in an ornate casket and left it to float on the Ashva river, where a humble charioteer, Adhiratha and his wife Radha found him, and bought him up to be their son. Meanwhile, Kunti married the sickly Pandu, the prince of Hastinapur, who was cursed to die if sexually aroused. So Kunti exercised her boon and had children by the gods. These were the famous Pandavas who went on to fight the Kauravas in what became the Mahabharata. Meanwhile, Karna grew into a brave and gifted warrior, but he was subjected from birth to jibes about his humble birth and his princely ambitions. When young he challenged his half brothers to competition. They refused--competing with princes was a princely privilege. Karna was again humiliated when princess Draupadi refused to marry a charioteer's son even though he had won the right to do so in fair competition. Embittered, Karna turned to the Kauravas for friendship. This worried Krishna, who revealed to Karna the secret of his birth on the eve of the great battle and pleaded with him to join the Pandavas. He offered him, in return, the prize of Hastinapur's kingdom and Draupadi's hand in marriage. Kunti and Surya, his natural parents, begged him as well, but Karna was loyal to his word, and refused to betray the Kauravas, who had elevated him to a kshatriya and a prince. In the end, like a good hero, Karna knew when to die, and he went down unvanquished, killed through Krishna's trickery. Although he walks out of the pages of the Mahabharata, this Karna seeks power and legitimacy for a new ethic and a new mindset. He defies his low caste; he celebrates achievement in a competitive society; he stands for individualism and a "can do" attitude. He seeks legitimacy for the rustic and lowborn in a secular city. He could well be a hero for our times.