Z for Zero : Zero Laxity towards bending rules

Two friends were on a bike early in the morning. They were rushing towards the Y K M Hospital on the other part of city- their friend from their native place was battling some head injuries suffered last night in a drink and drive situation. Though the guy in the driver’s seat stopped at a traffic signal, he was itching to jump the signal after carefully noticing no traffic cops on either side of the road, the time being early in the morning. The friend in the pillion objected to it strongly. An argument ensued. The driver guy was trying to justify breaking the rule only once for the sake of their dear friend who is in dire need of blood which can be ensured on them reaching the hospital early. The other person stood his ground and refused to ride along and make other arrangements in case the signal is jumped. While it might not cause any danger to anyone for them to break the rules in that instance, it would set up a wrong notion and example to everyone else stopping in the light. Their value system, their education, their upbringing – all would be questioned in people’s mind and someone else somewhere repeating the act might end up taking someone else’s life. In the middle of the continued argument, the onward signal became green and they moved on.

Is this not a very common sight for all of us?

All of us, committing a wrong thing or felony only once, will collectively add up to a large number of such cases putting the society in danger and push it one more step towards peril. 

Many of us have might have taken help of “someone else”, in exchange of money, having connections internally in different government departments in the case of getting a driving license or khata transfer (document for house mutation). It did not take much of our time to get the things done in the right and just way when we approached the authorities directly helped with the much simplified processes put in place along with electronic systems. There are very many good people inside the system who are ready to help when approached directly. Another very good example is passport application through the online appointment system. Right now, that is the only system and we all patiently wait and budget our time in the absence of previously available so-called helps.

With all these, the point I am trying to make is we, the educated lot of the country, need to be sincere and earnest about zero laxity towards corruption and rules.  Even doing it once does not justify the cause, rather one becomes the part of them who often take law in their own hand to curb it the way they liked it -in their own ways.

Let us give it a push at our individual level towards taking our country out of these menaces. In that way, our hands will be stronger, our voices will be heard with utmost care before we point fingers to others.

W for Women: How would the world be if Women were in charge?

Today I am writing something in which I deeply believe in. I also want to make it clear that I am just not joining the bandwagon of people talking in the lines of women empowerment in a patriarchal society. I have seen the benefits when women get involved in the things.

Yes, I am aware of the resistances and hurdles women face in every walk of life in this male dominated world but the more women get involved into the thick and thin of the happenings around in the society, more success stories will evolve, creating a healthy ecosystem for further participation. As success breeds success, the wheel of betterment and development will be in motion.

In words of Swami Vivekananda, “Women must be put in a position to solve their own problems in their own way. No one can or ought to do this for them”.

Have we ever thought about what would have happened if women were at the helm of affairs?

I have discussed on this topic few times with my fellow friends and some of the immediate changes that come to mind are as follows.

• ·         There would be less bloodshed.
• ·         There would be less of aggression and extremism.
• ·         There would be softer ways and means to deal with things.
• ·         World would get more organized.
• ·         There will be less genocide (female and male) resulting in improved equilibrium in the society.
• ·         There will be increase of child and female mortality along with overall mortality.

Overall, I would assume, the world will be more beautiful and sane.

While many may argue that there will be downward trend observed on the many parameters related to men, I beg to differ. With the concept of family and nurturing of lives are centered around women,  my conviction tells me that with  women in control in wider sphere of life, there will be more focus on development. On the other hand, matters like religious dogmatism -a petty one for me and a killer from the old days of civilization, aggression, crime and other similar aspects would be much less.  

Through the post, I would like to invite comments and opinion regarding what others think on this matter. With the increased effort from women to get them involved in corporate, politics and other areas of society, I am really hopeful that one day we will have a cleaner polity, more of development and less of corruption and bloodshed with women in charge in equal measure if not more…

A Success Story: The ugly Indians – stop talking, start working

Today, what could have been a better topic than The Ugly Indians with “U” ?

I feel proud to write about a bunch of anonymous volunteers on a mission- “No Lectures, No activism, Just hard work”.  The group originating in Bangalore and named - The Ugly Indians (TUI,) takes up spot fix activities every week in Bangalore and now the concept is being adopted in other cities of India in last few months.

Drawing inspiration from “Work is Worship” and “Talk less, work more” , the group applies simple and smart solutions to implement the makeover for  eyesore spots like filth on footpath, stains on walls, open dumps, cigarette litter  or open public urinal spots . Sometimes they involve civic agencies when they need to go deep into the problems as they believe in working with the existing systems rather doing sit outs on what is not working.  Volunteers are all citizens like you and me without the cynicism that things won’t work - employed in big, small companies in the near about places with a mentality to change the face of the place by doing work silently. The folks in T-shirts, brooms, shovels are not into any kind of propaganda to join hands, rather expect people with the serving mentality to be drawn towards the activities.

Their website page bears testimony to the success stories of the makeovers done and FB page is witnessing a rapidly increasing likes. Groups from outside India are showing interest into knowing these spot fix activities having similar mindset of service beyond self. Additionally, their work is recognized by every citizen in Bangalore whereby, the Ugly Indian has been voted as a Bangalore Hero as part of the last Bangalore Mirror campaign.

Their motto is to show people how the change looks like and believe that people will surely change along with the change happening around and get  attracted in doing more – time might be longer, path might be steeper. 

It is high time that we stop thinking that problems are someone else’s and someone else or government will take care of things. While there are talks of many public private partnership projects around – some materializing and some not, this is a fine bit example a “Muh Bandh, Kaam Chalu (stop talking, start working) movement in action and in reality to change of hygiene condition of our beloved country.

I urge my readers to visit their pages and get involved.

Volunteers @ work

T for Togadia s to be expunged out

I was toying with different words and thoughts for the letter -T, and had come very close to deciding on “threat and tolerance”. However, Mr. Togadia presented himself along with another BJP leader, Mr. Giriraj from Bhagalpur, Bihar, both caught literally with their feet in their mouths. Yes, I am talking about the two gentlemen and their irresponsible statements vying to create furor and storm on the soil of our motherland and I could not just keep silent.

On second thought, I think the best treatment to such guys is ignoring them but in our country, with the over-hyped and hyper-active digital journalism in play, that is not going to happen. When “ignoring them” can’t be exercised as a weapon to battle these elements, we need to raise voices of condemnation against such atrocities.

What do these people think of themselves? Mr. Togadia commented that the killers of Rajiv Gandhi are yet to be hanged and hence everyone can get away with perpetrating anything whereas the other (gentle) man can’t tolerate people who oppose Mr. Modi. Other than instigating communal violence and hatred, what else can these guys do, if not able to join hands on the development programs of good governance or poverty alleviation?

I take this opportunity to ask both these gentlemen what are their views and charter on the development activities. Or do they really bother to delve into anything else other than dividing people? While everyone else is actively trying to give peace and tolerance a chance, these tainted elements of society need to be ignored and punished. What will be their accountability if today violence erupts in Bhavnagar – however small it is and there is a death or people get injured?

How will Mr. Togadia ensure that nothing of that sort going to happen after making those statements?

 From my viewpoint, human life does not have any value to these sorts of people and they care a fig if one or two lives are ended here and there.  They neither bat an eyelid nor think twice before uttering such inflammable statements to instigate violence in such situation.

Before concluding, I would also like to draw attention to the ridiculous actions that had happened on the soil of Maharashtra by one so called political outfit in the name of saving the state. They were in a mad rush of throwing migrants out of the state by dictating their own terms on the sovereign right of every Indian. Is this really the way to democracy?

S for Self Discipline

The other day I noticed there was no traffic police at the junction and one educated young guy from a reputed IT company, did not hesitate to take a wrong turn in the middle of red light.  The chocolate wrappers or plastic bags are all over the place, either on road side or in the park, indifferently scattered by us and our children for “decorative” purposes.

Let’s put all these guys in a developed country.

My friend will always follow lanes, stop for 5 seconds at a stop sign, and travel more than a mile for a turn or exit. Children and adults will always be on the lookout for a dust bin and won’t consider littering the place.

Why the same person is behaving differently in two different conditions?  Is it because of the fact that enforcement is stricter in developed countries whereas it is almost non-existent in developing countries? Surprisingly I have observed that some of my expat colleagues, riding two –wheelers, also match themselves almost equally, if not more, taking chances with discipline while in India and other developing countries J.

So am I to conclude that discipline is effective only in the presence of an external influencing agent like enforcement? Or is it that the spic and span environment of the place compels us to follow rules?

Why is it so, that the reference points have to be these external factors and not one’s internal understanding of what is right? While I took example of traffic rules and littering, these are equally applicable in almost all walks of life. Earlier I discussed about cost of corruption and brought up the point of us succumbing to pressure.

The issues of discipline in developed countries are of different type and nature - sometimes at an incomprehensible large scale leading to losses of life. The spate of gun related issues in US schools in last few years really worry me and I am sure people in authority are sincerely trying to find out the reasons for it. 

Without us being self-disciplined at the first place, we should not think about inculcating discipline amongst our children or can’t expect people to behave in a disciplined way while police are not around. A country’s progress is very much dependent on its citizen being self-disciplined to the core.

And to me, this is an internal attitude and we, educated class, should be the first to adopt and abide by this all the time for an example to be set for other sections of the society.

Are we self-disciplined? 

R for Reservation : Where do we need this ?

“It is against the fundamental principles of humanity, it is against the dictates of reason that a man should, by reason of birth, be denied or given extra privileges" -Mahatma Gandhi

Does India still need a caste based reservation system in education, profession and any other areas concerning livelihood?

In my first post of these series, “26 posts for a better society”, I took up the topic of Bigotry Be Bygone.  Bigotry and untouchability, still prevalent in some form or other in Indian and world societies, have come down significantly in the present day. While the beginning was made in the 19^th century during British rule , there has been significant strides towards the removal these stigmas from the face of our country, including providing constitutional provision to prohibit untouchability, post independence.

Without delving much into different statistical parameters on the subject, it can be concluded that there are considerable amount of opportunities provided for the “Scheduled Castes” and “Scheduled Tribes” – the supposedly weaker sections of the society for their overall economic development. It is worthwhile to note that our constitution also provided provision of caste based reservation only for 10 years after independence by which time it was assumed that country would be able to overcome the challenges it was grappling with earlier. Later however, there has been no traction on this issue with any political party taking interest to repeal or amend those provisions, keeping an eye on the vote bank politics as around 33% of the electorate are from these sections.

In my opinion, in the current context of India moving ahead and with the background provided earlier, we should be restricting to provide with reservation only on the grounds of economic condition and/or gender in some cases. We, as a society, cannot afford to take chances with meritocracy stagnating on account of financial constraints and undeserved reservations.  Another significant consideration is inclusiveness in all walks of life. Increase of gender diversity along with differently abled people are significant approaches in the directions of education, corporate and political systems becoming to be much stronger and resilient.

I would also want to highlight that there should be a system so that the same families are not extended these benefits across generations.  It is expected that with the necessary support provided in one generation, there won’t be any need or very little need for any further support requirement to be provisioned for the same family. The same sustenance assistance can be made available to other sections of the public who have a more immediate need.

These are some serious issues that we need to focus onto going forward. Otherwise I have seen situations where people are becoming doctors without the base of necessary merit and credentials to support their career.  Medical profession - a significant enough profession to take care of lives should be also kept outside the purview of any kind of reservation other than merit.

Q for Questioning - Within and Outside

Analysis and questioning – these are two aspects for an open mind and it has to start from one’s within. While second-guessing your own self on a continuous basis may not be good for the confidence, it is indeed needed to put a mirror in front of you and face a tough question or two to stay on course.

Outside - in quite a few situations, we just accept things lying down with a mindset that there won’t or can’t be any change by raising any voice or question.  Someone somewhere might gather courage to stand up against the atrocities and things might get changed. We, then, would end up thinking that we also thought about it but did not do anything to effect the change. A feeling of guilt encompasses but, it is too late, by then.

The point I am raising here is twofold. 

First, regarding the parenting and education system, do we really encourage our children to analyze and ask questions? It has been often seen that a question is not appreciated at home or by the teachers and an environment gets created where children just listen, and learn by rote.  There is hardly any effort to spark the light in their mind to analyze and ask – in the process, making them ready for future where they are required to address the unknowns faced in life. As we cannot make them prepared beforehand to face each and every situation in life, inculcating this ability is very important for them to confront the world on their own. I am not generalizing all parents, teachers and institutions here but hope you would agree that this is not very uncommon.

Secondly, it is related to standing up against the issues in our professional or social circles and even in the four corners of our home. While it is true we are forced to ignore a lot of misdeeds done to us or to the system, with a fear for life or name of ours and our near and dear ones, there are cases where we should have taken steps but just gave it a pass. There are ample cases where we just close our eyes without raising a single question and accept the things as it is. Can we not come out of shell and take small steps to change the course in such cases?

I do agree that people who have tread these steps, have paid the price with their lives. None of us have forgotten the whistle-blowing cases in relation to construction work for golden quadrilateral project in Uttar Pradesh. The brave man who could muster courage to raise his voice against malpractices was ruthlessly killed. While the Indian Government has decided to act on this by passing an act to protect such whistle-blowers, we do not feel safe and shy away from such scenarios. Knowing fully well the repercussions, yes, we need to have the line drawn in a pragmatic way and ask questions before leaving everything only to fate. 

P for Power of Mind and Perseverance

Over the last few weeks, I have discussed issues currently plaguing our society and world at large  and they are bigotry, corruption, Inclusive Development, Good Governance, Engaging  Youth, Innovation and others. While we need to be earnest and keen on our approach to find a solution, in today’s discussion I would like to highlight of power of mind and perseverance – the two aspects at the individual level, if practiced and acquired, can do wonders in our own lives.

If we look at the below two thoughts from Swami Vivekananda, amongst his many, where he has harped over and over on cultivating the mind as a potent weapon,  the ideas have nothing to do with spirituality but are more applicable at the mundane level and directed for people like you and me. In his theory of Karma yoga where Work is Worship – the power of mind is an essential ingredient for any success to be achieved to uplift the downtrodden.

"Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. …If we really want to be blessed, and make others blessed, we must go deeper."

"To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean”, says the persevering soul; “at my will mountains will crumble up”. Have that sort of energy , that sort of will; work hard and you will reach the goal."

 ~ Swami Vivekananda.

While similar thoughts have been promulgated by other Indian leaders in recent times as well, incidentally I would like to point out that power of mind is not something discussed only in Indian literature by Indians.  Similar thoughts are echoed through the below sayings from other world leaders as well from time to time.

The Bible says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." (Proverbs 23:7)

Quoting Voitaire, “No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking”.

Albert Einstein says, “The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking”.

Personally all of us have experienced the benefits of power of mind and perseverance at some point or other. It is only fitting that we extend this practice in all spheres that encompass our lives, in order to reap rich benefits

O - Message with all the Os :-)

Opinion matters.

Opinion ought not to be obstructed. 

Obstructed opinion is opportunity lost.

Opportunity lost obliterates options.

Obliterated options obfuscate life.

Obfuscated life gets obligated.

Obligations put onus on one.

Onus ought not to obscure oneself.

One needs to deliberate to deliver.

Or begin orating opinion to optimize the choices.

So opinion matters.

Please Vote. # Vote4India

Nature - Save the Nature

Few days back, I was discussing about my #AtoZ challenge theme with my junior-school-going daughter and asked her what would come to her mind first to make the society a better place. Prompt came the reply - “saving nature”.  I decided to write my N post on Nature as a guest post from her.

Before going to the post, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude on the initiatives taken by almost all the urban and village schools, private and government schools, for the awareness creation for conservation of resources and specifically on nature, water, pollution.  I was pleasantly surprised by the determined resolve  they took not to burst crackers last Diwali and to celebrate Holi, last month, in the most organic way  with as less as possible water consumption .  They did not budge from their stand in the face of temptations and indulgences from parents.

If we are not careful about these natural resources now (we should have been much earlier but it is always better late than never!), we are surely pushing our future generation and the generations to come to face some kind of natural catastrophe. 

The gist of the rather long post goes as below:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hi everybody,

Today I am not going to tell you anything about what all we should be doing and what not to save nature. You know much more than me on that matter. Rather it is a story that unfolded before me of a river and the old tree on the bank of it.

There was a factory on the other side of the river bank and all the polluting chemicals and waste were being dumped into the river- quite insensitively. The river was getting sick and tired of it.

The branches of the tree were also being chopped off for the requirement of the factory.

With all the pain and agony the river and tree were going through from these inhuman and rampant activities, they jointly decided to take action. In order to punish the factory people, the river would dry off and the tree would shrink into the hole near it.

The factory people refused to take any notice of the fact and continued with their irresponsible act while managing the water requirement from other sources. The villagers in the nearby area were solely dependent on the water from the river and the fruits from the tree for their livelihood.  A little girl from the village came to plead with the river and the tree and to find out what the matter was. Along with her came all the other villagers.

The river and the tree, after being persuaded by the villagers that they would stop the factory people from polluting any further, were moved and their hearts melted on seeing the pitiable plight of the villagers.

The little girl led a rally of the villagers to protest at the factory main gate with the below slogan on a placard.

                                          Save Nature, Save Future

                                                             Don’t make a fuss,

                                            If we don’t save water

                                                                 Nature won’t help us
                                             Avoid deforestation

Don’t cut trees,

Or else life on earth

            Will tend to cease.

The factory people understood their mistake and came out of their ignorance. They took several conscious decisions and various steps to protect nature, water, tree, air from pollution. Everyone lived happily ever after.

P.S : Another post on her Love of Nature can be found here.

M for Mind

Today I would like to highlight the issue of how some people with vested interest are taking advantage of youth by channelizing their mind and body in a particular direction. At that young age, in many countries, the mind and thoughts of young generation - vulnerable as they are, are not under their own control. Not having the ability to clearly differentiate the right from wrong and with thoughts of idealism and ideals filling every corner of their brain, they are the easiest lot to be brainwashed. They are not allowed to think freely and history is painted in a gory way to them.

Below few lines is an effort against this practice towards reducing rage and violence from our beautiful earth.

On a road less traveled,

                Treacherous, steep, winding up high      

(They) Have trudged hand in hand

                Destination was never nigh.

Those hearts that beat to the same rhythm,

            Red blood coursing through veins,

The feelings are so alike,

          In elation or in pain.

Syria, Palestine and Kashmir

         Boiling in rage and ire,

Only loving embrace of brotherhood

      Can  save our dear earth from pyre.

Mistakes committed in history,

     Should not pronounce the future,

Sensible mind  and healing touch                                         

   Can only aspire a bright pasture.

No poisoning the mind of our children,

       In the name of religion and the Lord,

There must be a way to persuade

     And exchange a hug for the sword. 

* Images courtesy Google. 

L for Literacy - TEACH Program of Rotary

Continuing on my theme for a better world, today, I would like to discuss about basic literacy for them who need it most and the T-E-A-C-H program undertaken by Rotary for the south-east Asia.

I am a Rotarian and grateful for the opportunities this world’s largest non-profit platform provides to get involved in some projects for the society at large. After relentless fight to eradicate  Polio from world starting in 1985 and recently reaching the significant milestone of success in India along with Government of India in 2013-14,Rotary has taken up the TEACH program the similar manner in collaboration with Government.

Before we go to the details of the program, below are some statistics about where we stand today as a country.   

With definition of literacy considered here is more than being able to read and write names, national average of India around 74% is much lower when compared to other countries. This shows a very contrasting picture India being now the de-facto powerhouse of knowledge industry of the world.

Inside India, while Kerala, Mizoram are far ahead of the average, there are much to be done in the hinterland of central and northern India and here Rotary has decided to join hands with Government of India as per Kathmandu resolution during December, 2013.The TEACH program will complement government initiatives starting from Blackboard program in the year 1987 and continued with other missions like National literacy mission, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid Day Meals and Right to Education.

TEACH program will focus on the following areas at the Rotary district and club levels. All clubs are to raise funds for adopting few government schools for underprivileged children to drive down following programs. There are modules of E-Pathsale being rolled out with TCS and other corporates at a nominal price with basic infrastructure being arranged.

For teacher support, Rotary is in discussion with Azim Premji Foundation who focus on teacher support programs across many states in India. I already spoke about E-learning focus above. While Adult Literacy will focus on vocational training along with basic mathematics and business fundamentals, child development program will aim for inclusive education from migrant labourer, differently abled children, children of sex workers and prisoners and other risk categories. Happy schools are making the school look beautiful with the basic hygiene things taken care of.

We, at Rotary, have given ourselves three years’ time at this stage for this uphill task across all states of India through the individual clubs at the grass root levels. We will need your best wishes and support.

More details can be found here. Anyone wanting to get involved at individual capacity can feel free to contact me. It will be a privilege for me to work with you.

Thank You.

Humility : Knowledge Gives Humility

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.” – Rabindranath Tagore

All of us who are following the current campaign trail of the election in progress can’t miss one particular trait dominating the proceedings – verbal assault and slurring of leaders of other parties. I observed the same trend during the last few times USA went to election as well (By the way, I have followed these two elections out of my interest with a glimmer of hope of these two counties will usher large scale sweeping changes to the world systems). While there was a glimpse of hope that sanity would prevail when the leaders of three leading parties initiated a discussion thread on a common platform to shun such practices, nothing materialized in reality. Taking a cue from their leaders, the local and regional leaders have gone a step further and are resorting to more heinous crimes of communal violence, loot, arson leading to a tension ridden community. All these stem from a perceived notion that arrogance is synonymous with power while humility is being meek and weak.

We, as a citizen of the world order, are on the verge of forgetting to realize the essence of humility, honesty and humbleness. Humility, as a novel quality, allows one to accept other people’s greatness and achievements humbly with an open heart and an extended hand lent to take the torch further.  A person as an individual and as part of a society, having strength of character supported with physical and mental power, is revered by one and all when humility and modesty defines his actions. When the negative traits like rage and hatred are pushed out by virtue of these values, it enhances the overall harmony of a prosperous society and a nation.

Today, however, everyone and everything kneels down to who can be more obnoxiously arrogant in demanding things for their interest. Arrogance of power and knowledge are leading to temporary highs and imbues a sense of reverence out of fear, not loved and cared for by fellow citizens of the society. All these are very disturbing signs of a decaying system. If we fail to bring back these basic human qualities to be imbibed by our future generation, the future of all the nations will lie in immature hands.

Freedom of Mind- Fight Within

Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

~ Rabindranath Tagore, 1913- Gitanjali

Eminent poet Tagore described his dream and vision about awakened India after independence in the above few lines but in our current scheme of things, lot is desired to be done to make this reality after 64 years of freedom. While we are indeed making progress on different aspects of society, much is needed to liberate our mind in our societies and in different parts of world.  How do we answer to the questions on differentiated behavior still being meted out to sons and daughters in many families, the way society objectify and treat women? Our societies are still not free from some of the archaic rules and regulations coupled with lack of education, want of basic infrastructures and poverty, pushing the growth back by quite a few decades. As citizens of a free country and today’s world, we are forced to live under a constant threat and continuous fear of security and law and order. This sense of insecurity stemming from degrading mentality of society has restricted our daughters and womenfolk to go out and win over obstacles slowing down our overall progress.  

At the individual level, while we continue to fight for legislation, we need to reflect upon ourselves to judge our actions and decisions bereft from any kind of prejudices. Some serious effort is needed at personal level to consider women and men as just as two wheels – equally needed in the journey of life. There is also an immediate need to look at how we treat our fellow people in the neighborhood or on the street with an open mind against a value system free from all biasedness. Basic civic sense is lacking in a good number of people and we need to get into an internal FIGHT -

Fist that is raised

In the hope to

Gain over

Heinous acts and

Threats 

with none other than ourselves to mature to the next level.

Engaging in Governance - Youth and All

Education is the first thing that comes to mind with letter “E” for the theme that I have chosen – “Towards a better world”. While the importance of Education is beyond any question and doubt, some of my fellow bloggers & esteemed educators are already enlightening about it – one of them notably is here by Mrs. Beloo Mehra. I will make an attempt to express my views about another equally important issue gaining importance in the current socio-economic structure and that is getting engaged and involved in governance of the country.

I personally believe that the current upswing in public involvement, from being conscious of our immediate environment to voicing our concerns with a firm resolve, have done immense good for our democracy. If we continue the momentum in the same way and be a conscious citizen, people in power will dare not do any harm to our society and country. These issue based upheavals observed in recent past- be it women safety, corruption, poverty alleviation or other matters of importance to the country have changed the dynamics of governance altogether giving rise to more of a participative governance.

We have endured enough and now with our back on the wall, we can only rebound. Youth – a potent force in this movement will need to be equally engaged in this journey. With support from media- both print and electronic ones, getting involved is not of a much hassle nowadays. In this context and with regards to my previous efforts to urge my fellow men to get engaged, I would like to bring to your attention few of my earlier posts here and here  (as a guest post).  It is my strong conviction that keeps on reminding me that there is no point siting on the fence and crib about the system. We can do our bit – however small it could be, to participate physically or electronically in these activities.

As I started the post with Education, can’t resist myself from touching upon the subject a bit in next few lines. To me, on one side we have a responsibility to make basic education reach and enter every household to prevent masses from getting cheated anymore and on the other side, we need to ignite the minds that ask and analyze rather than mug up information. When the mind manifests – quoting Swami Vivekananda- “Education is the manifestation of Divinity already in the Man”- our children will be better prepared to handle any situation in life independently. 

Corruption - Let's Chuck it

Are not systems in some countries, top to bottom, heavily dependent on somethings extra outside of the regular process, along with the “chalta hai “attitude? 

Instead of this being a deviation, these extras are so deep ingrained in the system that they have secured their deep-rooted place in the normal process and no one, us included, think them as not normal.  I shudder to think how commonplace and usual it has become to pay small extras or big kickbacks to get something done -not triggering the slightest bit of repentance in the giver and receiver’s mind at all. In fact, it is commonplace that without those tit-bits, tips or out-of-the-way service charges, things won’t move at all and they are part of the overall plan to get something done.

While most of us think and talk about it with disdain, we do take resort to these practices someway or other in the increasingly crunched lifestyle bereft of time we have it for ourselves- to do our own work.  I do believe that until and unless requirements and processes have been made simple enough and electronically accessible, this crap can’t be cut however much we protest against them.  There is an urgent need of removing the human intervention and the processes need to be driven in self help mode that is reachable anywhere and everywhere- just like in more developed countries.  If people do not need to stand in the queue for filling up a form or getting document delivered or do not need to physically run around for mundane jobs – costs according to me to get something done, I strongly believe these evil practices will be gone out of the window in a significant way.

Cost (mainly in terms of time and hassle and not the actual fee/money) of getting something done has to be less than the cost (actual money paid) of the bribe – this is the only succor to the problem at hand.

IT thing happened to India. With all the other benefits that India as a country has achieved, I also see this as something that prevented a bulk of populace of the current working generation from taking bribe- am assuming here that we, the IT folks, have not resorted to these practices.

I do not want to sound pessimistic as I see changes are in the offing- electronic stamp paper being one of the many.  While more and more people like you and me – the common people are taking interest and getting involved in main stream politicking, corrupt people have taken a note of the fact that escape routes are slowly and surely being plugged and the remaining ones will soon be buried.  The changes in terms of systems and processes are happening but need to gather momentum.  Let’s put all effort,with resolve and determination, not to yield for these extras to get something done in a hurry – easier said than done. 

Bigotry Be Bygone

Bigotry in the form of religion, caste, creed, color and gender is the debilitating poison that has eaten away our society over a prolonged period, perforating the foundation of social structures across different parts of world.  The very basic right of leading a life with minimum dignity has been denied on the basis of these human created differences.  The framework of division of work specified in old systems, which never espoused the theory of untouchables and intolerance, started decaying almost simultaneously in almost all countries and societies during the middle ages (around from 10^th to 16^th  century)  – marked as the black age. It does continue till today in many parts of India and world in some form or other.

With the breakdown of colonial rules in the west, there has been a significant change to consider a human as a person before anything – tolerance and respect for individual self being of utmost importance. It pains us to see that till today a few self-styled god men consider themselves  more equal than others and mark fellow people as sinners creating smokescreens obscuring the truth and dictating terms of how should they change their beliefs and/or their destiny. These have turned into ugly wars and battles to satisfy the interest of few with huge collateral damages of loss of common human lives for no fault of theirs.

For our society to prosper and for peace to prevail on earth, we need to be more tolerant than yesterday and there can’t be any kind of society-created classification other than natural ones.  Instead of trying to advocate that one way is better than others, there is an urgent need to adopt “ So many opinions, that many paths”, as propounded by real wise men like Sri Ramakrishna.  Peace and harmony and not intolerance and acrimony need to be the first steps towards the future.

A to Z Blog Challenge : Me, myself and theme

A to Z challenge, blogger number 1553 46with MI (Miscellaneous),the category – my coordinates for #AtoZ blog change as I joined to attack myself. Someone might think it is unusual to add another task in the already strangulated daily life, but in the path of reinventing myself -for the things I should have done earlier but could not, and for my new found passion - I thought of jumping into the pool to learn swimming out of here and it is fun all the wayJ.

Yes, I did push myself a bit to the brink by joining this and am pretty sure that I will make it to the end. Enroute, I hope to gain lots of friends and learn a few trade of the art from my fellow bloggers.

I got to know about this challenge through Write Tribe page where I joined recently. By The time, I received a message about it from Corinne, it was past the due date of 21^st March for theme reveal blog fest and I could not make it on time. My situation, at that point of time, was also complicated by some medical emergency.

Let bygones be bygones and as they say it is better late than never.  I will also like to follow that advice lest you should at least know the topic around which I plan to write and hope people visit my pagesJ.  Let me take this opportunity to let all of you know that I intend to write about “26 blogs to change this world”.

I will take a stab, one aspect at a time, on things that I feel are critical for our world to be a better place to live and breathe. I know that I, alone, cannot change for everyone but would like to take first step to do my bit. Next it will be to influence others if there is an agreement from like-minded people. We can then form a group, discuss, fine-tune our thoughts and propagate further.  We, surely, do need to make this earth a more loving and caring place for us and for our loving children and the generations to come.