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. 

Innovation - The Indigenous way

In today’s world, Innovation is often repeated jargon in the knowledge and technology industry for doing things in a better way, bringing benefits to providers or consumers in some way or other. While the sense and usage of the word is yet to percolate down to the common man’s lingo and I have seen faces pucker into a frown at the mention of innovation from people resisting change, the process of Innovation is here to stay as it was there from the very first day of human life. This has taken humankind to where it is today and will take them further into future.  The industrial revolution, green revolution, the dairy revolution initiated by Anand Milk Federation (AMUL)– to me- all of these are fuelled through innovation for an efficient society.

 Not undermining the previous revolutions, the technology innovation starting in 19^th Century has changed the world to a much greater and deeper extent – internet being in the center of all. There are better ways of doing things and getting things done in touching almost all facets of human life- Food, shelter, health, transportation, communication, agriculture – irrigation and production etc. etc. While all these are good and in the right direction, the point for my today’s discussion is to reach the benefit to the masses as much as possible in all rungs of society in a locally customized way. 

India, being a value for money country with a huge chunk of population below poverty line, there has to be further innovative “Indianised” ways to cut costs without compromising on the benefits. This will ensure that the payback of innovation can be made available to commoners sponsored by a separate indigenous Innovation government policy as in China. And I am sure with the glorified minds India had in multifarious fields coupled with the mindset of the present and future generations, there are ample possibilities of innovation being driven from the common man’s usage perspective. There was a period from 10^th to 18^th century when progress was stagnated but we have recovered from the situation and are on a roll for an inclusive growth across cities, towns and villages.

Please join me,along with acclaimed write and philosopher,Robin Sharma, to dream of a much improved world order where indigenous innovation is able to narrow the gaps of disparities in life.

“Dreamers are mocked as impractical. The truth is they are the most practical, as their innovations lead to progress and a better way of life for all of us.” 
― Robin S. Sharma