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.

Y for Youth : Relevance of Swami Vivekananda to today's Youth

Previously I have written posts on some of the youth related matters of great concern - Youth to be engaged in Governance, vulnerability of Youth and their exploitation. Continuing  the focus on youth from there, today, I would like to discuss relevance of Swami Vivekananda (fondly called Swamiji) and his teachings  to the present generation and how they can get direction from his words in this contemporary, fast paced, changing world.  While few lines will not be sufficient to dwell on this subject and I plan to write a full blog later, today, I  would make an effort to put a concise summary of my thoughts.

 I do not ascribe Swamiji with any religious cult or put him at any higher pedestal for his religious teachings. To me, he is another noble man and a person very much like you and me with an ingrained value system and a burning passion of doing good to others.  Many of us can attain that level if we really want.

First point first. I would like to bring up is his health consciousness towards youth. The same is very much evident when he called out for youth to have muscles of iron and nerves of steel. He always encouraged people to take up football or any other games and to go to gymnasium instead of spending time on Gita. It is not that he undermined study of Gita but, in the context of youth, building physical health was equally, if not more, important than mental and spiritual health.  It does not need a mention that these thoughts exactly echo the concerns of un-healthy lifestyle in our children and youth. Medical experts, today, are always placing prime importance to involve children in more physical activities, drawing them out from their sedentary lifestyle.

Secondly, I consider Swamiji the first Indian to bring-up the concept of globalization in the mind of masses. While he did put India in world map through his famed Chicago address on Sept 11, 1893, he was very much open to imbibe the material benefits of west. He always used to visualize a world having synthesized the technological prowess of west with spiritual harmony of east. Today we witness how true this is and the way this thought is being lapped of by common people in both regions – east and west through Yoga, increased interest of ancient literature of India and to top it all, the Indian and eastern value system  in family and society are getting recognized all across.

Though he always encouraged this synthesis to happen, he also asked people to remain rooted to Indian culture with the self-belief that we are inferior to none –a much needed thought in today’s world.  Without the roots firmly grounded, we see how there are numerous distractions for our children and youth towards going astray in their social lives.

Swamiji said, “I pity them from the bottom of my heart, and point out to them that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: ‘help and not fight’, ‘assimilation and not destruction’; ‘harmony and peace and not dissension.’ “

When we read and re-read the above few lines, the importance of tolerance and respect to another self with the deep belief on “As Many Ways- So Many Paths” does not need any further explanation.

I would like to conclude today’s discussion on his forward looking thoughts of creating a unique school system through Ramakrishna Missions. Without this, probably the whole Ramakrishna Math and Culture would have remained confined to just another religious cult like others. He could very well expand on the strong base of Ramakrishna ideology for doing increased good to the society through the arm -that is called Ramakrishna Mission. These schools are amongst the finest schools that our country is proud of producing many stalwarts in the all fields of life.

I request our young generation to explore more of Swamiji through “Complete Works of Vivekananda”. There are many a thoughts in those pages that we can take it up at our individual level as an inspiration.

Thank You.

Let’s act on all the X s –They are not unknown

Often we use “X” to denote the unknown in our lives. But in the path of making our world a better place, we , mostly, know what needs to be done. While all our X s are known to us, we are, either not willing to give us that extra push burdened with the defeatist mindset making us accept the way things are or the inertia of unwillingness  is pulling us back from taking that extra step.

We are nearing the end of the blog challenge and have gone over quite a few discussions on the issues in different blog posts that are troubling India and world. Below is a short pledge that we all can take at our individual level towards attaining the X s in our own lives before anything. The list of X s can be different for different people and any set of them will be helpful towards progress.

This is high time we give them a hard look and think deeply, lest we get sucked into the never ending spiral of disgrace and growing-by-the-day, complex labyrinth of discomfiture and embarrassment.

• Ø  Exorcise the fear crippling us.
• Ø  Exhume the evil within.
• Ø  Exterminate mental barriers.
• Ø  Expunge the rogue elements.
• Ø  Extend help to others.
• Ø  Extol the good deeds.
• Ø  Exhibit mercy.
• Ø  Feel exhilarated on the achievements.
• Ø  Go the extra mile.

With every little step that we can take not to indulge ourselves in short-cuts and persevere towards the larger goal in life, we will strengthen our society in that many ways. Let us help us by making our beloved earth a better place - the X s are known.

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…

Vibrant India: Mumbai and Bangalore does not vote enough - the feeblest voices

While we all want India to be a vibrant and prosperous country, what is our contribution towards achieving it?

I am sure many of us are involved in social activities to bring a change but how seriously do we consider exercising a franchise right to be a “sacred” citizen responsibility? Yes, to me, it is more sacred than lighting the lamp in the temple in the evening. In Ms Zinta’s words, this is more important than lighting candles in different protest marches. Mrs. Balan went one step further to mention that we need to have the mark on our fingers before raising it towards anyone else.

With so much activism on the part of election commission and celebrities to motivate people to go out to vote, Bangalore South and Mumbai turned out to be the two duds while almost all other states, union territories have shown huge improvements in voter turnout.  Why?

In the context, it is worthwhile to mention that Bangalore South – the IT capital of India and Mumbai – the financial capital of India are the home of most educated and elitist people of India.

I am appalled to fathom the reasons for so much apathy from this subset of population towards participating in the democratic process.  For the case of Bangalore South, few flimsy reasons – voter list not updated and worse, that the date coincided with long weekend, look too inconsequential to me for justifying low voter turnout. This, despite the repeated requests from the media, that ‘V’ stands for vote and not for Vacation.

In this context, I would like to share few statistical data in relation to this 16^th Parliament election.

• ·         Electorate of 81.5 core (0.8 Billion) is 4 times the next largest-US with 21.9 crore as of 2012 presidential poll.
• ·         It is bigger than the next 5 added together- US, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia and Bangladesh @74.9 crore  
• ·         Highest number of first time voters – estimated @15 crore (0.15 billion).
• ·         Highest spend – pegged at Rs 30,000 crore or USD 5 Billion – all time high against all democracies in the world.
• ·         The transgender community will vote for Lok Sabha for the first time-registered with 28,341 numbers.
• ·         Electorate has male- female ratio @52.3%:47.6%

At the cost of being repetitive and after the 6 phases of altogether 9 phases got over today, I am using this platform to make another fervent plea to go out to vote for you and motivate others to do the same in the remaining 3 phases in case your constituencies are still not covered yet.

The dismissive thought of “one vote not being exercised won’t matter” at the individual level is creating a big crack for the country cumulatively as a whole. We, the educated lot, for sure, need to be giving a good healthy competition to our friends from other parts of the country for India to shine and be vibrant. 

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?