"Beyond the Obvious- Part 1"

In this 21st century world, we have been exploded with all kinds of data ranging from GDP numbers to the inflation figures, gross revenue to net profits, export numbers to cricket scores, and much more. But to most of the ordinary mortals, this data is either incomprehensible or irrelevant without the requisite human side or human touch to this data. Take for instance the GDP number. India’s GDP grew at 7.9% in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, which is a very strong growth figure for the economy and makes India the second fastest growing economy in the world after China. Now try telling this to an old lady, who is living in a slum, can barely walk and is far satisfied with the world if she gets three meals a day than anything else. The relevance of the GDP number to this old lady, who is living in a crotchety shanty, is the same as for a rainbow to a blind man. You can keep praising the beauty of the rainbow but to a blind man even the beautiful rainbow is nothing but the ubiquitous darkness.

Over the years, I have met many people who say nothing or very little has changed for them since India decided to adopt liberal policies towards trade and began opening its economy to the outside world( or should I rather say the inside world). But it is equally true that I have witnessed great successes with my own eyes. I have got a lot of motivation through some of these success stories, so I think it would be appropriate for me to write a true story which inspires us to never give up, no matter how bad the circumstances get. This is a true personal account of how one can escape from the clutches of poverty to a much better and prosperous life. The story is beyond the facts and figures we often see and quote in public.

The story:
The time is 1987, and this woman works as a domestic help. She is only 20 and has a lean body with only a hint of fat. Even though she is 20 she appears like she is 30 already. She is a mother of a three year old son and is pregnant again with a 7 month old fetus growing inside her womb. She can barely walk with her pregnancy but rather than resting at home, she decides to go to work. She knows that she has to go and work, or else she would not be able to feed her 3 year old son and the coming baby. She works at five different households on a given day. She goes to work, reluctant or otherwise, lest her children might have to beg. She is illiterate and gets an average of Rs.20 per household that realizes an income of Rs.100 per month for her. The income is barely enough to satisfy the family ration for a month but still she makes it a point to save some money. She has one thing which makes her stand out amongst the crowd. What is it? She is a visionary in a true sense. She is ahead of her peers in understanding the world and the state she is in. Her husband also shares the same vision, albeit a bit reluctantly. Their vision, their hard work and their ability to work under adverse conditions, even though they have no rainbow in sight, is remarkable and is symbolic of the true Indian spirit.

With one hand on her bulged stomach, she mops the floor with the other hand, barely showing the pain and uneasiness we expect a 7 months pregnant lady to show. She works relentlessly, talks to the memsabs cheerfully where she works and, during this time, quietly gathers useful information about how to raise a child. She is determined to use the information given to her and help her children get a better future. The atmosphere is not always amiable in these households and she has to put up with all the pestering she gets every now and then. But, in spite of all this she is pleased. What is it that makes her so pleased? It’s the vision. What vision?

She mops, she washes she cooks. She believes and she knows she’s right with her vision. She understands the world as good as a bureaucrat, politician or an educationist. She knows that tomorrow will be better than today. This thought pleases her to an extent that she forgets her present day hardships in the hope of a better tomorrow. Her vision is not a complicated jigsaw puzzle. Her vision is simple enough for mortals like you and me to understand, but the means she has to employ to realize the vision is way beyond our comprehension. What is the vision??

Read the full story- “Beyond the obvious”- part 2. Next post……………….

"The Concept of God"

The concept of god, if explored, opens up a Pandora’s Box. What is God? Is He for real? Has anyone ever seen God? Is he the creator? Is he the destroyer? The world is full of atheists and the believers. Recently, as I was watching a national geographic program, the universe, an astrophysicist said something really interesting. He said that matter or energy can neither be created nor be destroyed but can only be changed from one form to another. He also said that we consider god to be eternal who was, who is and who will be. He said that if we compare Energy and God, they are nothing but the two sides of the same coin. God is nothing but the energy which exists in the universe that creates and destroys planets and stars and other celestial bodies.

God is the manifestation of our own idea of righteousness, justice, equity and, above all, perfection. In a human mind God equals perfection. “God” is the extreme of anything positive we can think of. So, where did all this begin? As the human race evolved into sophisticated beings we developed something very unique which is the very soul of the modern man. That uniqueness as we now understand is called “Conscience”. We developed conscience which is the ability to segregate our lives into grey and white areas, i.e. good and bad. All other things originated with this newly found conscience including the ability to comprehend nature’s diversity. This ability to comprehend nature’s diversity gave rise to a feeling of respect and grace towards the one who created this diversity. The concept of God begins with this development of conscience. Humans began this journey thousands of years back when they were still primitive. This journey entailed experiences of thousands of years of existence.

The early humans started worshipping the unknown as soon as they developed conscience. Worshipping gave rise to plethora of stone idols symbolizing the creator, the sustainer and the destroyer. All sorts of prejudices and dogmas began to surface with this rise in worshipping culture. By this time, humans were spread all over the globe and lived in hunting groups thereby giving rise to a large number of idols and deities. As we advanced into a more sophisticated existence on earth, we started developing envy, vanity, conceit and other similar feelings. These feelings gave rise to all conflicts, including battles and wars. All other virtual wars like ideological wars, religious wars and so on continued thereafter. Humans got more and more unreasonable and prejudiced about their beliefs, culture, traditions and so on. Since that time until now, the human race has continued their conflicts. Their conflicts have spread to ideology, religion and the God itself. Every other religion is now skeptical about the validity and cogency of the God of some other religion on earth.

The concept of God, which got created to give hope, courage and a sense of righteousness to the fellow humans, has now been completely misinterpreted at different parts of the world. With all the prejudices, the actual reason for the creation of the concept of God has been forgotten and the situation is only going to get worse with the passage of time. Different groups in the contemporary world claim that their religion and their God is the only God. Who is going to tell these fanatics that there is no such thin g as a real God? God is the figment of our own imagination and nothing else. Will they ever stop violence in the name of God? Will we ever have the courage to accept that there is no GOD??????

"The Curious Case of the IHM Theft"

Firstly, I am very sure that this is going to be my highest read blog ever. Why? Read more. Consider this, a girl from an affluent family pursuing her graduation from a reputed college, living in an expensive international style hostel, paying Rs.60,000 as annual college fees, probably spending more than that on herself, using air travel for transportation, buying and wearing branded products, and more lifestyle things that the girls from affluent families buy. Now, what do you expect the girl to be like ethically and morally? Decent, good, honest, right? But before you really jump onto a conclusion and be judgmental in your decision, let me tell you what this girl did which prompted me to make her “the apple of my eye” and write this. This girl was caught red-handed with money stolen from a fellow hostelite. Not only this, she was also caught with stolen undergarments. Now many of you would write this off as a clear case of ‘kleptomania’ but not me. For those of you who do not know what kleptomania is, let me give you the word web pro’s definition of kleptomania. Word web pro describes kleptomania as “an irrestible impulse to steal in the absence of any economic motive”. Now note down the last two words i.e. Economic Motive. This girl stole money so she clearly had ‘economic motive’ in her mind which technically proves that she is not kleptomaniac. So, how else do you explain the attitude of this girl who has a clear fetish towards stealing which includes monetary and non- monetary gains?

Many of you would now say that this incident was deplorable and worthy of reprehension. Very true, the incident deserved reprehension. But what actually happened is astonishing, rather than deploring the incident we made a celebrity out of this girl. How? Many of you would now say that I have erred here by calling her a celebrity and that I should rather rebuke and censure her severely in this post. True again. Yes, I should have done that cheerfully in an egalitarian and a utopian society but not here. She is a celebrity in a true sense, though, unlike other celebrities, she hasn’t killed people sleeping on the footpath, raped someone, gone topless for a movie or something else. The similarity she has with celebrities far outweigh the differences. One biggest integrating factor they have in common is the paparazzi they both get after an incident. After the stealing incident this girl got a lot of paparazzi (full of gossips) talk like a celebrity. Nobody in the college ever ever bothered to question her ethics, values and morals and what they rather did was that they made a gossip queen out of her. The reason or the explanation to this phenomenon is best put forward by Shiv Khera, a renowned motivator, in his book ‘You can Win’. In the book, he says that being judgmental is good, only if your own value system is clear. He says that one should judge the right or wrong only if one’s own conscience is sound. In this case, though, most of the people who gossip about this stealing incident do not actually ask the question whether it was right or wrong, but rather they use this as an opportunity to settle old scores with this girl. I myself don’t actually have the moral wherewithal or the value system to question or judge the sanctity of the incident. I am very much used to hearing about stealing. In fact, all Indians are very much used to hearing about stealing. There are numerous incidents to prove that we don’t really care about stealing. Election of Shibu Soren, a murder convict, as the CM of Jharkhand is a testimony to this, election of M.Azharuddin as an MP is a testimony to this,………….

This incident is only a drop of the ocean and we could very well lay bare anybody in the college if we want to, but what we should rather do is to introspect and try to find out if our own value system is clear. If we find that our own value system is clear, then we can proudly and loudly say that what this girl did was wrong, unethical and immoral. But before that happens, stand in front of a mirror and ask yourself, ‘Am I honest and ethical enough to question the right or wrong of this stealing incident???????

 - Sunny Gusain