Humility in India

Humility is never felt until we actually have had the opportunity to introspect our lives for understanding the wrongs and the rights. Success normally, doesnt help realise this feeling and we do tend to get arrogant and self-absorbed with ourselves. On the other hand, there is a deep need of humilty among us. Why?

Well, lets understand the need of humility and how it helps. A humble person would respect the feelings of others and share the emotion on a one to one basis. He/she is always an understanding and caring person. He/She would make an attempt to give back to the community and support their growth thus supporting a chain of success ratios in the region he/she is residing in. The urgent need of humility in our society is when there are caste, creed, gender and religious biase happening around us. The need of humility is needed when we sit in a comfortable restaurant have have a sumptuous meal while on the other side of the road sits a child with just a morself of food to take the day through. The need of humility arises when we sit in properly ventilated class rooms with mordern amenities to help us learn the knowledge of the land while a student in a village has to walk 4 kms to reach his/her school and gets little or no updated knowledge of whats happening in the world today. The need of humility is now and not tommorrow.

While most of us would feel that one who is caring is the one who is always hurt but thats only because we have this need of the other person to be humble as well and more times than one there is always someone on the opposite side who has not had the opportunity of being touched with humilty. He/she is the one who has either tasted success and is a constant winner or is just living in a dream that he/she can do everything on his/her own without anyone's help or assistance and cannot associate with a person who is not as privileged as he/she is.

Take for example a rags to riches person. He/she will definitely associate with the common man and why wouldnt he/she? He/She came from the same community that the common man lived in but he/she doesnt. In the wake of success and materialistic gains he/she forgets the roots that actually gave him/her the will and the desire of achieving the materialistic pleasures of life and in the bargain he/she forgets to give back to the place. Thus leaving his/her past as a reflection of his memory and nothing more! The most plain example are our politicians.

On the other hand, think of a person who was born with all the riches in life and then suddenly one day due to some unforseen calamity looses part or everything in life and is suddenly struck with a failure that might cripple him/her for life. He/She is suddenly faced with the most daring part in hir/her life to start from scratch and start working up all over again. In the journey he/she learns the basics of humilty and when he/she does rise like a phoenix(which most invariably do) there is a very good chance that he/she will be appreciated not only by the people around them but also by themselves. Self gratification of the human soul!!! Some cases in example have not exactly tasted failure but have not forgotten their past either. The infosys story of helping the poor and the needy to grow in contrast to most other corporates in Indian big wigs who share nothing but air with their fellow people.

We compare ourselves to the super powers in the west and have a knack of copying most of their political lyrics and jargons to suit our own fancies. Why cant we try and copy their other ways of bettering their societies? They have made sure that health and education is available to all their children(some exceptions are there in the western states). Our children need the love and grace of most of us and we owe it to the country to grow and be the next super power in the world.

But this can only happen when each of us share the humility of loving and caring for the other person sitting beside you on a train or a bus or in a flight. Respect the other for who they are and not for who you want them to be. This my friends is the true success in life. When you learn to appreciate yourself and others in the humbleness of the being and not in the superiority of the ego!

11/7, 26/11 - A Powerful Thought with Action

It will be the first anniversary of the 26/11 blasts in Mumbai which rocked the country but are we really disturbed in the country with regards to security? There was such a hue and cry of the security last year that thousands gathered at Gateway of India to commemorate the death of the soldiers and the destruction of peace in a place like Mumbai. The city saw the same clamity in 2006 on 11/7 as well when the trains in the suburbs of Mumbai were bombarded and the loss of lives much greater than that at 26/11. Nothing was done to improve security in the city or the country anymore than what is being done to now. There were so many attacks in each part of this country and our elected supremos are sitting comfortably in their seats without doing anything for the people who got them there. I was discussing with a friend recently of the lack of security and the laid back attitude of people in India as compared to the USA. How the USA made the changes in its security programs and re-grouped with a will to protect its nation from the cockroaches of terror. What I failed to understand was what are we as Indians going to do to make a change to the society that we live in? When is our security going to be more important that the political and bureaucrats? Who is going to stand up to the corrupt politicians and the self indulgent bureaucrats and make them realise that we pay the taxes for our security and not only theirs? Or should we take the easy route of migrating from this country and contributing to the betterment of another society? I have been watching the various talk shows on television and am really surprised at some of the discussions that persist. There are ideas that can change the face of the security in this nation and how we as the proud citizens of India can be safe when travelling anywhere in this country. But at the end of the day thats all that we are capable of doing. We are all talk and no action. How can we stop the brain drain in our society in terms of quality professionals and good governance? I am trying to point out that we had a terrorist attack on our country by foreign players and we need to protect ourselves from such instances in the future. But we need to understand the cause of such occurrences and the instances that will lead to the day that we will have to kiss our loved ones good bye as if every day was the last of our lives. When are we going to recognise the internal terrorists and start our JIHAD against them. There are thousands of farmers committing suicide, thousands of children not getting proper places to stay or food to eat; illiteracy and diseases. So many problems that this one article would be insufficient to make a note of it. When are we going to terminate these Corrupt Internal Terrorists(CIT)? There are so many reasons for us to be proud of our country but when we hear that a leader elected to serve us has embezzeled us for more than Rs.4,000 Crore!!! Is not that enough to remove most of the farmers in debt? Provide shelter, food and education to atleast a million or more children. And then we also have the political leaders helping rejuvenate the East India Company's policy of divide and rule, with Hindu against Muslim, Hindu against Christian, Maharashtrians Vs Indians, etc, etc. Why are we waiting for something to happen? When are we going to realise that there is more to giving and than receiving? To all my debates on how to improve this country I was asked this question, "Who is going to bell the cat?" Who will take the responsibility of having the CITs punished for their crimes? I realised that I wouldnt be the one. WHY? Because I have spent so much of time in my education and would like to lead a decent lifestyle. Buy a house someday, then a luxury car, send my children for an expensive education and then lay down to rest after working my life away. That is the cycle of life for all of us and why should we bother otherwise. The most important part of it all, is that although I have the idea of a better India, I do not have the will to initiate the change and fight the all powerful and mighty CITs. We as a nation have been used to being oppressed and ruled over by foreigners for centuries. But now we are being suppressed by the very people who we have chosen to leads us into a path of success and peace. These very people are the cause of the doom of the country that once was our pride but slowly becoming our shame. But this has to change else we will be like one of the African states in complete chaos; ruled and haunted by terror. It is time we stop watching things pass us by and not turn a blind eye to the CITs. It is time we start to make things happen rather than wait for it to happen. It is time for us to take a stand and be proud of the nation that gave us life and a name to go by. It is time for us to be Indians!!!

College Vs Work

The days of college are never forgotten. But the irony was that when we were in college we couldnt wait to start working and earning a living and now that we are in the working environment we yearn for the days of the college. Why is it that we yearn for the college days?

Those were the times when friends were friends, when help was always round the corner. There was never a time when someone would try to make the day bad for you unless you were in some wrong group. The times when we were short of cash and borrowed some to have that extra drink or smoke at night with the gang. The times when because of the limited amount of resources, we would share a single cigarette among 8 of us or if we couldn't afford cigarettes we would graduate to a biddi or two. It was a time of glorious fun and time of forgetting the worries. And now, there is no time for the same friends to keep in touch. The splurging of money to show their peers how well they are doing in life with the cars and houses that they buy. The jealousy among the same friends who would once share clothes because they didnt have enough money to wash them or that they looked good on the other. The other colleague in the office who is eyeing your job and wants to show off to prove you wrong. The boss who is scared if he/ she promotes you his/her job will be at stake. The constant politics and games played at the work place!!

Classes were made to bunk or sleep in, rarely did anyone actually pay attention to a lecture and the tutors were always worried what would happen to the people after they graduated. Exams were something of no worries, a last minute study and the chits made to make sure that if someone doesnt know the answer we pass it on to the other and share the marks and the answer sheets. And now, the office is filled with people who are rooting for your doom. Help is in the form of crushing you and getting into your seat, there is no trust or belief in the other person next to you. The same competition that made good friends in college is now making you a enemy of the colleague you work in with greed, envy and jealousy being a part of the relation shared.

College was a time of no complications. There was always the girl/boy who you liked and the first time proposal that you planned on making but were scared to approach. The first time you said the three words and the world was bouncing all around you. The sheer joy and ecstacy of holding the others hand and going for a walk or a movie or sharing a sandwich at the college canteen. If you proposed a girl/boy the answer would either be a yes or no and a very simple no thank you or a yes. But now after college you want to get married and there are a thousand questions that have to be answered. Is he/she from the same community, what caste, creed or religion is he/she from? What do his/her parents do? where are his/her siblings? blah blah blah blah.... the complications of a simple relation.... not only is the start of the relation so difficult the complications of the wedding day and the rituals to followed, the wants of both the sides of the family and the relatives. And then the marriage starts with the wants and expectation of both the girl and the boy changing and the COMPROMISE and ADJUSTMENTS start for both the sides!

Where was the simple and easy life when college was on in comparison to what life is now treating us with? I sometimes wonder if this need of envy, jealousy and greed of materialism would get us anywhere at any time. There are so many things out there for us to enjoy but the green monkey is always on our back to remind us of its importance and how we cannot live without it!!!

This is the irony and the symphony of life. So its addios to the wonderful college life and hello to a life in the rat race. In a way we have become rats in life as well!!!