On Monday 23 Apr 2007, The Economics Times reported news about Gallup CEO Jim Clifton visit who is coming next week.
The Gallup World Poll, which is measuring the well being and overall status of the world’s citizen for the next 100 years, it is a mega exercise spanning more than 130 countries and representing 95% of the world’s adult population. The points which he has raised are eye opening for India. Our policy makers who may not have knowledge and wisdom to understand these but must try to read them.
Leaders today have to build new institutions to compete globally.
India has to be able to manage migration patterns to retain its most successful people.
For all those sitting pretty with BRIC report projections, Mr. Clifton had a warning: “The US as an economy was predicted to fall to third place by now, after Germany and Japan. When we compare to the members talked about the projections, today the US has $11 trillion of unplanned, unpredicted income – most of its wealth has generated by a small band of inventors and entrepreneurs, of which half were not Americans and a large part of them were Indians.
India can not lose its superstars!!
Gallup World Poll data from 2006 shows that only about 20% of urban Indians even in the younger age group had even heard of outsourcing or BPO. It is shame for the country like India.
It is a shame to media who remain busy in showing Aishwarya or Prince without giving due considerations to knowledge, information and wisdom. Indian print media and others are failing India.
What a disturbing ground situations of India. I wrote a book in 2005 with main emphasis on the new breeds of youth who are going to shap this nation. These new energetic youth emerging out of call centers and BPOs are going to change the shape of this growing nation. But this survey confirms that knowledge is not that deep in the society. This is a difficult task. How to take these great Indian messages to people when they are wasting time in watching trivial news or information?
There are 16000 publishers in India and they publish 2000 titles. It is a shame for the nation. In spite of this less work output, when you go to publishers, they do not give due attentions to new ideas, books are not getting published. Society remains ignorant. People are not aware about new avenues. Country is at loss.
Can India afford to miss Information opportunity too in desire to save its old culture?
Indians sitting on network fail the data of Gallup. Indian needs to be awakening from their day to day problems to compete with this world.
He surprises with his critical statement. Places like Google celebrate the individual; India does not.
How can Indian inventors and innovators flourish?
How can India grow? Till the time, we learn to respect our talents and assets, India will remain backward. We will have to keep working for reservation for even forward people too. Even on Sulekha, most of our blog writers and readers concentrate on some trivial stories rather than some critical analysis or wisdom. We need to change our attention. We need to change our area of focus. We need to think beyond Cricket, Bachchan, Gandhi etc. to move and prosper.
We all need to think over our deprivations!!
Take Hard Decision in Lighter Moment!
Friday, April 27, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Attending Funerals
Virginia Tech killing has sent chill feeling to all the conscious people across the world. This is one of the deadliest events in the history of America. There are various form of expressions for such event. From Indian point of view, I would like to write about the social complications which become obvious from this event.
Professor Loganathan was killed in the shooting. This killing reminds me a different concept.
Just a day before his death, Professor Loga called his parents and told, “You’re getting old, why do you want to stay in a remote village all alone? Your grandchildren would love to have your company here.” He had implored his parents similarly many times before and even goaded them to get passports. But, how many conservative parents are ready to listen their intelligent sons or daughters?
Professor Loganathan moved to the US from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to teach. He joined Virginia Tech in the late 1970s and had remained there ever since, working in the department of civil and environmental engineering.
He is survived by his wife, Usha, and two daughters.
His brother, Palanivelu, said his elder sibling had been "a bright boy since birth".
How difficult even for a bright son to convince even not so intellectual parents to have a prosperous life? I personally feel that all this happens because of lack of unlearning habits in the individuals.
I wrote a story of similar mature in my book “Unlearn Before U-learn” and tried to find answers for many hidden questions. I am reproducing the story for my entire blogger friends to make sense of these complicated questions of unlearning.
Why people are forced to join funerals?
What are the compulsions of parents? What are the options with sons or daughters? How to handle them?
Read the story to believe the similarity.
Binda, who had a problem with his father, forgot him for approximately fifteen years. During this period, he became the proud father of five sons and one daughter as per his mother’s wish because she had only one son and one daughter. He earned a little money. After exiling himself for so long, he felt homesick. He went home to his father. Mungi had also become mild by that time. He did not mind his son’s homecoming.
It is very difficult in this world to have faith in someone when you want to invest your hard-earned money. The best bet goes to respective hometown or village even if we are not very sure of any return or future. Binda also spent his hard-earned money of Rs 40,000 in his small village to build a pucca makan, so called a concrete building in the year 1974. He thought that since his children were small and there was not much expenditure, he could bear this burden and do something for his better future. Rs 40,000 in the seventies were a huge amount. As he made the Pucca makan, he made sure to take his entire family to the village every year to make them aware of reality and to get attached to the old culture and traditions. The children who were studying in various classes, used to hate spending that one month’s vacation in the village. They were too small to have a choice. In a poor family, when the elders live life on chance and luck, how can the children have choice? Time passed, every year the same routine continued till his eldest son Bhola joined a college in the city. He refused to join them. He became serious about his career. He saw opportunities. He saw that the engineering students used to study hard and enjoy life. He saw the magnificent difference between the people of the village who had no fun and hope in their lives and the people of the city who had a better and brighter life. He started realizing the differences. He studied hard and cleared the engineering entrance test.
Binda hardly visualized the repercussion of his son’s success. He celebrated his son’s admission in engineering college. He distributed sweets. He had lots of praise for his son in front of his colleagues and neighbours. In the neighbourhood, his status had improved overnight. People also congratulated him. He was thrilled at his son’s performance. The son was also delighted that he could do what his father had dreamt of since his childhood. Time flew and the other children also followed the path of the elder brother. Three of them joined engineering colleges and one did medicine. The house now had four engineers and one doctor. Binda hardly got help from his aspiring sons to look after his ancestral house. For many years, they could not take care of their investment at the hometown. Mungi was managing that. Once in a year, Binda used to go to village and spend some time to ensure that his retirement would pass happily. What a mirage!
For a working class family, it is a great privilege to put their children into good professional courses. Engineering and medicines were the sureshot professions of the 1980s, which made children from poor or middle class families executives. Bhola, being the eldest and brightest, finished his engineering and joined a good company. He was earning well and staying in a metro city. During that time, he witnessed the difference of life at various places in the country. The life at smaller and poorer places is like hell compared to life in metro cities. In a short span of a few years he saw the length and breadth of the country like India. He observed that in a small town, there is nil or very meagre opportunities while in the metros, you have tremendous opportunities. The difference in the quality of living is tremendous. Bhola was very conscious of these developments. He made sure that all his brothers could find jobs outside that small town and move to big places. There were significant changes of the status in the lives of his brothers. All were very well settled and earning good money. All were able to exploit the secular credentials of the country. During the 1990s, when Narshimaha Rao opened the economy, all brothers could buy cars and houses through bank loans. They tasted the growth in a rising economy.
Binda had to retire and he was planning to settle in his hometown. Bhola didn’t like this idea. He tried his best so that they settle in a metro city or at least a good city. But Binda did not agree. He did not have any responsibility to his rising sons. He went to the village with his wife. He again spent a lakh of rupees in repair his pucca makan. In the eighties too he had spent some eighty thousand rupees on the same makan. Bhola was frustrated, demoralized and disgruntled. He had so many dreams to keep his parents in a better state. When he joined engineering, he would study all night thinking that he will be able to earn enough to look after his poor and deprived parents. He will be able to take care of them. He will be able to provide them with all the basic comforts of life. But nothing happens in life in an easy way. Bhola could hardly get time from his highly demanding job to convince and educate his father about a better life. There is a limitation to wisdom. Your knowledge enhances till you keep reading and learning. You keep learning till you are compulsorily unlearning. Once you start working within your existing knowledge domain, you stop growing. The same thing happened with Binda. For fifty-eight years, he kept on changing and progressing, but when the question of reaping those fruits came, he almost behaved in the same fashion that his father had long ago. He did not listen to the advice of his bright and highly educated son. Is this what happened between the generations? Is this what happens in the family of a developing country? Who is going to understand?
There is a severe limitation of learning or even unlearning. Like learning good things, even unlearning bad things does not come naturally. One learns the same thing that he has hated in his environment unless he tries to change. He has no option to learn from anywhere. He learns all the unwanted behaviour from his environment unconsciously. He hardly comes to know about these developments. Binda also faced the same problems. He behaved in a similar fashion that his illiterate father had around 30 years ago. Binda never liked the way his sons married the girls of their choice and that too two of them from other castes. His wife also could not tolerate this. When the children wanted to enjoy their achievements with their parents, Binda and his wife were living a secluded life in the village. The changes in life are so fast and drastic that we hardly comprehend things even for our own comfort. We find difficult to bother for our basic necessities. While all the children were struggling in their respective jobs including one in Boston, US, their parents were living a miserable and deprived life in a village. Bhola had felt from the beginning that the village property was not worth maintaining; rather it was more a burden than an asset for an educated person. He was correct. The parents could not live even for a year in that remote and miserable place especially after staying for thirty years in town. They changed their location to a small town at Dhanbad but continued with a deprived life despite the richness of assets in rupees and dollars.
Life hardly gives one the luxury or choice of a good life in a bad place. Bhola tried his best to make his parents dispose off their property in the village and small town and join him in the metro. But it did not materialize. Rather, his illiterate mother even suggested at the age of sixty six to his highly educated and most successful son of forty four should spend a few lakhs to build a house in the small town. What is the compulsion of poverty? Bhola rememberd Rs 40,000 spent in the seventies in the village. Today, in the 21st century, it has become a liability after forty years. The house has become depleted and managing it is difficult. Because if you go to the village, law and order is so bad that you are not sure whether you will be able to come back. How could you think of anything else? Since the 1970s, the equity capital in India has increased 460 times; it means that if Binda had spent Rs 40,000 in equity in the 1970s, today in 2005, he would have got Rs 40,000 X 460 – Rs 1,84,00,000 (approx Rs 2 crores). Forget about the Rs 80,000 he spent in the 1980s and the one lakh he spent in 2001 on the same house in the same village. What a richness of continuation of poverty! Can help from the World Bank or United Nations be able to eradicate the inbuilt poverty in the traditional system? Could the advice of Jeffery D Sachs help this self-imposed poverty? Is eradication of poverty going to take a few generations in developing countries even in the 21st century?
Bhola’s illiterate mother hardly understands mathematics. In a developing world, there is a very different kind of inertia. Clear and open mathematics is not understood. The common man is hardly aware or even conscious about common ideas. The parents educate their sons or daughter, but they are not ready to listen to their advice and not even ready to take their support. They do not believe their wisdom. They do not rely on them. They are not ready to enjoy the newly achieved luxury of a good life. Their ego system remains at a peak. Their decision making systems remain of 1960s in the twenty-first century. This results in a total waste of their lifetime efforts. They remain deprived, poor and miserable. Binda also passed his last days in a similar fashion and one fine day, amidst all this prosperity, he left this world like his father, Mungi.
Like father like son. Binda’s youngest son, a civil engineer employed in the Public Works department in the United States of America along with his civil engineer wife, a Gujarati Brahmin girl and their one son and one daughter came to the small town of Dhanbad (where there is no landing facility) to pay homage to his father. What a rich homage to a deprived father, deprived of basic living facilities!
Today, when Professor Loganathan’s parents and relatives were provided passports and immediate visa to join the funeral, it verified my faith of the unlearning needs. Parents and relatives were obliged for this kind support of media and government but what happened to that intelligent son who gave the life to ensure that their parents visit USA at least once.
What a great tragedy of developing sons?
Sons have to give life to ensure a simple change.
Are parents in all over the world listening to ensure change? Can we unlearn to enjoy life?
Take Hard Decision in Lighter Moment!
Professor Loganathan was killed in the shooting. This killing reminds me a different concept.
Just a day before his death, Professor Loga called his parents and told, “You’re getting old, why do you want to stay in a remote village all alone? Your grandchildren would love to have your company here.” He had implored his parents similarly many times before and even goaded them to get passports. But, how many conservative parents are ready to listen their intelligent sons or daughters?
Professor Loganathan moved to the US from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to teach. He joined Virginia Tech in the late 1970s and had remained there ever since, working in the department of civil and environmental engineering.
He is survived by his wife, Usha, and two daughters.
His brother, Palanivelu, said his elder sibling had been "a bright boy since birth".
How difficult even for a bright son to convince even not so intellectual parents to have a prosperous life? I personally feel that all this happens because of lack of unlearning habits in the individuals.
I wrote a story of similar mature in my book “Unlearn Before U-learn” and tried to find answers for many hidden questions. I am reproducing the story for my entire blogger friends to make sense of these complicated questions of unlearning.
Why people are forced to join funerals?
What are the compulsions of parents? What are the options with sons or daughters? How to handle them?
Read the story to believe the similarity.
Binda, who had a problem with his father, forgot him for approximately fifteen years. During this period, he became the proud father of five sons and one daughter as per his mother’s wish because she had only one son and one daughter. He earned a little money. After exiling himself for so long, he felt homesick. He went home to his father. Mungi had also become mild by that time. He did not mind his son’s homecoming.
It is very difficult in this world to have faith in someone when you want to invest your hard-earned money. The best bet goes to respective hometown or village even if we are not very sure of any return or future. Binda also spent his hard-earned money of Rs 40,000 in his small village to build a pucca makan, so called a concrete building in the year 1974. He thought that since his children were small and there was not much expenditure, he could bear this burden and do something for his better future. Rs 40,000 in the seventies were a huge amount. As he made the Pucca makan, he made sure to take his entire family to the village every year to make them aware of reality and to get attached to the old culture and traditions. The children who were studying in various classes, used to hate spending that one month’s vacation in the village. They were too small to have a choice. In a poor family, when the elders live life on chance and luck, how can the children have choice? Time passed, every year the same routine continued till his eldest son Bhola joined a college in the city. He refused to join them. He became serious about his career. He saw opportunities. He saw that the engineering students used to study hard and enjoy life. He saw the magnificent difference between the people of the village who had no fun and hope in their lives and the people of the city who had a better and brighter life. He started realizing the differences. He studied hard and cleared the engineering entrance test.
Binda hardly visualized the repercussion of his son’s success. He celebrated his son’s admission in engineering college. He distributed sweets. He had lots of praise for his son in front of his colleagues and neighbours. In the neighbourhood, his status had improved overnight. People also congratulated him. He was thrilled at his son’s performance. The son was also delighted that he could do what his father had dreamt of since his childhood. Time flew and the other children also followed the path of the elder brother. Three of them joined engineering colleges and one did medicine. The house now had four engineers and one doctor. Binda hardly got help from his aspiring sons to look after his ancestral house. For many years, they could not take care of their investment at the hometown. Mungi was managing that. Once in a year, Binda used to go to village and spend some time to ensure that his retirement would pass happily. What a mirage!
For a working class family, it is a great privilege to put their children into good professional courses. Engineering and medicines were the sureshot professions of the 1980s, which made children from poor or middle class families executives. Bhola, being the eldest and brightest, finished his engineering and joined a good company. He was earning well and staying in a metro city. During that time, he witnessed the difference of life at various places in the country. The life at smaller and poorer places is like hell compared to life in metro cities. In a short span of a few years he saw the length and breadth of the country like India. He observed that in a small town, there is nil or very meagre opportunities while in the metros, you have tremendous opportunities. The difference in the quality of living is tremendous. Bhola was very conscious of these developments. He made sure that all his brothers could find jobs outside that small town and move to big places. There were significant changes of the status in the lives of his brothers. All were very well settled and earning good money. All were able to exploit the secular credentials of the country. During the 1990s, when Narshimaha Rao opened the economy, all brothers could buy cars and houses through bank loans. They tasted the growth in a rising economy.
Binda had to retire and he was planning to settle in his hometown. Bhola didn’t like this idea. He tried his best so that they settle in a metro city or at least a good city. But Binda did not agree. He did not have any responsibility to his rising sons. He went to the village with his wife. He again spent a lakh of rupees in repair his pucca makan. In the eighties too he had spent some eighty thousand rupees on the same makan. Bhola was frustrated, demoralized and disgruntled. He had so many dreams to keep his parents in a better state. When he joined engineering, he would study all night thinking that he will be able to earn enough to look after his poor and deprived parents. He will be able to take care of them. He will be able to provide them with all the basic comforts of life. But nothing happens in life in an easy way. Bhola could hardly get time from his highly demanding job to convince and educate his father about a better life. There is a limitation to wisdom. Your knowledge enhances till you keep reading and learning. You keep learning till you are compulsorily unlearning. Once you start working within your existing knowledge domain, you stop growing. The same thing happened with Binda. For fifty-eight years, he kept on changing and progressing, but when the question of reaping those fruits came, he almost behaved in the same fashion that his father had long ago. He did not listen to the advice of his bright and highly educated son. Is this what happened between the generations? Is this what happens in the family of a developing country? Who is going to understand?
There is a severe limitation of learning or even unlearning. Like learning good things, even unlearning bad things does not come naturally. One learns the same thing that he has hated in his environment unless he tries to change. He has no option to learn from anywhere. He learns all the unwanted behaviour from his environment unconsciously. He hardly comes to know about these developments. Binda also faced the same problems. He behaved in a similar fashion that his illiterate father had around 30 years ago. Binda never liked the way his sons married the girls of their choice and that too two of them from other castes. His wife also could not tolerate this. When the children wanted to enjoy their achievements with their parents, Binda and his wife were living a secluded life in the village. The changes in life are so fast and drastic that we hardly comprehend things even for our own comfort. We find difficult to bother for our basic necessities. While all the children were struggling in their respective jobs including one in Boston, US, their parents were living a miserable and deprived life in a village. Bhola had felt from the beginning that the village property was not worth maintaining; rather it was more a burden than an asset for an educated person. He was correct. The parents could not live even for a year in that remote and miserable place especially after staying for thirty years in town. They changed their location to a small town at Dhanbad but continued with a deprived life despite the richness of assets in rupees and dollars.
Life hardly gives one the luxury or choice of a good life in a bad place. Bhola tried his best to make his parents dispose off their property in the village and small town and join him in the metro. But it did not materialize. Rather, his illiterate mother even suggested at the age of sixty six to his highly educated and most successful son of forty four should spend a few lakhs to build a house in the small town. What is the compulsion of poverty? Bhola rememberd Rs 40,000 spent in the seventies in the village. Today, in the 21st century, it has become a liability after forty years. The house has become depleted and managing it is difficult. Because if you go to the village, law and order is so bad that you are not sure whether you will be able to come back. How could you think of anything else? Since the 1970s, the equity capital in India has increased 460 times; it means that if Binda had spent Rs 40,000 in equity in the 1970s, today in 2005, he would have got Rs 40,000 X 460 – Rs 1,84,00,000 (approx Rs 2 crores). Forget about the Rs 80,000 he spent in the 1980s and the one lakh he spent in 2001 on the same house in the same village. What a richness of continuation of poverty! Can help from the World Bank or United Nations be able to eradicate the inbuilt poverty in the traditional system? Could the advice of Jeffery D Sachs help this self-imposed poverty? Is eradication of poverty going to take a few generations in developing countries even in the 21st century?
Bhola’s illiterate mother hardly understands mathematics. In a developing world, there is a very different kind of inertia. Clear and open mathematics is not understood. The common man is hardly aware or even conscious about common ideas. The parents educate their sons or daughter, but they are not ready to listen to their advice and not even ready to take their support. They do not believe their wisdom. They do not rely on them. They are not ready to enjoy the newly achieved luxury of a good life. Their ego system remains at a peak. Their decision making systems remain of 1960s in the twenty-first century. This results in a total waste of their lifetime efforts. They remain deprived, poor and miserable. Binda also passed his last days in a similar fashion and one fine day, amidst all this prosperity, he left this world like his father, Mungi.
Like father like son. Binda’s youngest son, a civil engineer employed in the Public Works department in the United States of America along with his civil engineer wife, a Gujarati Brahmin girl and their one son and one daughter came to the small town of Dhanbad (where there is no landing facility) to pay homage to his father. What a rich homage to a deprived father, deprived of basic living facilities!
Today, when Professor Loganathan’s parents and relatives were provided passports and immediate visa to join the funeral, it verified my faith of the unlearning needs. Parents and relatives were obliged for this kind support of media and government but what happened to that intelligent son who gave the life to ensure that their parents visit USA at least once.
What a great tragedy of developing sons?
Sons have to give life to ensure a simple change.
Are parents in all over the world listening to ensure change? Can we unlearn to enjoy life?
Take Hard Decision in Lighter Moment!
How Families Are Producing Osama and Cho?
Today whole world is discussing to know how families across world are producing Osama or Cho knowingly or unknowingly. The matter is serious and it concerns one and all. As I talked about disastrous force in human’s life which makes an individual a disastrous person, I shall talk about how contradictions are generated in a very simple life.
Today, in this information age, information is not limited to few selected privileged individuals but is available to one and all at very meager price. In this environment, families need to focus on few of the critical issues while they bring up their children towards some major success and achievements.
In due course of time, we rear so many contradictions in our existence that we make our life miserable. I shall narrate a real life story of a growing individual, in his own words -
“I am working in the Delhi Police. I am staying in one of the posh areas of Delhi. I have four children. The eldest daughter stays in the village and studies in a school in Otava near Agra so that she can learn the old culture of our society for which we Indians are very proud. I have put my one son and one daughter in DPS RK Puram. They are learning all the latest developments of society. They are learning things very fast. They speak in English. They are studying in English. It is a different story that we never speak English at home. My wife joins sometime at my Delhi residence. Otherwise, she stays in the village to look after farming with another son three years old. I have my two brothers and four sisters staying in the village. They are staying in the joint family except my eldest brother who stays separately in the same village. He and his wife are teachers and they have two children. They are studying in the same school where my brother and sister-in-law are teaching.
I am the only advanced and most literate one who could get service outside the village and work in Delhi. I am staying outside and seeing the advanced world but, you see sir, I have not forgotten the village and my ancient culture. I am so proud of my traditions. I still remember when my father refused to allow me to marry a daughter of my senior with whom I fell in love. We saw few movies together. I took her few times to famous Lodi Gardens to understand each other in a better way. Sir, Lodi Gardens is really a nice place to take your not so knowledgeable girlfriend to learn a few basics of love. There are many live examples there to show to your girlfriend. But after all this, finally I married, as per my father’s wishes, a girl from nearby village. My wife is not very literate. She has passed her sixth class from her village school. When she got involved with a boy of the tenth class, her father refused to send her to school so that she should not learn bad things of society. Over and above, it is so difficult to keep our prestige intact if our daughter gets involved in some love affair. My father-in-law that way was very strict. He was disciplined too. He carried out all his family responsibilities in time. He married his daughter at the age of sixteen. My wife is very hard working and sincere. She takes care of my entire house-hold activities. She gets up at 4 o’clock and sleeps at 12 o’clock at the night after everybody sleeps. She has never complained to me about anything.
I am very proud of my achievements. In life, you have to sacrifice a bit to get some prestige. I am very sure that I shall always try to teach the ‘cultural richness’ of my ancestors to my children. Once in a year, I bring my son and daughter studying at DPS, to the village for two months during their summer vacation. I leave them in the village with their mother so that they can learn the basics of the ‘sound culture’ of our village. They do not get a chance to speak in English in the village but I am hopeful that the sound culture which they learn during the vacations will be useful in the long run compared to those who send their children to “Your Kid ‘R’ Our Kids” for summer camp and learn salsa, painting, acting, modelling, horse riding or instrumental music etc.
I want to educate my children with the best of education available so that they can become good officers in some government department and earn a lot of money and prestige. Officers in government departments get lots of prestige and money from the public. At the same time, I want to maintain the village set-up so that after retirement I or even my children can settle there and live a good life in old age. I know there are lots of problems in the village like poor electricity, no medical facilities, no good school or college, no road, no communication and so on, but at least I am very proud of my village. My grandfathers have taught me that I should not sell or dispose off my ancestral property. I shall not do it at least during my time. I am not sure of my children especially who are studying in DPS. Sometime, their talk gives me shivers.”
Today when heinous crime has been done in USA by a small boy of 24 years old, killing 32 people at stretch, this story reminds me some basic queries. The contradictions are more prevalent in the families from third world. However, the families in developed nations if rearing contradictions at home may face these dangers.
My mind kept on dwelling on voluminous contradictions in the life of a common man. How can an educated person marry an uneducated girl? How are the women of a middle class urban society forced to live a miserable life in a village between 4 o’clock in the morning to 12 o’clock in the night? How did the people were taught about the ‘cultural richness’ or ‘sound culture’? Does living in scarcity, indicates a sound culture?
How to spread the message of good living and sound culture in such a vast and contradictory population of South Asia in general and India in particular? You force your children to study English and modernity on one hand and on the other hand you ensure, they learn poverty, deprivation, scarcity and misery. What do we want from a child of nine? Is it not a criminal offence to force your nine-year old son or daughter in such a ‘contradictory microwave oven’? The contradictions of life narrated here are not less than an oven.
The life of the individual is full of contradictions. A person puts himself in such a critical contradiction and makes his own life miserable. Over and above, it is a heinous crime to expect small children to learn English, modern things and old culture simultaneously. It is too much for the individual to cope with the demand from two extremes. It is a crime to expect from a wife to be homely, educated, submissive and modern as well. It is too much a contradiction to have a modern life and keep the old traditions intact.
The common people with minor education and resources are accepting these contradictions in day to day life irrespective of location in the world. But the same things are not observed in a high class family or society. That’s how Rajiv Gandhi married an Italian; Imran Khan, former Cricket Captain, married a Jew; Shahrukh married Gauri, a Hindu girl etc. Examples are plenty, leaving normal middle class people to suffer indefinitely. Is it not a ‘contradictory microwave oven’?
Contradiction has become lately a part of human society. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Korea, Sri Lanka or rather the whole of the Asian region and the whole world of miserable people are the burning examples of these contradictions. Almost 95% of people are badly or dangerously involved in these contradictions. Everyday, they live life in those contradictions. Even the families who have migrated to USA or other European nations are forced to live life with these contradictions. And these contradictions become incubators of suicidal human bomb.
There is no clarity available to them in society. Every person takes various examples of whatever is available and gets some dose of contradictions in her life. These contradictions are prevalent in society in the name of cultural richness, heritage, modernity, broad thinking or vision. A normal human being is not in a position to understand or come out of these contradictions. And in these contradictions, people generate aspirations or so called fatal aspirations.
In these contradictions, I personally feel that Osama or Cho can grow any time, anywhere and at any place. Any family who are forcing these contradictions on their family members may suffer the way Cho family is feeling miserable today. The growth of Osama or Cho is nothing but extreme mis-utilization of magnificent technologies. Earlier governments were stopping Fashion TV to bring moral in the society but when Cho is shown on TV day and night who blocks the channels? No one. When 12 year old boy is shown brutally killing throat of a man on TV, who is blocking that from our children? Various websites are available on 24X7 basis to make a person religious fanatic and hard core nationalist. I feel our families, our children and our youth all are under threat unless we unlearn … and unlearn immediately.
We have to unlearn deprivation fast to ensure that our children do not fall pray of killers on net.
Take Hard Decision in Lighter Moment!
Today, in this information age, information is not limited to few selected privileged individuals but is available to one and all at very meager price. In this environment, families need to focus on few of the critical issues while they bring up their children towards some major success and achievements.
In due course of time, we rear so many contradictions in our existence that we make our life miserable. I shall narrate a real life story of a growing individual, in his own words -
“I am working in the Delhi Police. I am staying in one of the posh areas of Delhi. I have four children. The eldest daughter stays in the village and studies in a school in Otava near Agra so that she can learn the old culture of our society for which we Indians are very proud. I have put my one son and one daughter in DPS RK Puram. They are learning all the latest developments of society. They are learning things very fast. They speak in English. They are studying in English. It is a different story that we never speak English at home. My wife joins sometime at my Delhi residence. Otherwise, she stays in the village to look after farming with another son three years old. I have my two brothers and four sisters staying in the village. They are staying in the joint family except my eldest brother who stays separately in the same village. He and his wife are teachers and they have two children. They are studying in the same school where my brother and sister-in-law are teaching.
I am the only advanced and most literate one who could get service outside the village and work in Delhi. I am staying outside and seeing the advanced world but, you see sir, I have not forgotten the village and my ancient culture. I am so proud of my traditions. I still remember when my father refused to allow me to marry a daughter of my senior with whom I fell in love. We saw few movies together. I took her few times to famous Lodi Gardens to understand each other in a better way. Sir, Lodi Gardens is really a nice place to take your not so knowledgeable girlfriend to learn a few basics of love. There are many live examples there to show to your girlfriend. But after all this, finally I married, as per my father’s wishes, a girl from nearby village. My wife is not very literate. She has passed her sixth class from her village school. When she got involved with a boy of the tenth class, her father refused to send her to school so that she should not learn bad things of society. Over and above, it is so difficult to keep our prestige intact if our daughter gets involved in some love affair. My father-in-law that way was very strict. He was disciplined too. He carried out all his family responsibilities in time. He married his daughter at the age of sixteen. My wife is very hard working and sincere. She takes care of my entire house-hold activities. She gets up at 4 o’clock and sleeps at 12 o’clock at the night after everybody sleeps. She has never complained to me about anything.
I am very proud of my achievements. In life, you have to sacrifice a bit to get some prestige. I am very sure that I shall always try to teach the ‘cultural richness’ of my ancestors to my children. Once in a year, I bring my son and daughter studying at DPS, to the village for two months during their summer vacation. I leave them in the village with their mother so that they can learn the basics of the ‘sound culture’ of our village. They do not get a chance to speak in English in the village but I am hopeful that the sound culture which they learn during the vacations will be useful in the long run compared to those who send their children to “Your Kid ‘R’ Our Kids” for summer camp and learn salsa, painting, acting, modelling, horse riding or instrumental music etc.
I want to educate my children with the best of education available so that they can become good officers in some government department and earn a lot of money and prestige. Officers in government departments get lots of prestige and money from the public. At the same time, I want to maintain the village set-up so that after retirement I or even my children can settle there and live a good life in old age. I know there are lots of problems in the village like poor electricity, no medical facilities, no good school or college, no road, no communication and so on, but at least I am very proud of my village. My grandfathers have taught me that I should not sell or dispose off my ancestral property. I shall not do it at least during my time. I am not sure of my children especially who are studying in DPS. Sometime, their talk gives me shivers.”
Today when heinous crime has been done in USA by a small boy of 24 years old, killing 32 people at stretch, this story reminds me some basic queries. The contradictions are more prevalent in the families from third world. However, the families in developed nations if rearing contradictions at home may face these dangers.
My mind kept on dwelling on voluminous contradictions in the life of a common man. How can an educated person marry an uneducated girl? How are the women of a middle class urban society forced to live a miserable life in a village between 4 o’clock in the morning to 12 o’clock in the night? How did the people were taught about the ‘cultural richness’ or ‘sound culture’? Does living in scarcity, indicates a sound culture?
How to spread the message of good living and sound culture in such a vast and contradictory population of South Asia in general and India in particular? You force your children to study English and modernity on one hand and on the other hand you ensure, they learn poverty, deprivation, scarcity and misery. What do we want from a child of nine? Is it not a criminal offence to force your nine-year old son or daughter in such a ‘contradictory microwave oven’? The contradictions of life narrated here are not less than an oven.
The life of the individual is full of contradictions. A person puts himself in such a critical contradiction and makes his own life miserable. Over and above, it is a heinous crime to expect small children to learn English, modern things and old culture simultaneously. It is too much for the individual to cope with the demand from two extremes. It is a crime to expect from a wife to be homely, educated, submissive and modern as well. It is too much a contradiction to have a modern life and keep the old traditions intact.
The common people with minor education and resources are accepting these contradictions in day to day life irrespective of location in the world. But the same things are not observed in a high class family or society. That’s how Rajiv Gandhi married an Italian; Imran Khan, former Cricket Captain, married a Jew; Shahrukh married Gauri, a Hindu girl etc. Examples are plenty, leaving normal middle class people to suffer indefinitely. Is it not a ‘contradictory microwave oven’?
Contradiction has become lately a part of human society. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Korea, Sri Lanka or rather the whole of the Asian region and the whole world of miserable people are the burning examples of these contradictions. Almost 95% of people are badly or dangerously involved in these contradictions. Everyday, they live life in those contradictions. Even the families who have migrated to USA or other European nations are forced to live life with these contradictions. And these contradictions become incubators of suicidal human bomb.
There is no clarity available to them in society. Every person takes various examples of whatever is available and gets some dose of contradictions in her life. These contradictions are prevalent in society in the name of cultural richness, heritage, modernity, broad thinking or vision. A normal human being is not in a position to understand or come out of these contradictions. And in these contradictions, people generate aspirations or so called fatal aspirations.
In these contradictions, I personally feel that Osama or Cho can grow any time, anywhere and at any place. Any family who are forcing these contradictions on their family members may suffer the way Cho family is feeling miserable today. The growth of Osama or Cho is nothing but extreme mis-utilization of magnificent technologies. Earlier governments were stopping Fashion TV to bring moral in the society but when Cho is shown on TV day and night who blocks the channels? No one. When 12 year old boy is shown brutally killing throat of a man on TV, who is blocking that from our children? Various websites are available on 24X7 basis to make a person religious fanatic and hard core nationalist. I feel our families, our children and our youth all are under threat unless we unlearn … and unlearn immediately.
We have to unlearn deprivation fast to ensure that our children do not fall pray of killers on net.
Take Hard Decision in Lighter Moment!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Unlearn Saris To Learn Skirt!!
India has come a long way. Religious democracy has played a major role to shape the destiny of the country. It is not very difficult to analyze the major causes of the change. It is not very difficult to find the reason for the growth of few individuals. It is simple but hard to discuss. It is equally hard to follow. But fortunately, recent changes have acted like serious catalytic affect.
A sincere observation reveals the cause of slow growth in society. The majority have remained obsessed with the old and conservative traditions at the cost of their own growth. These traditions have coolly kept them backward. These traditions have worked as a biggest obstacle in their ride to success. The leaders, rulers and intellectuals have always exploited these weaknesses of human nature to keep the majority in deprived and helpless condition. But, now they should not do anymore for the sake of their own achievements.
People in general have not been able to understand the hidden agenda of many of our well recognized leaders. People have fallen in their trap. People have remained deprived. Today, when information and opportunities have paved the way for commoners, the prospects of growth have become brighter. But, individuals who wants to grow has to understand the basic needs of growth.
One such need is to change the dress code. Long back when I was doing engineering college, I remember the dress code given for girl students. The dress code was pant-shirt, salwar-kurta or skirt-top etc. Sari, a traditional dress for majority of Indian ladies was not allowed. Shall we unlearn ‘Sari’?
Why talk about college, I have observed that even school children have dress code of skirt-top at most of the places. These girls use this dress code for years. They must be getting attached to these dresses. Psychologically, it must be difficult to change the dress at every stage. The girls are put in a situation where they are conditioned to encounter unlearning on regular basis. But, surprisingly, unlearning forced on these helpless girls make them deprived. The unlearning forced on them make dependent. Sari is one such example blatant enough to be seen by everyone but hardly ever sensed to be recognized its negative impact because of traditional attachments.
In contradictions, all these girls are always forced to wear sari in pretext of traditions. This is a big contradiction in society. Girls are always made a scapegoat for changes. Why should a grille be forced to so many changes in one life? Why?
If a simple survey is done on dress code, anybody can find that sari is the dress for deprived, dependent and conservative ladies. The ladies who are convinced to accept saris as dress will be mostly house-wives, generally semi-illiterate, highly conservatives, deprived and economically dependent on male counterparts. The independent and forward looking ladies can be found at working places like call centers, BPOs, banks, airplanes etc. or in five star hotels for parties, conferences etc or educational institutes as teachers, student etc and so on. All these forward looking ladies can be found in modern dresses.
Sari has lost its significance to exist in vibrant, dynamic and progressive society like Burqua. Recently, in one of the center page article in Times of India, Shashi Tharoor appealed to the women of India to save sari from a sorry fate. I am unable to understand the logic of these appeals. Why Shashi should appeal to women to remain backward and dependent? Why as an intellectual is he attaching modern dresses as western dress? Why do we attaché anything progress and good to western values? Are we have our birthright to born backward and die backward? Why Shashi should teach our ladies to be in conservative attire? It is a fatal aspiration.
If you have to grow, prosper and succeed, you have to unlearn sari, you have to accept modern dresses. You have to unlearn that Sari is Indian and modern dresses are western. Sari might be a good dress when you were in village without much external travel, work or pressure. Sari was good for women who used to be a display material for family. Sari is not good for women who are the bread earner, executives and person who drive progress and economy. Shashi must stop communicating responsibility to save sari on the shoulder of growing and struggling girls and ladies who want to grow. Shashi must stop convincing male to force their female to dress sari. Sari must go like Japanese kimono as he said in his own article.
The things which are vanishing in a slow manner, Indian intelligentsias should never preach general people to protect them. If villages have to go, why should farmers is preached not to leave villages? Why should menial and deprived people be preached not to march to the cities? Why should illiterate and deprived children be forced to study regional languages? All these questions are related to the drawback of Indian media, leaders and intelligentsias. They need to be conscious of what they preach others.
Sari must vanish to bring prosperity to this land. Women should not be unnecessarily taught wrong things. Women have also the privilege to be independent and growing.
Take Hard Decision in Lighter Moment!
A sincere observation reveals the cause of slow growth in society. The majority have remained obsessed with the old and conservative traditions at the cost of their own growth. These traditions have coolly kept them backward. These traditions have worked as a biggest obstacle in their ride to success. The leaders, rulers and intellectuals have always exploited these weaknesses of human nature to keep the majority in deprived and helpless condition. But, now they should not do anymore for the sake of their own achievements.
People in general have not been able to understand the hidden agenda of many of our well recognized leaders. People have fallen in their trap. People have remained deprived. Today, when information and opportunities have paved the way for commoners, the prospects of growth have become brighter. But, individuals who wants to grow has to understand the basic needs of growth.
One such need is to change the dress code. Long back when I was doing engineering college, I remember the dress code given for girl students. The dress code was pant-shirt, salwar-kurta or skirt-top etc. Sari, a traditional dress for majority of Indian ladies was not allowed. Shall we unlearn ‘Sari’?
Why talk about college, I have observed that even school children have dress code of skirt-top at most of the places. These girls use this dress code for years. They must be getting attached to these dresses. Psychologically, it must be difficult to change the dress at every stage. The girls are put in a situation where they are conditioned to encounter unlearning on regular basis. But, surprisingly, unlearning forced on these helpless girls make them deprived. The unlearning forced on them make dependent. Sari is one such example blatant enough to be seen by everyone but hardly ever sensed to be recognized its negative impact because of traditional attachments.
In contradictions, all these girls are always forced to wear sari in pretext of traditions. This is a big contradiction in society. Girls are always made a scapegoat for changes. Why should a grille be forced to so many changes in one life? Why?
If a simple survey is done on dress code, anybody can find that sari is the dress for deprived, dependent and conservative ladies. The ladies who are convinced to accept saris as dress will be mostly house-wives, generally semi-illiterate, highly conservatives, deprived and economically dependent on male counterparts. The independent and forward looking ladies can be found at working places like call centers, BPOs, banks, airplanes etc. or in five star hotels for parties, conferences etc or educational institutes as teachers, student etc and so on. All these forward looking ladies can be found in modern dresses.
Sari has lost its significance to exist in vibrant, dynamic and progressive society like Burqua. Recently, in one of the center page article in Times of India, Shashi Tharoor appealed to the women of India to save sari from a sorry fate. I am unable to understand the logic of these appeals. Why Shashi should appeal to women to remain backward and dependent? Why as an intellectual is he attaching modern dresses as western dress? Why do we attaché anything progress and good to western values? Are we have our birthright to born backward and die backward? Why Shashi should teach our ladies to be in conservative attire? It is a fatal aspiration.
If you have to grow, prosper and succeed, you have to unlearn sari, you have to accept modern dresses. You have to unlearn that Sari is Indian and modern dresses are western. Sari might be a good dress when you were in village without much external travel, work or pressure. Sari was good for women who used to be a display material for family. Sari is not good for women who are the bread earner, executives and person who drive progress and economy. Shashi must stop communicating responsibility to save sari on the shoulder of growing and struggling girls and ladies who want to grow. Shashi must stop convincing male to force their female to dress sari. Sari must go like Japanese kimono as he said in his own article.
The things which are vanishing in a slow manner, Indian intelligentsias should never preach general people to protect them. If villages have to go, why should farmers is preached not to leave villages? Why should menial and deprived people be preached not to march to the cities? Why should illiterate and deprived children be forced to study regional languages? All these questions are related to the drawback of Indian media, leaders and intelligentsias. They need to be conscious of what they preach others.
Sari must vanish to bring prosperity to this land. Women should not be unnecessarily taught wrong things. Women have also the privilege to be independent and growing.
Take Hard Decision in Lighter Moment!
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