Old abits Die Hard!

I am of the firm believer that we can not do anything better in life if we do not unlearn our old traditions, beliefs, perceptions and ideas. We can not build a new empire of developed India on the structure of the old knowledge. I call this old knowledge as rotten one. They are not going to take us anywhere. They are just the waste of our valuable time and efforts. They just debar us from enjoying beauties of this precious life.

Learning is not at all a solution but many a time, these are the big problems, because you will have to unlearn, whatever you have learnt, if they are not good for your future. Unlearning will be more difficult than learning. But you do not have any choice. You will be forced to Unlearn. So Stop Learning, Rather UNLEARN or LEARN TO UNLEARN before it is too late to unlearn. It is the time to concentrate and know more about your Unlearn Quotient (UQ). (Based on the critical factors developed as a theory of human growth elaborated later, UQ is defined and explained in subsequent chapters.) Your UQ will take you ahead than others. Your UQ will pave the way for your better future. Your UQ will reduce the contradictions and ambiguities of your life. But the big questions is why unlearn? There are millions of reasons. The reasons are hidden in the belly of the growth of human civilization. It is not anyone's fault, but compulsion because of the way, the society has grown. It is the forced thrust upon activities; the human of 21st century has to pass through.

Unfortunately, in Governments set up, it is observed that the decisions makers are still relying on old ideas and methods. These ideas are based on our pre-independence and even post independence thinkers. They are mostly relying on old traditions and philosophies. They are based on old book of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Just after independence, two things were predominantly done all across India as far as broad policies of nation were concerned. One was to spread Gandhi as a role model so as sole of the nation could be inherently influenced and other was to establish all Nehruvian thinkers at predominant position from where the mind of the nation can be controlled. This philosophy controlled the decisions even after around 40-50 years of independence.

There is so much money being invested in last few years on the spread of Gandhi’s memory and Gandhi’s history. In today’s scenario, almost it is certain that Gandhi has lost its relevance. They are not going to make us shine in the world competitive environment. They are not going to bring any genius in this country. They are not going to help to create innovation in the Indian brains. The Gandhi ideas are almost useless. The ideas may be only relevant to spread poverty and mediocrity in the society. India is not going to develop with those philosophies. Gandhi has become a liability for the young generation of India. Gandhi has become the symbol of widespread casteism and illiteracy. Gandhi has helped to continue backward as backward, schedule caste as schedule caste, schedule tribes as schedule tribes, forward as forward and so on even after 60 years of independence and even when our economy has become one of the fastest growing in the world.

There are few set of people in this country who have taken the responsibility to rule from their birth. In this age of information revolution, they appear inconcievable but unfortunately, they are happening. They are happening coolly around us. Ther are few knowledgeable people who have taken the responsibility of all our brilliance and ideas. They have become the only source of knowledge and power to this fastest developing humanity on this earth. They are coolly fooling the people with their self interests. They are fooling the people with their rotten ideas. They are ensuring that only marginal set of people continue getting that privilege. They ensure that they have total control on the kind of information being passed to the common man. The common man has remained a puppet to rule over the large section of the population with their rotten views. The common man has become the tools in the hand of such scrupulous and selfish soles.

The appointment of Deepak Sandhu may be one example which came in the news but to my surprise beliefs, they are happening all across us through out the year. These are happening everyday in almost every field. They are happening coolly. Only few have the courage and convictions to fight against the set system. Narayana Murthy might be one of them. Who have done on his own and today has courage to talk different. But such people are very few and very marginal. However, if India has to develop by 2020, we can not rely on the imported thinkers from outside the country. We can never prosper on old ideas. We have to unlearn old habits. We have to understand new ideas. We have to generate new one. We have to innovate.

Faith is a Business?

In the ‘Times Trend’ of Times of India, Delhi Edition on 03 Mar 06, an article talks about the statement of France’s Lourdes. He says, ‘not enough divine cures being recognized now’. The time has come when no one dares to spread blind faith unnecessarily because of availability of mass communication. Earlier because of lack of proper communication, it would have been easy for many people to have a control on the kind of messages they want to spread. This has resulted in a situation when I can claim with certainty that faith has been made a business by many people.

The advent of TV has shown the truth of life at the doorstep of every child born to this civilization. The child growing in a hut in Mumbai or Kolkotta slum today knows and sees from her own eyes that what all exists in the White House. The Panwala from a small town of Biharsharif (Nalanda) in India have a glimpse of the life of the richest man of the century Bill Gates of the United States of America. They witness all the happenings on the streets of New York including the demolition of World Trade Center on 9/11. They see everyday, how the people live? How the people are having a life? What are the basic means of life and societies? Above all, all these information are available free of cost at everybody’s reach. Whether water, electricity, road or even schools are available or not, TV and its 365X24X7 broadcast is available to the human beings of this civilization. By the time the child reaches the age of 10, they understand what all they are privileged and what all they are deprived off? These facts will make a difference. These facts are going to make a difference in the overall perception of every growing individual.

The availability of information at the door step free of cast will make a difference in even blind faith. This availability of Information has given indication of the future world. It has exposed the truth. The truth which was known to a very few rich and privileged people of society, today these are available to all the people irrespective of cast, creed, region or economic status. In these circumstances, it is very difficult to convince the people of their set course of fate. It is very difficult to convince them that their miseries are the result of their deeds of their previous life. It is very difficult to debar them from their basic amenities. They can not be fooled anymore.

As far as miracle happening is concerned, people are very conscious of their knowledge and its benefits. Today, when Goggle’s brother comes to limelight with their sheer ingenuity and knowledge, everyone takes notice of that. It is not miracle. It is the willpower of human to change with time. It is the quest of human to achieve their dream. It is the dream based of reality. It is the sheer ambition and efforts of individual. Today when Bill Gates earned more money every month than many developing countries in the world, it is not a miracle. Bill is not going to accept this as miracle phenomenon. Neither any conscious person is going to accept this easily as miracle. We all have seen the way; Bill Gates has risen from his sincere efforts and superb products. The consciousness starts from early childhood days. Today, a small child seating in the drawing room of a developing countries witness all what is privileged to the people and children of developed part of the world through star channels days in and days out.

Is there any surprise today, if the major decisions of a house are being taken by the children of this civilization? All advertisement agencies are going ahead everyday to show the power of children and teens in the society. Even if the question of service tax or home loan comes, there are children to encourage the elder of this generation to motivate them. The children are helping the family to take futuristic decisions. Have you ever thought, from where this knowledge have creped in the mind of children? This knowledge to the children has come from the civilization growth. They have emerged from the exposure of information to these children. They have originated from the availability of knowledge domain to these children. The children who are giving decisions today as a young will change the whole concept of civilization growth once they become parents. That will be the real outcome of civilization growth to the human beings.

We may have temples, Mosques and Churches all over the place, but the quest to achieve a better life will always rule the mind of the young to achieve their dream. We have medical facilities. We have medicines to cure the difficult diseases. We have vaccination. We have government’s plan for polio vaccination. We have qualified Doctors. We have researchers who are busy in researching medicine, vaccination and future treatment for human beings. We are ready to develop clones. We have seen the spread of ADDs. We have seen the efforts of people to save humanity from aids. We have seen spread of bird flue. We are witnessing the pain of dieing with killer diseases. We are witnessing the efforts of researchers to find the treatment and medicines for these new diseases. How can we marginalize the tremendous human efforts in this information age?

We have seen injustices on the name of religion in Muslims. We have seen the killings of female foeticide in the richest states of India - Punjab and Haryana. We have seen mercilessly killing of innocent individual in the mane of Jehad on 9/11. We have seen kind of injustice being forged in the society in the name of religion. In Hindu, we have seen father killing sons and daughters on the name of sacrifice to God. Do you think that children are not seeing them? Can we make faith as a business anymore? The children of this Information Age when grow top adulthood would generate a different kind of society where it would be difficult to spread faith as a business. 

Forget Reservations!

Hello my young, educated, internet friendly and innovative fellows – backward, schedule caste, schedule tribes and poor or rich forward people. It is irony in this country that we are still relying on reservation to see our development. Reservation is the worst form of discrimination of human against human. They have been started with the selfish motives to keep the backward as backward, schedule castes as schedule castes, schedule tribes as schedule tribes and over and above poor as poor. They have been done very intentionally by the biggest thinkers on this earth. They have been done very systematically throughout the evolution of Indian democracy. They have been forced in the mind and soul of rising leaders. They have influenced the leader’s mind of even today. The reason is simple. Till the time you will remain backward, I will remain forward. Till the time you will remain poor, I will remain rich. The backward, forward, rich and poor are all comparatives. They are nothing in its originality. Only one thing is certain as human that we all are human. We all need basic amenities to enjoy life. We all need fresh air to have deep breath. We all need air and time to do pranayam. We all need to enjoy this beautiful life. We do not want to be categorized as backward, forward, schedule caste or schedule tribes. We do not want to be categorized as even male and female in broad perceptions to avoid discrimination even in the womb. Let me live as a living being. We are human. And this identity has no crisis further. Do not give me any other identity!
The Indian market opened in 1992 under the stewardship of Narshimha Rao, then Prime Minister of India. He brought in Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister to initiate the task. It opened the entire horizon of economic development. It has changed the way India looks at development. It has forgotten the subsidies days of beggars when citizens have to look towards the Government for their bread and butter. It is no more. The development has been phenomenal and encouraging. Even if many governments have been sacrificed on the name of progress or change, the pace of development has not altered. The planners have sensed the root of development and no planners can take any chance. The economy and society is developing at its own pace. It does not demand elusive support but it demands just no hindrances. The old and outdated economic views will not be accepted anymore. The civilization has witnessed the real development of individual, society and nation. This development is inevitable and every citizen or human beings have to realize these changes.
The development of China under the Communist Leadership is a clear example of these social compulsions. Why only China, other Communist countries have also sensed the compulsions of theses social changes. Even the Muslim countries and Muslim societies have realized the compulsions of these changes. The country like Malaysia is trying to become the first developed nation among Muslim world. In September 2005, in his keynote address to the two day Global Leadership Forum organized by the Foundation for the Future, an international think-tank and the Perdana Leadership Foundation, the prime minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmed Badawi said, ‘to bring forth the innovative spirit, one must go beyond education to also change values, attitudes, mindset and culture.’ Prime Minister of Malaysia wants to see his country as first among 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to attain developed nation status by the year 2020. Presently none of the OIC members has become a developed nation. No government has any other options. They have to focus on the need to change the values, attitude, mindset and even cultures. China has taken the drastic steps of changes to face the future. They have sacrificed their communist views as far as development is concerned. They are going ahead with the change of their own traditional values, attitudes, mindset and cultures. The Chinese have opened up the economy long back. They have even opened up to retail foreign direct investment (FDI) as early as 1992 for which even the Indian government is still discussing in the year 2006. The sweet result of this courage is that the retail world famous company like Walmart alone has delivered $170 million in taxes to the Chinese exchequer. And to the surprise of any conservative observers, the small family stores in China have went up from 1.9 million to 2.5 million since the time retailers came in. The Chinese have gone global. Why only China, the world has to move the global way. Few of the people for few of the occasion for few of the results could fool the person otherwise.
Today when Arjun Singh writes a letter to all State governments to ensure reservation, what is he trying to show? Is he trying to earn the name like VP Singh? Is he trying to become immortal in this poor country? We are still struggling hard to maintain our cities in good condition. We are unable to develop infrastructure which may attract FDI to maintain he GDP above 8%. We are still struggling to avoid unnecessary exploitation of our educated youth in call centers and BPOs. We are still struggling to ensure the spread of international level institutions engineering, managements or even medical establishments. We are struggling hard to provide basic education, water and electricity to our citizens. We are struggling hard to generate innovation. We can not do any of these things through reservation. We can not do any good to human by discriminating. We musty stop these cheap methods of earning good name. We must stop reservation. We should give chance to humanity to grow and prosper. 

Should We Concentrate on Bigger Issues?

‘Identity and Violence’ might have been written with some purpose. It may be serious effort of a Nobel laureate Amratya Sen to write for Indian reader. Last year he came out with ‘Argumentative Indians’. This year he writes ‘Identity and Violence’. It may help in some way to make some identity to poor and downtrodden in this country. India is an excellence starved nation of 110 million. Still it is so difficult to make an identity. Everyday, every month and every year, some new identity is created and get lost in wilderness. The identity may be good for those who have them. Identity may be good for those whose ancestors have struggled hard to create them. Identity may be important for those who were born lucky in the privileged family and rich society. Identity may be good for few. Identity may be good to be resolved to avoid the clash among the underprivileged. Search of identity may be the quest of few privileged one. But just see the other side of the coin.

In India, 80 percent of the population born backward, schedule caste, schedule tribes and so on. They are born backward. They live backward. They die backward. It never changes their identity even if they may become doctor, engineer, lawyer, journalists, executives or any other high profile appointments including Ministers or President or any such thing. They remain backward. They are forced to live this life with that tag. Why only identity tag, I feel they live like a backward. They live a miserable life.

Why talk about the caste system of India? A person born in developing country remains developing even if he or she goes around the globe. Every other guy treats her like developing. They remain in this life with that tag. They remain developing. The person born in the developed nation has all the privilege. They have the courage and opportunity to write about the clash of civilization. They write about the clash of identity. They remain developed and enjoy all those privileged God has created most probably for them.

Think of the guys who are born Muslim. They are forced to live life reading Quran. They spend and waste most of their time in going to Mosque. They spend most of their energy and spirit in praising Allah. They are forced to feel pleasure in visiting Mecca. They are forced to live like a miserable life. They are forced to live life without basic amenities. They are forced to live life with the item and equipment invented by developed world. They are forced to use laptop and software developed by developed people. They are forced to live life in following only. They can never become the part of innovation. Their innovation ends with defining Jihad, Freedom, Allah, and Burqua. The ladies pass their secluded and free life within the four walls of Burqua. They can not take any major decisions. They are all born Muslim. They live Muslim. They die Muslim. They can never think of changing their identity. They live and die with their identity crisis.

Life starts and ends with specific poor identity. Life ends with backward identity. Life ends with developing identity. Life ends with Muslim identity. Life ends with forward identity. Life passes with those identity poor are born with. They pass their whole life maintaining those identities. Where there is chance to enjoy the identity. There is no crisis. There is no importance. Identity is a unnecessarily forced personality of individual. In this modern world, people of the 21st century want to take birth without any identity. They want to create their own identity. They want to live their own identity. Please do not stamp them with backward, forward, Muslim, schedule caste, schedule tribes, developing or developed or any such thing. They want to be the citizen of 21st century. They want to enjoy the life and privilege of the humanity of this era. Everybody born on this wants to enjoy a free human life. No body wants to born as female in Afghanistan. If choice given, everybody wants to take birth as a citizen of developed nation with all those freedom.

India is a country of Khandan and Gharanas. Every successful person belongs to some big Khandan or famous Gharanas. The identity of individuals is based on their Khandan and Gharanas. The person may belong to any field. The few famous names could be Kapoor Khandan and Khans’ in Bollywood, Gandhi and Nehru in politics, Tata and Birlas in business, Jaipur Khandan and Lucknow Gharanas in dance and music, south Indian as scientists, Bengalis as diplomats, Gujaratis as merchants, Sardars as hard workers and so on and so forth. After independence, especially the change of initial Congress Government after Emergency during 1979, things started changing fast. The changes taking place in India and across the world, America or Europe, gives me hope that a person could provide some input to humanity without belonging to Khandans or Gharanas. In that sense, I started getting entirely new feelings that I originate from yahoo.com Khandans amidst other Khandans like hotmail.com or rediffmail.com. And I belong to yahoo Gharanas. I am grateful to my new Khandan and Gharana. Can we ever recognize and search our identity based on our knowledge, experience, education, and connectivity. In this networked world, does identity has any other meaning? Can we go little more global away from our regional feeling, caste feelings and biased religious attitudes? Can we unlearn our old trivial and selfish identity?

Forget about identity. The famous economist is writing on history. Is somebody else taking advantages of his popularity? It is little irony from my thinking. Why does not he address poverty? Why does not he talk about how to improve the life of poor and underprivileged? Why does not he talk about how to improve the life of Muslim communities? Why does not he talk about how to improve the situation of women in this world? Why he does not talk about what he is famous for? He must pick up some serious issues. He must discuss why India lacks in Millennium poverty elevation program. Like Jeffery Sach, he also should come out with ‘End of Poverty’. He must address why India are unable to shine in the world competitive environment. He must address the issues which help us to become develop at least by 2020. When President and Prime Minister of this country are talking about India becoming developed, he also should talk about this and set some yardsticks. Will he be able to do? During the launch of the book at India Habitat Center, when I raised the question of identity, he agreed with me to have something like yahoo.com or hotmail.com but when is he going to spread this for whole humanity? People must address the issues which are required for humanity at large. Can we concentrate on some better issues?