The Phony Saint!!

I remember a recent statement made by BJP’s leader and Gujrat’s chief minister Narendra Modi regarding our worthy/unworthy Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling him “Maun Mohan”, got highlighted in almost all the newspapers and magazines of the country even made a place in the minds of all the Indians.  I believe not only Narendra Modi but anybody else is not being wrong in making such  statements for him as our PM has been inactive, inefficient even indecisive in almost all the political matters. Our highly honored economist and scholar has remained quite unresponsive to any such comments and even at many events where he needs to be pretty active and striking.

“It astonishes me when he talks so little and be so barely visible that we might be forgiven for thinking that India has an imaginary Prime Minister,” wrote a celebrity-journalist in his blog a few months ago.

Where in India with issues like prices hike in Petrol & cooking gas, scams like 2G, Coalgate and CWG, with serious allegations on Salman Khurshid, Virbhadra Singh, Sushil kumar Shinde catching fire at a high pace our Prime Minister has remained insensitive and has nothing to say, not sure about others but this certainly has taken my breath away.

Our Prime Minister is nothing less than a “Saint in Disguise” who’s living in the Self Actualization phase of his life. We can easily sense his abstinence from the political matters and him maintaining a state of nothingness has actually become a national issue. As a prime minister of India was't he supposed to be active than just following solely asceticism. The man who has been accepted by majority of the Indians as their leader should be more efficient and prominent in his activities. Mr. Singh has been talking about the economic growth ever since he got the status of a PM but unfortunately he did not understand the fact that the lack of direction, delays in much needed reforms are the reasons stopping us to achieve the same.

I am quite apprehensive about his vision for our country as well, in a speech he gave at a public conclave held in the Capital, Manmohan Singh said: “I do not want India to be a super power; I just want India to stand in the comity of nations.” has certainly left India embarrassed at an international stage, even then if we see him as a leader of our country, I must say that the benchmark of being a leader has certainly gone down to a great extent.

Mr. Singh's abdication of responsibility and his aversion to risk is striking today, not least because it encourages others in India's government to go into hiding the moment there's a sign of trouble, our former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee stated this in one of our Lok Sabha meeting. During the “anshans” held by Anna Hazare as a part of the revolt against corruption Atal Bihari Vajpayee went to meet PM asked him to take a decision. He told, I said to PM, “Pradhan Mantri saab aap koi nidnaya kyun nahi lete? Desh main itna sab kuch ho raha hai. Aapko nidnaya lena chahiye.(PM sir why don’t you take any decision? A lot of stuff is happening in our country. You should take a decision.) Then He told what our PM replied, “  unhone jawaab diya ‘nidnaya na lena bhi ek nidnaya hai”. (PM answered ‘Being indecisive is itself a decision’) and he seems to be true to the current scenario since the buck never stopped with him at the first level, somebody else (Sonia Gandhi) is holding the political reins.

He undoubtedly seems to have no stakes either in his political party or in the country? He is being reluctant to the odd situations we are facing. The man carrying the highest authority, power and stature in our country is nothing less than a phony saint and we still respect him for the nobility and sorry to say but the lackadiasical attitude he carries.

Nobody else but we are responsible for what we are facing today!!

Beautiful Days..!!

The sun is still not up..here we are awake at 6 o clock sharp..adorned in uniform & bag packed with new note pads & text books, pencil & lunch boxes, that’s how the innocent childhood took a step forward. I don’t remember any single day when we did not collectively prayed to God at the bus stop for a surprise school holiday! (No wonder some of us ended up being such staunch atheists)

Bells of assembly, singing chorus, the inhibition of being caught up during inspection for anything wrong or not so good was always there.

We started off with pencils & wanted to color the world with crayons & sketch pens. With new books & happy faces we began with remembering alphabets & numbers followed by tables, every mathematical problem we did in school was the easiest of all while the home work ones used to be really tough, cant forget the way teacher’s gave us a helping hand & were always ready to listen and be a friend, they brought in the confidence in us, every praise by them was the biggest achievement for us. Time spent in Hindi classes doing chit- chat (as if we were the masters in Hindi) or sometimes reading our favorite comics, brings smile on face even today. Playing Dum Charades, pen fight, what color you want and many other games which I don’t even remember now in every free lecture was so much fun. School was the place where we perfected the art of making planes & boats. We used to finish lunch in the short break so that the lunch break can be for our favorite candies, popins, mango bite or sometimes for the games I just talked about, ate Lays for their Tazos, bought Complan instead of Boost for the free tennis ball.

The games classes was awaited more eagerly than any thing of utmost importance, we probably played every sport known in the world that too in the scorching heat & we never felt tired with that. Those were the days of fight with friends and making up, without any conspiracies…those were the days of competition…those were the days when we wanted to raise our hands before any of our classmates to answer the questions of our teachers. Celebrating birthday’s at school was another lovely experience where in we had the courtesy to wear any dress of our choice, giving out chocolates to everybody and getting their wishes in chorus made us felt like none less than any Oscar winning celeb.

The craze of being a part of the Sports or Annual Day & excelling & giving our best in them (as if we were the Michael Jackson & Sachin Tendulkar) makes me excited even today.

Half yearly & annual exam days were the only stressful days for us, I remember the long nights we spent in practicing & mugging up long chapters, trying to give our best even in the subjects we detest the most. Anxiety for results & umpteen ideas to defend ourselves in case of average performance in any subject was a part of it.

It’s in school that we made our first friend, had our first crush, competed to excel, ate lunch boxes during classes and learnt our first lessons about life. Can’t bunk classes now…gone are the days when we sat to chat with friends on stairs for hours..!!

 

Will cherish the School Days Memories Forever!! J

Kashi…Where time does rewind..!

Sitting at my workstation, it isn’t too difficult to close my eyes & hear the oar splashing into the river and coming out rhythmically…I want to go back and ride on the wind in the beautiful campus of BHU... I want to go back to the city where the 'shikhara' of the Sarnath temple is probably apparent from every roof there.

 I miss the lovely summer vacations and good time I spent in the beautiful city.

The holy city…Kashi…the city of religious & spiritual lifestyle where people are known for being the exponents of literature, music, philosophy, arts and craft. All you can experience there is life in multitude colors…Colors antiquated and utterly beautiful. The town is not only a heritage town by the virtue of its lifestyle, culture, language and food but I believe because of its beautiful people too..!

Mythology reins the city and you can easily find a glimpse of many religious beliefs from Buddha, Jain, Tirthankars to Vaishnavs which makes it the most lively city on the bank of Ganga Maiya..!

Kashi presents a cultural and linguistic pluralism, one gets to explore the city of intellectuals, personalities, professions and communal harmony. Gamcha, thandai, akharas, kushti and banarasi paan are still an integral part of the cultural identity. Music, drama and entertainment have found a place in the lives of the people and is quite synonymous to the city and of course the rich stock of folk music will keep winning hearts forever…

One of the best experiences for me was to be a part of the Ganga Aarti at dasaswamedh ghat, everything from the swinging lamps to the tunes of chanting brings in a lot of mental peace and energy as if the holy water of ganga has taken off away all the negativity in me and I felt so close to the Divine power. Celebrating festival there was also another wonderful experience for me and during all these years of my stay at Delhi I realized that people in metro cities have lost the spirit of celebrating festivals, I guess the essence of it is lost somewhere in the cacophony of busy and stressful life, I truly want to go back, enjoy and paint myself in that spirit, excitement and jest with which people welcome and celebrate festivals. I also remember there were more than one occasions when I was just not able to answer questions asked in ‘Khadi Boli’ as I was mesmerized by the sheer sound of Parichay, Swaccha, Pavitra, Sandhya(these are the simpler ones) and many more difficult words.

Food there was more than a heavenly experience from paapri- chaat which plays with the taste buds with its tangy and spicy flavor of ginger & tamarind chutney and the cooling dahi, I also had the pleasure of munching on the best of samosas, kachoris and the perfect milk dessert. Varanasi probably was the only lovely place for me as a kiddo (specifically in summers) because of the morning walks at sprawling BHU campus which was fortunately very-very close to our place, the variety of mangos, mishramboo and the evening fun with my cousins. 

The potpourri of happiness does not seems to have an end there and I just can not afford to wrap up with out talking about another exciting aspect...Yes...shopping and the hot spots from Chowk, Vishwanath Gali, Godoulia(I suspect the best market), Dashswamedha Gali to Gyan Vapi where exploring out the options of Banarasi Saree(an indespensable part of every brides trousseau), royal work heavy sarees, world's famous gold and silver brocades, heavy design gold jewellery are quite charming...! 

This one is dedicated to all my VNS friends. J

Nation Again…st Corruption

Corruption has become synonymous with the Indian economy in recent times. It is thus, not surprising, that the people have had enough. Corruption is one of the biggest hurdles in India's growth. Corruption hinders growth through its adverse effects on investment in physical capital, human capital, and political instability. In fact, a recent survey suggested that high levels of corruption in Asia could derail the Asian growth story. 

The Jan Lokpal Bill, which is supported by Mr. Anna Hazare is a much needed step towards a corruption free India. There are a few things that I really like about Mr. Hazare's version of the bill -an independent, single body capable of conducting end-to-end investigations; This stand when coupled with a speedy trial is one of the best defenses against corruption.

A strong Lokpal bill ensures that even when there is an opportunity and pressure to commit fraud. A rationalization will be difficult for a potential fraudster because of a speedy trial and a strict punishment. The government, as expected, opposes a strong Lokpal bill. Many people claim that government has taken such a stand to safe guard its own interests. Regardless of what the truth may be, I believe that we - the people of India -have shown to the government the true power that a democracy possesses - The right to fight for what we think is right. No doubt there will be trails in the next few days and month. But i believe that the movement has too much momentum now to stop and a strong Lokpal bill definitely see the light of day. 

If we were to suppose that government with its supreme power a strong opponent. It will be appropriate to assume that Anna Hazare led movement against corruption with unwinding nation-wide support is an equally strong contender. If you have stayed in Delhi for as long as most of us here in Delhi have, you will be surprised. Streets are full of people, with a candle in their hand and a hope in their heart. Hopes for a corruption free India.


I am all in support for a corruption free India and in awe of the great man, who has sacrificed so much to support a great cause - Mr. Anna Hazare.

Silly Thing called Luck..!

Show me a person who avoids hard work, and I’ll show you someone who hasn’t found their purpose yet.

Glad that I am back to scribble down after a long time, I was desperate to explore and talk about luck, is it just a self fulfilling prophecy or truly an essence to success.

There is an urge in all of us to insist that others are more fortunate than we are. When we face “bad times,” we often comfort ourselves with the idea that we are special in our level of misfortune. To rely on our understanding of luck – to believe that life is a kind of lottery – is just an attempt to escape reality. I believe it’s not a question of luck when we talk of success and failure, in fact when I think of icons like Sachin Tendulkar and Oprah Winfrey it’s their hard work and attitude which reflects on their success and not that silly word.

When you live life for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option it’s a necessity. If your life has no real purpose, then you can avoid working hard and it won’t matter because you’ve decided that your life itself doesn’t matter in anyways so who cares if you work hard or take the easy road? But if you’ve chosen a significant and worthy purpose for your life, it would require hard work to get there. If you avoid working hard, you simply avoid doing what it takes to success and believe me your desire to work and rise in life would melt all the adversities. The choice in life is always yours, whether you want to go with the flow of life and circumstances, act passively, let things happen to you and end up in a pretty screwed up situation, so start accepting and liking where the flow takes you. You would truly be an unlucky guy with mediocre results followed by a great deal of time and efforts spent on giving excuses and justifying results.

I would also say…Yes you are unlucky because you missed the opportunity, as you were too busy in looking for something else.

Yes you are unlucky because you see the rational side of any situation.

Yes you are unlucky because you can not take risks, love the routines and just want to be in the comfortable zone.

Step up and start driving your life, learn to associate the pleasure of success and tremendous growth you would gain with the discomforts you experience, it would become a lot easier for you to endure hardship required. You are the only one to use your abilities, it’s an awesome responsibility. J

I Dare - Kiran Bedi..!

For me a new phase of life has begun! One of perpetual gratitude and sharing of joy...!

Background:-

• Born in a simple joint family of Amritsar.

• Second of three sisters.

Achievements:-

• Masters in Political Science (Topper).

• Won the National and Asian title in Tennis.

• Joined Indian Police Service in 1972 (First woman in India to do so).

• Police Gallantry Award from the President of India.

• Ramon Magsaysay award for government service. (First time it was given to a police officer in Asia).

• Phd – IIT, Delhi – Drug Abuse and domestic violence.

• Two Honory Doctrates – India and New York.

• Un Medal in 2004.

• Mother Teresa Award for social justice 2005.

• FICCI Award 2005.

• One of the 1000 women worldwide nominee’s for Nobel Peace Prize.

Career:-

• Delhi Traffic Police, Ninth Asian Games.

• Special Traffic Police, Commonwealth Heads of Government meet.

• Narcotics control bureau.

• DIG, Mizoram.

• Inspector General Of Prisons, Tihar Jail.

• Special secretary to the Lt. governor of Delhi.

• Joint commissioner of Police (Training), Delhi.

• Civilian police adviser to the Secretary General, UN in the department of peace keeping operations.


Actions:-

Look for a good boss, who provides you empowerment so that you can grow.

Look for a supporting husband.

Do not let fear overtake you.

Do not get disillusioned and accept defeat:-

• Ministers kept on changing statements

• Being given hard postings

• No response from the ministry on next posting

• Misinterpretation of facts by media when bringing reforms at Tihar.

• Not being sent for foreign meetings and seminars.

• Not asked to participate in sports events after marriage, continued to play tennis even after joining the service.

Do not be afraid to take the first step:-

• Nav jyoti (Drug rehabilitation clinics)

• Funding for policing initiatives, Beat Box.

• Suggested the coordination and interaction of the police, judiciary and the prison to bring out transformation.

Keep focused on goal and do not get led by society and peer pressure.

Be willing to sacrifice present comfort (relaxation) for medium to long term gains:-

• Practice effective Time Management

• Tennis practice.

• Read! Read! Read!

• Document and file important correspondence.

Be willing to step out of the comfort zone.

Seek the best education possible:-

• Phd from IIT, Delhi.

Put in so much hard work and dedication to turn a dead end to a glorious opportunity to shine:-

• Posting at Tihar Jail.

Do not get emotional and remain task focused:-

• Get back with a vengeance- Tennis match

• Get own house straight before commenting on outside machinery (Chandigarh posting as head)

Once decided, be prepared to face the consequences:-

• Frequent postings.

• Being side lined.

Think out of the box:-

• Raksha bandhan celebrations at Tihar Jail to bring in reformation in the prisoners.

• Goa children waiving and managing the distance for the visiting dignitaries.

Fight the root cause:-

• Drug rehabilitation clinics

• Use of meditation (vipassana technique) as a tool to improve people condition and orientation to life (Ten days silence).

Display confidence at all points of time.

Understand people psychology:-

• Tihar reforms

• Shared lunches to send the message

Have a role model:-

• Sardar Patel (Architect of civil services).

Importance of leadership, to change even the worst of situations.

Courage to take tricky issues head on:-

• Suspension of staff.

• Promotion of staff (Driver).

• Corruption in tihar.

• Sacking of police officers.

• Mobile petition box.

• Isolating of hardened prisoners.

• Smoking ban.

Parents need to help children experience success (even small) from the very beginning.

Seek opportunities to get noticed and capitalize on it:-

• Indira Gandhi called Kiran for Morning breakfast after she saw her carrying the sword during the republic day celebrations in 1973 (First woman to do so)

• Gave Traffic instructions on TV in early years, without a single miss

• Thanked parents, superiors and counted her contributions to the UN and the challenges which it needs to address

Take utmost care of the image you project.

Have utmost care and concern for both parents, in laws, children and sisters. (Reciprocation Effect)

Achieve excellence by choosing a job where your passion lies.

Do not let people put you off course from your passion:-

• The selection committee advised her to choose another field as IPS was clearly a man’s domain.

Build trust and credibility by backing your team members to the hilt:-

• Towing of Indira Gandhi Car from Connaught place.

• Backing up the police officer who transported a lawyer.

Talk well about your family in public.

Make full use of resources available at your disposal:-

• School days.

• Look at innovative ways to save money for parents.

Parents need to make sure that girls get the message that being girls does not limit their prospects in any way. (From early childhood):-

• Parents stretched to provide the best education and sports opportunities to their daughters

• Parents provided there children with all the opportunity, which they could not get. (Sports and education)

• Parents need to encourage competitive sports, as this will in learning and coping with difficult situations. e.g. Tennis

• Sent children by train for interstate matches in those days

• Sharing of role models like Jawaharlal Nehru to Children at an early age.

Let children get exposed to the realities of the world:-

• Give freedom to children to take there own decisions (Starting early on in life)

• Change of school.


Do not be rigid at all times. You need to spend a few minutes, look at the macro picture and be diplomatic at times.

Single minded dedication to excel.

Be like a postage stamp stick to one thing until you get there.

Join competitive sports or get your children to join and learn from it:-

• The Importance of being mentally and physically strong.

• Importance of hard work and perseverance.

• How to use auto suggestion (think only of victory).

• How to divide time between work and play.

• Being able to exercise Self discipline.

• Fair play, team work, concentration, indefatigability, endurance, tenacity and most of all the ability to stretch out the extra bit under conditions of stress and exhaustion.

Parents need to play a major role in inculcating the right values in the children especially during the formative years.

Parents should make the best use of reading, education and sports to help children imbibe these values.

The focus of each individual should be on leaving a legacy.

Individuals should use meditation and internal audit to ensure that they do not stray from the moral code of conduct.

Give and share generously in order to make life more enjoyable.

Teach your children early on the importance of time management and how to do so.

Take full control of your time, else time will lathi charge on you.

Women:-

Women need to take the giving position instead of the receiving position, in order to fight injustice.

When making tough personal decisions as women, you need to view them as choices and not sacrifices.

If you do not make decisions, you become a part of the problem.

Leader needs to be tough enough to do things himself and also get things done.

That’s truly beyond greatness..! J

BPO’s: Crucifying Lifestyle, Discipline & Talents..!

They certainly came up with huge employment opportunities in India, India’s International market good-will raised just like the prices of shares at the time of Harshad Mehta’s scam, reduced gender disparity and above all, they have brought solid financial aid to our economy.

BPO’s are sprung all across the country and have brought various businesses to India. BPO Industry has certainly created a vital place for itself in the mainstream business dealings. The advent of BPO’s in Asian countries especially in India can be marked because of the easy pocket human resource which certainly brings in huge profit margins and the availability of the market.


But I think we have failed to understand the menace which has also increased to a great extent, whole lot of points strike when it comes to the pitfalls of the BPO Industry.

It is very upsetting for us that today’s youth unofficially in the age group of 18-26 are hired by the BPO’s, this is the age group, which is the backbone of any country, getting engaged in BPO’s who only value the communication skills (they are not bothered whether you are just a 10+2 pass out or some Postgraduate) and not the talent.  I think the problem is not only with the nature of the job but with the youth also, they have restricted themselves to the leisure of pick and drop facility, 24 by 7 lively environment, great incentives, exotic food courts and a couple of other options to nibble upon. I do not understand of what they produce, nothing….actually.  They just help a stupid foreigner who doesn’t even know what a Window is, what is an Icon and why did they shop a product; and simply waste their most valuable time over the phone, dealing with rude and rich guys.

I remember one such episode when one of my acquaintances was sharing how he got into the habit of smoking and I was quite astonished by the fact that, he started it when he was working with a leading BPO some time back and started feeling complex and wanted to match the standards of his colleagues who use to smoke and show off that he was not of their standards (that was probably a facade created by them).

It’s ruining them...making them unsocial, unimaginative and unconscious.

I truly believe that the country's prosperity can not be regulated while keeping all the threats like health hazards, IT crimes, accidents, undisciplined lifestyle of youth leading to mental and physical exhaustion, high risk behaviour of employees for money and many other social issues associated with BPO’s at bay.

I accept the fact that the role of BPO industry in India’s economic growth has been fantastic especially during the last few years but we also can not ignore and run away from the fact that we are actually down sizing the talent-pipeline of the country. The question remains pertinent not only for the policy makers and high authority intellectuals but also for the society.

We are slowly and gradually losing the entrepreneurial spirit and this is the right time to drive it again…! :)