BLEND OF SEASONED GYAAN ON WHEELS

4 minutes read🔽

It was a cloudy morning drive to my office and I had tuned to a motivational podcast to kill my driving boredom in City's honking congestion. The podcast was the speech of Tamil Motivational speaker 'Suki Sivam' who always delivers a perfect blend of thoughts for me/any listener to start a day. This post is just one day one way journey experience of mine to my workplace. Let me unwind more with a disclaimer of sincere attempt to ensure this read should be a worth investment of your time.

Interesting excerpt which I want to extract is about the definition of Life from his spectacles just like many other philosophers/scientists/spiritual leaders do in their own ways to sell their point of view. This one sounded genuine and generic to me.

What is Life buddy?

   -  Work as much as you can

   -  Love the people in your nest/distant from nest as much as you can everyday

   -  Try to be happy as much as you can and try to make others happy as much as you can

   -  Repeat this cycle every day and go to bed in the night until you do not wake up the next day!

 

Definitely I align with your conclusion after listening/reading the above conception; although the phrase might sound interesting to listen, the bucket of challenges would be showering in real life to execute or even to contemplate to follow. Absolutely! Agreed. That said, how this gyaan will really help or even make sense? Just lingering this phrase whenever we encounter a challenge or a negative disruption would ultimately weaken our demotivation factor and the consequent hyper/hypo tension sickness relatively better than the options prescribed by our seasoned physicians. This can also be consumed as a capsule any number of times a day with or without a sip of water.

I just want to drill further on the first statement in the above excerpt 'Work as much as you can'. Though the thought sounds very broad and tutorial, best protocol to achieve this is to incline to Stephen Covey's eighth habit 'Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs!'.  You should align your heart, mind, body and spirit to find your voice which is nothing but the inherent passion treasured in every one of you. Dig out the ONE THING which interests you, motivates you and never makes you to feel bored. That ONE THING is the 'Work' which we should do as much as we can as referred above. That's where we will mine excitement in the given gyaan.

Abdul Kalam also suggests to find that unique 'YOU FACTOR' in you and chalk out all your goals & objectives in Life towards that direction. That 'YOU FACTOR' is nothing but the 'Work' which you should do as much as you can. In fact, he goes a step ahead and stress on the fact that the entire world around you is trying very hard to ensure you don't attain the 'YOU FACTOR' and battle gets tougher every single day. 

Vivekanda iterates to discover 'ONE IDEA' in life, dream about it and live the Life for that idea. That 'IDEA' is the 'WORK' which we should do as much as we can.

Another scintillating thought which Suki Sivam sprinkles with a Psychological blend -

The intensity of happiness you perceive when all your wishes come true in life is equivalent to the intensity when you just assume/believe that you already have all your wishes accomplished in life. Because, your assumption (or hope) will give you the confidence as well as the frequency to get your wishes in place sooner or later. So, no point in worrying about the unmet expectations in Life.

Suggest to read it thrice to incur the above concept as I had rewound the pod five times while listening. This is the central thought on which the popular 'Secret' book is built upon.

Plenty of such proven preachers' thoughts torch upon the fundamental idea of finding our USP and cementing that with our every single contribution on every single day towards it. Indeed a tougher iteration to discover the 'You Factor' will be an exciting journey if we happen to love it!

Alright, it was time to turn off my Engine and park my car. Yep, I had arrived and heading to my desk to start my day.  Trust I haven't bored with this blend while you read. Stay tuned for the next blend if you believe the above disclaimer was not over quoted :-)

Rise of the Jokers - II

Preamble : This is a Sequel post. To read the prequel, jump here! 

The assumption of strong thorny wall between democracy and dictatorship is becoming theoretical on witnessing the empirical consequences of political scenes happening across the states of this populist country. 'Democracy' is unfortunately a single edged sword wherein the handle always ends up in the wrong hands.

What is Democracy and how it is coined today? - 'Democracy' means 'Rule by the people' derived from a Greek word 'demokratia'; 'demos' - people, 'kratos' - rules. This principle was first established in Athens 510 B.C. which had undergone a significant evolution over different medieval times  and has been followed across various geographies of the global administration.  Later on, 'by the people' and 'for the people' phrases also appended to its lexicon and claimed as universally accepted norm of the political ecosystem. 

India is popularly claimed as a Socialistic democratic country. (Are we really socialistic? - This needs a deeper scrutiny of thoughts which cannot be justified in this post.) Let us stick to the core lexicon understanding 'Rule by the people' which directly signifies to the process that people select the nominated members to hold the power. This has become more of an old school myth! By any chance, do you rethink to agree?

Now, let us close the theory book and tune back to the reality. Are the people convinced with what had happened last month in Bihar and what has been happening every single day (may be until I write this post) in Tamil Nadu ?

A Chief Minister suddenly resigns pointing the corruption of his ally and following day forms the Government by shaking hands (without a glove) with Opposition. Going with the rulebook of democracy, the vote number who have elected the opposition party members (BJP MLAs) could definitely never wanted Mr.Kumar to be their Chief Minister. But, the collective decision of the elected two peer parties (who had preached different agenda during campaigns) has ruled out the absolute opinion of the people who elected them. Now, the very purpose of 'the people's rule' has undergone a surgical strike. Does it sound fundamentally abysmal? (If it doesn't, you aren't resistant to Prime time Newshour debates of Indian NEWS media). 

A Chief Minister who had been a democratically accepted dictator was lying dead all of a sudden (under controversial circumstances) and the ownership transferred to a bunch of loyalists turned idiots. After her death, all the idiots suddenly gain extreme intelligence to conflict with each other to retain the Godfather tenure but fail to realize that the Government is paralyzed so as its people.  The powerful people who are supposedly the backbone of democracy could able to only witness this political thriller with lump of heartburn and toned aversion (did I miss pop corn?). Again, does the rulebook justifiable here by any case? 

Incidentally, people of such democracies are no lesser than Jews of Holocaust. Yet, the constitution is strong enough to entertain the rise of the jokers. Hail Democracy! Hold on! Who are jokers here? Those who are elected or who elect them? Over to you!

Rise of the Jokers!

A common man's reliability on the statistical reports released by different Governing bodies on their expected milestones significantly goes for a toss after experiencing a relatively unknown Tamil flick 'Joker' last night (Disclaimer - I coin the word 'watching' for efforts burning movies and 'experiencing' for heart burning movies). 

The movie spins around an ambition of a typical rural woman, Mallika (the one with a Indian traditional rural attire you can imagine in 'Heritage India', 'Swach Bharat Abhiyaan', 'Digital India', 'Freebies' or any other state or central Govt rural upliftment driven Ads in TVC), who marries the President of India. Her ambition is not to graduate from school/college, not to get a job, not to buy a house or a vehicle, not to fight for Women rights, not to voice against Casteism, not to cry for farmers' drought, not to kill her poverty. But, to defecate in private which she hadn't even done once in her life until her last breath. My artery pumps badly when I contemplate that such a woman still exists in the same country along with me where we have a milestone of getting transformed digitally in the next couple of years. 

Interesting part is that her village is having more than a ton Toilets (including her home) according to the Government report and in fact, it tops in the Defecation free villages list. The reality boils down only to the provision of a mere defecating basin to the people of the village with a mock toilet which survived for 10 minutes until everybody in the village could deliver a smiley pose in front of it. The art of photography was considered for the report generation and the approval of funds allocation to construct Toilets for every house in the village but the reality is utterly different. Now, this village proudly belongs to 48% of declared Open-Defecation Free villages according to this report and we are expected to celebrate for it.

Those who haven't experienced this movie would be carrying a muddiness when I had mentioned above in the storyline that Mallika had married the President. To clear it off, the President is the protagonist of the movie (named Mannar Mannan) who is just a common rural poor labor worker with his muddy house furnished with the freebies given by the stakeholder of State Government. He undergoes mental tremors when Mallika's brain is alleged as dead by the doctors after a severe treatment in ICU for a couple of days. She was hit badly by the concrete blocks on her head of an half built toilet in her home on a rainy night while she was executing her ambition of defecating in private for the first time in life. 

That toilet was half-built as their home was initially picked as the media spot by the local authorities and then discarded due to coverage issues for a ceremony (for Clean India) being visited by the President of India. She enters into a brain death with so many health complexities along with a loss of her 8 months carrying baby. This incident storms Mannar Mannan abysmally and he takes a new avatar. He starts assuming himself as the President of the country and starts criticizing all the flaws/issues in the System with strong public impacts against Government officials with a team of a old man, a young widow girl and an interning lawyer who carry similar line of thoughts. In the first half of the movie, the acts of these people make us to assume them as a gang of Jokers but in the second half, they pierce our conscious with rusted swords by tagging us as Real Jokers as we are leading a carefree life by witnessing all the political & bureaucratic atrocities and assuming them as the normality. Each and every dialogue in the movie carries an intense meaning of our system failure and our lethargic reluctance to agitate. Irrespective of having stamina or guts, agitation against system failure should become an integral part  of our attitude is a takeaway I can think of. 

Revolutions happen when these jokers turn kings and queens in a pack of societal cards. Irrespective of the reasoning behind the purpose, I see the mass revolution in Chennai in support of Jallikattu also a similar transition of attitude of the people where system has failed to satisfy their expectation. All the hearts on the roads carry a series of mental outages against corruption, adulteration, inflation, poverty, political catastrophe, poor policy making, inclined judiciary and similar plenty of anti-public  activities which tamper their personal sentiment towards the elected & selected representatives of the most powerful system of the nation. Jallikattu agitation is a mere blanket for this accidental mass gathering to cover up their oppression which they are not seriously worried of. Most of the instances in history boils down to the same context of failure when it overcomes the reluctance of the victims. In real world, stones turn to flesh based on the headcounts which undergo this attitude change and hence, the revolution happens and hence, the change begins. 

During my college days, I had a professor who used to lecture Economics and Politics based on Laissez-faire philosophy. Most of his thoughts are against giving too much of control to the Government and buying shackles to our own hands. I was assuming his thoughts as a way of extremism as my grey cells were forced to religiously accept the established system without reluctance from my primary schooling. Thanks to his eye opening lectures, I could able to interpret the delicacies in the existing system and started feeling that its my right to voice against the flawed forces. The storyline of this movie also flirting with the same phenomenon. When you aren't given power, don't ask for it but grab it. I am unsure whether this movie will bag any awards to recognize its societal value and the correlated delivery of a deeper theme although it is packaged way better than Dangals, Swaseshs, Sultans and Kabalis of the world.

 When I had gone for a loo in my wash room after the movie, I had personally experienced a mental trauma as half of my countrymen cannot afford this. I have been thinking that 'Education' is the core gap in our country which should be watered enough to bring up a responsible generation ahead. Now, I am forced to rethink that national sanity to be addressed even before flipping the pages on education. 

Returning back to the subject of this post of genuineness in the reporting of the public bodies, these instances make us to reconsider on all stats shared by the respective Governing bodies on Literacy, Women rights, Rapes, Child Labor, droughts & farmer suicide, Electricity and many more on a stronger benefit of doubt. I understand the complexity of deriving numbers for different metrics on this humongous country which can be compensated with a restriction to Type 1 or Type 2 errors. But the sample itself phenomenally going wrong, stats being reported out of it, decisions being driven from them, policies being made on the basis and the people made to believe them as facts is a fundamental disaster. 

Although initiatives like Swachh Bharat, Digital India, Demonetization and many more from the elected Central/State constitutions are to be appreciated, instrumental execution of audit to be materialized for the realistic success of these goals. Before achieving a 'Swachh Bharat Mission', 'Swachh System Mission' is a basic prerequisite. Let us hope for the accomplishments of prerequisites before expecting the success stories.

Pathology of Gujarat Episode - Second Information Report!

I have just flipped the last page of the most controversial book of the year 'Gujarat Files' by Rana Ayyub. The complete cover story was captured miles behind the screen with utmost backing details for each incident starting from Gujarat 2002 riots to serial fake encouters. Kudos would definitely be an understatement for Rana for the level of investigation executed throughout the episode. 

I have been inspiring on looking at few journalists since years but with the recent noisy penetration of media, my opinion was losing its strength. This young brave lady has fueled it back by iterating that Journalism is not just a flag bearing ceremony but a mere way of life for those who truly exhibit. 

Let me share a brief on the storyline although the title tells by itself. This woman has uncovered the facts by evidently ruling out the myths behind the consistent fake encounters by Gujarat police since 2004-2007. The reports floated by her in Tehelka (she was then working as a Tehelka Journalist) had put few influential bureaucratic figures of Gujarat along with then Honourable Home Minister of Gujarat Amit Shah behind the bars giving rise to a CBI inquiry. Knowing the next steps of CBI towards the filed cases against these folks with a strong political backing would end up as storm in a broken tea cup, she had gone a step ahead in drilling more on all the cases by herself with an intensive investigation stint. 

She had mocked herself as a short lived US based NRI character Maithili with a strong hindutuva family back ground (for those who cannot make out from the name, Rana is a Muslim), claiming a short film movie director who wanted to unwind the Gujarat's development model and portray it to a global audience. It was a clever move at the right time as it was those days when Modi was projected as the strong PM candidate of BJP backed by world class development model of Gujarat with a bullet train in few FB posts. Maithili along with an UK native co-intern reporter Mike ( his contribution was just required for backing her new NRI movie director avatar) met all the icons involved in the uncovered story of Gujarat from the incidents of 2002 to 2012 and fooled all of them to gather the details for her SIR (Second Information Report) in an usual Tehelka way by carrying tiny audio mikes and cameras. The victim list of Maithili for this undercover story include all the IPS, IAS officials involved in the controversies with ongoing inquiries, linked politicians and finally even, then Honorable CM of Gujarat and today's PM of India Narendra Damodardas Modi. All the conversations with required details are highlighted in the book including the controversial meeting held in Gujarat CM's office on Feb 27th 2002 which was the most crucial event which was a driving force of the emergence of a strong national political leader of today "Modi". 

                   

Throughout the stint, she was continuously keeping her life at risk as even a small caveat in Maithili's play could have marked her last breath on the same day considering the background of the interviewees. She had cautiously done the homework and the master plan was carefully executed with minute escapes at times. Overall, it was a successful investigation exercise.  Although the story behind the most powerful political duo of India (NaMO & Shah) is known to many, this undercover story would give a good try to convince those who hesitate to accept. 

To me, there will be tons of similar stories behind the emergence of every strong political personality. So, it didn't make big difference and it is one of its kind. Yet, I was impressed by the author's storytelling and the dedicated investigative journalism to the level of keeping her life at stake. The overwhelming thing of the entire cover story was when she had decided to quit Tehelka as the management had refused to publish her complete story in the magazine fearing the symptoms of the folks involved were likely to move to Delhi from Gandhinagar in early 2014. The consequence was the birth of 'Gujarat Files'! 

Rana Sherlock is born in India!