What Happens When Your Enthusiasm Overtakes Your Wisdom?

It is very important for human beings to be balanced in mind. Mind balance is what is called maturity of mind. Some may call it a sane mind. Only a human being with a sane mind can have wisdom or the capacity to listen to the feeble life guidance that originate from a source that transcends the inbuilt intelligence of the brain.

It is not necessary for me to ascertain the fact that an imbalanced mind akin to insanity. And insanity takes away the human qualities in various ways. While insanity is mostly a curable brain disorder in these days, various forms of insanity are non distinguishable often. That makes it impossible for a good majority of people to seek ways and means to rectify the mind disorder they might possess in some degree or the other!

In this article, I wish to discuss about some subtle forms of mind imbalances that many of the modern day individuals or groups of people may have in varying degrees that are not usually distinguished or recognized as insanity always.

The fundamental principle of to judge any imbalance is deviation from the normal. Mind is no exception to this rule. Applying this logic, we may safely conclude that any thing in excess from normal is a kind of insanity.

A good human being should have compassion to fellow beings and other life forms.But when this compassion becomes irrationally imbalanced it becomes insanity causing loss of wisdom.

Imagine the case of such an irrational human being. The good trait of compassion in this human being could be too much in this individual making him or her soon becoming filled with too much enthusiasm to safeguard other life forms. This over enthusiasm soon envelopes the mind of this individual to such an extent that he or she would soon transforms to become a fanatic ideologist in the guise of a life protector. He or she may become a fanatic environmentalist who cannot withstand the idea of any kind of a damage to a green plant or a tree for any purpose whatsoever!

Another version of such a fanatic life protector may assume the guise of an animal protector that he or she would make the lives of fellow human beings a misery by making a hue and cry about some other sane fellow beings killing some street dogs that have become a danger to the society or some other human beings slaughtering animals for eating their meat or for other purposes. 

Their compassion to other life forms soon turn to a kind of sadism that they take insane pleasure in troubling other human beings who do not agree their line of thoughts. When their insanity goes to higher levels, these fellows would not even mind the destruction of other human beings who are not agreeing to them, simply forgetting their original compassion to life fully! 

Some other kinds become obsessed with their spirituality or religion fully forgetting the fundamental that their spiritual or religious teachings do not really encourage them to be with animosity to other human beings. Teaching god's love, they become insane proponents of evil! They make war cries to kill other innocent human beings who do not agree with their view points of spirituality or religion. They call those of the kinds that not like them as satanic and venture out to destroy all those for and on behalf of god, fully forgetting that it is the satanic mind in them that makes them to behave ungodly. Here too the problem essentially lies with the subtle insanity that they have! They do not realize that it is their insane mind in them that is causing wisdom to vanish from them!

Then there is another kind of insane fellows. These are the types who instigate insanity among their fellow beings and find sadistic pleasure when such others become more and more insane to cause troubles in the society.

Yet another kind of insane fellows keep praying to their gods instead of doing anything to stop insanity among their fellow beings keep rising. They keep thinking that it is the gods who play with the minds of people. A person known to me recently told me that God is really a sadist who keep turning the people against each other and enjoying them fighting and killing each other! I failed to convince him that it is not God, but we ourselves are the problem creators because of our imperfections and our varying types and degrees of insanity!

Subtle insanity is very difficult to detect and treat. Wise counselling by more balanced individuals could be beneficial to bring an individual to normalcy when the kind of feeble mind imbalance on any count is at its nascent state of development. But when more and more of the modern humans are victims of some forms of subtle insanity and when modern humans are abandoning their habits of talking to each other, the number of persons with imbalanced minds are on the rise!

Wise men from the old had theorized that the idle minds are devil's workshop. In reality when humans have lesser challenges to live, their minds become more and more idle. For many, this period poses another great challenge in life. Material comforts are no more the challenge and they fail to transcend their minds beyond materialism. Human beings are expected to use their minds for seeking advanced truths of life when material challenges are overcome. Unfortunately, a good majority of humans fail to do so. They try to get themselves immersed in materialistic thoughts even after material life challenges are no more any real challenges to them. In that process, they slip back to thought processes of degradation that causes subtle insanity to set in. Without they ever realizing, their minds have become the devil's workshops! 

I do not know if the real devil is actually playing any role in this or not. There are some possibilities for that for some people. But on the whole, it is the individuals themselves who are responsible for this degradation of mind.

To come out of it, it is essential for humans to know the purpose of their lives. Yes, I am talking about the purpose of human life and not about the purpose of life in plants and animals. While there is some purpose in the latter, the purpose of life in humans is much more important. To learn about that, subtle insanity has to be taken out from the mind first. And that is possible only when the individual concerned recognizes his or her immaturity of mind in order to set it right!

Two Plus Two Need Not Be Four For Everyone Now!

Long ago, when I began my professional career as an engineer in a large iron and steel company, I was posted as the engineer in charge of a water utility plant of the steel plant's captive thermal power plant.

When I joined, the plant facility was a new one under erection expected, to be commissioned for production in a few months time.

As a fresh chemical engineering post graduate from a premier engineering university of India, my knowledge in the practice of engineering was practically zero. While being engineering students in the graduation and post graduation levels, we were exposed to several units of study materials from which we acquired bits and pieces of information and knowledge in varying degrees. Our lecturers and professors were mostly good in making us exposed to some aspects of the information already available in the form of internationally accepted text books. They also made us undertake various practicals in well defined pedagogy. The authorized university authorities under the authority given to them by the statutes, tested us as per their procedures and awarded us the degree certificates which essentially provided us the license to get employed as engineers.

But each one of us understood engineering in a different manner. It was not a simple 'two plus two equals four' for us. Each one of us would be going to realize engineering differently in our later years!

Unfortunately or fortunately, those like us who started their profession as working engineers also realized the content of engineering differently in accordance with the work culture and work requirements of their own working areas. In other words, every one understood two plus two of engineering differently! Perhaps in the later years some of our kind added our own concepts and ideas and contributed to the creation of several pieces of non material creations on the face our earth. But we could never agree to any thing that we created as perfect or defect free!

Extending that analysis further down, I would be able to prove some thing which many of my readers might not agree. In my humble opinion, such a thing happens because of our imperfection of mind development.

We keep arguing over our discoveries, theories, inventions and ideas. We argue, because we cannot possibly agree on anything as perfectly alright. 

Let me now come back to the story of my initial days of work as the plant operation and maintenance engineer-in-charge. 

I found that there were several imperfections and defects in the plant which was planned by a reputed engineering consultancy group and executed by a reputed EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracting company. Those imperfections existed in my view point. Had those imperfections were not there, the plant would have been easier for my group to operate and maintain. That was what I thought. Those imperfections were going to have much headache to me in the future. I remember my struggles with the consultants and the EPC contractors to rectify the issues which were defects in my view point. I could only succeed partially.

Some years later, my role changed. From the role of a plant operation and maintenance in-charge, I was made as a plant design engineer in our company's in house project engineering consultancy group. By chance, I got an opportunity to independently plan another new water utility plant for another purpose in the steel plant. 

I took all the pains to plan one of the best possible plant design which did not cause any of the problems that I faced. The plant was erected and commissioned smoothly and was handed over to a different group of plant operation and maintenance engineers. I was expecting the new custodians of the plant giving me the praise for giving them such a wonderfully designed plant.

I was wrong. The new custodian engineers of this plant expected the plant to be in a different way than what I thought. There was no logic in what they were demanding according to my thoughts. Obviously, when I honestly considered two plus two as four in this case, my counterparts on the other side were not agreeing! 

All of us find these kinds of conflicts every where in our day to day life. 

We find it in hour families. The wife may not agree with the husband's idea or vice versa. When ideas and opinions do not match, it becomes a potential source for conflicts and might develop in to full scale aggravations. 

Adolescents and youths would seldom agree with their parents' ideas because of the wide difference in the maturity levels that exist between them.

In an evolutionary world of progress like that of our earth, each and every person exist with varying degrees of perfection levels. All are imperfect with regard to knowledge, experience, wisdom and maturity. We can say that all exist under varying degrees of perfection or imperfection.

God is the only one who is eternally and infinitely perfect.  God cannot personally know imperfection as His own experience. Experiencing the outcomes of imperfection is left to us!

In a way, we are better than God in this context, because we have the experience of imperfection while God does not have it directly. God has to gain the experience of imperfection from us.

In fact, God shares the consciousness of all the experience of imperfectness of all the struggling men and women of not only earth, but also of all the evolutionary worlds of the universe. 

God desires that all those imperfect evolutionary beings like us gradually mature to attain perfection through life experiences and become true sons and daughters of God who are fully willing to live according to the will of God.

Learning by experimentation and experience is better than learning by other means. We learn the comparative desirability of beauty when we are able to recognize ugliness. We understand the desirability of good when evil also is experienced.

God actually participates and is in touch with all human beings in their struggle of attaining perfection through their life experiences under situations of imperfections. We may not be aware of His presence within us.

Human limitations which are the causes of potential evil should not be construed as part of the divine nature God.

Evil is a potential outcome of the imperfections of free-willed beings like we humans. God does not cause evil nor He likes evil. 

Because of our misunderstandings arising out of our present imperfections, there is a possibility that we may attribute good and evil both as a result of God's will. 

If I say that is not the case, all of us are not going to agree anyway.

Because, there are many among us for whom two plus two is not four, yet. Till every one attains the peak practical level of knowledge and maturity, our problems of our own make, arising out of our misunderstandings will remain. And we keep on experiencing the contrasts of good and evil to conclude the desirability of good over evil, perhaps at some distant future! 

The Relationship Between Your Zodiac and Your Personality Traits: Knowing These Could be Beneficial!

It took me decades to understand the possible reasons why I am quite different from the majority people around me, whether they are in my own family, classmates, professional colleagues,bosses, subordinates, friends or mere acquaintances. 

Right from my childhood, I used to wonder why people around me did not often agree to my ideas! 

I have been always with a vague feeling that many people around me are not so comfortable with me, even when there are no logical or explainable reasons for such a thing. 

At the same time, I have also found some people, though a very small number, are very fond of being around me always.

When my logic analyzes something as true, I have found the majority others finding it the other way.

My ideas and attitudes, I found as not in synchronicity with many others. 

I had been wondering all throughout my life about this phenomena. I have been an odd-man in this world full of people who are fully absorbed in things that are not so interesting to me. There are very few people around who are at least having some interests in those things which I am interested with. Indeed, I was an odd child, an odd youth, an odd adult and now an odd old man!

I have been wondering about this for decades. When many others are able to find many companions and friends who are comfortable among themselves, why the hell I am finding difficulty to find others who have similar thoughts as mine?

I had no idea. I had no teachers to teach me about the intricate details of life and the manner in which the secrets of life are woven up.

There was no other choice than to become a lonely explorer of truths my self. I could not discuss these with any one because there have been none who possibly had any interest in these issues which kept my mind in an unexplained melancholy always, while outwardly I looked normal and happy.

Then began my search for the meanings and purpose of life. I was not a man of spirituality or religion. Though I believed in God, my incomplete rational thoughts always used to convince me otherwise. I was rather confused. I had written about the beginning of my search for mystical realities , an year ago.

Soon I have found two things that perhaps made me different from others. 

The first possible difference was my blood group. My blood group, AB- was perhaps the rarest in this world.  While I am Rh negative, 99% of the people around me have been Rh positive! Is it a possible reason for the problems that I mentioned above?

Later I tried to study this and got much insights. I had written about my Rh negative blood group and the alienating situations that I have faced in life, earlier. 

Secondly, I found that I my zodiac sign is Sagittarius. My inexperienced but rational mind could not accept astrology and the effects of some stars and planets on human life. But later day experiences polished my rationality to practicality. I began to observe some astonishing similarities in the personality characteristics of some people which led me to read more about astrology and the zodiac. Reading some best selling books authored by Linda Goodman enhanced my interest in this topic.

While I read the personality characteristics that various authors have described about my own zodiac-Sagittarius- I wondered how some intelligent humans in the present and the past have mastered the subject. Many things written about my sun sign have been characteristically true. I got chances to study those around me whose date of births I have known. Due to certain characteristic personality traits within even those under Sagittarius, such as myself,  some astrology masters in recent times have proposed another zodiac sign now known as the Ophiuchus which many now accept as the 13th zodiac with characteristic personality attributes!

The truthfulness of the personality traits among people of the same zodiac has been observed as more or less similar to what the scientists consider for proving their scientific postulates by experimental observations! 

So I felt it logical to consider astrology as a science when it is all about grouping people with regard to their personality traits and some of their intricate relations with birth, death and diseases. Some research organizations trying to solve this mystery of astrology scientifically have been observing this to be more true than false! However, there are other studies which prove astrology not-so-scientific but pseudo.

Then came the truths of the fifth epochal revelation to my notice and I became a curious student of it. I learned about the evolution of human race on earth from it. It was logical and the ideas of natural evolution as proposed by Darwin got fine tuned by more added information introducing the concept of controlled evolution and divine over control on life. 

I had earlier wrote some aspects of human evolution and the colored races for the benefit of my readers, as I learnt it from this book of life guidance. 

But this revealed book of knowledge denounced astrology as a pseudo-science. But on closer examination I found that the book did not contradict all the concepts and beliefs of astrology, but has only fine tuned it by removing certain unfounded beliefs. The book was specifically denouncing superstitious beliefs of human beings which are essentially not correct either scientifically or spiritually!

The book revealed the relationship between a person's birth date and birth place and the future development of his or her personality with respect to them. In some earlier blogs in this site, I had written about it in some detail.

It became clear to me that a person's time of birth and and place of birth have some role in determining his or her unique positioning coordinates with regard to some universal gravity lines. This unique positioning during birth is so  unique that certain genetic changes get frozen or imprinted uniquely in the brain cells or genes of the person together with the biological characteristics that are inherited. Together these make up the person's frame work of personality. 

This frame work also determines to some great extent the quantum of life energy that the person gains which in turn determines the person's natural life span. The person's personality framework with regard to body and mind is thus founded during birth. It gets augmented during growth of the person to adulthood by learning, experience and by self creativity. Properly developed human mind is also a receptor of divine or spiritual communications. That is the way the Universal Creator has made up his universal laws for human personality development and progress, both individually and collectively.

Since every person's birth time and place of birth is almost unique, every person is unique. The uniqueness of a human being is imprinted both in body and mind. There are so many secret codes divinely inbuilt in our bodies and minds. Some we are able to discover with our own intelligence and some others we can not.

There are a number of universe energy lines that cause and fix the personality mechanisms of the brain. But there are also broad similarities and groupings. Thus the western astrologers have characterized human personality under twelve zodiacs while the Indian and the eastern astrologers made further subdivisions to make the grouping at about twenty four. Genetically we have almost double that grouping!

It is not my intention to go in to the depths of such human knowledge. Our personalities evolve based on a number of factors. Some are biological and hereditary while some get fixed at the time of birth. Additional aspects of personality refinement and development takes place when we grow. Our family, culture, environment, education, profession, etc all cause our inherent personality to further develop and refine.

The most important aspect of human life is our ability to judge good or bad by ourselves. We have also the reasoning power, the creative power and the self determination power. We can over come our negative traits if we so desire.

But most of us are reluctant to know and learn about ourselves. A good majority of us are lazy to learn and improve. 

Many of us are reluctant to satisfy our inherent curiosities for advanced knowledge. Most of us do nothing to change or know what nature or attitude of ours need to be consciously changed so that we live in harmony with others who are not in agreement with us. 

It is important to realize this. We react to various stimuli differently depending upon various aspects of our personality maturity at a given time. Our inherent personality frame work gets augmented and influenced by our environment, society, family, friendships, education, experience, training and vocation. 

We can have natural reaction to a stimulus and we can also have controlled or adjusted reaction to a stimulus. The more we are inexperienced, the more would be our natural reaction. The more experienced and developed we are, the more we learn to react wisely. Our actions and reactions not only affect us, but also affect others!

When more and more of us become experienced to discharge our reactions in a wise manner, we become matured individuals. More and more of such matured individuals tend to make up a matured society. A matured society would have less and less human induced problems!

A matured individual and a matured society would be broadminded and accommodating. They are likely to be sympathetic to others.

They would know the foolishness of arguing over their wisdom and knowledge. They would know how to tackle immature fellows among them with minimal use of the sticks and arms. 

They would know how to take care of their younger generation to grow and develop in to a more mature future society.

So, what is it that prevents us now to become matured individuals?

Would you consider giving it a deep thought? 

The Proposed Aranmula Airport of Central Kerala: A Typical Test for Democracy in an Yet-to-Mature Society!

The place called Aranmula [ആറന്‍മുള  in Malayalam, the language of the Kerala people] is hardly four kilometers from my ancestral home in Elanthoor [ഇലന്തൂര്‍ ]. Both these places are peaceful places in the central Travancore region [മദ്ധ്യ തിരുവിതാംകൂര്‍] of Kerala State in south India. 

Aranmula has been well known  for mainly three things. 

One is the Aranmula Metal Mirror called Aranmula kannadi [ആറന്‍മുള കണ്ണാടി] which is a polished metallic mirror made traditionally by some traditional artisan families of this place in some special alloy mix. This traditional knowledge got almost extinct some years ago, only to be revived again, thanks to the prominence of Kerala in the international tourism in the recent years.

Next is the Aranmula Boat Race or vallamkali [വള്ളംകളി] , a traditional water sport conducted in special wooden boats called chundanvallams [ചുണ്ടന്‍വള്ളം ] or snake boats. This is associated with a Hindu religious tradition of the Aranmula Parthasarathi temple [ആറന്‍മുള പാര്‍ഥസാരഥി ക്ഷേത്രം] which is the other thing that makes this place famous. The boat race takes place in the Pamba river [പമ്പാ  നദി ] during the days of Onam [ഓണം]  when the river has enough water. Now-a-days, due to a few hydro electric projects and dams, the river does not have much water during the season and the state government releases water for a few days to help the traditional boat race to be conducted without much difficulty.

But if you consider development and infrastructure in the modern viewpoints, Aranmula can hardly be seen as a developed place. None of the famous things that I  mentioned are visible for a common traveler who happens to pass through this place by road, the only major road through this place which connects the towns of  Kozhencherry [കൊഴെന്‍ചേരി] and Chengannoor [ചെങ്ങന്നൂര്‍] with the nearby district headquarter town, Pathanamthitta [പത്തനംതിട്ട]

All these places in the central travancore area have been traditionally famous for its religious harmony among its peoples who are mostly Hindus, Syrian Christians and Muslims. The Hindus are the major religious community with the Nair [നായര്‍] castes and the Ezhava [ഈഴവ] castes numbering the most. The upper caste Hindus, many of whom associated with the erstwhile travancore royal families have been the traditional land lords of this area. However, the Christians too have prospered much in recent decades and many from this community are very rich due to education and opportunities some of their peoples tried out in trade, plantations and foreign employments. 

When neo rich communities emerge, it is quite natural for people to develop jealousies and suspicions against each other. Typical cases of such happenings that culminated in to tragic holocausts and human tragedies are fresh in the minds of at least a few among the world community even now. I am referring to the tragedies the Jews faced in Germany during world war -2, the upper class faced in Combodia , the Hindus and Muslims faced during India before and after partition, the Sikhs faced in India during the early Eighties, the Chinese faced during world war-II and similar other events, small and big.

Fortunately, Keralites of modern times are in general well mannered and educated and they would not resort to such inhuman acts, even while some of them keeping some jealousies and animosities deep in their minds. Those deep rooted jealousies and animosities could surface as peaceful or violent conflicts cleverly disguised as issues relating to environment, animal welfare, traditions, labor and the like, when issues of public interests are initiated to be resolved.

The general opposition of a majority of people of the local community to the proposed Aranmula International Airport project is to be understood against this background.

Ever since the Indian government moved away from socialism and embraced a mixed culture of halfhearted capitalism in the Nineties, what actually suffered a great deal in India is infrastructural development. Government almost stopped spending on infrastructure requiring major budgetary support such as airports, air transport, harbors, shipping, highways, road transport, postal service, education, telecom, etc all of which used to depend much on governmental support earlier. Instead, there was a major policy change wherein the government seemed to encourage private participation in these areas. Regrettably on account of various reasons, the Indian government could not install firmed up policies and laws which would be a win-win situation for all the stake holders in some generally acceptable manner maintaining reasonable transparency in its decisions, in this regard.

In Kerala, the Cochin International Airport Limited [CIAL] was one major successful project which got implemented specklessly during this time as a beautiful example of private-public participation with a determined and efficient leadership provided by a politically handpicked administrator belonging to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). In a similar manner another one of its kind in north kerala, named the Kannur International Airport Limited [KIAL] is being planned. The small, but highly developed state of Kerala, is perhaps the only state in India with three working international airports within a span of about 600 kilometers and yet another in the making. If the proposed KGS Aranmula International Airport Limited becomes operational, this state Kerala would have five international airports in the same distance. Indeed a remarkable achievement for any Indian state!

If the plans of the Indian government goes well, all the commercial airports in India would become privatized in the near future.

Now, coming back to the story of the Aranmula Airport. Aranmula, as I have stated, is only a quiet hamlet in Central Kerala. There is not much commercial activity visible. But Kerala is different from other parts of India in many ways. It is a full and evergreen state with a full coastal region , a full mountain region and a some plain lands. It has both wetlands and dry lands. It has the sea, rivers and the backwaters. It has the green and cold hill stations like the Munnar. What is perhaps not found in Kerala may be the snow and the desert sands! Big cities are a recent phenomena in Kerala. In reality, Kerala as a whole could be considered as a big urbanized land with all benefits of the farmlands. Population density, literacy and percapita real incomes in Kerala are the highest among the Indian states. Millions of Keralites work abroad and millions from other nations prefer to visit Kerala as it is now a very preferred international tourist hot spot.

Over the years, road traffic density in Kerala has increased many times. Due to this, it would take hours for any one to travel to the capital city Thiruvananthapuram [തിരുവനന്തപുരം] or Kochi [Cochin-കൊച്ചി] or Kozhikode [കോഴിക്കോട്‌] from any other place. Most affected in this respect is the people of the central Travancore areas. At least one member from a majority of the families of this region either work in the foreign lands or in other states of India. If they travel to their home state by air, they have to either depend the Kochi or the Trivandrum [Thiruvananthapuram]  Airports and then take the road route to reach their respective homes. A decade ago, they could reach home in just about 2 hours. But now it takes more than double that time. In the years to come, that would increase further, if the government does not act to enhance the transport facilities.

Thus, there is much commercial and infrastructural logic in having an airport in the central travancore area. The prospects of such a thing was visualized first by a businessman from the same area who happened to amass a great fortune by his decades of work in the United States of America. This gentleman knew that an airport would need a considerable stretch of land, a scarce thing to mobilize in the densely populated central travancore.

But without no one ever noticing much, there was a great piece of land belonging to many local people which many of us of that locality identified as Pannivelichira [പന്നിവേലി ചിറ ] a wet land earlier used for paddy cultivation , fish farming or perhaps even pig farming. Panniveli literally means pig enclosure in Malayalam. In my teenage days, I remember visiting this place and remember it as not used for any useful purpose by its owners for most of the time. The owners of the land considered it as a burden and were ever willing to sell their portions of land to any one who was willing to purchase their pieces of wet land that had become not so worthy now.

So, this gentleman slowly purchased this pieces of land and consolidated it in one single ownership. It was a few hundred acres. Perhaps, while purchasing this land, he had no idea of its future use.Anyway, no one found any thing objectionable for this person to become the owner of this land. In later years, he declared his intentions to construct a private airport in this land. He needed the clearances of the state and the central governments and accordingly moved the applications for this purpose. Remember, this is a case where a private citizen has decided to spend his money to create a treasured infrastructure in a place which was otherwise much inferior in developmental aspects.

But India is a land of differing interests. No one actually does anything unless there is some personal benefit. No one thinks of the overall benefits that can accrue to a nation or its people on the whole. What is the benefit if this man is going to spend money, make an airport, run it and amass more money for him and his descendants? For those in the central government, there is not much benefit if the small state of Kerala gets another airport.

So the files kept moving from department to department and I personally heard from reliable sources about the errands this gentleman made meeting the various VIPs to get the clearances for his pet project of a life time. Many times he became apparently successful when the governments, either in the state or in the center declared some kind of approval, only to be realized later that it was nothing final. In the initial period, there was not much opposition from the local people. But as the project got some favor from one political outfit, the others opposed it. Later, the political leaders got successful in initiating some of the locals too to their fold.

Frustrated, the gentleman realized about his folly and somehow escaped from his mission by handing over his land and project to someone more influential than him.

Now that group seems to have managed to gather the much required central government and state government supports and clearances. No, India is a divided state of opportunists now. It is not that easy to go ahead when the house is divided!

If anyone analyze the whole issue from a pure common sense approach, it would have been the local people who would have given the support to a project like this. If the project, that too an international airport, takes shape, the people in the immediate vicinity are going to be benefited.

There are other projects in India where people are opposing. But in those cases, it is the people who are going to lose land when the government tries to grab land in the name of acquisitions using the infamous land acquisition law.

But in Aranmula, it seems that the issues are quite different. The main opposition here is due to something very different. Let me quote the reasons as quoted from an online media:

"The local people and the Greens fear that the airport to be built on a 700 acre land at a cost of Rs20 billion will destroy paddy fields and upset the ecological balance. They also fear that it would destroy the ‘global heritage village status’ conferred on the town by the UNESCO." [ See the Report ] 

Yet another local group says that the airport would affect the tall flag mast of the Parthasarathi temple and conduct of the snake boat race. [See the report here!] 

But apparently these are not the real issues. It is not very difficult to see that the airport is not going to disturb the Pamba river or the boat race or even the temple in any manner. On the other hand, it would help more people to come to Aranmula and visit the temple and witness the boat race.About the issue of the airport damaging the paddy fields, it is true to some extent. There cannot be any cultivation where the air port facilities are built. But for that matter, the majority of the land had already been rendered un-cultivatable because much construction actions had proceeded in the land that had been privately acquired. As I have stated, paddy cultivation in many parts of Kerala are not being resorted to by the owners due to the high costs and non-availability of cheap labor. It was true for this land too. That is the common stand adopted by the leftist political parties when they are determined to oppose a project!

But Aranmula is an interesting case in this regard too. It was the leftist government that gave the green signal to the project earlier. Now while the central government ruled by the Congress led coalition (UPA) gives the go ahead clearance duly supported by the Congress CM and some of his cabinet colleagues, another strong group of peoples' representatives from the same party oppose it together with the those of the left parties!

The matter may not be very understandable by the unbiased onlooker. But it is easy to understand, if you look into the whole issue a bit closely.

The issue apparently lies with the ownership of the private project. The original business man who took up the project and the present chennai based business group, KGS, are both from the Christian community, with their ancestral roots in Central Travancore. How can the upper caste Hindus who were the masters of the olden culture and traditions easily accept such a thing? Community jealousies are not easy to be removed from the mind even when you say that you are much literate and educated! Owning a gold jewelry chain and owning an airport are two different things!

The Indian mind in general has not yet crossed the thresholds of communal feelings and biases. A good majority Indians belonging to the Hindu community cannot digest their country being headed by a Christian lady from a foreign land, even when she might be the widowed daughter-in-law of a famous non-Christian lady. They can be easily hoodwinked to believe that the name-sake Christians in power and politics here are the agents of the western nations, the west here is synonymous as the word, Christian. The communal jealousies are more among the people who are literate and well to do among the majority. The jealousies enhance further when they get opportunities to work in the western countries and compare the economic affluence and improved governance of the so-called-christian majority secular nations with the inferior conditions that are perceived in India- the land of ancient history and culture in the whole world. It is becoming a frustrating thing for them to find the actual reasons. It is a common trait of the inferior mind to put blames of their own failures on others. It is a typical attitude of many people. This is the same some management gurus teach while they try to make their students understand human behavior : It is called the 'I-am-okay-you-are-not-okay' syndrome! And this mindset in the majority is a fertile area for some clever leaders to sow and harvest good fortunes when democracy is experimented as the new system of governance. 

Remember, there is not much opposition for the proposed Kannur International Airport. But that is being managed directly by the government with perhaps some minority private equity participation. But in Aranmula, government is only a minority stake holder.

Caste and community feelings are dividing India and the Indian political groups and leaders know too well the benefits they accrue by keeping the people divided over such petty issues. Some of them are too happy to have smaller domains of ruler ship just as the local kings of the olden days. Such divisions can also ruin them and their future generations is what they blissfully forget!

Some seventy eighty years ago, Hitler brainwashed the common christian folks of his Germany to believe that the Jews of his country who were well educated, industrious and generally prosperous were the real cause of poverty and mismanagement of Germany. He was a fiery speaker and writer who could easily convince the general public to vote and support him to accomplish his mission of coming to power.

He managed it somehow. He became the Chancellor of Germany by a flimsy technical majority. Once in power, he used that power to eliminate first his individual enemies and opponents and later an entire community of  a few million Jews. As a person, he was from a decent christian family who got educated to become a christian priest. But politics and power made the man blind and evil! His personal immaturity, jealousies and envy played the rest to his ultimate peril. 

Such evil nature resides in all humans regardless of community, religion, culture or educational status. Give the right manure for the evil nature to grow, it will grow. Greed, jealousy etc are some of those manures for evil to grow. At the same time, some Godly nature also resides in man. Love, compassion, fellowship, honesty, service mentality, etc are the factors that make the Godly nature to grow in man.

But it is easy for evil to develop in mind as compared to the divine nature. Therefore, it is easy for some to make a whole group evil with some manipulation.

When divine nature predominates human mind, humans start developing true maturity. A society predominated with mature individuals accomplish progress, peace and happiness.

I am not for or against the Aranmula Airport project. In the city where I live now, there is an airport in the midst of the city. My home is in the line of the airport runway, just a kilometer away. The huge planes take off and land passing over my residence. There are people just a few meters away from the airport wall who cultivate paddy. We have not felt that it is causing some problems to us.

Development and growth is human nature. And that is connected to creativity. And creativity is divine.

I have been a professional connected with environmental issues for many years. But I am not an environmental activist as the so-called Greens of today. If developments cause environmental problems we have the creativity and the solutions. But blindly opposing everything in the name of environment is insanity.

There are some hardcore environmentalists now who do not even allow the tribal of Andamans to wear clothes! There are some others who do not allow people to drink mineral water or aerated water. They would make a hue and cry over Pepsi or Coca-Cola so long as these multinationals do not grease their palms! The polluted and infected river waters are too good, natural and refreshing than the treated water that these companies use in their bottles, at times! 

Great enthusiasm! Isn't it ?

But when a developmental project like this Aranmula airport is causing some heart burns on the majority community on whatever reasons, a democratic government in my opinion, should not proceed further. Honoring the majority is what democracy is. Development should not be at the cost of hurt feelings, even when such developments appear as quite logical or reasonable.

But how could you determine majority opinion in a democracy? It is a big task in an yet-to-mature society. 

Whatever be that, let not Aranmula cause  building the communal tensions in the Malayalee [മലയാളീ] minds for a potential future explosion, just as it had been happening elsewhere in this great nation for centuries, now and then!  

   

Some Self Test Questions to Check Your Maturity Status !

Now-a-days it is not difficult to find many tools to check one's intelligence quotient (IQ) and similar other personality traits. These are developed by those who study human psychology in a formal manner and do research on that topic.

Let me admit this thing first. I am not one with any formal training in psychology or human personality research. But I do have some ideas about those based on my self explorations and studies out of mere curiosity. That has been further augmented by my inquisitive reading and self study of the book about which I have written many times earlier.

All humans are alike in many features and are also dissimilar  in several other features. But each one of us have a unique personality that emerges out of our similarities and dissimilarities and perhaps many other qualities that are not normally comprehended. In other words, our personality is the reflective resultant of our inherent and acquired qualities.

Every human being, during his life time earns some experiential inputs which might add up to modify his or her  inherent personality. Similarly as humans progress in civilization, modifications and improvements do happen in the individuals of a generation. In general, every generation of human beings face an average improvement in overall personality. The overall personality of a human being is the sum total of his or her inherent physical, mental and spiritual abilities augmented by his or her experiences in these three fields.

The first thing needed in human development is the material development or biological development. Physical and mental abilities are included in this. The next part is the spiritual development which is essentially some thing which is connected with higher mind abilities. However, physiological or biological development  and spiritual developments do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. Biological maturity and spiritual maturity develop separately in us. While biological maturity gets almost gets fully completed, spiritual maturity may or may not be completed in a lifetime on earth!

But if we have to designate a person fully mature, both biological and spiritual maturity need to be considered together. So, by the word maturity, I mean both biological and spiritual aspects of human development taken together. Physical aspects again involves the development of the human body and normal intellect or brain function. Spiritual aspects involves the development of the super intellectual faculties that enable a person to comprehend certain truths that are not easily discerned by simple logic or reasoning.

While biological maturity is synonymous with body development and easily recognizable, that is not the case with spiritual development of the mind. Again, I would request my readers not to confuse with the words biological and spiritual. To make things a bit more clear, you may consider biological development as those involved with the physical growth of the body including that of the brain for making a person live and do his or her normal human activities of physical work, normal communication, courtship and intelligence for doing normal human activities. On the other hand, spiritual development is that which enable a person to comprehend extra ordinary truths such as philosophical truths and divine truths. These are truths which are not normally discernible by the ordinary faculties of physical mind and intellect.

For example, if I say that it is dark here, a biologically mature person might understand it as he or she perceives darkness from light or black from white. One whose intellect is more advanced might understand it in the manner which science has made him to understand as the presence or absence of certain wavelengths of visible light. But a person having spiritual development would be able to attribute more meanings to the same word which is difficult to understand by those who are only biologically mature. 

For living a good and a worthy life both material and spiritual capacities are required in some desirable degrees. A wonderful society would emerge when the individuals of the society are fully matured, both biologically and spiritually.

The problems of this world as we experience today are because of the fact that we humans are in varying degrees of maturity. As we are not all in the same level of maturity, it is difficult for one person to understand the other fully. As a result communication gaps do develop between individuals and among groups. These communication gaps generate conflicts which otherwise could have been avoided had all were matured fully.

It would be interesting to know about our maturity levels comprising of both biological and spiritual development aspects. 

Here are some questions that I have formulated to test your material and spiritual development status or in other words, your maturity status. It is a self test that any one can attempt by spending a few minutes.

Here is how you do it.

There are 25 statements given below. All statements are to be examined by you as per your knowledge and conviction.

If you find the statement agreeable to you, you give it  4 marks. If you are unable to decide it as true or false, or not agreeable give it 0 marks. Then total out your marks. There are twenty five statements and if you have agreed to all, then you would get 25x4 = 100 marks. If you do not agree with any of these, you would get 25x0=0 marks. If you agree with some and disagree with some, then you get your total marks some thing between 0 and 100. 

So here are the statements:

1.  I consider my self physically normal.
2.  I like learning and I can read, write and speak at least one language reasonably well.
3.  I have some special skills and talents because God loves me more than others.
4.  I do face problems in life, yet this life is interesting and there are many opportunities.
5.  If I get power and money, it is okay if I use those for my own benefits and pleasures.
6.  I do some work and earn money for a comfortable living.
7.  I earn enough money and I am capable of making more.
8.  There is no use for working hard and making money if I am not able to enjoy its privileges.
9.  It is better to get some jackpot than working to make money.
10. If some one hurts me, it would pain me, but I would prefer pardoning than taking revenge.
11. I enjoy rest, humor and games; but I don't like to spend time only in these.
12. If I can afford, I will spend my time enjoying rest, games, adventure and such other things.
13. I believe in God and I do think about God often.
14. I think that I am a child of God and all around me are also children of the same God.
15. God is the creator of all, so God should be like a loving father to me and others.
16. If there are bad people, it is my duty to destroy them.
17. Violence is no solution for controlling violence.
18. This world could be better if the rich people distribute their money to the poor.
19. This world would be better if people have good reasoning and understanding capabilities.
20. It is a good thing if I respect those who are elders.
21. Intelligent and clever people would be able to solve all the problems of this world.
22. I don't find any reason to believe in the existence of an invisible God. 
23. I find reasons to believe in God and a possibility of our life continuing even after death.
24. There is some truth in all religions; but none of them may be perfectly right. 
25. Spiritual development involves learning of some special rituals and practices. 

Now to find out your development score you have to do this.

First find out the total score by finding out the number of  statements in the above that are agreeable to you. Suppose that it is 20. That means you have scored a total of  20x4 + 5x0 = 80 Marks.

Then find out how many green statements that are agreeable to you and find the green score. Suppose that you are agreeing to 8 green statements. Then your green score is 8x4 = 32. The maximum green score possible is 10x4=40.

Once you have the green score, you need to have your blue score next. If your total score is 80 and green score is 32, your blue score is 80-32 = 48. The maximum blue score you can have is 100-40=60. You can have both 0 or negative blue scores.

Now with the above scores it is possible to interpret your maturity level. Remember again that maturity here means your comprehensive maturity comprising of both physical and spiritual maturity aspects.

To find out that I suggest you click the link below to open another blog. Go to the blog bottom end. There you will have the interpretations.

Maturity Score Interpretation !

How did you find this test ? Would you like to make your opinion known to others by making it public through the comment facility below ?

Indian Railways-Some Suggestions for Improvements from a Passenger !

Ever since I moved out of my home state Kerala some time in 1978, I have been a user of the long distance travel facility provided by the Indian Railways- the largest service facility directly run by the Government of India other than the defence services.

Though many monopolistic government run businesses and services  in the fields of air travel, telecommunication, courier services, mass communication, mining and manufacturing, etc got corporatized and privatized in the recent past, the railway system mostly remained directly in the hands of the government. Corporate entities like the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) etc  have been formed in the recent years by the Ministry of Railways which has allowed some functions to be carried out as corporate business. Even companies like the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro Rail doing the business of trail transport service in select sectors have come up as separate entities under the administrative control of the Railway Ministry, which shows the shift in the policy shift of the government in this context.

Beyond that, the government seems direction less with regard to the policy to be adopted with regard to this essential public service system. The result is that the railway system continues to be run as a government department with its inherent advantages and disadvantages. Again such directionless policies are bound to get evolved in a democratic country having a population of uneven development. So, there is no point in criticising the government and I am not doing that.

A user of the railways need not be worried about the ownership and the management control of this organization so far it continues to provide the services befitting to the time and the aspirations of the public.

If run efficiently like a business entity, the Indian railway system would perhaps be the largest business opportunity in India. The moot question is the big if.

How can you bring about quick business like decision making in a mammoth organization which is run on the basis rules and administrative systems essentially made for public accountability rather than public benefit and overall sustainability ?

As a user of the system for the last more than three decades, I can say this for sure. The railway system has become more and more centralized now. The railway officers in local areas seems powerless in resolving common problems of the passengers now, which was not the case some decades ago. Of course we need not be worried about how the railways do their management and administration, provided they do it well.

The Indian public uses the railways for both long distance travel involving monotonous sitting or sleeping having a time span of 3-60 hours and for short distance travel involving sitting or standing for time spans as short as10 Minutes to as long as 6 hours. The requirements of the passengers in the short distance and long distance cases are different.

For all travellers, what is most important is the comfort with respect of sitting, sleeping, cleanness, catering, safety, security, communication, smoothness, speed, booking convenience, costs and of course a comfortable cabin ambiance.

Indian railways are used by poor and rich people alike. There are thousands who can afford to pay reasonable costs for a comfortable travel. That is the great business opportunity for the Railways. 

The problem with the Indian Railways is that the decisions for starting rail services are more political than based on professional assessments. This results in uneven and unscientific distribution of the services which causes great losses to the organisation and discomfort to the public both at the same time.

One of the greatest weakness of the railway management system is its reluctance to use modern computerized ticket reservation systems which ensures highest occupancy of the available berths and seats. It is a common fact that no one can think of getting a reservation in any trains in most of the routes in a short span due to the inherent lacunae in the reservation system.

As a rail passenger I have come across many instances in my own personal experience when the railway reservation system showed non availability of berths and seats while the actual situation in the same train was with an occupancy rate of even less than 50% for more than 50% of the travel distance.

In reality most of the trains are running empty for most of the time in the year while thousands are waiting for reservations !

In this context, I remember a case of travel by a state road transport bus service in the state of Andhra Pradesh two decades ago, when computerisation was just in the initial stages. I went to reserve a ticket for a travel from Vijayawada to Ramagundam. The reservation clerk at the Vijayawada Bus Station showed me the seating system of the bus on his computer terminal with the seats that are available for my travel. I gave my choice and he issued me the reserved tickets for the travel by a particular state road transport bus later in the day.

I thought that bus would be starting from there. But to my surprise I saw the bus reaching the station from another town with lot of passengers. When the bus arrived, the seats reserved for me too were occupied and I was a bit worried. But to my relief, soon those passengers occupying my seats alighted there and I got the seats reserved for without any problem. Again the bus started from there with full occupancy !

All these years I was wondering, why our railways were not in a position to do such kind of a reservation system ?

To my simple logic it seems that they have just got satisfied with the computerization of the seat or berth quota system that used to be there before computerization ! If some one books a berth from Vijayawada to Ramagundam on a train in the route, then no one can perhaps reserve the berth or seat from Ramagundam to say Nagpur even when the seat would be physically vacant as the earlier passenger has alighted the train.

For those in the knowledge of computers, this is not at all a difficult thing to implement. Somehow, the railway mandarins seem not at all comfortable to implement such an easy modification which would benefit both the railways and the passengers.

If the huge extra earning potential of the Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTE) of the railways is the main concern, then of course no one can perhaps think of implementing such things. Rail users like me, are at a loss to understand the logic of the railway management in this !

Many trains with latest comforts are run between awkward stations and at awkward times that they mostly run as show pieces while thousands suffer incapable of using those trains. I do not want to name those trains. People know it. The only logic of running those trains seems ego satisfaction of some local politicians !

This was some random thoughts that just came into my mind on the day the railway budget of India was getting presented on the Lok Sabha by the Railway Minister belonging to one of the political parties of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

I haven't gone through the details of the budget which was presented and I do not want to do that. But something remarkable has just happened.

The Railway Minister's own party has disowned his budget. His party chief became so annoyed that the party has asked for his removal. The head of the coalition has to just fall in line, even when they all are in praise of the policies that are presented in the said budget by this minister.

It is no surprise ! That is the way this country is evolving !

You just cannot dream of having good management systems and governance in a country which is in its infancy state of development and initial stages of experimentation with democracy.
I know there could be thousands of learned and knowledgeable persons in this country of over a billion. But their views are minority voices.

Minority voices do not have the power to make changes, unless they occupy the 'trump-card' position by accidents of time !

So is the case with the Indian Railways.

There are thousand and one ways that this organization is moulded in to one of the best in the world.

There could be scores of good managers , administrators and professionals in the Indian railway organization who knows the ways and means of doing that.

But that is of no use in a democratically evolving set up like this for the time being.

To be a knowledgeable and competent person among a majority that has not reached that state of mind capacity indeed is a painful thing !

So why to give suggestions for improving the railways now ?

Should I reserve it for the opportunistic moment of the future, if at all it comes ?

Even so, let me write down some of those suggestions the railway authorities could keep in mind for implementing if they ever feel doing some thing for improving the great Indian railways :

1. Do some real surveys to find out those loss making train services and take actions not to put the best and brand new coaches for those services. Use the brand new coaches for the long distance trains only as a policy.

2. Lease out some railway space in all railway stations in major cities and towns where private players can set up decent traveller accommodations for genuine passengers who reserve their journey in advance for a comfortable stay for periods not exceeding one or two days. The rooms so provided shall be neat, clean and preferrably with air conditioning or fans and with clean toilets. Star rated luxuries are not what the passengers need, but reasonable neatness, comforts, safety and affordability. Their should be provisions for booking such accommodations in advance while the tickets are booked. Presently many stations have retiring rooms maintained directly by the railway employees. They keep the most ridiculous type of staff to look after these at present who have no manners or courtsey. More over in many crowded stations, such rooms are perennially not available for genuine passengers. If this facility is available, many long distant travellers could conveniently break their tiring train journey enroute to take a refreshing break in some other cities and towns and continue their journeys comfortably in other short distance trains. If the railway managers use their brains properly, they can very well do it in the most beneficial manner for both the railways and the passengers.

3. Raiway can think of implementing the system of 'registered baggage handling' facility for the long distance travel for main sectors of travel just as the airlines are doing. For example for those reserved a/c class passengers travelling between Delhi and Mumbai shall have their registered baggages handed over to the baggage handlers at Delhi and take them back at Mumbai from the baggage office. The railway may fix the type of baggage the passengers are required to carry for this purpose and the maximum number of pieces and their weights. They may also charge a fee for excess baggage. There should be one secured baggage coach in all long distance trains. This service could also be entrusted to private players ensuring proper quality. This would reduce the mad rush in the stations. The railways should also ensure availability of porters for carrying and loading luggage of the passengers and a facility to avail these services with advance booking.

4. Make all long distance trains with air conditioned class only. The system of allotment of seats berths shall be based on the distance travelled rather than the preferrence of the passengers. For example all passengers travelling day time for less than 8 hours shall be booked only on chair car. Those travelling 8-24 hours shall be on a/c 3-tier coaches. Those travelling more than 24 hours shall be on a/c 2-tier coaches. The air conditioned first class  services shall be totally eliminated and such coaches shall be available only on special tourist services or for official purposes. The number of each category of coaches shall be based on the passenger demand as analysed by past history.

5. Non-a/c coaches shall be limited short distance travel trains which run less than a day. If possible such trains shall be run only in those regions where the temperatures do not exceed 32 degrees celcius.

6. Make all long distance a/c coach trains with catering charges included in the cost of travel just as now being done for Rajdhani and Shadabdi type train services. This will eliminate passengers to travel with lighter luggage avoiding those filled with all kinds of eatables. This will also reduce the influx of all kinds of vendors in the coaches disturbing the passengers.

7. There should be announcements for the passengers regarding the approaching stations and the time of halt, delays etc in all the coaches. It is not a difficult thing to implement for the railways if the want to do this. It should be a mandatory service. Though this is available now in Rajdhani and Shadabdi trains, it is not strictly followed by those responsible for implementing this without fail.

8. The Indian railways is a mammoth organization. Centralization of authority for each and every thing would cause serious damage and the local railway officers showing their helplessness to deal with the genuine grievances of the passengers. Railways should provide adequate powers for their officers who are to face the public and notify those officers, their contact details and their powers for decision making. It is quite natural that the ministers, being public representatives, liking to grab all powers of decision making. But they should remember that unless they delegate their powers effectively they would become laughing stock in the eyes of the public whose position do not show any results of effective management !

There could be more such suggestions.

I request the learned readers who use the Indian railways to open up their feelings and suggestions  here using the blog comments tool.