Narrow Minded People Will Not Allow the Society to Prosper!

A view of the War Memorial Plaza  of 
Malaysia- a prosperous Asian nation with 
a high human development index

What is the difference between broadminded people and narrow minded people? 

Broadminded people have the following characteristics:

They are open to new ideas. They are keen to know more about others. They are willing to listen to find out their own weaknesses and willing to correct it willfully with conscious efforts.

Normally they become more balanced and matured as they gain more and more life experiences. 

They wholeheartedly encourage others to do good deeds and are willing to provide good and impartial advice to others when they are approached. As they grow up, they discard negative qualities such as envy, anger, anxiety, intolerance, prejudice, etc. As they grow, they acquire more and more knowledge and are keen to learn all the time. As they gain more and more knowledge, they understand their ignorance more and aspire to learn more.

Since they are broadminded, they become more and more aware about the true nature of God, regardless of their traditional learning or religious upbringing. They might also realize the purpose of life and may adopt a life style that is simple and humble regardless of their position or status.

They become more cultured and civilized with experience of life. They would never use their power, wealth and position for satisfying their own vested interests. 

They give first priority to the society than to their own personal interests. 

They would never argue with others for forcing their ideas or viewpoints. 

They would not get angry with others who are not accepting their view points or ideas, but my have sympathy for those ignorant fellows around them who have mind capacities much lower.

It is not difficult for them to understand good from bad and with time they develop the technique of appreciating good in every thing and in every deeds. They tend to become true mentors for those who are in their team.

They enjoy working, but they are not workaholics. They understand the importance of both work and leisure. They are truly balanced and are not addicted to any one particular thing always!

Broadminded people would prove to be very good leaders. But they would not adopt clever and cunning ways to climb up to leadership positions!

Since they have not closed their minds for new thoughts and ideas, they are bound to become more and more experienced with life experiences. Therefore they are the ones who lead the society towards cultural advancements, progress and development.

Broadminded people like reading , listening and learning the ideas and thoughts of others. They also like to share their thoughts with others. But they dislike to force their thoughts on others and also would not normally get carried away by the false teachings of others. Truly, many of them develop the capability to discern the right from the wrong over the years!

Children of broadminded people may be like the children of every one else during their initial years of growth. But later in their adulthood, these children do exhibit good qualities of their broadminded parent.

Broadminded nature is both inherent and acquired. Some people may have inherently better chances for developing a broadminded nature than others. But broadminded nature could also be nurtured and developed by conscious efforts. Education imparted by broadminded teachers help children to develop this quality, even when they have little of it inherently with them.

A society with more and more broadminded people would become more and more developed socially. The human development index of such societies would be higher than those societies where such individuals are a minority.

All the above said qualities are just the reverse for the narrow minded people, in varying degrees. Narrow minded people are those having inherent narrow mindedness and those who did not get the right kind of education to remove their inherent negative qualities.

Narrow minded children educated and trained by narrow minded teachers develop as hardcore narrow minded people in the society. They are full of jealousy, anger and envy towards all those who appear as successful in life. They cannot tolerate beauty anywhere. They keep devising ways and means to destroy good everywhere due to their jealousy. 

Narrow minded people are suspicious of others. Fear, anxiety, envy and anger keep fuming within them destroying their mind and body slowly. They keep their minds closed that they fail to learn from others. A few of them become dangerous extremists who get sadistic pleasure in inflicting injuries to others.

They are prone to develop false ideas and thoughts. It is easy for those cleverer among them to make them their blind followers. 

The more narrow minded people in a society, the more it tend to become underdeveloped socially. The narrow minded ones keep negating the good works of the broadminded people!

It is possible for narrow minded people to discard their negative qualities to some extent provided they get proper education and training from broadminded teachers. It is possible for the society to reduce the number of narrow minded people by devising and implementing broadminded education system. Such societies and nations are likely to progress culturally and socially in a much faster pace.

Narrow minded people might adopt all clever tactics to get in to leadership positions. They aspire for leadership positions not for doing any good for the society, but for deriving sadistic pleasures by inflicting problems to others. Power positions and leadership for them are for their own self enjoyment. And that is what they perceive with their narrow minds! Narrow minded leaders are likely to make their societies and nations deprived of all good things and might even inflict greater damages and pain to all due to their narrow minded decisions and actions.

Organizations headed by narrow minded people might show apparent success for a short while. But such organizations are bound to prove as failures in the long run.

Your narrow minded relative or neighbor or colleague or even spouse would never be able to accept your success. They would never appreciate you or provide you any complementary support in your acts and thoughts. Instead, they keep pulling you down either directly or indirectly that you find it difficult to live in peace. On the other hand, had they been broadminded, you would have become a happy achiever! When every one like you become a happy achiever, your society naturally become one high in human development index.

It is a good idea to have an introspection to find whether you have any narrow mindedness in you. Though it is difficult for narrow minded people to get rid of this negative and destructive quality, by conscious and willful efforts much desirable could be achieved.

Remember, becoming a broadminded personality is one of the greatest achievements in human life. There are many inherent rewards, though they may not be directly discernible always. Broadminded persons are not like touch-me-not plants. They would not show sudden outbursts of joy or gloom because they are balanced and matured. But within their minds they are loving and with full of peace. Many of them acquire the good qualities of Character, Competency, Compassion and Courage (the 4-Cs) as they grow up in their life, unlike the narrow minded ones.

Now let me give some illustrations that give the nature of narrow mindedness and broad mindedness from real life experiences:

In a particular organization, this narrow minded person become overnight successful and becomes elevated to the position of the chief executive. He had inherent weaknesses in many fronts and since he was narrow minded, he was not able to realize his weaknesses. Over the years he became highly suspicious of others and had developed a grudge to all those around him because of his inferiority complex. He was anxious to demonstrate that he was better than others and was waiting for an opportunity to teach all those others who directly or indirectly ignored his presence in the organization. By his good fortune, he got a family mentor who could catapult him to higher career positions regardless of his inherent weaknesses. And thus he became the CEO. He did not waste time to fulfill his desires of teaching all those others some befitting lessons causing much distress and damage to the organization as a whole! Since he was narrow minded, it was difficult for him to understand his mistakes and follies!

Sometimes, in an organization (it could be even a government), the new incoming head of the organization, if he or she is narrow minded, would tend to become too pre-occupied with such actions that are predominantly with the intention to negate the work of his or her predecessor due to certain kind of grudge that they have developed due to their narrow minds! The society as a whole suffers on account of this.

In a privately developed apartment complex in India, the builders had built dwelling units of a few different sizes. The residents later formed the owners' association and registered a society for the purpose of managing the common interest affairs of the apartment complex. Some knowledgeable and broadminded individuals helped in making the most acceptable bylaws in accordance with the laws of the land. The bye-laws considered all owners equally and they did not make any differentiation among themselves on account of the size of the apartment they owned. The association carried out the management smoothly as there was no disagreement among them. However, soon a few narrow minded among the lot began to play their crooked activities. They started creating divisions among themselves by demanding a change in the bye-laws allowing differential treatments of the members according to the size of their dwelling units. The management of the common facilities of the apartment complex soon began to go haywire affecting all who lived there.

A young couple were happily married and both were having their own successful professional careers. If they are narrow minded, marital disharmony would begin to spoil their peace both at home and at their work place. In many cases, this situation might reach to such heights that either one of them (most likely the wife, if it is in India) may leave the job or they go for a divorce. Depending upon the degree of narrow mindedness, they develop varying degrees of animosities among themselves. If the family members too are narrow minded, the husband-wife dispute soon envelop a larger group of people!

The management board of a company wants to provide some good incentives to all its employees because the majority in the board are broadminded people. They are willing to spend a sum as high as 10% of their annual profits for this purpose. The board entrusts the CEO to work out the details. The CEO in turn sets up a committee of three headed by a narrow minded finance official for a detailed study and for recommendations. The committee, greatly influenced by its head, finally gives a recommendation that in the final analysis was more of a disincentive rather than any incentive to the employees. Here the head of the committee being narrow minded was ready to give up his own benefits. He disliked the idea of the majority of the employees getting some better benefits!

A private school run by a society floated by an Indian church soon became very famous attracting a huge rush of parents to get their children admitted in this school. Soon the society's accounts began to swell with huge money as the cost of running the school was much lower than the amount of fees collected from the students. The funds were so huge now that there was no problem for the school to extent better pay and perks to the teachers and the staff. They could now also hire the best teachers and enhance the infrastructural facilities. They are also in a position to provide fee concessions to a good number of deserving children or to institute various scholarships. But unfortunately, the management committee of the school comprised of narrow minded Christians who could never understand the broadminded teachings of Jesus. The school, obviously, could not make any further progress due to this narrow mindedness!

A man in Kerala lives by the side of a main road. He has more than half acres of land where his house is located. But his financial situation is not so good. A million rupees can make his financial problems vanish for ever. This fellow has a neighbor who is financially much better than him. But this neighbor of his is unable to buy a car and use it because he does not have a proper approach road to his house. For making an approach road, the first mentioned person has to allocate some of his land for that purpose which he had been denying for quite some time now. The richer one now has offered more than a million rupees for the one or two cent of land that the first person has to spare for widening the approach road to his house. But the first man is so narrow minded and adamant that he would not budge. He prefers not to take the money. For him, the neighbor using the car conveniently is a bigger problem than his own financial problems! He does not want to solve his own problems because it gives some advantage to his neighbor!

Take the cases of the Aranmula airport proposal or the proposed liquor ban of Kerala. These are also typical examples of narrow minds in action!

In short, the more the individuals in a society are narrow minded, the more it is difficult for the society to prosper! 

Would you like to share some of your views about this in this forum?

There are Many Desirable Things for Us to Learn from Others!

Let me share with you three incidences which show how people progress in their attitudes. We know that some nations are much more developed than many others. Nations show overall progress when more and more of their individual citizens progress in mind and body. 

My own country, India has a rich tradition, culture and civilization. However, for various reasons, this richness is not evenly distributed among the people. India remains as a developing nation, rather than a developed nation. Unless the majority of its individual citizens from its massive population reach to some desirable levels of mind capacity, it can never hope to become a nation devoid of corruption, ugliness and chaos. And that is a great challenge to every Indian. It cannot happen miraculously overnight. It would take a few generations. But even for that future possibility, each and every citizen of India need to have desire to get rid of our negative qualities. We need to learn many things from others.

Unlike the past, many new generation Indians are getting much opportunities to go abroad for studies, jobs, etc now-a-days. More and more number of Indians are seeing the world beyond their own villages, towns and cities of India. 

While they get such opportunities, many of the Indians are getting opportunities for bench-marking themselves with the so-called westerners, the Americans and the Europeans of the present times. While many get jealous of the progress of the Westerners, quite a number of them also get an opportunity for introspecting. 

With the advent of the internet and the social media, some of the Indians have courageously taken up the task of sharing their own mistakes or errors in the hope that it gives some opportunity for more people to introspect for possible corrections of attitudes and outlooks.

Now coming to the episodes which I wanted to share. The first one is one told to me by one of my colleagues a few years ago.

His son became an outstanding IIT engineer and got employed by one large Silicon-valley company in the USA. Soon, the boy also got married to a girl of similar standing working in the same place. The young couple invited my colleague to visit USA. So he went to visit his son and daughter-in-law in the USA.

On a holiday, the young couple took their visiting dad to a nearby park. They sat their enjoying their ice-creams and chocolates. Unlike the Indian parks, this US park was spotlessly clean. There were dust bins placed at few locations for the visitors to put their wastes.

Indians as a matter of habit or culture are reluctant to observe civic discipline, in general. Throwing litter any where out side their own homes is practiced even by the so-called educated Indians without any shame or sense. For many, it gives a kind of pleasure to violate the rules. If the authorities take harsh steps they resent it. If they are liberal they violate it. 

It was nothing different for my colleague as well. He knew about the American culture and civic discipline in the park where he and his children visited. Yet, he did not bother to use the dust-bins to throw the chocolate wrappers. He slowly rolled them to a ball and quietly dropped the ball to the grass. He thought no one noticed and felt relieved. 

A few minutes passed. Then our Indian group in the American park observed an old white lady approaching them from quite a distance. The lady came straight to the place they were sitting. Quietly without telling anything she took the rolled chocolate wrapper, gave a momentary stare on the Indians, proceeded to place it in a dust bin and disappeared. 

While narrating this incident to me, my colleague- a senior technocrat in a renowned Indian organization-told me that he felt ashamed and naked before the old American lady. 

The other incident was told to me by an young businessman from Mumbai. It was the time when electronic products like laptops and cameras were too desired items in India. The Indian customs authorities used to charge heavy customs duties on these products brought to India by returning Indians from abroad. 

My young businessman friend went to the US for some purpose and was about to return. He went to a US shopping mall to purchase a laptop. He selected an expensive brand and quietly made a personal request to the American salesman. He requested him to prepare a bill showing a less expensive model with a lower price. The American could not understand why such a peculiar request from this Indian customer. So he asked him the reason for this odd request. My Indian friend has to explain a bit about the tax laws of India and the advantage he would get back in India by way of reduced customs duties if he had such a bill showing a lower price.

The American retorted spontaneously: " So, dude! You want to cheat your country?"

My rich Indian felt as if naked before this ordinary American sales boy! That is what he told me.

Way back in 1988, I was member of an Indian project team entrusted with the task of designing and executing a large manufacturing facility for my employer jointly with engineers from a large East German company. As per the memorandum of understandings (MoU) the Germans were to work in our Indian office for many months while some of us would  be in their German office if need so arose for some days.

The Germans worked with us  in our office away from their families for months together. We traveled to various vendors in India together for various purposes. My German counterpart was one Mr.Sommer, a mild spoken German engineer who toiled hard to communicate in English as they had only one interpreter for the whole group. 

Though we had occasional official parties, we Indian seldom invited our German friends to our homes during the off days. Perhaps I was one exception, because I took Mr Sommer to my home for dinner once. Towards the completion of the project during the end of 1989, the Berlin wall fell. I still remember the extreme happiness our East German friends had that day. We all had our last official dinner that night as our German friends were returning back to their homes in Unified Germany next day.

In the next month or so, a few of our Indian team members ( me excluded) were to visit their office in Germany for the some final formalities. The work was almost completed at that time and the Indian team had more leisure time than work time at Germany. The Germans showed their extra ordinary hospitality to the visiting Indian team not by hosting any official dinner, but by personally inviting each one of them the respective homes of those engineers who were now in Germany but had been in India with us for several months earlier.

The Indian team members felt very bad now, even while they enjoyed the personal care and hospitality of their German counterparts. They felt ashamed because they never thought of taking care of those German friends while they were in India. And now there was hardly any opportunity for the Indians to reciprocate and repay their obligations! 

My friends after returning to India, told me how the Germans humbled them. We felt too humbled by this act and perhaps we learnt a new lesson.

While you took time to read these, I hope you could realize what I wanted to convey.

Please share your experiences of this kind with others using the comment facility below.

Our Double Standards : Think of These for A Moment if Your Mind is Sane !

A few years ago, I had a friend who was a senior officer in the security forces. He was a gentleman according to my assessment. But some time later I met a jawan who used to be in the same security organization and he too became a bit close to me. The latter one knew that I was an acquaintance of his superior officer and so he disclosed certain things he was not liking about his boss. According to him, his boss was a terror and a person with no feelings to his subordinates. He took sadistic pleasures in troubling those under him. It was news to me. I never thought this officer could be like that to his subordinates within his domain. 

But then some day I was purchasing some fruits from the road side vendors who used to sell their merchandise on hand pulled carts. All was going on well with the poor roadside vendors doing pretty good business. All of a sudden there was a commotion among the vendors and the vendors began to run, some pulling their carts at their top speeds and some without bothering to pull their carts. The clients like me could not understand the reason for  this sudden panic among the vendors. Then suddenly I observed a uniformed jawan of the security in his Khakhi approaching the scene on his bicycle. He quickly approached the scene and began to get in to action. He overturned some of the carts, wielded his cane randomly on some of the vendors who moved out and were watching from a distance, hitting a few while yelling abuses at them. In this commotion we the clients too quickly moved in to our cars parked by the side. This jawan was the same one whom I knew and some how he did not see me. Here in this act he was unleashing a terror and I could not believe that this fellow whom I knew earlier as a harmless and innocent human could be like this ! He too was just like his boss! Under favorable situations he too was a terror ! And he used to complain about the inhuman behavior of his boss ! 

I had a subordinate officer who used to get too annoyed and shout when this person's subordinate committed some mistake or did not observe punctuality. But what was interesting is that this officer was not at all a role model for anyone especially when it comes regarding punctuality !

I have seen people who are fortunately positioned in society with such lucrative jobs which provided them very high incomes who are so reluctant to give even a fifty or a hundred rupee note to the coolies or laborers who did some service to them. Were these people not helping them physically, life would would not have been very comfortable for these affluent class. But the irony is that they do not feel ashamed for bargaining for five or ten rupees with these poor country cousins of theirs ! At the same time they might tip in hundreds to the bell boy of the five star hotel who just kept their hand baggage in their car in the porch ! They would bargain for reduction of the price of a kilo of veggie from twenty to ten in the local farmer's weekly market but are very comfortable to pay more than a fifty for the same kept in an upper market stall ! Double standards ? Isn't it ?

Have you not seen people criticizing others for their mistakes while these critiques themselves have done such mistakes many times ! 

You expect others to be polite and friendly with you, but you personally are not like that to others !

Many of us cannot forgive those who have knowingly or unknowingly did some wrong to us. But we expect others to be forgiving us always ! I did not do such a grave mistake that he or she took it so seriously, you might say ! 

Many of you reading this are both a boss and a subordinate at the same time. Likewise we all have many kinds of interpersonal relations. It is a good idea to find out our double standards. The standards that we have knowingly or unknowingly set for us and for others ! 

Have you not noticed our political leaders ? When they are in the ruling side their opinions and standards are likely to be just the opposite while they are not in power. Don't we keep wondering about this? But have you ever thought of the situation when we are in their roles, even if it is just for an imagination ? 

Again, I would like to mention about another double standard syndrome that we humans are likely to fall into. That is about our standards and attitudes when we are ordinary fellows and when we happen to be blessed with power and money. Most people when they are in the former state would not have any difficulty in maintaining their friendship and love with their old friends and companions even when they are not in contact for a long period. But would it be the case when the latter is the case ? When power and money come in, friendships are gone for ever ! It is extremely difficult for many of us to acknowledge our old friends and relatives if some how our position has relatively improved as compared to them. The more this relative difference, the more we fail to recognize our old companions ! 

Have you not heard the story of Lord Krishna and Sudama (Kuchela) in the great Indian epic of Mahabharata? Lord Krishna did not forget his childhood friend, the poor brahmin Sudama, when the latter in his later day difficulties decided to approach the former who had become the king. Sudama, was apprehensive but Krishna did not behave the way others in power and position used to do. The poor brahmin got all the help, love and respect from his old childhood friend.

On the other hand, Mahabharata also has another story of two other childhood friends, Drupada and Drona. Prince Drupada and the brahmin boy Drona were good friends and the prince even had promised half of his kingdom to his friend Drona. But, Drupada when he had become the king, insulted his childhood friend Drona who approached him for help- the incident that sowed the seeds for the great Mahabharata war that destroyed all ! 

Some days ago, a friend of mine was telling me an incident of how an old friend of him, now in some top position, refuse to recognize him when he chanced to meet this big fellow. One thing I am sure. It is not that this 'big fellow' now in big position is not remembering his old pal. He remembers everything, but he is afraid to show the same friendly relation to his old pal.   This situation is due to the lack of confidence and courage of the 'big fellow'. Perhaps, this big fellow subconsciously recognizes his weaknesses that are known to his old friend ! I am not sure. But this kind of a situation is quite common now-a-days ! Perhaps more and more narrow minded and incompetent people are managing to get to become 'big fellows' ! Is the society is slowly and slowly getting degraded by our collective acts ? Would you make some one who is likely to run to safety first, the captain of your ship ?

I had asked a few people why they are reluctant to treat their servants or those who do some manual labor for them, well. Their answers and logic have surprised me a lot. Those who do the lowly paid works will not work if they are paid well, some argue. If their tummies get full, they are going to be disobedient, others argue. But what if these so-called affluent person some how looses his or her affluence due to some reason and had to do some job of that nature for survival ? But those in power and affluence, to my surprise, refuse to accept the possibility of such a thing happening to them. 

For that matter did Saddam Hussain ever could have thought of the time when he would be caught like a rat in the hole ? Does it ever occur to the other man now repeating the same mistakes ? 

But it has nothing to do with the anyone's actual power and position. Just a relative power and position difference would make the change in attitudes ! That is a reality with most of us ! Why does such a thing happen ? 

I was just thinking ! I have no concrete answers. But, perhaps we would be able to discard these double standards that cause us to swing between animal and human tendencies if we pause for a moment to think, retaining our sanity. 

Perhaps we would progress in civilization.

After all, civilization is that which makes us migrate from animal tendencies to real human nature !

That humanized nature is what God wants us to achieve and not the beastly behavior that Satan wants us to retain !

But the rewards of retaining the beastly nature apparently appear as too tempting. That is the cunning temptation of Satan that misleads gullible humans ! Again you need a sane and intelligent mind to understand it !

  

My Heartfelt Sympathies to these Ignorant Men and Women of My Country Who Discard their Opportunities to Serve Others !

Post liberalization, India has seen some very positive changes in a few fields of public service, the notable being in the retail banking field. Some of these changes have eased the common problems faced by the small individual customers to a greater extent while some other changes have made the people to consider banks as officially patronized looters.

My intention is not to write about all of them. I am just trying to share some of my recent experiences. The banking authorities and the staff could may consider these as some feed backs from an individual customer and may think of taking some lessons for improving their acts, if ever they take these in that manner.

The first experience to share is as a customer of the largest public sector bank of India-the State Bank of India (SBI). I have been a customer of this bank for the last over three decades. In the earlier days the branches of SBI and all other nationalized banks appeared more or less the same manner. Shabby, humid, and crowded with a few caged counters behind which those counter clerks performed their acts as if they were doing some great favor to the customers. They treated the individual customers with contempt especially when the customer crowd was more. Even on those days when crowd was less, the time to get your task done used to be more or less the same. Because on such occasions the clerks did their work at leisure. Those were the days when all works used to be done manually and fat banking ledger books and the various paper instruments had to be moved from table to table by the most important functionary of the bank-the peon. 

Then came the early era of computerized banking. Nothing much got changed with regard to the customer friendliness. The time taken for some work to be done in the bank for an individual almost the same as before, because this time the bank staff got various kinds of excuses related to non functional computers and printers.

Banking experience for the individual customers dramatically changed when the government allowed a few private new wave banks to get in to the act of banking. The ICICI bank was the first among this group which made a drastic change in the way the Indian banks worked. All of a sudden, the Indian people saw air conditioned bank branches which treated customers much differently than the existing nationalized banks. Added to this comfort was the ease at which these new banks introduced much efficient and proven computer software as compared to their public sector counter parts. The new wave private banks also implemented recruitment policies in such a way that they almost eliminated the clerical staff and got fresh talents with better educational qualifications and essential training to man their retail banking branches as junior officers. This helped them to implement single window customer relations desks in their branches where each individual customer got some personalized attention. Banking was no more a dreaded experience in India !

Almost all the nationalized banks thereafter have been spending  crores of rupees to implement face lifting acts for their branches. Now almost all banks branches in India, at least in the urban areas, regardless of they being in the public sector or private sector, are air conditioned and apparently have good aesthetic appearances. However, the cultural legacy of the public sector banks continue as they could not do much to improve the personal attitudes of their lower level employees. 

All these banks together must have installed thousands of ATMs across the country in the last one decade. However, it is a common experience now for the customers that many ATM kiosks are not maintained properly by the respective banks. Non performing ATM machines are a regular feature. Non availability of lower denomination currency notes and delivery of currency notes of shabby quality are all common.[ This blog gives some more insights about the ATM kiosks of India.]

The advent of internet banking in the recent years have made banking much easier and comfortable for people like me. Now-a-days, people like me have to seldom go to the bank branches for routine banking. But if you are required to go for some purposes, the experiences may not be always very pleasant. That is what my recent experiences teach me especially when it is banks like the SBI.

I have been a customer of the SBI in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh for about three decades where in one of its branches I had my savings bank account to which my salary used to be credited from my employer. Through the same branch, I took a housing loan and the loan account also was linked to the same account and the EMIs used to be deducted regularly as per standing instructions. Then my work place changed to Ranchi and the SBI branch in Ranchi duly got my account transferred  to their branch on my request. But, the the loan account was non-transferable due to some administrative problems and that account got remained at Bhilai. However, as an internet banking customer, my account showed all details at one place and I never felt any discomfort. A few months ago, my loan was fully paid back and was duly discharged. Now my problem was to take back my security documents from the bank. To be fair enough, this should be done by my branch at Ranchi. They should be in a position to get my documents from their counter parts at Bhilai and deliver the same to me at Ranchi.

But the SBI does not operate that way as I have been told. I had to go all the way to Bhilai and spend a few days to get me back the papers ! A spent customer is of no value to this bank ! Once their purpose is served, they would simply discard you without providing the final relief. Okay, I took the pains to travel to Bhilai and had to spend nearly two days to get a simple discharge memo issued from my original bank. Remember, it is just a matter of three minutes for the staff to get the same and give it to me. But they would not do it so easily, even when they knew that I had come all the way from a distant place for that purpose. The culture of this bank is to create problem to the customer if it is possible and get enjoyment from that small sadism. 

However, with the help of some helping friends, I got the discharge certificate issued from the concerned branch at Bhilai. Now, this bank has a centralized loan processing office in Bhilai which they call by some alphabets which is not so easy to remember. This is the place where they keep the security documents under lock and key under the custody of a document custody officer. Now I was required to go to this person with the certificate issued by one of their branch located a few kilometers away. It is worth noting here that some of my friends had to spend a day to find out the procedure of getting the documents returned back from this bank. They seldom give such information in their website ! 

When I reached the document officer, there were another two customers with him. He was an young man. Though he did not show the type of nasty face some of his older colleagues in similar situations would have done ( usually they ask the customer to come the next day even if the work involves just a few minutes !) he was also not very enthusiastic to give a quick service to any one. All the three of us, one an old lady, were waiting patiently for almost an hour for him to complete the tasks. By this time his assistant had located the document file and brought it to his desk and he had made us sign few forms as a preliminary to return the documents.

The events that happened in the same place a couple of year ago while was working in Bhilai at the same place flashed through my memory. That time I was required to take back the security documents related to my car loan. That time another man was there. There were at least five persons waiting. But I got the papers back within about 20 minutes. But this time, I had come all the way from a distant place and that fact I had already told this young man, who is perhaps of lesser age than my children. He was showing that he was working hard, but the time was running out  and the time was very precious for me that moment. I had other works also to do before I returned to Ranchi ! The time is already 6.00 pm and as scheduled the pick up car had come to the bank and the driver phoned me for me to come out to be dropped in my hotel. The young bank man told me that it is going to take some more time and informed me that I could go and return after an hour or so as his office would remained opened upto 8.00 pm in the night ! So, I decided to leave then and come back after an hour or so.

Around seven I get a call from this SBI officer. Initially I thought thanking him for calling me to tell that my work is completed. But no ! He called me to tell me that it would not be possible for him to return my documents. Because, he found that my security documents that I had given in the bank as a security for my loan had the name of my son too as a co-owner of the property and hence my son too should come to the bank to receive the documents. A new strange demand indeed. Evidently displaying the sadism of the employees of the bank to harass unprepared customers to the maximum. Since I do not live in Bhilai and my son does not live with me, the harassment would have the highest effect ! Imagine, it is my document. I have settled all dues with the bank and a certificate to that effect is duly issued. They should have returned the documents to me through my branch at my place of residence. They have not. And now when I have traveled all the way spending much money and time just to take back my documents, this fellow is making a new excuse. Good customer care by the SBI ? Is n't it ? This is how this bank trains their junior officers !

Okay. There is no point in arguing with such morons. I returned back to the bank hurriedly. It was going to be 8.00 pm. If I did not reach by that time this fellow would go home and I would not get even the discharge papers that I had given him earlier ! That means additional number of stays in the hotel and missing my hard earned railway reservations to return home !

I reached to his desk in time. I tried to reason with him as a last effort. The fellow is not at all considerate. Finally, I asked him to keep my documents in his own custody for some more years ( I had no immediate use of those except that those are some the stamp papers of registration that shows my ownership of the residential property that I acquired with my hard earned savings and paying much of that to this bank as interests  !)

But I requested him to write down the reasons for not returning my documents back to me even after my loans are fully settled and discharged a few months ago.

Then I got the next shock. He, being an officer of the bank, refused to write that. He said that would be written by his boss, the head of his loan branch. Had he been a non-officer, I could have understood that. But here he is an officer ! What officer ? I asked my self ! Now, where is his boss sitting ? Already it is the closing time. The boss might have left and I ought to stay back in this place just for nothing !

But fortunately, the boss had not left. It was a lady of my age ! Just then I noticed her name. It sounded familiar. Then I remembered. We knew each other. Yes, she was very happy to meet me. We exchanged a few minutes of pleasantries and then I told her my problem. She was quick enough to write an instruction to her junior officer and was considerate enough to accompany me to his desk to give the personal instructions.

Yes, I was fortunate. I got my valuable documents without future troubles.

But then I was thinking ! What if I did not know some one there personally ? How these bank fellows create trouble to those customers who happened to be of that category !

This is just one such example that I faced from the bank where I have been a customer for thirty odd years. I had much worse experiences there, every time to be sorted out with the help of some known officer. Remember, none of these problems were due to any mistake from my side.

On the other hand, I am also a customer to the new era banks like the ICICI and the Axis bank. Rarely I was required to go to these banks. But whenever I had gone, desk officers were quite unknown faces. But that never caused them to behave strangely. They were comparatively much better in extending the services.

The banks in India are much better in giving out the services, if you compare them with some of the government offices. At the lower levels, the bank staff are not corrupt as well. They do not have a system of extracting money from the citizens in general, unlike some of the notorious  government departments where the staff create problems to extract favors.

But then that is life in India. The most corrupt nation on earth now, as per the latest report of Transparency International.

In my opinion this happens due to the subconscious attempt from the side of the staffers to gain attention and importance. If every thing goes smoothly, they feel that their services get  neglected and go unnoticed. Create a problem and gain importance. This is the mind set of many employees in India.

Unfortunately, they fail to understand the pleasure of giving and serving. They fail to recognize the importance of getting the long lasting good wishes their customers would bestow upon them silently when they do the work they are supposed to do honestly , earnestly and pleasingly.

To me, it is the greatest opportunity one can have. The opportunity of serving others ! The opportunity to be of some help to others. Even when it is part of your job and even when that is what you are paid for.  

My heartfelt sympathies to those ignorant men and women of my country who create such situations to make their beloved country  to stoop down in shame by some of their acts of discarding the god given opportunities to serve others in whatever small way they could !  

About Creating Hell or Heaven in India !

Have you ever once thought about the good that can happen to you and the society to which you are a part when you do your work with a positive attitude ?

Whether you realize it fully or not, you and me, are all small individualistic links of a greater existence called the humanity. The success of this great humanity to do good to our planet earth in totality depends on the quantity and quality of good services that we contribute to the society as individuals.

Each one of us has to do something good for the others. In turn all those around us are to do some thing good for us. Think of the greatness of that goodness that prevail all around when we decide to do good always !

Unfortunately, we do not live in a society that is prevailed by goodness. We live in a humanity that is perceivably full of evil and negativism. Every day, each one of us is affected by the pains of evil and we keep complaining to God about the evils that are around us making us all in discomfort and pains.

We think that the evils are committed by unseen evil forces that are determined to spoil our lives on this earth. But is it so ? We fail to realize that we ourselves are the perpetrators of evil to the larger humanity. Many of us maintain that we are all clean and do not commit any harm or hurt to any one. It is always the others who do such things. Not by us. That is what we normally think.

But do some introspection. Do some micro level analysis of our acts and deeds every day. It is not difficult to find few such things that we have committed or caused which are essentially negative acts that are bound to cause some similar reactions later affecting us and others adversely.

Now what are the negative and positive acts ? Inherently we know it whether we admit or not. Each one of us know whether we act positively or negatively. When each and every act of us is positive, the society gets charged positively move towards good and brings good to all. On the other hand, when our acts are negative, the society becomes more and more evil and affects every one badly.

Now I would like to illustrate  this taking one of my own experiences:

Once I had to go to a public sector bank for getting a demand draft made for an urgent work. In those days, the banks used to take a few hours to issue the draft after they accept the money and the application, though the work could be finished in a few minutes. One counter clerk takes the application and a form is filled up for depositing the money at the cash counter and once the money deposit receipt is received the clerk enters the details in his PC to print the demand draft. Then it is put up to the concerned officer to sign it. The authenticated DD then returns to the front office clerk for issuing the same to the customer. There are so many customers and the process gets goofed up in between and hence the usual delay of hours for a work that could be otherwise completed in minutes.

Any way, usually things move in this fashion and the customers accept the bank's way of working. But on that day, my DD has not come even after a few hours time. And I was getting impatient. It was very important for me to send the said DD that day itself for some important work. The front office clerk told me that the DD has not returned from the officer's desk after signature and asked me to meet the said officer personally to get the same expedited personally.

So, I went inside the bank to meet the concerned officer. At a glance I saw my DD resting among other papers on his table. I stood in front of this man for about five minutes. He did not bother to look at me. He appeared busy with his routine bank papers. Then I lost my patience and somehow made him look at me. He looked at me as if he was a robot. No human characteristics on his grim face ! I told him about my DD resting on his table for quite some time now. He grimly informed me that he was doing his work and my work will be done when the time comes. I felt like slapping that fellow, but controlled myself. Yet, I had  raised my voice to the extent that most in the bank at that time got to notice the scene.

When I came out, many customers joined with me in accusing the behaviour of these bank employees. They all had their own reasons of ill feelings to this public sector bank.

This bank officer could have showed a small courtesy to a fellow being who was in front of his work table by showing a friendly face. He could have made a gesture of concern by attending to my small work which in any way he was supposed to do that day. That would not have raised the blood pressure of mine, him and many others unnecessarily. That would have caused a positive energy spreading. An energy of goodness to all. I would have remembered him always for his friendly gesture.

But that is not what happened. Quite likely, this bank officer was himself a victim of some negative acts earlier in the day which made him to pass on that negative attitude to all others around him with added effect. Perhaps he received the negative energy from his wife, his boss, his subordinate or any other fellow human being. He gave it to me and I was to spread it likewise !

The whole of the society gets vitiated in this manner.

What I have told is not limited to a public sector bank. It is every where. You come across hundreds of such incidences of negativism arising from the negative attitudes of individuals in the society every day.

Of course we also see positive attitudes now and then. But when the negative acts out number the positive one, the resultant is negative and negativism creeps into the society at large.

There are individuals who are negative, who say 'no' for many things for making themselves noticed by others or making some gain for themselves. Such persons try to en cash from the impatience of others.

Pressure builds up when flow is prevented. Pressure built ups cause untimely explosions. That is the principle of physics. And it is true for human relations as well.

I have written this much to express my anguish over the growing negativism in the Indian society. Each one of us needs to progress in our body and mind so that we develop positive attitudes to act positively.

If the majority of us could practise that, then definitely, this country would be nothing less than some heaven.

Else, hell is in the making here itself !

Does Satan Influence Our Minds ?

Though there are reasons for believing in the existence of invisible negative powers generally called and known as the 'Satanic forces' as opposed to the Power of God, I do not subscribe to the notion that Satan or any of such forces attributable to that name now has any power to invade my mind against my free will.

I believe in the Sovereign Power of God not only on our world but also on all and everything in our Universe.

Yet, there are powers of various kinds, seen and perhaps unseen, all around me that could be potentially harmful to me.

Certain dangers are within my own capacity to resist or avoid.

For certain other kinds, perhaps, I need the invisible super protection of God.

In what way God acts is beyond my ability to discern. So I leave it to Him !

What intrigues me is not this.

Is the so-called Satan or Satanic forces influenze the minds of people to work against the will of God to prevail on this world ?

Are the evil things what we see on this world are the results of such an influence ?

Or is it simply the result of the evil mind work of the humans of this world ?

Though a good majority of people prefer to attribute the evil that we see now in this world as due to the influence of the Satanic forces, I have a conviction to reasonably believe that the evil minds of people are more to be blamed than Satan for all the evil things that we see in this world.

In this world now, the wicked minds of people are at work rather than the 'poor satan'. Even if the latter aids in spreading the evils, it is with the full and active support of the people who willfully give up their minds to the satanic forces to invade and manipulate !

The ways of evil invaded minds at work are not always apparent to discern.

There are such atrocities which are very easy for all to label as evil. We keep hearing and seeing such things day in and day out.

But the deceptive ways of evil are not very easy to recognize and are much more dangerous. More than perpetuating direct cruelty or henious crimes, the deceptive acts prevent good works from getting done.

These are the subtle games people play ! The deceptive games of evil minds !

Some of you might have come across people who for no apparent reasons start opposing an idea which you, for all logical reasons, have found worth executing.

Perhaps you wanted to donate some money to a charitable organization. Perhaps you wanted to help a poor person. Perhaps you wanted your church committee which managed some schools or hospitals to pay better facilities to the staff instead of exploiting them just as some other greedy business men do. Perhaps you wanted to amend a byelaw of your society or trust which you honestly feel would be better for all.

You are perhaps one of those persons who could actually act to get  these good works done, but it also depends on the concurrence of some others in the concerned group.

Here comes the frustrating difficulty which you have never thought would arise.

Some of those in your concerned group, perhaps you never imagined that it could be he or she, would all of a sudden begin arguing or working against implementing the good work. A negative force appears in the scene from nowhere to oppose a decision favouring a good work.

The good idea that many of you wanted to get implemented would stand abrubptly abandoned. And your frustration would be that you never thought such oppositions would come from such people who always seemed as nice gentlemen or ladies. Sometimes your frustrations could go high because no kind of logical reasonings would make any difference. The opposition to the good idea appears too stubborn.

I had the opportunitty of talking to some such people who had stubbornly opposed certain good ideas from getting implemented.

What made me amazed was the sheer absence of any good reasoning for their behaviour. Their stubborn minds appear as if possessed ! Possessed by negative forces !

Sometimes this kind of stubbornness from some persons becomes the cause for conflicts and fights. Many house hold quarrels between husband and wife can be traced to an issue of this kind.

Is it a result of the influence of the invisible 'Satanic forces' that cause such attitudes in some people ?

Only those people can say. They only know the reasons for opposing good works !

If you are stubborn to some issue even without your own logical mind could reason out, then possibly you should doubt satanic invasion of your mind. Knowingly or unknowingly your mind is 'invaded'.

But God has designed you to be free willed. Unlike Satan, God does not change his rules every now and then.

If you allow Satan to pervade your mind,  it is again your own free will choice !

Deceptive ways of Satan will work only when you allow such a thing to happen !

Unfortunately for those who have fallen to such deceptions, it is not very easy to come out of it.

Because their minds are filled with pride and ego, another all pervading 'gift' from the forces opposing God. A gift that makes their minds not yielding to the corrective tools that God has so gracefully provided to them!