The Power of Synchronization of Thoughts and Actions!

Everything in our world now is a mixture of anarchy and chaos with some peace and synchronization achieved here and there. 

Anarchy and chaos are signs of destruction and weakening. But synchronization is a sign of peace and power.

Synchronization means streamlining or making things move in perfect coordination. On the other hand, chaos means a situation in which everything moving independent of every other thing.

Electrical engineers who work in a power plant know what is synchronization in electrical energy. The electrical power they make through their alternators cannot be brought to the outside world unless its phases are synchronized with the power grid. If the non synchronized electrical power is connected, it causes great damage and destruction. 

The military people know the power of synchronization of their acts. The first step to make a soldier is giving the military training that enable the soldiers to be disciplined to work in unison. We have seen how the marching soldiers move in unison during their parades. If their thoughts and actions are not trained to be disciplined, they all work independently or even antagonistically to each other and would never be able to achieve any success. Their individual capabilities and power would become useless or even destructive when they are not synchronized in thoughts and actions.

Organizations make good progress and achieve their goals and objectives when the people of the organization think and work in unison for achieving an objective. Organizations having more and more synchronized people would be more successful than organizations having lesser numbers of synchronized people. That explains why some organizations are good and successful while many others are not.

Successful businessmen know how to synchronize their thoughts and actions. Their success also depends on how they are able to get like minded people to work for them or how they make the people work in synchronization.

For highly egoistic people, synchronization is a difficult thing. They find extreme difficulty to synchronize their thoughts and actions with others. For such people maintaining consistent success in life is very difficult. Even the success they apparently seem making in life is due to the synchronization of some others with them.

All people are different and unique. All men and women have their own free will of choices for taking decisions and actions. Their likes, dislikes all are in different levels. 

Like minded people, given an opportunity, may join together to form synchronized groups for certain areas where they are all in an agreement for thoughts and actions. 

For advanced people removing their egos and personal choices for achieving synchronization with others is much easier to achieve. They have the power to adjust by their own free will. But for people of inferior minds, this may not be so easy. They need external inducements of fear or cheer to make them adjust to others.

Our world can become more and more in positive synchronization with more and more people, provided we will fully try to remove our thoughts that prevent synchronization.

When more and more among us achieve the power of overcoming our inherent weaknesses by using our free will, our world would begin to move in the positive direction of progress and development.

Then more and more of us would know how to be synchronized with ourselves and with others.

More and more of us would then be in peace with us and others. Chaos and anarchy keep reducing. Peace, positive energy and goodness would begin to show more and more every where! 

You may also read these news and articles on brain wave synchronization. 

When Religious Organizations Run Educational Institutions For Money and Power, the Damage to the Society is More!

To be very frank, I am pained by the way the Indian education system has deteriorated over the past few decades beyond redemption. When I talk about the deterioration, I do not mean the physical deterioration of the infrastructure that the Indian educational institutions have. In fact, the physical infrastructure in many private educational institutions have improved tremendously when the governments have allowed the private educational institutions to charge heavy fees from the students, several times more than what existed a few years ago. So, the deterioration is not on that count.

On the other hand the deterioration I am talking about is the moral deterioration that has been taking place in the education system in India. Again, it is not about any explicit immorality that I am concerned with but about certain kinds of indirectly discernible acts of certain private school managements  that cause the students to get distorted ideas about morality and ethics that are applicable to the citizens. While publicly most schools display their concern for morality, discipline and high ethical standards, what they actually practice convey some thing else!

Most of the school managements cannot set any moral examples for the students because the ones who manage the schools are often ruthless or ignorant people who either do not believe in any moral values or who do not know what it actually is. 

The educational institutions they manage boast of high disciplines, highest standards of education and the like [There are people who can frame all standard objectives, rules and regulations for them to get all statutory clearances!] But those who really manage these are without any of these qualities in most instances. In reality these institutions kill the real creative talents and innocence of the children and reduce them to biological human robots whose ability is measured in terms of the scores or grades that  they obtain in examinations. 

Indian education system as it stands today in the schools and colleges essentially measures the memorizing capacity of students! The training for memorizing begins even before a child learns the mother tongue, killing the child's creative abilities and its abilities for understanding meanings and values! The children and their parents are pressurized and to the highest possible levels all throughout their school education years only to be repeated again when these students become parents again a couple of years later!

In the process, most of the children who are trained through these institutions become intrinsically fearful persons who either have lost their wisdom to live a life according to their inner consciousness or become clever cheaters who do not feel the mind pinch to do any thing immoral or illegal so long as they could do those without getting caught. The children and the parents have been forced to become helpless and rotten on account of the education system forced on them by people who have never undergone through such a torture. The latter are the cleverest ones who know well to control all those who want to become great through what is being cleverly projected as the 'highest quality education'. 

Some children watch the material success of those VIPs who were managing their educational institutions and many of them are intelligent enough to understand the clever games the so-called successful people play. The children also witness how some of their teachers are exploited by the school managements. Those teachers who are not pets of those who manage the schools have been reduced to persons with no self esteem! The children also watch the benefits that some of their teachers who are the favored ones of the management get and they also sense the disparities that exist among their teachers based on various factors which are not logical or justifiable to their young minds. Some of their teachers are good teachers in their eyes but they are not that way before the management or the principal. 

The principal is the visible management representative whose main function is to enhance the institutions' image so that it attracts a steady stream of parents every year who are too willing to get their wards admitted to the institution by any means. Private managements of many of the educational institutions of India are too willing to spend much on the principal and showcase him or her as a living example of pomp and show to boost the image of the institution in the public gaze! 

It is not difficult to find such principals of private schools in India who sit in such lavishly furnished offices which could even make the CEOs of large business groups feel pretty ashamed of themselves. 

Such principals, especially those of the schools,  move around in expensive chauffeur driven vehicles! 

On the other hand, within a few hundred yards away one may also find government run schools or even some private government aided academic institutions having perceptibly higher societal importance getting much less or no facilities of that kind. 

Projecting the principal is a new technique some private educational institutions have adopted to boost the image of their school and hoodwink the gullible parents. More and more private schools and educational institutions are now resorting to this technique in India. But if you happen to talk to any such VIP head of any such institution, it is likely that you soon realize the hollowness of the person sitting on the chair as a neo-aristocrat! 

Meeting such a principal of an educational institution would be perhaps much more difficult for the parents than to meet the Chief Minister of the state. Many principals are also known to show favoritism to the parents according to the wealth and status of the latter. They treat wealthy and powerful parents with visible politeness while they show no such politeness to those parents whom they consider as of no consequence. 

Such favored parents are too happy to oblige to any request the principal may occasionally request from them! This way such principals soon become influential persons of the locality. 

Soon the wards of the less favored who happen to be students of such so-called prestigious educational institutions develop a feeling of class differentiation and a general antagonism within their minds which explodes in manners that we can never imagine, sooner or later! Wards of the lesser privileged in the locality who happen to study in such schools might develop a kind of inferiority complex which gets reflected as psychic anomalies later in their lives. 

Hype generation by educational institutions managed by societies formed by groups of people with motives and objectives for building public influence and power is understandable. At least  they are not making any false claims on morality! Again, there are many educational institutions in India which are essentially family run but officially run in the name of Societies formed by select group of individuals from the same family. Sometimes the name of the society that manages the educational institution might bear a misguiding name! But such acts are done by business oriented people who went in to the profitable education business in the guise of the non-profit societies because they had no other choice to establish such a business declaring it honestly as a profit making venture! How could any body believe that some one would spend scores of millions to establish an educational institution for charity alone? It is quite unlikely. So all those private educational institutions in India run by business groups under the banner of registered Societies are run for profits in terms of money and also for gaining influential positions in the country. That is the reason why India now has hundreds of private engineering colleges, medical colleges, universities and management institutions all competing each other to woo parents to sent their wards to them by paying high fees.

But what pinches is the manner in which even many of the educational institutions run by Christian church groups and other religious organizations slowly getting adapted to the new trends!

In the process they seem to forget what they preach and practice some thing which is not compatible with their teachings! 

The objectives in their bye laws may be good but many of these societies stand hijacked by people who do not possess the moral and ethical strengths of their predecessors. This is because of the democratic nature of these societies where it is very easy for characterless people to enforce their dominance over the majority members many of whom might be good and simple people. Such hijacked educational institutions are capable of creating much damage to the social moral fabric.

Since they could perpetuate the moral and ethical decline through the students of the concerned educational institutions they keep managing, I consider it as much more serious than those doing the education business! 

It is foolish to think that our children are blissfully ignorant about these double standards of our educational institutions set up and managed by our religious organizations! When religious organizations err, the moral damage to the society is many fold!

The educational institutions which boast of high standards and proudly announce their cent percent results in the final examinations are in reality managed by narrow minded pseudo practitioners who are too eager to exploit the ignorance and anxiety of the gullible Indian middle class parents. 

These parents are under the false concept that it is the English speaking students who find success in their career. This erroneous concept has been forced upon the gullible public minds by the very same pseudo educationists of India by using various techniques reinforced by either inaction or wrong actions by the state and central governments.

Let me categorically tell you this. I am not against English medium education. But imparting the education in a second language other than the usual mother tongue or the common language of the locality for a child is highly damaging and it actually kills its ability to understand language and meanings properly in its later years.

There exists a group of people in India who try to show to the rest of India that they are different from others by speaking in a foreign language and directly or indirectly projecting this quality as one of the essentials of measuring knowledge and educational superiority. Coupled with their outwardly lavish life styles and their peculiarly accented English speaking usually create inferiority complex in those people who are not of this category, in spite of many of the latter being better of than the former. 

This growing inferiority complex fuels the fire of aspirations of gullible middle class of India who want their future generations to acquire the much needed aristocracy through the so called English-medium education. Those who cannot fulfill this aspiration then become antagonistic to the system which generates this disparity. A new caste system begins to establish.

Children whose mother tongue is not English and who are compelled to get education in English right from the Kindergarten or nursery levels are bound to develop a language deficiency which is difficult to explain. They are highly handicapped to understand higher meanings. I have seen this deficiency in grown up people who have undergone such an education. 

In my opinion, it is not at all necessary to have English medium education for getting English language proficiency. 

Of course, English is now the international language and proficiency in this language is definitely an advantage for Indians under the present circumstances. But that does not mean that the Indian children should be taught in English right from age two. By creating a situation like this, India is generating a future generation who are not good in any language!

I am pained to read one of the clauses of the a private English medium school under their 'general guidelines for students' that is published on their website. It reads like this:

"Conversation in English - During the school hours but for Hindi classes the students are informed to converse in English which is essential in developing communicative skill in English.  Other than Hindi periods in the class and in the campus and also in the bus English must be the spoken language; if not spot fine will be charged."

So this school threatens the students to speak in English only, in the campus and also while they commute to the school by the school buses. Else they would be fined. The school is honest to declare that they do it to encourage their students to speak in English! Obviously, the school tries to tell that communication skills in English is the most important thing to develop in life as a school going boy or girl for future success! 

And this school is not an exception. There are several such schools in India who frame their ill conceived rules this manner, many of them contradicting the Constitution and the laws of the country in this manner. 

This school is managed by a society formed by Malayalam speaking members of a Kerala based church located in North India. The school administration  is carried out by an elected management committee, having very ordinary folks as its members having pretty no idea about the rules and laws that the governments issue from time to time. Effectively, they are guided by one or two external advisers who pose as chartered accountants and lawyers with some contacts in the concerned government departments. The school committee thankfully take their advises and perhaps even obliged to take 'other' kinds of helps that are required to keep them safeguarded from the government officials who are likely to pounce on them for possible violations of government directives that keep coming from time to time.

Thus a new kind of game gets started. The schools do the education business and money pours in as fees. The more the schools reputation with results and the infrastructure the more the students they get. The more the students, the more the money they get as fees. The more the money, the more the government departments come in to monitor them. The more the government scrutiny the more they have to spend to be compliant with government directives. The more they try to be compliant by unfair means, the more they spend later directly and indirectly for escaping government's punishment acts. The more such indirect acts needed for compliance, the more the chances of the managing committee members to make personal benefits!

This process then leads to a kind of give-and-take friendship among the players. Both sides become influential.

This way running any educational institution could be done by any one in India even if they do not know any thing about the law or about the field that they manage. The educational institutions in India are not managed by any eminent educationist. Any teacher or professor employed by an educational institute who is in the good books of the educational society eventually becomes an eminent educationist.  

The members of the educational society need not have any experience of their own to vouch for the efficacy of English medium education. Even the teachers need not be those who are excellent in teaching in English. What they need to have is the desire to imitate what the so called Indian educationists elsewhere are apparently doing. And that desire is not essentially based on their desire to turn their students to English speaking Anglo-Indians, but by the desire to promote a pseudo aura about the school's elitist culture that would attract more and more parents to send their children to them! And that would ensure them to earn a steady future income and also maintain their influence in the society indirectly.   

But who are responsible for this situation? It is easy to blame the over anxious parents who want the best education for their kids. But personally by analyzing the situation, I consider the parents are not to be blamed. Most parents I talk to and even me myself have been mere victims of the situation. The existing educational institutions who have been doing yeoman service to the nation have been clandestinely closed down by creating situations for their closure or non-performance. 

Is it the unholy or rather ill conceived nexus between  the governmental authorities and the private educational institutions responsible for creating such a thing to happen in India? I am not sure. 

I think it is the unwillingness of the governments to open up education system in India. It is an erroneous thinking that educational societies are formed by eminent citizens with desired levels of qualifications and experience to establish and manage educational institutions effectively for the common good of the nation. Unfortunately, the Societies Registration Acts in force in many states of India are too vague and have no practically effective supervisory controls in regulating the education activity in India. The governments control the education sector by using various administrative orders and also by controlling the examination boards , the universities and also the entrance examinations.

It is again to be stressed that eminent educationists and highly educated and experienced people who are capable of understanding the psychology of children well have no role whatsoever to play in the education management in India. Just as the Indian politics, the Indian education has also degraded to such levels that people with some self respect cannot think of associating with it! Education in India is in the hands of people associated with religion, politics and the like and they would not allow those who are not of that kind to enter into that field.

Artificial scarcity in education in India has made education black market. Helpless parents are anxious about the future education of their children. Fees are sky rocketing year after year. A parent who has a transferable and non-influential job in India posted in a city faces his or her greatest ordeal in life to get a school admission for his or her son or daughter. Many young people are shying away from having children for the dread of education for their children!

Educational societies are making a kill and are not answerable to the most important stake holders-the parents and the students. Unless one is having political blessing, no educational institution can be established. Individuals or companies are not allowed to enter into the formal education field in India.

Education stands as a clandestine business just as public transport, liquor trade, petroleum trade, health industry and the like in India. Those who know the tricks of the trade, big fortunes are awaited at the cost of the poor children and their parents! What a nice country to live on. Any wonder that the Indians who go the USA or Canada for a job do not want to return any time later?

But the worst that can happen is the hijack of Indian educational institutions established by religious organizations by those who have no religious good left in them!

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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 !

  

What Will You Do If It Happens in Your Life ?

Yesterday I got a call from a person whom I had known well some decades ago. Without him elaborating, I perceived that he was in great distress. He was hesitant to tell or ask for a help. He needed something at that moment to save him and his family from immediate financial ruin. I am happy that I could do something yesterday for him even though it might not sustain him for ever. That in any case is up to the invisible ministers of the universe administration who are all around us !

Any way to tell you the truth, giving is a great pleasure. A pleasure you have to know for yourself. Much more than what you get from receiving. Again, if you are in a position to give, it is a higher privilege vested on you !

I would like to tell some thing more about the person who called me yesterday. When I met him the first time, he was an engineering technician cum supervisor of an engineering construction company. This company was entrusted with some chemical plant erection contract for my company where I used to function as the engineer- in-charge. This was some time in the early 1980's.

He spoke my mother tongue and hence in another couple of days he became very close to me. I found him a very talented technician with superb skills in engineering erection and construction. He did not possess any worthy certificates of formal education. But his skills and knowledge he gained through practical experience and observations were commendable. He was also a good leader for his team of construction workers. I found that his company was making a good fortune simply depending on the skills of this man.

One day I pointed out this to him and encouraged him to set up his own construction contract firm. He acted on it with some initial guidance from me and soon established a very successful engineering construction company. He bagged a few independent contracts and soon his company prospered with very good profits and financial status. I remember the time when he brought his first graduate engineer and first qualified accountant he recruited for his firm to me and introduced them to me. 

Soon there after he became so immersed in his business that his contact with me snapped. For some more time I used to hear about him. By this time he had become a really wealthy man. Wealth and money with him were much more than an engineer like me could amass in a life time ! Later I also learnt that he was very influential in the local politics also as some of the political leaders who became very prominent later were his proteges.

Nearly two decades later, he appeared to me all of a sudden in a new prominent restaurant that was opened in the area where me and my wife had gone to dine. He was the owner of the restaurant. He told me that he had he had diversified his business. Though he was showing due respect to me, he talked much about his influences and holds in politics, police and the like. He offered me any help with his battalion of goons that he had raised for his protection and maintenance of business activities, if at all I needed some of those !

My God ! What a transformation money and power can bring about ! I thought .

Nearly another decade passed. One fine morning I was surprised to find him in my office.

This time, he was a ruined man. His money and wealth had all gone. He was now facing successive failures. But he was confident of making a come back !

Then I did not hear from him for another year. Then one day, he came to my house.

He wanted to tell me his story. I listened. He was still a ruined man financially. It was difficult for me to believe that he did not have anything even to buy food for the day.

But, yet he appeared to be happier and pious than he was an year ago when he met me in my office.

Then he told me another thing. He told me that he and his family are now followers of Jesus Christ.

It was something difficult for me to believe. He was a staunch Hindu and a supporter of a militant ideology earlier !

Who converted him ? None. That was what he said. He was converted to be a christian by none other than Jesus Christ ! Too difficult for me to digest, being a nominal christian my self !

Was it his financial ruin that forced him for this change of mind ?

Perhaps yes. But the financial ruin had forced him to attempt suicide en masse with his family. But at that time of great distress when they were about to die, it was Jesus who brought about a change in them. A change to live a different life ! That was what he told me !

I could read the sparkle of happiness in his eyes, even at the time of great uncertainty in continuing with his earthly life. Later I met his wife and his children. I found the same in their eyes too.

I kept observing him in his trials and tribulations of earthly life in his new way of life. Perhaps this time he was facing more troubles. But yet he and his family continued to sustain triumphantly. There were inducements to go back to his earlier way of life. Perhaps he could make his life materially successful once again. But I find them not willing to do that for the transcendental joys they have found now.

There are things in this world which are beyond our understanding !

While I type this in, another story also came into my mind which thought of sharing with you all.

While I was a small boy, I used to hear about one of the brothers of my grand mother, who at that time served the lone international airline company of India at that time as a pilot.

He was an aristocrat of our family having married to a lady from similar backgrounds while we all remained at our villages as their crude country relatives.

As a boy I had an immense desire to meet this great uncle of mine who flew airplanes, a rare fascinating machine of those days.

I used to hear our family members talking about his life styles, his salaries and the like. While we went to village schools, his children never went to schools for studies, which used to be for lesser mortals. Instead, they were taught at home by tutors to make them pass the prestigious Cambridge school certificate examinations.

We never had an opportunity to meet him or his family while he flew over the globe.

Then some time in early nineteen sixties, the news about his losing job percolated to the family circles. He was suspended pending enquiry for some irregularity at the fag end of his career.

For a couple of years he sustained by consuming all that were at his disposal to come to a naught at some time later.

He fell from a height, down to stark realities of life ! They had relatives and friends elsewhere. He could have approached some of them with whom he was in contact. Those who matched his life style earlier.

But the stark truth all of a sudden made him realize that such friends and relatives are of no use when you are in real trouble. Aristocrats have no time for failing fellows ! Even he would have done the same way had he remained in the same fashion !

So what is next for the aristocrat who was defeated in life ?

Death ?  Yes, that is what the rule book of theirs said.

So this great uncle with his entire family decided to end their lives one fine day. They had faced a humiliating reality of life with no possible solution.

But his youngest son in his pre-teens spoiled their plans.

It was this time that some of the other family members extended a helping hand.

My father was one among them.

That resulted in this great uncle living in our home for more than three years. As a high school boy at that time I got the opportunity to learn many things from this man who was also a royal air force pilot of world war-2. He had become a  down to earth friend of mine !

Many times this thought used to come to my mind.

What would I do if such a thing happen in my life ?

I do not know.

It's a difficult thing.

But it does happen with many in this world.

Money, wealth and power do come and bless many abundantly. But it also could vanish all of a sudden just as it came !

So what have I learnt from these ?

First, if I am not abundantly blessed with these, I should be happy.

God is listening to my daily prayer: " Father, give us this day the daily bread ."

But if He bestows more than that, it is an additional responsibility. I should be careful. I should consciously make efforts not to get carried away by this wealth, money or power.

I should make conscious efforts not to hurt others with these material power gadgets that are under my command. I should feel humbled and should think of using these for the benefit of others, if possible.

If I do not, what is going to happen ? Perhaps nothing.

But I would indeed lose the opportunity to help.

An opportunity to get refreshed by the joy and pleasure that the god within me radiated from deep inside me.

Observing all these, I guess,  I am learning the meaning of this prayer that Jesus taught:

"Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil."

That I have been reciting almost every day for years !

But now in real life situations, I prefer to go by the advice of Jesus to the rich man, as narrated in my favorite book :

" When in honest doubt about the equity and justice of material situations, let your decisions favor those who are in need, favor those who suffer the misfortune of undeserved hardships.”

What Makes You Consider (You, Me or They) As the Most Fortunate ?

Long ago, a friend of mine took me to one of his uncles living in a palatial house in the midst of the largest metro city of India.

The man was in his Seventies and was living with his old wife and a host of servants.

His house was a three storeyed one having many rooms and facilities like a star hotel. Guessing by the size of this modern house, I guessed that there would be some swimming pool too some where behind !

He was very courteous and welcomed his not so wealthy nephew and his friend warmly and took us to one of his posh guest entertaining rooms which had a mini bar at one side displaying exotic brands of liquors in various designs of  glass bottles in varying shapes and colours.

While entering the house through the security gate, I had observed a few imported cars in the compound, kept shining by regular care !

He made us sat on the luxurious sofas comfortably and sat by our side. He was making extra efforts to make me feel at ease with his magnanimous gestures.

Yet there was that unmistakable guise of artificiality in all his gestures, which had become part of his personality as a successful business man over the last few decades.

Within minutes an young lady, brought in to a few sparkling glasses in a tray. Obviously tea or coffee were for those lesser mortals. And he was not one of that kind !

I commented and appreciated him for his fortunes and worldly achievements of wealth !

But he seemed not content with his achievements.

He told me that he was a very unlucky man and a dejected father.

Unlucky because another business man of his city of his age, who had nothing a couple of years ago when he had millions, was now marching forward to become one of the richest in the world !

Dejected father because his only daughter who had become a doctor of eminence had rejected to accept the wealth he had amassed in his life and refused to look after his business empire in India. She had migrated to a foreign country !

For nearly two hours he kept telling us many things. Obviously he wanted some one to share his mind which was nearly absent in his palatial mansion like home !

In between he told me that the chair I was sitting was occasionally occupied by the first citizen of the state who was a close soul mate of him.

When I said he was a very fortunate bureaucrat he denied that and told us some real stories to prove the misfortunes of his soul mate.

Obviously this enormous wealth this old man and the enormous political power of his old friend were not making them fortunate in their own assessments during those years when they got the time to do the self assessments !

I was in doubt now. Should I benchmark my self with these so-called fortunate individuals who evaluated themselves as not fortunate !

If I do not, then how can I work out a standard for measuring my 'fortunes' or any one else 'fortunes' ?

I want to ask those who read this, about their views on this.

What makes you feel fortunate in life ?

[I no longer consider benchmarking wealth or power with any one. Nor do I consider possession of these by any one to be regarded as some thing fortunate in life. Instead, wealth and power, in the hands of any one as a great responsibility. A great responsibility to do greater service to others. If this responsibility cannot be taken up, wealth and power is a burden. If wealth and power are used for personal enhancement of pleasures, they would eventually become agents of destruction causing much distress and pains some time later. 

At this point I am compelled to quote a few things from my favorite book- the Urantia Book- which narrates the incident when a rich Roman citizen approached Jesus for his counselling regarding the use of his wealth. For brevity, I am reproducing only some select portions from the original narration:

After many intimate conferences this wealthy citizen asked Jesus what he would do with wealth if he had it, and Jesus answered him:

“I would bestow material wealth for the enhancement of material life, even as I would minister knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual service for the enrichment of the intellectual life, the ennoblement of the social life, and the advancement of the spiritual life. I would administer material wealth as a wise and effective trustee of the resources of one generation for the benefit and ennoblement of the next and succeeding generations.” 

But the rich man was not fully satisfied with Jesus’ answer.

He made bold to ask again:

“But what do you think a man in my position should do with his wealth? Should I keep it, or should I give it away?”

Jesus then decided to advise him some more as the rich man was willing to listen to his advice.

"As steward of inherited wealth you should consider its sources. You are under moral obligation to represent the past generation in the honest transmittal of legitimate wealth to succeeding generations after subtracting a fair toll for the benefit of the present generation. But you are not obligated to perpetuate any dishonesty or injustice involved in the unfair accumulation of wealth by your ancestors. Any portion of your inherited wealth which turns out to have been derived through fraud or unfairness, you may disburse in accordance with your convictions of justice, generosity, and restitution. The remainder of your legitimate inherited wealth you may use in equity and transmit in security as the trustee of one generation for another. Wise discrimination and sound judgment should dictate your decisions regarding the bequest of riches to your successors.

Everyone who enjoys wealth as a result of discovery should remember that one individual can live on earth but a short season and should, therefore, make adequate provision for the sharing of these discoveries in helpful ways by the largest possible number of his fellow men. While the discoverer should not be denied all reward for efforts of discovery, neither should he selfishly presume to lay claim to all of the advantages and blessings to be derived from the uncovering of nature’s hoarded resources.

As long as men choose to conduct the world’s business by trade and barter, they are entitled to a fair and legitimate profit. Every tradesman deserves wages for his services; the merchant is entitled to his hire. The fairness of trade and the honest treatment accorded one’s fellows in the organized business of the world create many different sorts of profit wealth, and all these sources of wealth must be judged by the highest principles of justice, honesty, and fairness. The honest trader should not hesitate to take the same profit which he would gladly accord his fellow trader in a similar transaction. While this sort of wealth is not identical with individually earned income when business dealings are conducted on a large scale, at the same time, such honestly accumulated wealth endows its possessor with a considerable equity as regards a voice in its subsequent distribution.

No mortal who knows God and seeks to do the divine will can stoop to engage in the oppressions of wealth. No noble man will strive to accumulate riches and amass wealth-power by the enslavement or unfair exploitation of his brothers in the flesh. Riches are a moral curse and a spiritual stigma when they are derived from the sweat of oppressed mortal man. All such wealth should be restored to those who have thus been robbed or to their children and their children’s children. An enduring civilization cannot be built upon the practice of defrauding the laborer of his hire.

Honest wealth is entitled to interest. As long as men borrow and lend, that which is fair interest may be collected provided the capital lent was legitimate wealth. First cleanse your capital before you lay claim to the interest. Do not become so small and grasping that you would stoop to the practice of usury. Never permit yourself to be so selfish as to employ money-power to gain unfair advantage over your struggling fellows. Yield not to the temptation to take usury from your brother in financial distress.

If you chance to secure wealth by flights of genius, if your riches are derived from the rewards of inventive endowment, do not lay claim to an unfair portion of such rewards. The genius owes something to both his ancestors and his progeny; likewise is he under obligation to the race, nation, and circumstances of his inventive discoveries; he should also remember that it was as man among men that he labored and wrought out his inventions. It would be equally unjust to deprive the genius of all his increment of wealth. And it will ever be impossible for men to establish rules and regulations applicable equally to all these problems of the equitable distribution of wealth. You must first recognize man as your brother, and if you honestly desire to do by him as you would have him do by you, the commonplace dictates of justice, honesty, and fairness will guide you in the just and impartial settlement of every recurring problem of economic rewards and social justice.

Except for the just and legitimate fees earned in administration, no man should lay personal claim to that wealth which time and chance may cause to fall into his hands. Accidental riches should be regarded somewhat in the light of a trust to be expended for the benefit of one’s social or economic group. The possessors of such wealth should be accorded the major voice in the determination of the wise and effective distribution of such unearned resources. Civilized man will not always look upon all that he controls as his personal and private possession.

 If any portion of your fortune has been knowingly derived from fraud; if aught of your wealth has been accumulated by dishonest practices or unfair methods; if your riches are the product of unjust dealings with your fellows, make haste to restore all these ill-gotten gains to the rightful owners. Make full amends and thus cleanse your fortune of all dishonest riches.

The trusteeship of the wealth of one person for the benefit of others is a solemn and sacred responsibility. Do not hazard or jeopardize such a trust. Take for yourself of any trust only that which all honest men would allow.

That part of your fortune which represents the earnings of your own mental and physical efforts — if your work has been done in fairness and equity — is truly your own. No man can gainsay your right to hold and use such wealth as you may see fit provided your exercise of this right does not work harm upon your fellows.”

If you have read this much, you possibly have understood what I concluded earlier!

Would you consider writing your own feelings here using the comments tool?

By any means did it occur to you to consider knowing more about the Urantia Book and reading it ?

If so click this Urantia-India website link.



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How Do They Cause Bloodshed in Democratic Protest Marches ? An Eye Witness Account From India !

Though Mahatma Gandhi is considered as the father of modern India who won her independence by adopting non-violent peoples' protests against the rulers, his so called Indian followers who inherited the chance to rule the country apparently do not allow their fellow citizens to adopt to such foolish methods of protest any more.

The second or third generation Indian rulers and administrators of independent India might be laughing in their heart of hearts at the foolishness of their predecessors for succumbing to the peaceful and harmless protests of Gandhiji and leaving their controls on the subcontinent.

Had they been in the place of those British rulers and administrators, Gandhiji would have miserably failed in his mission or would have transformed himself from an Ahimsawadi [ believer of non-violence] to a Himsawadi [proponent of violence].

The modern day Indian rulers and their all Indian administrative machinery seem restless and impatient in handling non-violent democratic protests that they seem to be using all efforts that they can to make a peaceful protest into something where blood is shed and transforming the peace loving poor Indians' hearts and brains to burn with hatred to them- their own lucky brothers and sisters whom they have elected to serve as ministers or governors or administrators of their beloved land for a certain period.

Otherwise what is the logic in those police actions against the peaceful protestors following Anna Hazare and his team in Delhi in the recent past ? Did the protestors resort to violence to call for such actions ?

I do not know. I have so far never been to any such sites of protests by fellow Indians for various demands or issues. What I knew was from the news media. But that was till yesterday. Yesterday, I became an eye witness to a peaceful protest march in one part of this nation and the manner in which the law enforcers handled it causing bloodshed on either sides.

My office is in this state capital city and my residence is just a kilometer away in a secured small township owned by our company, which is a 'Maharatna PSU' . All officers like me who stay in this township normally go home during the one hour lunch break.

To save on petrol and to reduce the traffic on road, we have recently adopted a car-pool for our  lunch errand.

Between the office and the residence, there is a stretch of about 300 metres of road that comes under the city corporation where the road has also to cross a busy trunk rail route. To enter our township we have to cross the National Highway 75. Our township has a guarded gate which is common to a famous public school too through which thousands of school children also enter and exit every day. [see the map of the area here !]

This national high way is the main link to all people who want to reach the city's airport and one of the main railway stations. Unfortunately for the law abiding citizens, this part of the road also connects the state's secretariate complex housing the legislative assembly building and the residences of many VIPs including the Chief Minister and the Governor. So this part of the NH is also called the VIP road.

In India, if you are an ordinary citizen living accidentally near to the movement zone of the so-called VIPs, even God may not be in a position to save you from your misfortune ! Because, it is now a routine for the brilliant police administrators to ignore the sentiments of the public for the sake of what they now passionately call 'security'. They routinely stop all vehicular movements in the wide roads for such time as they please for the VIP [ Very Important Person which now means a person in India who holds a position in the government or administration who uses a beacon light on his vehicle as a mark of his status!]   and his/her motorcade to pass. Unfortunately, Gandhiji's successors in modern India who started tasting the glories of democratic power want to become like the British Queen in pomp and show ! Why should we spend our money and time if there is no glamour of the power ? They seem to be asking ! The well decorated kings and queens of the past appeal to them much more than the simple fakir figure of Gandhiji !

So the roads in India are stopped at the sweet will of the administrators small or big at any time for any reason. So please do not consider Google's estimated time of travel if you are on Indian roads !

The modern day administrators of India seem to be pretty arrogant when they deal with the rest of the public citizenry in such situations. They do not bother about the incoveniences caused to the public when all roads are closed for their so called security reasons ! They do not even bother for other kind of responsible citizens for whom time is as important as their own VIP masters !

Me and my colleagues too are public servants, but we are not beacon light VIPs. We used to be like them a few decades ago when no one ever used the beacon lights on their official vehicles. Our vehichles perhaps had a small identification on the number plates showing the organization to which the vehicle belonged. The majority PSU officers now drive their own vehicles for going to office, a transformation that had taken place. On the other hand, those public servants who are directly connected with the central, state or local government departments use a beacon light vehicle. The type of the vehicle and the color of the beacon light are the mark of their position and status. Unlike the past, these kind of government vehicles displaying their authority to the public are a normal sight in modern India. Somehow this rampant display of authority by all Dick and Harry from the government service causes an immediate repulsion in the minds of the rest of the citizens against the ruling party. Often the VIP motorcade consists of all kinds of beacon lighted vehicles of this kind belonging to the lower rung government officers. Though some wise men in the government understand the damage that they create to them by this display of power on the roads, they have some how utterly failed to stop this status mania that has affected the government servants of this era.

Though the PSU officers by definition are public servants, they are no longer government officers who  enjoy any status better than the normal public. Our company may be called a Maharatna, but the meaning of that is not of any worth to the officers and staff of the company. We too are stopped and herded out by ordinary policemen when the beacon light vehicles of the government staff cris-cross the the roads. So we are in a position to understand the heartbeats of the public much better than the beacon lighted government servants who have opted to get themselves isolated from all public who do not have any thing to gain from them.

Now coming back to yesterday's story.

While leaving the office for lunch, we find the road leading to our township packed with vehichles due to a big traffic jam. We knew another route and tried that instead only to be entangled there too in a big traffic jam just on the four lane NH 75. We had initially no idea about the cause, but soon we found that a small procession of people shouting slowly moving ahead. Obviously they are peaceful protestors from the villages, amply led by some party leadership now in the opposition.

The administration knowing fully well about this peace march in advance had decided to stop the protesters from reaching the state assembly building where they perhaps wanted to show off their protest. So, they had constructed road blocks on the high way that is the only way for us to reach our homes and for many others to reach the airport and the railway station.

The police could have easily allowed the traffic of non protestors to move ahead to their destinations. But for reasons known only to them, they did not allow that to happen. They prevented the public movement on the road. At least when our car reached the place it was not the protesters who were blocking the road. It were the police pickets and the police vehicles of all kinds.

There were scores of vehicles of my colleagues who just wanted to reach our homes a few meters away for lunch. But we were stopped and forced to move into an open field by the side of the road between the rail way line.

We took the vehicles as far as we could from the possible melee that could happen on the high way.

The protestors wanted to move ahead to their destination which was some 2 km ahead, but the police would not allow. They would not allow not only the protesters but also all others like us who wanted to elsewhere.

Time was running out and we were on the hot sun on this muddy ground with our cars, hungry and thirsty. The police have started to use their riot control vehichles' water canons though there was no riots by the protesters. Then there was a huge exodus of the villagers towards the place we were standing with our vehicles with no way to go anywhere.

Apparently there was a lathicharge [caning] by the police that the peaceful village folk comprising of men and women made a retreat to our side, the only way they could also move. Then they stood there among us behind our stranded vehicles as they too had no way to move out.

For a moment I remembered Jalianwala Bagh Massacre about which I had studied in my schools. What if the police tried the  other weaponry that they had in their possession now ? They could very well do that if their commanding officer so commanded.

Here we are trapped between the armed police whose numbers matched the number of the poor villagers, armless ofcourse. We saw their political leaders calling them to come back to the road instead of running away to the field where they stood now. But they were reluctant. Life was dear to them just as it was to us !

With me there was my colleague who personally knew the second in command of the state police who thought it fit to call this officer for helping us to get out of this possible one way battle field. Though he could talk to him over phone he communicated his inability to help as he was out of the state. Then there was my boss who held the position of an executive director of our Navaratna PSU who thought of talking to the police officers on the road to help us out. He was not allowed to meet them.

Then all of a sudden we saw a vehicle fitted with loud speakers moving slowly towards the police picket on the highway calling out the people to gather. A few of the villagers began to move towards their leaders from the field. Then all of a sudden the police began to fire tear gas shells towards the place we were standing with our vehicles parked on the raw field, about 150 meters away from the high way. The shells began to explode over our heads, one just a few meters away from me. And there was no place for us to run from there at this age of ours when we are just a couple of years from retirement!

The police fired 16 shells on us and it is only God's grace that none of us got injured or dead so ungracefully ! We just did not understand what prompted the police to act in this manner and do such a thing ! We had to be on this battle field created by the police for nearly 3 hours before we were finally allowed to move out.

Fortunately for us, nothing happened to us and escaped unhurt. But that was not so for a poor villager. He lost his life. He was apparently run over by the riot control vehicle of the police !

The political and the administrative leadership in this country is slowly losing their wisdom and patience. It appears that those qualities are getting replaced  with arrogancy, pride and contempt to fellow citizens.

Forgetting what Gandhiji had taught and demonstrated may not be good for modern India in the long run !

People who do not believe in democratic processes and those helping failure of democracy directly or indirectly by causing alienation of people from the administrative machinery should be doing a good thing if they spend some time to think about the power of non-violence in achieving the best in a society and for their nation !

May God give them the wisdom for that !

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India Goes Powerless Again: Can We Prevent these Disasters?

Powerless again, Northern and Eastern Grid break down

Click the title above to read the MSN news on the power grid failure that paralysed north and east India in the last 48 hours.

In India all electric power generators, small and big, ranging from 1MW to 500 MW or even higher are all connected to the grid through complex electrical switch gears having a high degree of automation.

If the power demand in some part of the grid goes high, the generators supplying power to the grid slows down and the frequency AC power dips from the normal of 50 Hz. To meet the higher load, the steam or water turbines that rotate the alternators have to be fed with more steam or water as the case may be. If this demand for power goes more than their capacities, at some point some alternator slows down to such levels that its safety mechanism isolates it from the grid. This causes a sudden extra power demand burden on the other alternators. The power management system of the grid have to trip some consumer networks to balance the power in the shortest time possible, either automatically or manually. Some times this balancing act is so tricky and shaky that the entire power grid collapses as a result of system fluctuations.

This situation is a nightmarish one for the power engineers who manage the power generation stations.

It takes time for them to bring everything back to normalcy.

These kind of system imbalances also causes much distress not only to the humans but also to the machines. The chances of machine life getting reduced or development of potential failure faults in the machines and power grid switch gears for creating uncalled for failures at a future date increase.

All could have been minimised if Indian authorities had taken some fundamental care in managing their power management systems with respect to the following:

1. Allowing independent power supply systems for specific communities and industries which are not directly connected to the national grid.

2. Reducing political and non-professional decision making in power system management

3. Introducing mandatory professional competency certification for all engineers and technicians working in power system operation, maintenance and management.

4. Creating appropriate standards for power equipment and systems and appropriate mechanisms for quality control management.

5. Creating an appropriate national authority which is statutorily authorized to plan , implement ,supervise  or coordinate all policies , programmes, projects and systems  connected with power generation and distribution at the national level. 

6. Plan and implement systems that make power management simpler to understand and manage 

7. Prevent arbitrary postings and transfers of power management personnel. 

It is not difficult. But the political leadership should have a will, vision and ability to identify competent professional leaders who can do all these.

Just as they did in identifying one such person for a project such as the Delhi Metro, their senses should work in identifying more such professional leaders from the millions, instead of getting pseudo professionals who might be willing to please them.