Look beyond the horizon!!

 Why are we pursuing B.Tech??
 Why do some of us want to do MBA/M.S??
 Why do we react to situations the way we do??

Many of us would simply say we are doing what we want to do.. But HOLD IT!! Give it some thought ,are we really doing what we want to or are we merely following the crowd.
4 out of ten people in any engineering college would say they are doing B.tech because their family wanted them to do so; 3 of them would say they are doing B.tech because it assures a job; 2 would say it was the most happening thing to do, and they did not want to be the odd ones… and if we are lucky we wound find 1 (the odd one) who says he is doing B.Tech because he wanted to, because he loves computers/machines…
It is actually very rare that we do what we want to and that is why we end up being frustrated or are labeled mediocre. What do you think made people like Steve jobs, Richard Stallman,Linus torvalds, Sharukh khan, Amitabh bachan the celebrities that they are today, some would say luck, some hard work, but I think the most important thing which they have is ATTITUDE , which made them pursue their dreams. Man would have remained a hunter , had the entire mankind refused to think beyond the horizon. It is the crazy belief that we should not go against the flow., which kills the singer/painter/architect/sportsman in us. It deprives us of the fame which we could have achieved had we followed our dreams. Some would quote “its all about money, honey!” , but trust me if you pursue your dream , money would pursue you, be it the mega star Amitabh Bachan or Steve jobs, CEO of Apple ,all are living testimonies to this. When we leave this college , some of us would want to pursue MBA, MS , or some would simply like to work, but just think, if you really want to do what you are planning to do….. Else the entire life you would be a slave of your own job, you would dread going to office everyday, you would be stuck in prison which you would choose yourself. We always have a choice but we should choose what our heart desires and not what the people around us decide. Give it some thought and you would soon realize that the fear of being rejected by the society, makes us go against our dreams. Actually a lot more things are decided by the society, the very definitions of good and bad, are framed by it. The manner in which we should behave, the people with whom we should stay is actually all decided by the society.
It is paradoxical that man who claims to be superior to other animals on the basis of his intellectuality, fails to show it when his fellow human needs it the most. We always believe our ears more than our intellect. I am sure if you look around you would find people branded as malicious because they are either not in terms with the so called elite or perhaps they are going against the flow .Strangely people who are not associated with them even remotely, behave in a fashion which is impertinent to them. If you ask those people the reason for their awkward behavior, you would realize they do so just because they have heard ghastly things about the person and on that basis they now believe that the person is malevolent. Though the person may actually be amiable, and just because he went against the flow, he had to face such atrocious consequences. Little do they realize the effect of their brutality, perhaps if they would have taken the pain of finding the truth, instead of solely believing their ears, they would have regretted their behavior.
Just imagine if every human would have been a coward and would have gone with the flow, then our society would still have been a primitive one and we would have been still practicing evil customs like sati, human sacrifices etc.. But luckily we do have the odd ones in our society who have the courage to rise against the tide. If even some of us give a thought about what we are doing, if we start seeking the reason to everything, not only would we dignify the lives of fellow humans , but would also be able to pursue our own dreams, and live the life which we always wanted to do. So start thinking beyond the horizon , look for a reason behind everything and you would see how beautiful life actually is. 

WAKE UP INDIA!

It is that time of the year when media is flooded with India’s achievements over the past half a century. However that is just one side of the coin .A couple of days back there was a shocking story of Hina Fatima, who was not only attacked with acid but also forced to consume the lethal liquid and the culprit was her husband, who also took the liberty of burning her eyes with cigarette butts. There are thousand other Hina’s across the country, but their voice is not heard, sadly they succumb to the torture and often end up committing suicide, few others however mange to escape and take shelter in women’s rehabilitation centers.
Today every one of us is not only talking about the economic growth of India but is also actively contributing to it. We however don’t bother about bringing justice to the society. We fail to understand that economic growth without social justice and equality would eventually be fatal for India. We have to do something right now else there would be a Hina in every family which would be detrimental to India’s growth. We have always been proud of our culture and heritage, which is laced with tradition like Rakhi, where a brother pledges to protect his sister even in the darkest of situation, a culture in which parents are the highest priority for their children. Ironically today this is reflected only in books and movies. The man today has gone astray.
A popular website quotes that three out of every ten girls are molested by their own brother; a fortnight before a newspaper quoted “Bigamous man tortures spouses for male offspring”, in the same month of July there was a depressing article about female fetus being found at Nayagarh, Orissa; Rajasthan has a women chief minister, and it’s ex-governor was also a women, yet it has one of the lowest sex ratios in the country. Such is the plight of India today.
I believe “rolling stones gathers no moss “, but I also know that rolling stones do wear out. This is exactly what is happening to India today. In order to win the race of Technology and Economy, we keep changing with time; India of 2007 is completely different from India of 1957. This desire to change has eventually resulted in the degradation of India’s culture and Heritage. Wise men have always advised us to be a part of the solution and not the problem, hence I feel that it is up to us to bring justice in society and prevent incidents like that of Hina.
We may not be able to change the ill fate of Hina Fatima, who is in a critical state, but if each one of us takes a conscious step to give respect to our sister, mother and wife then I am sure thousands of Hina would be able to live a life of dignity. It is solely our responsibility that we inculcate into the next generation our culture and heritage. We may not be able to change the past but we can at least make a better tomorrow, by teaching our sons and brothers to treat women with respect, and our daughters and sisters to fight for dignity and respect. Only then will India reach the peril of success and we can heartily celebrate India’s independence.

Food for thought

I often wonder, what is it in man that lies, murders, steals makes him commit the most inhuman crimes. Lately I was reading the biography of Kiran Bedi , and I was inarticulate, by the way the prisoners of tihar jail were treated. It was really shocking to read that the guardians of the society , failed to distinguish between a sensitive human being and a pile of flesh and bones. It was not the lack of hygienic facilities , or the brutal punishments that shocked me , but the treatment of women prisoners. There were at least a dozen reported cases of molestation, which seemed to be the only punishment applicable to women prisoners. Though, this was a tort in itself, the incident which left me aghast was a case which I’m quoting directly from the book:
“In the evening some unfortunate women inmates from this branch (tihar) were forced to come and stand at the outer gates of the prison and customers brought for the privilege of fondling these women through the bars of the main gate”.
Kiran Bedi rightly said “if there was a hell on earth for women, this was it.”
It is really a shame that all this was happening in a country, which ironically is called a motherland, where goddesses like Durga and Kali are worshipped, but one sign of relief is that this took place years before, and now things have changed thanks to Dr.Kiran Bedi, who was appointed the IG (prisons).
Today, such is the situation, that not a single day passes by, when there is no reported case of human torment. Last week there was a horrifying revelation, of a serial killer, mandinder singh by name, who had mercilessly murdered innumerable children, whose skeletons were discovered in his backyard. These incidents, compel me to ask “where are we heading”, there has always been a huge cry about the “brain drain”, but we should now concentrate on “culture drain” taking place, which not only makes the country weak, but for a country like India where culture is the pride of all Indians, it would lead to disaster.
These people (tormenturs) are mentally unfit, and their mind is not at peace. A few decades back it was only in the western countries where such inhuman activities were heard of, and India was at peace. But today the tables are turning. ‘Yoga’ is the “in” thing in the western countries , and thus today such crimes have reduced, thereby proving that yoga does sooth the angry, frustrated, mind, but ironically the place where yoga was bigot, has lost its peace today, the once god fearing Indians, today are fearless, they are too busy in pursuing their career. They have become dangerously ambitious and all they know is themselves.
Strangely, in a country like India where people like mother teresa, Gautam Buddha , preached that the only shortcut to god, is by helping those in need, the poor, the helpless, the disabled .Today people are no way near to follow these wise sayings. Hedonism has attacked the country in a very short time and at an alarming rate. 30 % of tihar inmates were foreigners , who were caught for the possession of drugs and nearly all of them are still under trial, they were abject when Kiran came, as they had no one in India, from whom them could seek help, worse still their lawyers had drawn large amount of money from them, and then disappeared in thin air. This is the treatment they get in the land, where people are supposed to treat guests like God.
If we do not do anything about our society now, it will be soon too late, and we will loose our identity. There is an urgent need for the Indians to realize the “culture drain” . We must preach Indian culture , to all specially yoga and meditation to all agitated minds around us, else soon we will have people from other countries who after expertise in this field, would preach the same to us. \