Demonetization... Let the sanity prevail...

Well, politics is something which usually doesn't make it to my blog... But an exception can always be made when a strong government makes the lesser known words such as 'Surgical Strike' and 'Demonetization' as the top-trenders overnight...

The social media has gone berserk... The news channels have got the sigh of relief as they won't have to create artificial news items for at least few months, all thanks to NaMo...

Photo credits: qz.com

A lot has been said about positive impacts of the decision and the nationwide support which is really commendable...

However, there are few things to highlight from a different angle... (I am neither a Modi-fan nor am I anti-Modi)...

Demonetization to curb black money and corruption is a great theoretical tool... However, the actual outputs are yet to be seen...

There are high probabilities that the smart people are getting ways out of this dodgeball game successfully. The others who are not able to figure out the ways, are either burning or flushing down the black money... But due to the humongous amount of tax and penalties (tax plus 200% penalty), no black money hoarders will come in front to surrender... In such case, all such money will not come to the government and will be rendered useless... Government is not likely to get benefited out of it...

An argument is made that even if the money doesn't come to the government, its destruction will reduce the corruption... Well, this is again a doubtful reasoning... Because corruption doesn't lie in money, it lies in mentality... So even if this so called economic detox may temporarily make the bribers out of money to bribe... But it is just a symptomatic relief... and not the permanent one...

If the government tries to find out the roots of the problem that why a person tries to save tax, it is very evident that the disproportionate assets have their roots in disproportionate taxation system... The ridiculous 10, 20, and 30% income tax slabs mean that if someone is working hard and earning high, they are doing it not for themselves but just for paying higher and higher taxes... It is disheartening to see that the taxes paid by honest working class people are used to build free houses for the people who illegally occupy lands and create (and recreate) slums everywhere throughout the country... 10% of a high-salaried person is proportionately higher than 10% of a low-salaried person... As simple as that... This unjust system taking 30% income tax from high-earning individuals plants the seeds of evil ways to save taxes in the minds of the citizens... If these tax slabs are normalized for all, there will be a real economic balance...

People act from perspectives. Salaried people who are least impacted are welcoming the decision of demonetization... The ones who are impacted may or may not be saying it out loud but they are kind of pissed off... The fact is each one of us is biased depending on our own situation in current scenario...

When we talk of the 'patriotism' of the 'common man' standing in long queues... Well, not to undermine the spirit of a common man, but the fact is, it is 'imposed patriotism', not a voluntary one... Human psychology to take the credit of the situation comes down handy here... In simpler words, most of us who are praising the decision despite enduring the pain, are simply boosting their egos by conveniently proclaiming themselves as the most patriotic creature (consciously or subconsciously)...

The most worrisome part of the whole process is that there is no genuine opposition... RaGa and Kejri are not taken seriously by anyone for obvious reasons... People have revalidated their verdict of electing Modi as PM by hugely supporting Modi's decisions... It is good to see the highest majority of the country having similar opinion... Till now, it's all good... I see the problem when the people start following a leader so religiously that they don't even want to listen to any reasoning against it... I have seen Modi-fans slamming and condemning anyone and everyone who even tries to open their mouth against it even with logic... I see democracy being a bit suffocated somewhere...

All in all, we the commoners of India, even if we are not sure of the outcomes, will give a benefit of doubt, and will support our elected PM in such well-intentioned decisions... But I urge to my fellow citizens to not blindly support any leader... Let's follow the voice of reason... Let's learn to live with a logical opposition as well to keep the authorities in check... Please let the democracy prevail... Let the sanity prevail... 

'Happy'ness or 'happening'ness?

The more I think, the more I grow. The more I grow, the more I realize that - we, the man/woman-kind (not to be gender-biased here :-P) are funny creatures...

The heart wants joys which enrich soul, whereas the brain considers practical aspects, material stuff, and rationality... This is an age-old story, honestly nothing new in this which can make my blog more interesting (well, more interesting than it already is ;-) )... Therefore, this post is not about the heart vs. brain duals which we all face on a routine basis.

As many intellectuals/spirituals would put it, let's call it 'mind' now on... the entity which takes joint decision of heart and brain... the peace-maker, and the storm-creator... The thing which makes us or breaks us... The one which gives us a unique identity...

Now, what the mind needs in life? The unanimous answer would be 'happy-ness' (the spelling error is intentional - inspired by a movie 'The pursuit of happyness')... So, it sounds simple, we should do what makes us (or our mind) happy... True... But does the same thing makes us happy throughout our life? May be Yes, may be No...

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In a similar dilemma, there is a guy, who lives by the sea... and is a fisherman... As a small boy, he struggled a lot learning the art of catching fish... It gave him happyness to learn catching fish... Every day he struggled to get a breakthrough till one day when he finally learnt and mastered the art... And that was precisely the point when his happyness started to vanish... Few years down the line, the same thing doesn't give him happyness anymore, for he has already learnt the art of fishery... and what he does now every day is just a mundane routine...

After a thorough brainstorming, he somehow realizes that his was the passion for 'learning' the process and not the 'process' itself... Even though he used to face new levels of frustration and challenges, and hit rock bottom everyday while learning, it gave him happyness as something new was 'happening' in his life everyday...

Now as a seasoned fisherman, he just does the task as a chore for it is no longer a 'happening' thing for him... He even gets frustrated with his not-so-passionate attitude now because he feels the same urge of fire within himself which ignited him while he was learning... but sadly it is missing now...

There is this metaphorical fisherman in almost each one of us (except the rare species who has the passion for the 'process' and not just 'learning' the process)...

We struggle to be happy, and eventually get bored of stagnant happyness... We claim that we know our mind best when it will be happy or sad, and we do know it the best... We do know that it is the pursuit which makes our mind happy... But despite knowing, we fail to make it 'happening' enough for our mind to stay 'happy'... We live the rot routine till we get rotten... We are funny creatures, the most evolved yet the most primitive... Isn't it?

Lost and found the festivals...

So, at some point in time, there is this guy... an average bookworm as a child, an enthusiast as a youngster, and a relatively calm intellectual as a matured person...

The guy having spent all his childhood and adolescence in home town, one fine day goes out for studies and job... He loses himself in the cultural diversities that India has to offer... and in the process he finds himself... The initial homesickness turns into sense of global belonging... He is probably the happiest the way he is right now...

But soon as the clock ticks, this 'right now' becomes 'sometime back'... The guy is now back to his hometown, which probably is 'the best thing possible' as his family and local relatives would have him to believe... The guy struggles to believe so as always... probably due to lacking rationale or real-time experience of the things being as fantastic as they used to be in his childhood at home...

But somehow he sticks around... He tries to believe that at least the festivals would be the same as they used to be way back in his childhood... But he is mistaken... There come the festivals Rakhi, Navratri, Diwali, Makarsankrati and so on.

As they say, change is the only constant... He notices that the festivities and the aura has changed over years... but nonetheless, the festivals are being celebrated... Still, somehow the guy is not excited as much as he wants to be by the festivities around him... He is afraid that he has lost the youth within him, which he doesn't wanna let happen at any cost... He tries to figure out why...

And he realizes that probably not the festivities but his festivals are CHANGED... The things which gave him childlike joy have been replaced... He is enthusiastic about some other things now...

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The child burning crackers has probably grown up finding that sound noisy... The child who was keen on flying kites has grown up to be wanting to fly himself... He now fantasizes himself climbing mountains, doing skydiving, cliff jumping, and a whole lot of crazy stuff... and of course, taking Selfies during that...

He has grown up realizing that may be he doesn't want the calendar to decide his festivals... Rather he wants to decide his festivals and mark them on the calendar...

This guy is a social outlier on a social 'normal curve' if not a social outcast... He lost and found his festivals his own way... Did we? :-)

Where are we heading??? – An open letter to all the Indians

Well, those 3 question marks in the title are just indicative - there are many more in real… You might be thinking, what's this all about? Well, it's about our very own so-called GREAT nation...

Lately, the things that are and have been happening here amaze, amuse, surprise, shock, demotivate, sadden, and frustrate me all at once… Being a not-so-keen follower of news, I quote 3 incidents which made a mark on my memory...

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PAST: Few years back, a girl posting something about Balasaheb Thakre on Facebook, her friend 'like'ing it, and both got arrested – ‘A murder of democracy’

PRESENT: The very recent, Patidar-reservation movement...

·        People so demotivated by their cruelly imposed fate of not being able to get what they deserve fair and square - that they start a movement asking for reservation for themselves...

·        The country of bullshit age-old castes and creeds – where hailing from a so-called higher caste was considered once as a matter of pride. The same people are now fighting for being considered as backward...

·        Cherries on the top – those who already have been ENJOYING these privileges irrespective of their capabilities in each and every field for decades now (instead of what was originally applied for 10 years), are still not satisfied. They want to suck more from this country (or more precisely, from the fairly eligible youth of this country)...

·        People playing politics out of all these...

·        The crowd driven by and supporting what I understand as a revolution without ideologies... Had this been a fight for the ‘right to fair competition’, this revolution would have got support from at least one more ‘Hardik Patel’ for sure...

·        And then the great government/police come up with a unique (and what they think as the only) way of controlling the riots - mobile internet curfew in Gujarat
Well, I would be little into-the-face of government and ask this logic-o-phobic administration few very simple questions...

-   Why only mobile internet, and why not wired networks as well?

-   Why entire mobile internet, and not only the social media?

-   Who will reimburse for the validity/data/monetary loss from business?

-   Who is responsible for intangible loss to all not-anyhow-related people?

-   Are we living in some 17th century where you disconnect people anytime for any duration for stupid reasons?

FUTURE: News is that there is yet another feather added to the crown of privacy-predator administration... If true, Whatsapp will soon add a feature that will enable government to read every message being transmitted, and then endorse if it is fine... I mean, REALLY???

Photo credits: Anonymous

There is a huge chunk of such things happening, which probably due to my ignorance I overlook. But, then I feel good actually being a not-so-keen follower of news, for I am saved a bit from the sorry feeling for my country...

Yes, I might sound all negative unlike the passionate youth of this nation which is pretty-much-always-like "we have to change the system, and yes we can"... Well, unfortunately, any such feeling is not occurring right now to me...and I just can think of one thing... As a nation where are we heading???

A Journey to Freedom

Well, after a long time here's something that inspired me to write... and guess what it could be?

It was the FEAR of losing the connect with the "thinker/writer" in me... It is indeed interesting to me that how we get motivated more by what is left to do, than by what we already have achieved... The sense of fullness seldom gives a desire as burning as the emptiness does...

As a matter of fact, it won't be an exaggeration to say that the accomplishments of yours can be inspirational for everyone but you - because you only can be inspired by what is left to be accomplished...

Photo credits: https://drhurd.com

And so the FEAR in my mind boarded the train of thoughts... I started thinking about the wrestlers taking on a fight with the one double of their size; boxers not thinking about getting their nose fractured; skydivers taking the leap of faith (or rather the "dive of faith"); soldiers not thinking twice before running into enemy camp with just a handful of bullets during war...

Don't they have fear? Yes they do... they are not invincible... But probably, their fear of being in a situation where they don't do what they love to do, is much more profound than their fear of breaking their bones or even losing their life...

May be that is what PASSION is all about... The ones who have it, can't imagine themselves not doing what they do best...

And so... being passionate may not mean to be fearless. But in fact being so much fearful to losing the passion that it surpasses all other fears... and that is what truly liberates us...

That's why they say that FREEDOM is never for free... It takes passion and one great fear to overcome all other fears... just like the passion of freedom fighters and great fear of not being able to live in an independent country, actually liberated an entire nation...

So on this Independence Day, I realized that FEAR, PASSION, and then FREEDOM - are all the junctions on a same railway track on which our "train of thoughts" travels... Make sure to hang on till you reach the last one... what say?

When preaching gets easy, preacher gotta keep moving...

And this comes from my recent share of acclimatization... The word "acclimatize" always intrigues me as it is used generally for the test animals (and at times, life treats us as one)... It grows us in the units of "experience", but funny thing is that no matter how much you grow, acclimatization is something that you have to do all over again each time, no exceptions...

And it seems, "getting settled" might be a real thing on some other stationary planet, but technically it is a myth at least on the Earth rotating on its own axis... Change seems to be the only stationary truth here... It feels horrible to get moving, to be "on the other side", and to leave all what the heart is attached to profoundly...

Photo courtesy: www.thesingleseason.com

And once you do that, then you become a student of life all over again... In literal terms also, the transition of becoming a "trainee" from a "trainer" is funny. Funny because even though most of us claim to and are ready to learn always, most of the times when one gets at a certain level/amount of knowledge/experience, the task of getting trained seems to be not so motivating...

I have seen very few experienced people taking the trainings as seriously as an average fresher... So does happen to me... Deep inside, there is an ego-driven feeling of being belittled while taking up a "trainee" role instead of a "trainer" role... And it is until I realize that being a student only makes me a more knowledgeable teacher for the next time I switch the role... The moment I get too comfortable in the "teacher" role,  I don't realize but I start turning into a "preacher", and it should set an alarm to be a student again... I stop existing as a "teacher" until I start existing as a "student"...

And so it has to be... Life takes you to a new horizon every time, from where you could see a sunrise which might seem to be (either more or) less scenic than what you have experienced in the past... And even if so, you can only accept the change by looking it as a "different sunrise" rather than looking it as a "not so beautiful sunrise"... It seems to be the only way to accept the student and give a break to the preacher inside us... What say?

We gave it back, but we didn't give it up...

Well very honestly, "India-cricket-world cup" is not a very new thing in trend, it's an age old (yet ever-young) trio. I might not be good at cricket stats, I am no expert, and I might not be a hard-core cricket fan. But I am a fan of India... And I know one thing that history repeats itself. India has found herself many times on winning/losing sides in important matches like this... and from a historical perspective, it's all stale business. But I witnessed something new today, like never before...

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It's a thumb-rule of this world (or at least this country) to worship the "rising sun"... And we, the Indians would be too pragmatic if we say that we don't feel bad at all on losing. Yes, we do, just like any other human being... So we have been criticising our heroes, praising them, pelting stones at their houses over decades as a herd of over 1.25 billion people. But I saw something different today...

As usual, there was a whole bunch of Kangaroo-supporting Indians, who took pride and termed themselves as rational (and perhaps the most accurate analysts in the world [in a game which is one of the most unpredictable ones]). More than sad, they were proud that their predictions were proved true. (No offence, but I hate you guys on that front - It's serious business when I talk about India - at least show some patriotism).

There was yet another bunch of so-called "fans" (a huge one) who swore Indian cricketers (and their girlfriends) in every possible manner. These critics have been, and will always be there. In the wake of social media, these jokes went viral in no time. (Again, no offence, we all felt bad, but be a sport [at least when you are trying to support a "sport"]).

And then I saw a bunch of people, third of the kind... not so huge in magnitude (but larger than ever before), who acted differently... They too were emotional, they were also sad, but they showed respect to the team. They didn't give up on their own heroes. They did spread messages on social media, counteracting to those huge chunk of cheap jokes on our cricketers.

I have seen sportsmen shaking hands after losing a game, but witnessed such a large group of crazy fans doing so (of course, virtually) for the very first time... I have seen people calling them traitors when they lose (and gods when they win)... But I saw (although a handful of) people saying "It's OK, after all it's just a game" for the very first time...

As a not-so-big-fan of cricket, but a big fan of India, I felt a rare pride. Rare because in the country where crimes and social issues often make us feel ashamed and disgusted, the feeling of people still having sense of humanity is a rare reassurance... period

Love and Adventure: Long-lost Siblings???

A lately-identified passion for extreme adventure, a little dare to thrill, and lots of adrenaline can get you tied to a “bungee” and take you to a cliff from where you are supposed to jump. The height of which could be just 83 meters (272.something feet) ;-)

And when you approach towards what you have been longing for, apart from the usual fight/flight phenomenon, something else also comes up to your mind i.e. sense of cognition – a feeling of having "been there, done that". The similarity surfaces between, (1) the feeling when you are about to propose someone, and (2) the feeling of having balls to do something courageous.

Photo credits: https://storyoflifeandadventures.files.wordpress.com

- The longing to express your feelings AND the longing to go uninhibited

- Incapacity to hide your love AND incapacity to hide your passion for adventure

- Fear of rejection AND fear of failure

- The wait for the reply when you propose AND the initial free-fall and air gushing past your face when you jump

- And once you are done with it – the sense of honest expression of love AND the sense of accomplishing the passion...

These make you feel that love and adventure are brothers from different mothers...

And well, despite all the similarities, a stark difference exists: while adventure may ask you to jump from an edge, love can demand of you to be constantly living on an edge... What say?

"Feels like" fundae

The chilly weather of December-January turns most of the people living in north India either "temperature-curious" or "temperature-conscious"... While it becomes a part of our daily routine to check temperature every morning, it also becomes a matter of pride to few to have survived till now... No matter whatever happens in the world, a certain portion of newspapers, news channel bulletins etc. are always reserved for the cold weather... It is no exaggeration to say that the news channels cannot practically run out of news in winters, for they always manage to measure "record-breaking cold of last X years" every few days - that too every year... I sometimes wonder who would be their faulty record-keeper.

As the "cold" temperature becomes the "hot" topic for tea time (and as and when required) discussions, the "curious" ones must have noticed the "feels like" temperature in their smartphone weather apps... Technically, it is an approximation of human perception of actual temperature based on certain factors such as humidity, wind, pressure, fog... It also relates to wishful interpretation of a situation by human mind... To me, it resembles with the song of movie "1942 - a love story", "ek ladki ko dekha to AISA LAGA". It can also be inferred that this concept must have had romantic angle during its inception...

Though the term "feels like" temperature has only recently been popular through weather apps, the concept seems to be age old... The very nature of the interpretations suggests the resemblance of funda with mental paradoxes (fact vs. feels-like). Just as the fog, pressure, wind and humidity misguide us and prevent us from feeling the actual temperature... So do these mental paradoxes...

Break them free, once and for all...
And once it is done, walk in the foggy morning with little worry or hesitation - and it feels like you are no longer a prisoner of the weather...

Trust: By-people vs. By-religion

Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is not to upgrade or degrade any particular religion, neither to draw any conclusion, nor it is to hurt sentiments of any.
And well, the "disclaimer" is one of the most misinterpreted and bullshit things - the bigger the disclaimers, even bigger is the hypocrisy of people... And moreover, I care less, so I bring it on...

One cold night, Rajdhani express, 3-tier AC coach, I am sleeping my way from Delhi to Ahmedabad. At 12:55am, I am suddenly awakened by continuous whispers by few people trying to settle around. While this is a very common scene in trains, the thing which intrigued me was the inconsistency between their get-ups and their behaviors. They were 3 Muslim guys, and a lady - probably their mother.

Now when we live in a non-cosmopolitan city or local household, we know and expect people around to be of approximately similar culture, language etc. But metro cities, airports, trains etc. are the places where we get privilege to see all the variety of cultures in India. And after a certain point, you get acceptance of the diversity in cultures and it doesn't fear or thrill or intrigue you... So it is, with me. I have friends, colleagues, and acquaintances from diverse cultures and religions - they are as human as all others... The thing different about those people in train was that they were unknown to me.

Photo credits: http://blogs.voanews.com/

When we meet any person for the first time, at least in India especially in trains, we try to figure them out by the minimal information available - 5 things to be specific: clothes, religion (sometimes by clothes), language, region (by language), social standing or "class" (by clothes, region, and language).
Coming back to the people in question - those were well-dressed, usually smiling, and they were whispering continuously in English. The suspicious thing to me was their accent - which was heavy British to somewhat American - but they looked all Indian (or at least Asian)... There was something unusually peculiar about them, or it seemed so (to me at least)... While it is no big deal that a person working in a corporate MNC set-up, or one who has stayed in Europe for few years, can speak or adapt the accent, but that was not the first thought which came into my mind.

Well, in the state of terror in which world is nowadays, the Indian Muslims whispering among themselves, in British English accent at midnight in train, was sufficient to alert me (that is what we are supposed to and told to be all the time in these unfortunate times of bomb blasts, killings, and what not)...
And for a moment, I even thought not to sleep for the remaining time, and observe the surroundings as a "responsible citizen"...
As they settled, slept, and set me writing this, I can now totally believe, that the whispering was all about not disturbing the fellow passengers who were sleeping... I had over-analyzed the situation...  My "alert mode" has been calmed down... I have now come to believe that it might just be the cultural diversity, beyond a threshold of usual acceptance to an un-anticipating mind awakened at midnight - which triggered "alert" mode instead of the "accepter" mode...

Nonetheless, it triggered more important questions to me:

(1) Do we really trust people or their religions?

(2) While it is not by choice, but by force, utmost important to be alert in the today's terror-stricken world, is it really not important to trust people?

(3) Not to preach about "atheism" or "secularism", but will India ever become a truly "religion-neutral" country?

Worth a thought.... isn't it?