Always a topic on the discussion board in every workplace, table, conference…

Or rather for a some people always a sore point (not that it has happened to me, but who cares, someday it will :) ) because this SHIP has no boundaries and the so called “LEADERS” always try to stop you from moving forward by saying “You need to hone your ***SHIP Skills” and that is why you have to stay here…

I will talk (or rather blabber..) about the “try to” part later… for now, let us first try and understand the aspects.

Of all the Ships and Skills in the world, this is the least understood and followed and thus an opening for anyone to create an escape route. From my point of view(and you may disagree), leading and leaders don’t require to be told and repeated telling people cannot create a leader. I mean, how many leaders have been created by forcing your ideas on them? And how many can actually be leaders when they have to confirm to someone else’s idea only? I may agree to a certain extent that leadership skills can be inculcated, but again, that is usually just a learning phase in a leaders’ life to enhance his controlling/maneuvering skills (again arguable, that you may not agree!). Or more appropriately a Polishing phase where the leader yet to be recognized is learning few other skills to achieve his vision.

Leaders are always born, they may or may not recognize their potential, but they are still leaders. No matter which field they choose, they would surge ahead of everyone. They would innovate, they would create, they would discover but would always move ahead of others. Leaders have the uncanny ability to show themselves up in difficult situations and that is how they can be easily recognized. If you throw them a challenge they would solve it faster than anyone else. Please mind that the challenge should be to them and not to you, since there is a big difference in thought process. Don’t take offense since each leader is leader of different domain, some are people leaders, while some might be technical visionary, and others might be business leaders and so on.. So if you give a technical problem to a business leader, what he would do is identify someone (inside or outside his circle) to do the job effectively and vice-versa but this wouldn’t present a challenge to him.

The funny thing is that the so called and self-proclaimed leaders, (could be anyone, or even me :) ) don’t realize this fact (even after saying all this I may not accept it and thereby bury myself!). They try to force their ideas (not at all revolutionary or up to the mark) on all the others or claim someone else’s ideas as their own. Leaders don’t force their ideas on you, you would easily be swayed by their vision and more agreeing to them then anything else. They have the charm, charisma and conviction to take their vision forward and no matter what, people start following them and their vision. Their vision creates a following and followers. Leaders also have the great ability to identify talent and passion in others and they utilize this ability to achieve their goal.

Leaders and their leadership is what drives nations, businesses and world forward… We should respect them as well as ourselves for making the right decision and selecting our leaders. At the same time we should blame ourselves for not selecting the right leaders and/or trying to push everyone to be a leader.

If everyone is a leader, how would an objective be achieved? (remember each leader has his own vision, his own objective and he has even decided the path to be there…) No war can be won, if every warrior is the leader. In fact several nations destroyed, armies lost, civilizations decimated when there are too many leaders or too many forced leaders.

Paths are what we make, goals are what we achieve..

We are what we perceive, we are what we achieve..a

Wow, what an election…

EC goofed up yet again in really providing transparency in voting process, adding the correct voters. People shied away from voting owing to lack of enthusiasm and trust in the democratic system. NGOs blamed people for all the worlds’ miseries. Parties blamed common man for their loss.

And yet, we are at the same place as we were, if not progressed. Before I start writing anything else, I must congratulate the electorate of India and the winners (irrespective of any party) of this 14th Lok Sabha. Each of us is responsible for these leaders sitting there (whether we voted or not, whether it was our candidate or not), so stand up, take your right hand and pat your back!! That is right “A Pat on the Back!!” and lots of clapping.

Now back to the topic…

We are a nation who believes in Kings/Queens/Dynasties and so on and that is why we have selected the Gandhi parivar to rule us. On the other hand we don’t have any other choice, have we? If BJP were to provide an alternate to any government or for that matter any other party which dreams of providing a government at the Centre has to have a right mind-set and right set of leaders bringing National issues to the fore.

First let’s talk about BJP, although my hands are itching to blast CPI/CPM but I would wait for few lines before I jump onto them.

Where did BJP go wrong? Rather the question should be where did they go right to even get more than 100 seats in their name. They selected a leader who has been showing unclear mind-set and no vision for India (even Mrs. Gandhi’s Yesman does better in showing a future image for India), then they have these so-called party presidents and secretaries who their own states’ people detest. Mr. Rajnath Singh, the so called national leader doesn’t have a presence in Uttar Pradesh (his home state) and nor does Mr. Lalji Tandon, both of whom are perceived as corrupt leaders. By throwing back better leaders like Jaitleys and Swarajs and not allowing them to come to fore front and show their leadership (not saying that these people are the best but they are definitely better than others). And what to say for the pseudo issues like money stacked up in foreign banks. We are struggling here with our MPs and MLAs stacking more money than which can be stacked outside and also having multiple underground havala and other scams going on for them. The main issues are Employment, equality, education, food, inflation, medical care etc. These people are not thinking about nation, they are thinking about power.

Enough said for BJP, if they will continue to do the same mistakes and lose out even bigger. This is just the beginning of the end.

So now to the other so-called National Parties like CPI/CPM, with leaders like Mr. Karat who is not only negating the good work done by his predecessors, has also become a major roadblock in India’s progress. I mean whatever happened to CPI/CPM being peoples’ parties, bringing out people’s issues? I think they also are in the lust of power and cannot think beyond. Mr. Achuthanandan, kerela CM, is so drunk with his power that he has forgotten that he is after all a public servant. Kicking out Somnath Chatterji wasn’t bad enough for them, they have much worse things happening inside their party. Can you ever understand the statement to not support the decision of the government but support the government? This is utterly ridiculous.. How can someone support something without supporting it? Looks like the leadership has lost all thought process (something which in mid 70s and 80s was synonymous with Communist parties). And their constant bickering of America while agreeing to anything that China says is atrocious. Both the super powers have their own interest and so should Communists think about Indian interest and not worry about America and China.

I think National Parties should start thinking about the common man. (Although I very much doubt that the common man thinks of anything at all). But the regional parties are one step forward than the national parties.

I am fed up of Mayawati being called DALIT representative, she is just one person who shares the community for her own good. Did she open schools/colleges etc. for dalits/oppressed? How about health schemes? Ok, even better, has she opened up any job opportunities for the educated lot of the same caste/creed? No… But this is not clearly understood by the dalits/muslims/oppressed/backward class etc. They think parties like SP, BSP etc. will take up their cause. For years now, they have done nothing other than use their vote banks to increase their bank balance. Think about the current worth of Mayawati’s assets! If she was really interested in doing anything for the community, she doesn’t even need any government or anything to start basic schemes.

I am really worried with the sorry state of leadership this country has. The well received congress has MPs and MLAs who just know how to talk but when it comes to doing something useful, they are just not there… (As i have said in my earlier blog)

I think more than small patches, this country now requires a revolution/movement which dethrones this leadership and brings about a fresh change in India. Each of us honest citizen has to contribute towards it to ward off any unruly and criminal leadership. A lot of fault also lies with us, since we don’t do anything much, just sit back and comment (me being one of them!)

Let us all bring a change.

I have had enough!!

No Candidates to vote for!!

What does this mean to us??

Well, these are the thoughts that crop up when I think of elections… What should one do when elections come? There are myriad of options before us Indians:

  1. Do not Vote
  2. Vote for the same CASTE candidate
  3. Vote for the same RELIGION candidate
  4. Vote for a party which supports your RELIGION

and so on.. Isn’t it funny that none of the above options are reasonable for a fruitful democracy. Well, that is what the worlds biggest democracy is all about.

We have a party which calls itself the most secular party of the nation, but keeps giving preference to one religion over the other and kills people of another religion per se, brings up religious issues to the fore, is highly dynastical and traditionally has been a no gooder for anything. Then we have the supposedly second largest party of the nation, which is also the most un-secular, has no leaders who can take up real issues, cannot take decisions, has the top brass full of corrupt greedy people who cannot even speak a single sentence correctly (in any language) without looking for help. Then there are the communists, who would agree to all inhuman practices of China but would kill someone who says America or UK and just on papers and manifesto talk about people, when they come to power they do zilch!!! After these come the regional parties, parties like BSP who kill and loot people and organizations to make their leader filthy rich, loot the people who they are supposed to represent… And then the other regional parties like MNS, Shiv Sena, AIDMK, DMK, PMK, RJD etc. etc. who thrive on vote banks built by goondas and rowdies …

So what should we do? How do we bring such people to power?

Well, that is a question we all need to answer….. So let the thinking begin…

One of the most controversial and most sought after discussion among people is about success and failure. Literally, success may be a “social status”, for some it is the achievement of goals or objectives they set for themselves, for some it is mere opposite of failure… Similarly failure is failing to achieve the goals/objectives and so on and so forth.

While success is most sought after, failure is often derided. But what most people fail to realize it is that they are not only two parts of the same coin, they are also as irrelevant from one person to another as a Rupee on the Moon.

What I am trying to say is that Mukesh Ambani might be successful in his right and I can be successful in my own way, the measurement of success and/or failure is based on what the person thinks about it.

Success/failure are very very personal and no one else has a right to suggest otherwise.

Life has much more meaning attached to it than mere success and failure.

 

So many times I am surprised by the reaction of the educated lot in my social circle and so many times I get disgusted with the same…

In our society and so many others which I have read about, education has now comes to be an end to earn more… yes, I too believe that education is essential to good earning but I seriously don’t believe in the fact that it is an end… I believe that education is a means to achieve so many more things in life (of-course, the earnings is just a small part…)

Education in our society is so much concentrated on the earnings aspect that the basic essentials are forgotten easily… No matter people earn these higher degrees to show that they are more educated than the few others, but they don’t show the attitude or mental state of a more educated person… So much so that it has forced me to go back and ask myself that is is the same kind of education I would allow myself, my family members or my next generation to go through…

But alas, world is not governed by what is right or wrong (infact, as the saying goes there is no right or wrong), but what is public perception… If this remains to be the course which our society or the others take in future, the human civilization would come to a standstill in terms of understanding, mental growth and will only grow in population…

After all the eternal question of what is life? still remains answers and we have billions of years to go before we find an answer…

Recently visiting the US embassy for the VISA opened my eyes to the Indian Mentality.

We as a nation, as a culture, may be rich or poor… but we have that inherent, inbuilt mental state to appease anyone and everyone who has whiter flesh then ours… It is surprising to note that we could stoop to levels lower than we knew existed to get a US VISA.

It is really disheartening to note that people queuing up for the US VISA are treated (and they allow themselves to be treated this way!!!) like insects by the US embassy officials, often shouting that even one mistake can cost them “life imprisonment” in “INDIA”. So much we have this innate desire to go to US, that we not only allow ourselves to be humiliated, we brag about this too…

Although, I have to travel on official purpose, and I wasn’t the one who was hassled with, there were few who had to answer questions about their marriage which took place 25-30 years back… It is disappointment to a RACE, in a COUNTRY which boasts of innumerable greats… And to add to this insult we have these so called states and communities which measure a person on the basis of his visits to any country… I am not critical of US as such, as they are doing what any countrymen should do… taking pride in their country, making it look like the best in the world (however, the crime rate may be highest there, the % of unemployed people not good either and so on…), but I am disgusted with the Indians (my own country men) who believe that US (or any other European Country) is the best thing that has happened to them…

I am more disgusted and disappointed with the “so called” educated lot that harbors this mentality of visiting/working for/in the US as their ultimate success criteria….

With this mentality in mind, the INDIA that many had hoped for and believed in is long DEAD!!

TIME, LIFE and Thoughts

Hmmm, it has been a really long long time… so here we go on TIME, LIFE and Me

But, nothing has changed… I am still procrastinating each and every job I get, I still get up late, I still struggle to do everything right… (well, not really as in general terms I have never struggled, but to get to the perfection level we yearn, we always struggle)

Well, to look back, time really moves fast… It was really yesterday I had completed my Grad. Life doesn’t gives us lot of time to think…

Lot of time I have heard this statement that “Time is Money!!” but I would say, money is trivial where time steps in… Time is more than anything, it is equivalent to life… time is the next dimension and time is beyond human control… Whether we measure it in seconds, minutes, or whatever; how does it matter?

  Sleep & Think…

Well, why I am blabbering about time is because, time has been something which I have been trying to find for past few weeks. Amazingly, I am still doing okay and not frustrated with anything, probably because I have learnt a few stuff over past some time and I would like to put them in writing…

1.  There are two ways to look at the different problems faced, One is to crib about them and still try to solve them, which would be difficult as you wouldn’t be mentally prepared; the other is to accept the fact that we don’t have control and all we can do is find a solution and the sooner we find one the sooner we will get out of it.

2.  Life is neither a challenge, nor a competition. It is not really about success or failure. My failure may be your success and vice-versa, if that is true, that is not what Life expects from you…

3.  MONEY IS IMPORTANT!! But, NOT BEYOND A POINT!!!

4.  Understanding, compassion, love are few qualities which life expects and time gives you. Utilize them to your best…

All of the above may not be my quotes, per say, but they are very close to what I believe in.

For a long time, I have followed my own philosophy and I continue to do so… I don’t believe that I can learn a lot from others philosophical thoughts… Not only because I cannot understand the tricky thoughts they have put together also because life doesn’t give me time to read, re-read and re-re-read lot of different stuff to understand the same…

Okay this is enough for now…

Not easy to forget…

Human Mind is a complex system, more compex than any supercomputer man ever designed. And this will remain so, for all the ages to come. Among many of its qualities, which scientists, doctors, may or may not know about is the uncanny ability to remember each and every nitty-gritty details of the past but also weave them in the dreams to make a new dream which is as close to reality as we are to it.

It does hurt when someone special, someone close and someone dear leaves you for a journey far beyond. But what hurts more is the fact that you dont knwo whether you will be able to catch up with that special person when youstart your journey…

I was always a special kid, loved by my parents, grandparents and so many others… Now, parents are always special, but grandparents are more so (this is truly vice-versa). The love from my grandparents to me, infact it still does… hardly has there been a day when I don’t remember those old sweet times and those old sweet memories. I have never been able to forget those wonderful wonderful times and still long for them.

I have no answer to the perennial quetion of life and death, but what makes it harder is the fact that Life and Death does do loved ones apart…

I hope in the coming life or journey beyond life or death I would be able to meet these special persons and show my gratitude for the love they showered on me all my life.

I have always been an athiest (atleast from the tiime I remember) but for their sake and mine and the love between us I do hope God does exist and he is taking care of them now and will do that forever…

Let their souls find peace…

Although, most people think that they are both same or related and even for a long period of time, but it is not so…

Infact they seem to be the opposite… there is no co-relation between the two in modern society… most of the highly literate people are uneducated and highly illiterate people turn out to be highly educated.

While literacy is all about how much we can read and write and understand what is written; education is all about understanding and implementing what we have learned. Amazingly though, literate people don’t even give a second thought to what they are doing. Take for instance talking on mobile with all the gyrating parts on one of the most busiest roads (note: not on the 5-6 ft wide footpaths provided for walking) and that too in the same direction to that of traffic, so if someone hits you from back it is his fault that he didn’t realise that the road is supposed for the Mr. Walker… or take for example, people working in highly reputed geek companies crossing the road which has no red lights/stop-lights and has a speed limit of 60KM/hr by showing there hands as if the brakes of the incoming vehicles are embedded in their hands.

I always beleived literacy is a tool to get yourself educated and learned, but now I have second thoughts. Literacy is all about cribbing, shouting fowl words in a foreign language, showing abusive signals, sugar-coating greed for need/necessity and so on and so forth. While education is merely a word used in resume/curricullum-vitae and other literatures.

Decision making is always the bone of contention for lot of folks; it definitely is for me…

When we start to look at the number of decisions which we make in our day to day life it really outnumbers everything else. The irony of this is that we dont have time enough to actually stop and ponder on each of these decisions. The essential character of a person, for the most part, is synonymous with decision making, however very few people give decisions/calls the credence they deserve.

It is when we get up, what we wear, where we go and so on and so forth kind of decisions which define our day, week, month, year and essentially our life. Although the number of decisions which we take is daunting most of the decisions are etched in our understanding because of long training, understanding and that is why we dont notice them. I would classify these decisions as easy ones, with no importance attached.

Then there are those which we take rarely, like whom should I invite to the party?, wher eshould we go for the year end vacation?, etc. etc. These are decisions which we take on a regular basis, give some importance to and thus I classify them as medium difficult.

Then there the toughest ones which we brood over for long and are still unsure of what to do… These are the ones which decide what course our life takes and it is really difficult to comprehend.

We usually shy away from taking big, difficult decisions; but this only adds up to the problem and does not solve anything. Moreover, as much as we delay our difficult decisions we actually end up in not making decisions and leaving things to circumstances/destiny/God/life whatever you want to call it. In effect, we lose control over our own life. (This is what I hate most)

I usually break down the toughest decision into the small parts and only look at things which are in my control. It doesnt make sense to me that we spend our good time over things which are beyond our control, so i just try to evaluate and take decisions on stuff which is still under my control. The good or bad aspect of this is (depending on the view point) that the things under my control for any given decision changes with time.

Faislon se likhi jaati hai kahani zindagi ki, faislon se peeche mat bhago…