Be yourself - Come what may - 17th November 2015

You must have come across many people who want to please others at any cost. Our society is built in such a way that constant comparison with others is the way of life. One is always aspiring for the things which his or her friends or neighbour possesses. People will go to any lengths to buy something better that their peers and will feel very good about it.

If the person is well off and can afford it, then it's no problem. But even the not so better offs are also in this mad race to out-smart their peers in the number of material possessions which they have. And to achieve them they may even beg, borrow or steal. Being better off is anybody's dream, but following unfair or self inflicting practices to achieve that is certainly wrong. It may cause more harm than otherwise.

One may buy an exquisite car and be the entire neighbourhood's envy, but if it has been bought on an exorbitant loan or EMI, then one is sure to lose one's sleep. See, the proposition of being the neighbour's envy has caused mental agony to the person, which may even lead to health issues. If you look at grave cases then such dangerous agendas may even take the form of negative tendencies like hatred and jealously. I may even introduce the feeling of animosity or the tendency of upmanship amongst peers. In the extreme cases it may even result in crimes when one starts showing off in a  particular way which is not at all appreciated by the other person.

Contentment is the key to be away from such materialistic evils. Be content with what you have and don't get swayed by what your friend or relatives are doing or buying. You can always plan well in advance if you are thinking about buying a house or a car, but the call must purely be taken on one's need and not by the peer pressure from your neighbours.  Keep a small part of your saving aside for a rainy day, and if enough gets saved then go for it and get what you aspired for. You may even take a small loan for it, but be doubly sure that you would be able to pay it off comfortably. And most importantly, never show off to your friends and neighbours about your new possession. Just be happy about it and share your experience of how you saved for it and ultimately bought it.

I bet that such constructive way of showing a new possession to your peers will make them feel happy and will give a new found enthusiasm in them that they can even do what you have done. This will never give a negative feeling in them and you would have easily made a negative situation positive for him or her. If everybody were to do a similar thing, then I am sure that many people will be able to achieve what they have always wanted to have - and yes, sans the negative feelings of hatred, jealously and animosity. The society would surely be more calmer and full of constructive minded and positive people to live in.

Always do what seems right to you. Don't just take advise blindly from others - 16th November 2015

You must surely have gone through a stage in life where you would have come across a problem - who doesn't have problems in life, some have little and manageable ones while some have big and frequent ones. Being in that problem stage you must surely have come across people giving you all sorts of advise - same general ones while some very specific ones to overcome them. Some may have come from your elders - parents and relatives while some from your close ones - friends or colleagues. Some may have been given in the passing while some might have sat down with you and shared the details in great depth.

You must have felt better on listening to some of those logical and sound advices while angry at some not so logical ones. Even if you are a loner and don't have many people around you or are not in touch in many people, advises are always around the corner. Just log on to the Internet and you have a number of advises to any possible problem under the sun in various forums or chat groups. The bottomline is that you will have umpteen number of advises or solutions right in front of you to just pick and choose and whisk away the problem once and for all.

But, having said that if all that were true, why are people unable to come over their griefs or problems quickly. The plain reason for the same is that whatever works for one person may not necessarily work for the other. Every problem is unique in itself with the parameters always differing. In short, not two problems are identical - there is some or the other difference in terms of the actual problem or the ingredients of the problem (by ingredients here I mean the nature or the characters or the surrounding around which the problem has arisen).

What also adds to the confusion is that the advise given out by friends and relatives might have not been experienced first hand and hence the solutions might also have been hearsay or heard of or read in some magazine or online forums. So, the question arises what exactly is to be done with so many solutions available but still the problem doesn't seem to go away.

The situation which comes to mind here is of the stock market where two people have contrasting views on a particular trade. The very existence of the stock market is dependent on two people having stark contrasting views. If everybody were to have the same views then the stock markets would soon run out of business (and mind it - if you were to check out the volume of trades daily on any popular stock exchange around the world - the numbers are mind boggling).

So, we know for sure that human mind is very complex and people tend to look at things in quite divergent ways. One may think about peaceful ways to counter the problem while other may take an extreme approach. The advise we have around us should always be thought about thoroughly - in your present context - and then narrowed down to the best possible and feasible one. Blindly following any advise without proper thought might make you land up in more soup than which you originally were in.

So, a calm and calculated mind is required to go through all the advises and filter it down to one or two sound ones. Then, it is necessary to discuss it thoroughly with all the stakeholders so that you may get some more inputs or red flags which you may have earlier ignored. Think it out and after detailed discussion go for it with full conviction - it may or may not work out but you surely will have the peace of mind at the end of the day that you have given it your best shot. Remember what works for one may not necessarily work for you, after all you and only yourself are responsible for the steps taken towards your problem's resolution. You are your own best guide!!!

Tolerance vs Intolerance debate - 15th November 2015

Of late, in India, the hot topic doing the rounds is the debate about whether the present Indian BJP Government is tolerant or intolerant. Enough has been said about it with many political parties, especially the opposition, tearing at the government calling it intolerant. Many people from the field of art have also returned their awards calling upon the government to be more tolerant.

A different section of people from the same field of art differ in their stance and say that it is not up to the government to decide it and even question those giving away the awards as to the timing of their protests, as to why they didn't give them away when much graver crimes were committed against humanity. Whatever be the context or the background the question still remains - who decides if we are tolerant or intolerant.

Technically speaking it is a subjective decision depending about a person's beliefs and his or her level of tolerance. We have all been brought up in different surroundings and amongst different people. For a person who has been bought up with much care, even a hard pinch on the arm would feel like an intolerant act. On the other hand a person who has had a hard an abusive upbringing might not feel even a hard punch on the face as being an intolerant. Then the question arises how can a particular section of society term a government as intolerant.

Running a government in the biggest democracy of the world is not easy and when small incidents of cruelty against a particular minority community makes people make a hue and cry about the government being intolerant, then certainly something is not quite right. The government acts on facts and figures and according to the merits of the case leaving the law enforcement agencies of the particular state to act on the same. If in this instance the entire government is said to be intolerant then something is certainly amiss.

The same people calling the government intolerant today may not take the same stand tomorrow if the same minority community were to commit some form of retaliation in the form of terrorist attacks. In the wake of the terrorist acts in France yesterday, the French officials were quick to issue statements that the perpetrators would not be shown any mercy. Now the question arises if the French government can be termed as being intolerant towards a particular community - in this case the Islamic extremists group ISIS.

With ISIS issuing a statement asking all Muslims to join them in their attack against the atrocities of the Western world, would any act against them be termed as intolerant. So, the need of the hour is not to blame each other but depending on the merits of the case debate with the law enforcement agencies and the Government about the likely action to be taken against the law breakers. If the incident is a small one, then the perpetrator must be brought to book as soon as possible without teeming the entire Government as intolerant. Yes, if the Government is not acting on the case there is very right for the group pursuing the case to approach the judiciary, but calling the entire Government as intolerant is not right.

Having said that the debate is bound to continue as it is a subjective opinion which an individual takes - some may find a particular incident tolerant while some others may find it intolerant. But who are we to decide? Whatever be the perception the work of the Government is to maintain peace and harmony and in maintaining the same if it has to become intolerant towards certain sections or individuals, then it is perfectly alright from the Government's point of view. Then the masses do not need to keep fanning the debate about tolerant and intolerant - but let the Government do its job. 

List of famous personalities who have returned their awards (in favour of Intolerance):

1.	Uday Prakash Hindi writer
2.	Ashok Vajpeyi Hindi poet
3.	Ghulam Nabi Khayal Kashmiri writer
4.	Waryam Sandhu Punjabi writer
5.	Ajmer Singh Aulakh Punjabi writer
6.	GN Ranganatha Rao Kannada translator
7.	Rajesh Joshi Hindi writer
8.	DN Srinath Kannada translator
9.	Rahmat Tarikere Kannada writer
10.	Jaswinder Punjabi poet
11.	Surjit Patar Punjabi poet
12.	Homen Borgohain Assamese journalist
13.	Keki N Daruwalla English poet
14.	Munawar Rana Urdu writer
15.	Krishna Sobti Hindi writer
16.	Marghoob Banihali Kashmiri writer
17.	Kashinath Singh Hindi writer
18.	K. Katyayani Vidhmahe Telugu writer
19.	Nayantara Sahgal English writer
20.	Sarah Joseph Malayalam femnist writer
21.	Rahman Abbas Urdu writer
22.	Gurbachan Singh Bhullar Punjabi writer
23.	Atamjit Singh Punjabi writer
24.	Mangalesh Dabral Hindi writer
25.	Ganesh Devy Gujarati writer
26.	Kum Vee a.k.a. Kumbar Veerabhadrappa Kannada writer
27.	Baldev Singh Sadaknama Punjabi writer
28.	Darshan Battar Punjabi poet
29.	Chaman Lal Punjabi translator
30.	Mandakranta Sen Bengali poet
31.	Nand Bhardwaj Hindi writer
32.	Kashi Nath Singh Hindi writer
33.	Mohan Bhandari Punjabi writer
34.	Ambika Dutt Hindi writer
35.	Nirupama Borghain Assamese writer
36.	Bhoopal Reddy Telugu writer

37.	Aamir Khan Bollywood actor

List of famous personalities who are against returning their awards (against Intolerance): 

1. Prasoon Joshi – Lyricist and adman

2. Savita Raj Hiremath – Producer

3. Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasiya – Multiple Padma Awardee

4. Madhur Bhandarkar – National Award winning filmmaker

5. Vidya Balan – Actress

6. Vivek Agnihotri –  Director

7. Anupam Kher – Senior actor

8. S L Bhyrappa  – Eminent Kannada writer & Sahitya Akademi awardee

9. Shyam Benegal – Multiple Padma awardee

10. Anup Jalota – Bhajan Singer

11. Manish Mundra – Producer

12. Pt Chetan Joshi – Flutist

13. Daya Prakash Sinha –  Playright

14. Amish Tripathi – Celebrated author

15. Gopaldas Neeraj – Multiple Padma Awardee and veteran poet

16. Chidananda Murthy –  Sahitya Akademi Awardee and  Kannada writer, researcher and historian

17. Patil Puttappa – Writer and veteran journalist

18. Ashok Chakradhar – Renowned Hindi poet and author

19. P Valsala – Malyalam novelist

20. U A Khader – Sahitya Akademi Awardee and veteran novelist

21. P Narayan Kurup – awardee of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi and a noted literary critic

22. to 34. Bollywood and south Indian movies director Priyadarshan, famous Malayalam writers Akkitham, S.Ramesan Nair, P. Parameshwaran, Thuravur Viswambaran, Prof Melathu Chandrasekharan, Madambu Kunjikuttan, K.B Shreedevi, Actor Sureshgopi, Major Ravi, Musicians Alleppey Ranganath, K.G.Jayan (Jaya Vijaya), Artist Kanayi Kunjiraman jointly issued a statement against the Leftist intellectuals who returned awards.

35. Kamal Hassan – Multiple Padma Awardee actor

36. Raveena Tandon – Bollywood actress

37. Sudarsan Patnaik – Padma Shree Awardee and renowned sand sculptor

38. Salim Khan: Noted writer

39. Vikram Sampath – Historian and Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar awardee

40. Amritanshu Gupta – award winning radio journalist

41. Rajendra Talak – National Award winning director

42. Laxmikant Shetgaonkar – National Award winner

43. Anil Kapoor – Senior actor

44. Raza Murad – Senior actor

45. to 48. Dr Agnishekhar, Dr Kshema Kaul, Gokal Dembi and Shiban Khebri representing Sanmukh  - a Forum for Writers  & Artists in Exile

49. to 54. Professor Sumatheendra R Nadig, poet, author, Karnataka Sahitya Akademi  Awardee, former UGC Emeritus Fellow, former Chairman National Book Trust, Mrs. Sreekumari Ramachandran, Novelist, short story writer,  Shri T.S.Nagabharana, Film Director, Karnataka, N. Kuttikrishna Pillai, author, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Awardee,  Dr. Madusoodhanan Pillai, Academic Director, Bharatiya Institute of Research, Prof Meleth Chandrasekharan, Writer, Author – All of the above signed a petition titled “Intolerance in Contemporary India – a Statement"

55. Bikash Sinha – Padma Bhushan awardee and a Physicist

56. G Madhavan Nair – Former chairman of ISRO and Padma Bhushan

57. Harish Chandra Verma  – Prof HC Verma,  an Indian experimental physicist and professor in the Department of Physics at IIT

58. to 82.  to Professor Kapil Kapoor, former Pro-VC JNU, Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Antar-rashtriya Hindi Viswavidyalaya, Wardha, Professor Dilip K. Chakrabarti, Professor Emeritus University of Cambridge, Professor Jayanta Kumar Ray, National Professor,  Professor Aswini Mohapatra, JNU, Professor Santisree Pandit, University of Pune, Professor C.I.Issac, Member ICHR,Dr. Lokesh Chandra, President ICCR, Professor Purabi Roy, Member ICHR, Dr. Meenakshi Jain, Member ICHR, Professor Sacchidanand Sahai, Member, ICHR, Dr. Saradindu Mukherjee, Member ICHR, Dr. Nikhilesh Guha, Member ICHR, Professor Mohan Kashikar – University of Nagpur, Dr. Inakshi Chaturvedi – Associate Professor University of Rajasthan, Professor Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Chaudhuri Charan Singh University, Meerut, Dr. Dodda Range Gowda, academician, Dr. Prakash Shah, Associate Professor, Queen Mary University, London, Dr. Gautam Sen, former Professor LSE, Professor K.Gopinath, IISC, Professor Gopala Reddy – Osmania University, Professor G.Ram Reddy – Osmania University, Professor K.K.Mishra – Banaras Hindu University, Professor Maduraiveeran – University of Madras, Dr. R.Radhakrishnan – Asst Professor, Symbiosis University Hyderabad, Professor Ramakrishnan – Madurai Kamaraj University – All of the above signed a petition titled “Intolerance in Contemporary India – a Statement"

83. Ram Gopal Varma – Director Bollywood

  

World wakes up in horror to witness the gruesome terrorist attack in France - 14th Novemeber 2015

In yet another tragic sequence of events orchestrated by the perpetrators of terror, the world is again shocked to see terrorists wandering about freely - this time in the heart of France, Paris. Just on the eve of children's day, in the dead silence of the night, the ghastly terrorists have done it yet again - have attacked humanity. Over 150 people are feared dead and about 200 injured in the serial attacks which included suicide bombers and gunmen creating havoc. Reports are still coming in about some terrorists still being at large. A state of emergency has been announced in France with all the international borders being sealed.

The following places are reported to have been targetted:

1st Site:
Bataclan concert venue, 50 boulevard Voltaire, 11th district - gun and suicide bomb attacks

2nd Site:
Stade de France, St Denis, just north of Paris - explosions near venue as France played Germany in football friendly

3rd Site: 
Le Carillon bar, 18 rue Alibert, 10th district - gun attack

4th Site: 
Le Petit Cambodge restaurant, 20 rue Alibert, 10th district - gun attack

5th Site: 
La Belle Equipe, 92 rue de Charonne, 11th district - gun attack

6th Site: 
La Casa Nostra restaurant, 2 rue de la Fontaine au roi, 11th district - gun attack

The world leaders have offered condolences and regrets towards the incidents. Security has been beefed up in many countries with people questioning the intelligence agencies preparedness against such inhuman acts of terrorism. The Islamic terrorist outfit ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks with more details to follow.

The attacks follow on the same night when the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi had raised questions about steps taken by the international community against terrorism in his historic speech to the Indian diaspora at Wembley stadium in the UK. Mr. Narendra Modi had asked world leaders to unite against two problems in the world - terrorism and global warming. He had come forward and condemned the UN for still having not having had an official definition for the word 'terrorist'.

It is high time for the world to come together and fight the common enemy of humanity - TERRORISM.
It is high time for everyone to put a stop to this menace in any way possible.

Reactions from around the world:

Hollande says France will be 'merciless' as terror attacks in Paris kill at least 153, injure over 200 people

US President Barack Obama spoke of "an outrageous attempt to terrorise innocent civilians".

UK PM David Cameron said he was shocked and pledged to do "whatever we can to help".

Paris Mayor Ann Hidalgo announced that all schools, museums, libraries, gyms, swimming pools and markets would be shut on Saturday.