satyamev jayate!!

Aamir is an amazing man! I think, I missed the word 'actor' in the last sentence. Obviously, that was for a reason. He could have lived his life without thinking about creating a TV program named 'satyamev jayate'! But, he did. More than that, he didn't just restrict his act by thinking. I am not in the right position to judge his activities, but I see 'greatness' in him. Not a lot of people at his position, would do something he did. I would like to address him as a very 'determined responsible human being'! I'm inspired by what he has done as a social commitment to the country. There might be people who had sacrificed more than he did, there might be people who is still working much harder than what he is doing, but the kind of influence he can make in areas like this will be tremendous. 

I think, there is a reason for such a big praise from my side. Let me expose some personal secrets. I was almost thinking the same thing he is doing right now. 'Make the people see the world!'. It looks like he is doing what I have imagined in my life. When I am at a very high level of ego,self-respect and pride, I used to imagine of things I could have done. That thoughts had a lot of 'what ifs'!( What if I could hire an auditorium and invite people to hear my speech, in which I could explode my thoughts on life, ethics,self-righteousness  and selflessness. ) What Aamir is doing is much more effective( Yeah, no one can survive my ego and pride, as what others call!!). As a citizen of this country, I was disappointed by the way many people and things move around here. I was disappointed by many things I have seen and more than that, I have seen people who are desperately trying hard to hide from those realities. I wouldn't say that being a selfish man is a crime or a little unethical behavior is going to be a crime, but does it really hurt me if I choose to do things which might not come under my responsibilities, but still  I choose to be responsible(obviously, if I could). 

I am not always right and when I watched the first episode of 'satyamev jayate' TV show, I was stunned by hearing the stories of female foeticide in India. I couldn't think of how immature and selfish those people are. I do not think that they can just remove those people from our country, our only choice is to educate them on 'how to love and feel'. I feel pity about them and it must change by any cost. They do not need punishment, they need help. Help to save themselves from their own blind eyes. I honestly, believe that a lot of areas requires this kind of help to get motivated. May be, this program can bring some differences.

I know, there are people who would say that 'we should adapt to our situations'. But, I believe that we are the cause of these situations and sometimes, getting adapted is more like avoiding responsibilities. We have our choice and I believe that Aamir has chosen his. I do not know whether this initiative is going to be a grand success, but I honestly wish if it could. I seriously doubt whether this video will receive as much views as the "kolaveri" song had received. This is not entertainment, an entertainer doing some serious stuff. Life is not always about entertainment, accept it! support it!

Sincerely,

Raghu

Can you demotivate me?

A small story of a demotivated kid!! When I was small and immature, I had an experience. It was a time when I was doing 7th grade or something. Me, my dad and some others were in a discussion about some random subject and at some point, we were discussing about the area/diameter of a circle and an old man asked me something like this "Have you learned about circle in your school?". With all due respect, I said something like this "Of course not, but I know the formula of the area of a circle". He began to criticize me, as if it is my mistake that the area of a circle is not included in the syllabus of a 7th grade student! He 'demotivated' me with some harsh and provoking dialogues and at a point he asked me a question, "Are you getting angry at me?". I should have acted weird and survived with a smile. It is a fact that it had affected me a little, as I still remember that incident even after 10 years.  Today, I'm 'big' and mature(ahem!!) and I have a different policy (it can be wrongly interpreted as a survival policy). As far as you believe that 'you can't be nothing', no one can demotivate you for any reason.

Actually, is there something called 'motivation', 'demotivation', 'negative' or 'positive'? Everything comes under the category of 'facts'. I am a pathetic singer and I have no problem in admitting it (preferably by not singing. Why should I risk your comfort?). There are a lot of things in which I am not confident about, admitting them seems to be a good idea rather than giving others unrealistic expectations. Now-a-days, I can see things like this in our media. Let me take an old example( I should have used this example before. Pardon me for not being updated to media), when Indian cricket team was going to Australia for tournaments, the Australian team captain will probably come up with a fight with words through the media. The Indian captain responds, coach responds, or may be even the sweeper in an Indian cricket ground may respond which will eventually help some journalists to have their food. But, why would he(Indian captain) respond to such issues? Even if there were no record of an above average performance in Australia, the Indian captain would respond like "We will thrash Australia" and probably they would get thrashed by Australians, which will be food for the entire media for months! I know, I am a little pessimistic, but pessimists seem to be truthful. If you are confident of your abilities, be a pessimist. Indian captain should have shut his mouth and gave some surprises to Indian cricket fans when they get back. With no expectations, a small victory can make a lot of effects.

If we watch closely, you could see people who would demotivate you with your surroundings. There was a friend who used to make comments on almost everybody, who have a different native place than his place. The comments will be about your area or their behavior or their culture etc. "Oh! Are you from 'abc'? People of that native won't behave good in public". He deserved a lot of punches on his nose! Why can't you just ignore him? If it was me, I know that I always have a choice to be different from my surroundings and I always have the choice to behave good in public even if I am coming from a place where people who couldn't behave good in public. I definitely do not have the responsibility of my native place's behavioral habits. The point is, they are just playing with your confidence and if you fall for it, you have just lost one good opportunity. The confidence plays a major role in what you are. Sometimes, 'demotivators' are some people who are desperately trying to outsmart you with the knowledge or skill they have. You will have your unique knowledge and skills too.For every single human in this world, the skill and knowledge he do not have outsmart the skills and knowledge he have. So, there is no point in getting demotivated by those desperate people, no one can outsmart you in being you! 

NB: You can follow me if you are ready to fall on a rock on your pointed nose, just because you ignored a very valuable, logical and intelligent 'demotivation'!

Sincerely,

Raghu

The god delusion of Richard Dawkins

Recently, I happened to watch a documentary film named "The root of all evil?(The god delusion)" by Richard Dawkins which provoked me to do some criticism on his views of God. I consider myself agnostic because of a fact that I couldn't completely agree with idea of evolution. It is hard to believe that everything we see around are created from some random events. I partially agree with Richard Dawkins for the fact that the today's concept of religion is somehow an evil. Richard Dawkins is actually talking a lot about what a religion has done to our society, but I looked into what a religion could have done to our society. I'm still not sure whether he has thought about what could have happened if there were no religions in this world. Let me take an example from your documentary itself. The example of the kid who accept what he is taught without logical reasoning. Even if we say that we are matured and smart enough to make logical decisions, there is an incompleteness in our knowledge and wisdom. You, me and most of our people might be generous enough to accept the truth that we are somehow ignorant and sometimes, we make illogical decisions. Compared to the ultimate knowledge, we are still ignorant like a child. Religion was trying to make some sense over the chaos of the world, by controlling the children(us). As these controls are implemented by humans, it might tend to have some human philosophies and views(issue of homosexuality can be taken as an example).

In this world, people are different. They have different IQ, attitude, behavior and dreams, but every one of us are supposed to be fair to the one another. We are supposed to have some rules to follow, some order to maintain. The ultimate aim of religions must be something like this. Richard Dawkins were trying too hard to find evidence from religious books. I guarantee you that you won't find any, because there is a possibility that there are much higher intentions for religions in this world. Actually, I want to ask a very simple question. Who are you afraid of the most? If I could live a life with my selfishness and ego, I am pretty sure that I wouldn't be caring anyone else in this world for sure. Religion was just a tool to bring a belief that we are not beyond everything. In my life, I wouldn't do a lot of things because of my belief of self-righteousness. I have faced some criticisms from my surroundings, but I believe that I've almost survived them and not everyone in this world can be like me. There is a huge possibility that my belief of 'self-righteousness' is simply a stupid idea. I might be hurting a lot of people which can't be a good thing. Sometimes, it is easier to hide truth than to explain the complex philosophies and teach what is fair and what is not fair. I support Richard Dawkins, but I couldn't unless all the people in this world start to act fair and logical.. That is why we need to trust in faith.

I'm a hindu by birth. I know hinduism better than any other religion. I haven't purposefully learned any books regarding Hinduism, but I had to hear them as my family is strictly religious. I do not oppose them, but I wish if they were extracting the essence rather than the story. I used to think about the origin of the religion. If I was born in a prehistoric period where there is no concept of god, there is a possibility that I could purposefully introduce the concept of god for a good purpose, which is not true though. I can live with that lie and my followers might forget the reality and slip into a made up story. But, my intention was good and genuine, which is not a bad thing so does the religions of our world. In my land, there were untouchability and many other rituals and beliefs. But, even the man who has learned this thing would accept the fact that those beliefs were implemented by the rulers of the countries.People are blind when it comes to god, so it is very simple to implement such rules. The beliefs and ideas have changed lately and at the present condition, I wouldn't say that they are healthy. The interesting thing is that those books in Hinduism would certainly outsmart my ideas of a religion. I mean, if I had to make up a story of my own to make a belief in people, I would never think of a god, who would loose his temper and do some unfair violence. There is a character called 'karna', who has lived a perfect life but had to suffer hard in his life. These are more like some puzzles. I might see people with the qualities of 'karna' and 'krishna' in my life and I believe that those writings were an almost failed attempt to implement a very vast, complex idea. Quite recently, I happened to see a report of a man,who is the best in teaching hinduism, has told that none of the events were happened in real. People are criticizing him and I believe that he is right!

Let me consider my own experience in my life. For the entire time, I tried to convince myself that I'm atheist, but at a moment, I was quite surprised to see an astrologer's note(printed material). I saw 3 facts of my life, which I thought no one other than me could know. I couldn't write it off as a coincidence for any reason. Sometimes, I feel like the logic of 'God' is not known to any human in this world and in some other time, I believe that there could be a scientific base for it. Till that time, I am going to stay agnostic. I am confused for sure. Richard Dawkins said that there were no evidence of god, but our inability to prove the existence of something doesn't mean that it is not there. It is possible that I would change my views about god in my future, but it is less probable that I would completely deny god's existence.

May be Richard Dawkins was right, but I'm still a man who believe that 'No one at his sane mind would think of being an atheist'. I saw the frustration when he is debating to people who accepts god. I admire the way you handled a muslim who consider women different from men(about wearing clothes).But, do you really think that they would change their mind and introduce equality just by your words? What we call 'wrong' is not 'wrong' in everywhere in this world.  I admire the idea that everybody have the right to choose his own religion, which I have said to some people in my life. You are never wrong, but sometimes, it is not all about what is wrong or what is right. It is rather a conflict between your 'right' and my 'right'.

I know, I am not a professional in this subject but it doesn't mean that I couldn't think about it. May be, you can find better justifications regarding this subject from others.

Sincerely,

Raghu

Educating the educational system

Why do I have to go for studies? Of course, I have to earn a job and live a luxurious peaceful life(Why did I use the word luxurious here? It is getting uncomfortable). I do not know the exact answer for this question, but if I ask the question to people around me, I am pretty sure that the answers will include 'money' ,'to marry', 'I don't know' etc. I couldn't say that I've had the complete knowledge of what I was going to learn before I choose a course. But if I had the opportunity to rewind my life, I would choose different for sure. Sometimes, I feel that a lot of people, who have different skills and talents, are pointed to the wrong direction. What is the real need of a university? They will analyze the student with their measurement and grade them into different categories. I'm not talking about the entire world, I'm just talking about Indian educational system. Recently, I came to see a report about India's educational behavior over the internet. It says that India's 'talent pool' is inefficiently used and it also recommends that Indians should increase the opportunity for research and development. I think, a lot of Indians are at a 'survival strategy' in the field of education. Somehow, our educational system does have a little discipline, but lacks some sort of passion in both student and implementer.

I have a lot to write when it comes to this subject and everything I am planning to write is extracted from my own experience. What is the most important aim of getting educated? It does have something to do with gaining knowledge, doesn't it? I'm learning about computers now and quite recently, I happened to chat with a 'haven't met' friend, who is a student in the same stream. I happened to talk about computers and she said something like this "I've been hearing the same 'technical stuffs' for the last 2 years and I hate to talk about it now". I still couldn't understand the logic behind such an attitude. But, I believe that she is one of a lot of victims, who has been forced to be pointed to the wrong direction(If you can't lend your ears, how can I expect that you are actually lending your mind? and unfortunately, this is not a unique incident and learning is not always done with 'mind', i guess). What is learning? memory test? I hope not. But, I am ready to confess that I had a habit of 'use and throw' learning(a.k.a exam preparations). I've been spending almost 6 hours per day for 6 months for learning and it doesn't make much sense if I have to prepare again to write an exam about the things I've been learning for the last 6 months. If you ask me about the subject after a few hours, I wouldn't be able to answer. My learning method was more like memorizing than learning itself. The mistake is that it really counts to my academics even though I may not be good at it after the exams. Let the exams be spontaneous and unprepared!! 

There is a lot of differences between learning and knowledge. When I was in school, there was an English teacher, who taught me English grammar. I am still pathetic at handling English grammar, but I  still remember the things she had told about advertisement of Mc Donalds ( There was a grammatical error in 'I'm loving it'). I remember a lot of things like this, though I do not remember much things I had learned for exams there.  Learning loses it's effect when we consider it as learning. Recently, I happened to read my text book as a part of preparation for examination. Later, I happened to know that most of the things I've learned were out-of-syllabus. At present, I think I remember those 'out-of-syllabus' things better than the things I learned in syllabus. Knowledge will never get wasted. I might not be the best scorer, but those out-of-syllabus things are really important to me. I'm a better tech geek than the person who doubts whether he is a geek or not, but I am never confident enough to call myself a geek. I'm curious to read technology news. No, let me put it this way "I'm curious enough to google about technological doubts and facts" and I've spend a lot of time in front of a computer which made others call me a geek. Somehow, it resembles to my passion though. If someone asks me about those tech stuffs, I always have an opinion (or at least a distraction). 

This is how it works!! If you learn to 'learn', it will be a lot easier for you to gain a decent knowledge through education and if not, I wouldn't say that you will never be successful, but there is a difference. I am not sure whether I am at a position to say that I am learning the things I really wanted to learn, but I believe that I've felt a little easier than a few people to learn the subject I am learning. A time may come when I realize the true passion of my life and starts a shop to sell philosophies!! In the present society, there is a huge difference between a man who have a few alphabets hanging with his name and the man who doesn't have any alphabets hanging with his name. But, it could have been better if you choose those alphabets wisely. Do not compare them with others as it is possible to gain knowledge without the support of any universities(I think, it works better than having a university to back you up). What makes you different is the things you know beyond the syllabus and to gain such a knowledge, passion is important. If you believe that those out-of-syllabus things are a waste of time, it is better to find a field you are best suited to. 

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” 

-Albert Einstein

Yes, I am a fish and I wouldn't say that I am dominating in the water, but it is much easier to crawl on the ground than to climb on trees.

Raghu

Getting uncivilized and saving earth

I've already talked about the idea of getting uncivilized and saving earth here. I'm a little concerned about the subject as I'm a bit more enthusiastic and disappointed about the destruction of the mother earth. Honestly, I didn't do a research to see what is happening on our earth but, I have watched some documentaries which made me believe that I have no other choice other than believing it. Humans are the most intellectual creatures on this earth for sure, but my analysis (supposed to be unbiased) on the human intellect is not on how smart we are but it is on how effective we are. We have computers, technology, space explorations etc in our list of achievements, but deep down in our achievements and exploration there is a story of disappointment( at least for some people). We are destroying the planet! A lot of essential things we use, a lot of essential technologies we implemented, there are some incurable disasters hidden inside. I have a belief that there is nothing to negotiate about these facts, these are real facts.

Nothing is really special about us, except the brain. We are good at inventing tools and machinery, but do we outsmart everything we see on this earth. This earth is a beautiful thing and it does have a perfectly balanced algorithm to allow things to stay how they are. This is the real reason why I believe that there is no valid reason to be an atheist. A computer is really complex, it is hard to believe that what I am seeing right now is just a unique combination of 0s and 1s, which obviously makes an illusion that we are looking at actual facts and figures. But, deep down inside, they are just 0s and 1s and the combination of those 0s and 1s is the existence of a computer. When I looked at myself, I see a much complex algorithm. I'm just a combination of molecules. Just as we see a computer as 0s and 1s, we could look at ourselves as molecules. Not everything in our human body is explained or proved. The defense mechanism, reproduction, brain, energy utilization etc are truly a miracle. If we are still proud of what we did, just realize how smart our nature is.

Consider a movie, with all the things that have happened on earth of length 24hours( its a lengthy movie, I am bad at maths and I couldn't find anything better than this). Human race evolved at the last 4 seconds of the 24 hours. Which means for the majority of the earth's age, earth survived without humans. But, in the last 4 seconds we have a list of achievements. No!! Consider the last second (which means 50000 years. I'm bad with fractions too. I would like to take the example with 200 years), in the last second, we made tremendous changes on the face of the earth. We made a lot of animals to disappear and increased our participation to our maximum. We covered land with chemicals and plastics. We destroyed the ecology by provoking global warming. Actually, it is not really hard to see the after effects of what we are seeing right now. It is an indisputable fact that our average temperature is rising year by year in a dramatic way. But, still we are running behind luxuries. People advice to save energy and save life. We are not doing it. Even if we do, I do not believe that we are going to make a dramatic change without reducing the population(Usage of energy is more dependent on population rather than the level of usage of each person on the planet). We are blaming our government for not providing energy(sometimes, clean energy) and there will be a time when we could not blame our government for not providing enough facilities. We are running behind solutions, but I doubt whether they are actually solutions or just an attempt to reduce the effect of a disaster.

When we were at our stone age, we had nothing to be proud of but we could live a life without affecting the other creatures on this earth. I am not saying that we wouldn't survive, but I am thinking about a 'fair survival'. Some economists says that the earth is still healthy and safe and I believe that there is no reason to believe it. Some others says that economy is fragile and I believe that the entire economy is built on a much fragile environment (Can you build a building without a ground?).We hear what we want to hear and we can find reasons to neglect if that is what we like to do with our lives. Any one can break an argument and that is what we are seeing right now. I have watched some documentaries regarding the subjects and I am truly inspired by a video "The yes men, we fix the world"(It is quite interesting also, if you are not a passionate economist). I do not believe that we own anything in this world, it is better to think that we rented some place to live in though we are not paying any rent. It is better to avoid destroying the rented place. The time has come to outsmart ourselves. 

Sincerely,

Raghu

NB: I feel like I have re-written my previous post. I will be happy if you could recommend some sources for this subject.

Dear lonely fellows...

I talk a lot to some people. This might be a little surprising fact for some of my acquaintances who are supposed to be my friends. Sometimes, I just explode a head on completely unknown people without any intentions. A few months before, I met a guy in a train and he just started talking about his life and his experiences and all of a sudden, I began to talk and I am almost sure that he should have cursed the time when he decided to talk with me. I was thinking about a lot during that journey and I still got no idea of why I talked to that guy. But, it is more like an explosion of my thoughts that I never planned to express to anyone. I was alone and thoughtful and he was just a victim!! I always used to pretend like I never cared of being alone in my life. I used to have a mobile/laptop to make others believe that I'm involved in something, but is a fact that I'm not always entertained by a mobile or laptop in my life. I'm always thoughtful when I am alone and I'm never bored at any times of my life. It is kind of weird, I know!!!

A few months before, I happened to hear an astonishing fact about family relationship status of our country. In the past, there were joint families where a lot of members lived together as a family. When it became intolerable, people began to live nuclear families. Now-a-days, old age homes can be seen in every corner of the country. Some are paid and some others can accept the 'unacceptables'. Which is a clear evidence of tearing up of nuclear families. The only reason for the current count of married couple in this country is inadequate judicial facilities. If getting a divorce is easy, there will be a lot of people who would like to get a divorce. Sometimes, it is just a fact that every single human is alone in his own world. But, his thoughts and his world is really important in his life. Check out this video.

This video is a thought provoker in my life. In my future, it is possible that I would think of a movie like this and I believe that everybody is already imagining their life in a similar manner. The word "I" is not always greedy. Sometimes, it shows self-confidence and in some other times, it shows unacceptability of one's ideas in other's life. I'm a little heroic in my life though it may not inspire anyone other than me. 

Recently, I happened watch an interview of Sri. Kamal Haasan(In my view, calling him an 'actor' is an understatement to what he really is) in which he said something like this "At the age of 21, I thought I am a lonely genius and decided to kill myself". See? He was lonely too and quite recently I happened to read an essay of Albert Einstein in which he addressed himself as a 'lone traveller'. These two are quite inspiring examples for sure. I know, I am not the only one who is suffering from an irrelevant "No one cares me!" kind of thought and this could motivate people like me  for sure. Loneliness is just a fact and it is better if we could accept and stop thinking about it. 

No one can accept you better than yourself because no one knows you better than yourself.

Sincerely,

Raghu

Me and the Jan Lokpal bill

I've been promoting the Jan Lokpal bill in my buzz and facebook for a while. Later, I came to realize that I've no clear idea of what this bill can do in this country. This thing is really making some move over the internet anyway. The reason behind my promotion is a fact that I really like to see the demolition of corruption from this country. As far as I see, Jan lokpal does have something to do with it. I was astonished to see the number of promoters for him in the internet. It was more like a new game is being released in fb. But, beyond a joke there is something good in such a move because there were still communities posts like finding 0s in a huge number of 1s or like if you support a stupid thing or else comment if you support another stupid thing other than this.

It is some kind of nice to believe that people who are so 'busy' doing such things really cared to respond in such issues. I believe that the number of participants will be higher if the real idea of making such a bill is properly communicated among the public. At present, I do not know whether I really support him or not as I came to hear some astonishing criticisms from some other people. I can't make a decision just by seeing a website over the internet who helps to write emails to the prime minister. Today, when I just searched about the bill over the internet I came to see an article which says that it is unconstitutional and dangerous. (read here)

I'm not against the bill for sure. The real victory of Anna Hazare is not in making the government accept the bill, but it is in making changes in the pessimistic thoughts of a large number of people who believed that 'one man can do nothing' in this country. I've seen a lot of people who say rubbish about Indian politics and politicians and I couldn't exactly go for a debate as I couldn't find a solid reason to believe in the opposite way. This is a part of an Indian dream for many of the Indians and it is definitely positive. I was thinking about a small push that could change the entire country and the Jan Lokpal Bill might be a beginning of it. No matter what happens by the bill, I am confident that it will never make things worse.

Sincerely,

Raghu

Is it too good to be not human?

Sometimes, humans believe that they outsmart everything in this world. Recently, I searched in the web for a word 'humane' and found something like this:

hu·mane  (hy-mn)

adj.

1. Characterized by kindness, mercy, or compassion: a humane judge.

2. Marked by an emphasis on humanistic values and concerns: a humane education.

source:the free dictionary

I believe that the word has came from the much more sophisticated definition of 'being human'!! It definitely shows that the words kindness, mercy, compassion, etc are supposed to be there in a human. In every situations of life, we analyze and find a solution for our problems in life. What would happen we were able to think of a non-human humane thought? What if I were an alien from outer-space? I do not support the concept that we outsmart every living thing in this world.We are just an animal with a better brain. We could have found some fairer conclusions if we could think like a non human. If I(the alien) come here for a visit, what would I see? "A very large number of animals in a specific species(human) is destroying the entire planet". 

This can be seen in many other aspects as well. We come to our conclusion or decisions by our human brain and I would like to remind you that there are some other horizons which are to be taken to our considerations before we take our decisions. A day might come when we realize that everything we were so proud of were not as good as it seems. A day might come when we realize that the earth and all the living things were so safe when we were not here. Even though we believe that we were fair to everything in this world, our civilization might have changed the entire concept of being fair (Using detergents can cause pollution, will you stop washing your clothes because of that reason?). We are just too addicted to our weaknesses. Making our lives easier is just one example of our tendency to get lazy. We might say that technology has changed the speed of our lives but, have you ever thought of a condition in which you ask yourself a simple question 'Why did I change the speed of my life?'. It is an unanswerable question for me. If there is an answer, I do not believe that the answer will worth enough for what we have done. We changed the course of the earth by doing inhumane methods, but the word 'humane' means kindness, mercy etc!!

Sincerely,

Raghu 

The word "Internet" is not always a bad word!!

I'm a guy who used to sit a lot of time in-front of internet everyday. It almost made me think that I exist only in the internet. I behave different when I am in the internet. Some of my friends thought that I am chatting a lot and some others believed that I am learning a lot of things through internet. In reality, I was doing nothing, just sitting idle watching some TV series or movies. I think, many of us believe that our young generation is misguided by internet. But, I want to say one thing "'internet' is not always a bad word".

My life is severely influenced or affected by internet. There used to be a time when I used to blame myself for sitting infront of a computer for long hours. But, internet has changed a lot of things in my life for sure. I've been using blogger for the last 4 years and it is an achievement that I'm recognized or famous among people I do not know. It was always a good thing to know that there are people who like my thoughts and in a sense, I believe that I've improved a lot in my language just because of this blog. I've been thinking a lot about blogging though I write less. Internet was always an arena of knowledge and thought provoker in my life. Today, I use internet whenever I have some doubts about anything. To be frank, google made others believe that I am smarter than I look. If someone asks me a doubt in anything, all I used to do is to google it. I'm their big fan!!

Internet is a very vast thing and I feel quite natural to see the dark side of using internet.Misusing such a great opportunity is what I really meant. At some point, I believed that I've forgotten how to behave in the normal world just because of this internet addiction and I felt so sad about it. But, I believe that I've realized some facts about this addiction. This addiction happens when we make this internet more private and personal than it has to be. I like to meet new people, make friendship and share thoughts and internet is the best place to do it. I never got bored of using internet in my life. I always had something to do here and I consider it as a good thing. 

What makes internet bad? We are making this too personal in a virtual world. Meeting people in internet is simpler now. I have a lot of friends whom I do not know and I do not believe that I am going to have an opportunity to chat with them. I really do not want them to get disappointed if they like to see my status updates and shared items in their home page. My social networking profiles are full of acquaintances or strangers and I have no problem in their presence except for a huge number in the friends list. Nothing in this internet is true or honest. Why should I be honest here? No one should care what I do here, because there is no reason to. I can comfortably type ":(" by laughing too hard, I can think of a programming code to type "hmm" in my chat box on every 20 seconds and do something else so as to make the person at the other end believe that I really listen to what they are saying, I can use google translator to make others believe that I know a lot of languages. Anything can be faked including our intentions and interests. I will not be entertained if I happened to meet a person with my photo as his profile photo just because I am cuter than him. It is not so difficult to find a 'completely open' photo album of cute girls (preferably strangers) so that you can download them and make your own fake profile. These things must feel weird to all of us. I think, these things made some of us believe that we have nothing believable in this internet.

I do not know whether I take this thing personal or not, but I would like to see internet as a place where I can meet anonymous people and share my knowledge. Actually, I have a weird idea in my mind today. What if I could make a online place where you could never use your name or photo in your profile. Being anonymous seems to be a good idea for me. "I do not know you and you do not know me. So, let us be friends." looks like a great idea that can avoid addictions as well. What would you do if there were no facebook or orkut or internet itself?

Sincerely,

Raghu

Sensible selfishness and the process of money making!

I've been using the phrase 'sensible selfishness' for a while. In my view, selfishness is sensible if I can justify why I am a selfish man. A simple 'almost valid' reason will do. People talk a lot about corruption these days. Somehow, I can almost adjust with some of the issues with police and government offices as far as issues like '2G spectrum' is still on fire. Everybody is expecting a prosperous and luxurious life in this world(well, most of us). Making money is the only way to achieve it in this world and as we all know, human needs are unlimited. But, what is the real point behind exporting our money to swiss banks?

Actually, I haven't searched for any new information about the swiss bank accounts of Indians. But, I feel some immature aspects in the tendency to export money to Swiss banks and I may not be completely truthful to real concept of Swiss banks. As far as I know, these banks do not give interests to your deposits and the only good thing about this banks is a fact that they will not reveal your personal details to anyone. So, depositing money in those banks is equivalent to digging a hole on the earth and depositing the money in that hole. Switzerland will have some benefits for sure. I am not rich, but if I had some 'black money' in my hand why should I give my money to make a better Switzerland?  I think, I know some concepts about money that many others do not know. I highly recommend the readers to correct me if I am wrong. Money is not really the currency we see, it is a measurement of human efforts of people. I make money by doing job and I exchange these money to meet my requirements. That is the basic concept of money. Depositing money in Switzerland is just like lending the value of the human efforts of Indians to Switzerland for free. 

We Indians have a huge tendency to conserve money and it is expected to be a very good reason behind the successful tackling of recession of recent years.I have seen people worshiping money in some Malayalam films. But, money is just paper(or may be cotton) if it is not exchanged between people and I think some people are unaware of that. If you bury your money (considerably a huge amount) somewhere and take it out after 10 years, there will be a considerable change in the value of money and it is definitely a loss. I tried to think like a man who has deposited some money in a Swiss Bank and found a very absurd reason to deposit that money. But, before I talk about it, I want to tell a small story from my own life. In my childhood, me and my friends used to play a small game using the pictures collected from match stick boxes. The boy with the largest collection of pictures is supposed to be the king of the game. I used to hid those collection in a safe, 'not easily accessible place' to avoid theft. But, one day I forgot the place at which the pictures were hidden and I lost the entire collection. At that point, I thought it was better to give them to my friends so that they can use it for a use. It was definitely better than losing the entire collection. Today, I do not regret for that 'terrible loss', but if I knew the place where I hid, I could tell my friends that I have a good collection! Unfortunately, it won't make any sense after it is lost!!

Actually, the black money in Swiss Banks are just like that. After this much of issues and disputes, I really do not think that the depositors can easily access that money with a peaceful mind. It is just like money hid in the earth and forcefully forgot about the mark on the ground. It is better to recover the entire collection so that it can be used for Indians or else, it would be a loss to the depositor and the country itself. The only thing which is benefited for the depositor is that he can secretly say that he have a huge amount of money in Switzerland that he never used or needed and be proud of making that money useless and enjoy seeing a huge number,if that satisfies him. Sensible selfishness is the point to be noted here. I can accept the thefts which are done for survival, even I can accept the thefts which are done for living a luxurious life than anyone in this world. But, what is the point in stealing something and keeping it at a place where none of us can be used or benefited. They really lack the sense in that kind of selfishness, isn't it? Anyway, the policy of Swiss Banks never made a sense to me either, it is better to put up a board in front of their banks like this

"Stolen money will be accepted"

Raghu

NB: I am not a billionaire and I do not have an account in any Swiss Banks!

Vegetarianism

What is the difference between a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian? In my view, conceptually there is no difference in being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian! Both are taking lives! If you cut an onion, you are taking the life of that onion and if you cut the neck of a chicken, you are taking the life of that chicken. So, what is the real difference that could possibly make by being a vegetarian? I'm almost a vegetarian and in my life, I've seen some eyes of astonishment when I say that I have tried to be a vegetarian. All the animals in this world is in need of food for their survival. It is nearly impossible to live a life without killing anything on this earth. But, there is  huge difference between killing an onion and a chicken in my life.

I'm a man who can almost justify every single thing in my life. So, this blog is going to reveal the reason behind my vegetarianism. First of all, I am brought up as a vegetarian in my life. None of my family members are known to take non-vegetarian food (I can't assure anything about the 'new generation' as they are not expected to reveal everything they do in their lives. Life is supposed to have some sort of secrecy, I accept!!). In the past, taking non-vegetarian was a mistake among us! At this stage, there are people who comfortably take non-vegetarian food as a part of modernizing their attitudes and lives. As I am not good enough in adopting and modernizing my life without a valid reason, I almost remained to be  a vegetarian in my life. But, this is not the real reason behind my vegetarianism. I can comfortably tell that I should have tried to be a vegetarian even if I am born in a non-vegetarian environment (like a butcher's family).

Recently, I came to know about the 'butchering process' of my area. It is said that the cattle are butchered in a very inhumane method. They use a hammer to hit the cattle on its head to kill it. It surprised me, because I was never heard of any issue regarding this subject as I used to give a little better priorities to issues like this than rapists or politics. I have seen the head of cattle in public places where butchering is supposed to be a common scene in places like Malappuram in Kerala and people like Maneka Gandhi were supposed to be active against such issues. Or is it just me who have a wrong feeling about doing such things? (I purposefully removed the words 'in public' with the last sentence. If you can't do it in public, nothing is different when you do it in private as well). For those who do not know much about slaughtering house, I would like to share a video which shows the pathetic 'slaughtering process' in some foreign countries and unfortunately, our condition is far more worse than this.

It feels like I have a solid reason for being a vegetarian. But, there can be a reason for me to be a non-vegetarian as well. If I am stuck in a place where there is no vegetarian food, may be I would become a non-vegetarian as it can be a matter of my own survival. But, if you ask me to take a choice between vegetarian food and non-vegetarian food, I will choose vegetarian. I cannot support this injustice just for the taste that will fade away in a few minutes. I remember the findings of a friend who expressed his astonishment when I said that I am a vegetarian ' I do not survive just because I want to eat, I eat because I want to survive'. That is not completely right about me but, it is possibly the best justification for any vegetarian.

Sincerely,

Raghu

NB: 'God created all the animals to meet the human food requirements*!'

*This is a joke because some people are still not laughing :).

A world cup for patriots!!

I'm writing this post just because I came across a little serious discussion with my friend about the subject cricket and patriotism. Actually, I have a feeling that we are playing a lot with emotions rather than we play cricket in our country. I have already written my views about the sportsmen in this blog(read here). The current trend in sports is definitely not healthy to us. I have heard that "Cricket is a religion in India!" ! I regretfully hate to hear that, because it affects my view of religion as well! The way we give priorities to the things we do in our lives is little weird! Unfortunately, it applies to me as well. I like cricket(mostly watching)! We are moving beyond the limit of the game.  If cricket is supposed to be a religion in India, it is not supposed to be called a 'game'!

What is so special about cricket? I do not know! Cricket has grown too strong in our country, very strong! A game need not be this important to us. At the same time, other games are almost completely neglected. It is pity to hear that we couldn't manage to find a descent football team from our 1 billion people. It is heard that BCCI is rich! richer than ICC! It makes a lot of money from the cricket fans. It will be advisable to promote other sports through the money of this 'little over enthusiastic cricket fans'! All sports are equally important! Everyday, I am noticing some of the most important comments about cricket in the social networking sites. When it come to cricket, there is some sort of patriotism in everybody's mind. But, game is just a game and we should never give this blend of patriotism to it.

A few days before when India won against Ireland, I said "Ireland has played really well!". I was trying to be honest! Being a team which has just entered into the cricket world, it was a very fair performance! I liked the performance and tried to appreciate it. But, some of my friends didn't like it(a few others liked it though!!). I received a tweet mentioning me which included some sort of patriotic words in terms of cricket! And today, I saw some other tweets that mixes the British history with Indian cricket team (an appreciation to Bangladesh for their victory against England!).Do Indian cricket team represent us? If so, it is time to interfere! Some people(including me) believe that BCCI has failed to find one more specialist bowler for our team and if you can do something, you must act now! As far as I know, I do not have much to do about it! :(

Let's take the patriotism into focus! What is patriotism? The love towards one's country! There are much more relevant patriotic heroes in India who deserve a little more appreciation than what they are receiving, soldiers who died for our country! A life is worth a million times more than a century in the field. I know, they are not so good in being exhibitionists or glamour freaks, but still they deserve some appreciation. Give priorities according to the relevance and after all, cricket is still a game!

NB: What if I could stop using Indian flag and the name of the country from the team jersey, in my view it can be used for much more sense-making activities.

Sincerely,

Raghu

Let's destroy 'feminism'!

I've been hearing a lot about feminism these days. I've searched here to find the exact meaning for feminism. Our society is a society based on discriminations. We have caste system, wealth system, position systems etc. those which are efficiently evolved like a hierarchy and destroyed the true essence of life. Professional criticizers will be tired of criticising the above discriminations. Beyond these, there are some other discrimination techniques too. Humans and animals, Man and woman, NRI and RI(Resident Indians ;)), fan of Shahrukh khan and Amir khan (or may be vijay and ajith of tamil industry) etc are some of the major discriminations which are so fragile and may collide at any point of time.But, still this power to discriminate is considered to be the best quality of a human being. 

It sounds weird when I hear people quarrelling with the name of celebrities. I have witnessed some similar incidents that I've mentioned in this blog before. All such quarrels were meaningless and there is some sort of weirdness in the discrimination of man and woman. I wonder why there is a word 'feminism' in the dictionary. What is so special about woman? Why do some people believe that this is a 'male dominated world'? In the previous era, I understand that there were some troubles that kicked out females in some aspect and it should have paved way for the evolution of feminism. Its time to remove the word from the dictionary. Today's world is not based on muscle power alone it depends more on intelligence. Basically, every human thinks different in different situations. If someone else could live my life instead of me, I'm sure that he would be entirely different from what I am. As every human is supposed to have a brain, what possible difference does it make by the discrimination of man and woman? If you think that Indira Gandhi was the best prime minister of our country so far, its not because she is a woman, its more likely because she is a human. Still, if we could check the percentage of participation from woman's side, it is nearly pathetic. 

It sounds weird when I hear people quarrelling about woman and man domination as well. If you believe that a woman is not as good as man, its because they are under utilized.We expertise on things we practice. If someone believe that a woman can't rule a country, its because they have some lack in practice. If you believe that a woman can cook better and write recipe blogs well, its because men lacks practice in that field (But, I haven't seen much woman cooks in hotels in my life!I assure you that I'm a disastrous cook anyway). Somehow, its all about how a human life is lived or how the problems are faced. In my personal opinion, I have no problem to work under a woman in my future, if she deserve it. Its better to stop allowing the men to dominate. It is time to realize that human values should be given more priorities than the gender of any human. Maybe we could remove the word feminism from the dictionary someday(I have checked the wordweb 6.0 in my computer and the word was still there in the dictionary)

Sincerely,

Raghu

NB: I would like to recommend  a new word that can replace both "Mr." and "Ms.", because, I want to completely eliminate man-woman discrimination from the world.

A teacher's responsibility!!

A few years before, I made a terrible mistake when I was riding a bike. I did something which might cost me my life. It was a funny incident also. But, whats relevant is not what I did but what I have learned from it. A man watching my weird act responded something like this "Who taught you to drive?". It is a funny fact. I did a mistake and the one who is blamed for my mistake is the teacher who taught me.I was too young and too immature. I was not permitted to drive that bike as I never had a license at that age. But, from that day onwards, I considered 'teaching' as the most responsible job in this world. I was disappointed to hear some words from my friend "Responsible job? What is special in it? Just go to the school, come back from the school and that's it! It is just an easy job!"

I still remember some words of an another friend saying "Look at your marks, man!! If you continue like this you will end up being a 'school teacher' or something!". It was a time when I nearly stopped learning anything (studies) and my scores proved it and for that lazy, irresponsible fellow, my friend offered a much sophisticated  job, teaching!. It sounds like a joke to me now!! For the last few years, I've been a fan of a guy who said that teacher a stops learning when he gets his job. I believe that he is right but, that is not the way it should be. Actually, no one can ever stop learning anything from their lives. There is something to learn when you sit idle at your home doing nothing. How can a teacher stop learning anything from his life? The only curse of that profession will be a very wrong belief that teaching is the job for those who can't learn efficiently. If I look at some more examples, I've seen people people who has tried for a job for a long time and ended up being a teacher! The most senseless decision! Teaching is a smart job which requires talent and knowledge. If you believe that you are not talented or a bad student, never go for the teacher's job. Students can make jokes about you (I really meant it, you will become the 'sardarji' of that school!)

Everybody is a teacher in this world. No one can predict how we inspire or influence people around us and we are unknowingly following the path of a teacher. But, teacher has got a much more complicated responsibility. In my native, there is a teacher who is well renowned for his 'entrance coaching'. He began a school for coaching students. In his view, a student should learn at least 13 hours a day to make his future safe. Unfortunately, I was also a student of his coaching center. He was very strict and harsh to his students. What disappoints is not his strictness but his ill-mannered harsh words that was being used during his torture   of his students. I haven't met him because I rarely went to the class and stopped going there after one year. I heard a lot of stories about his manner from my friends at that time. If it was today, I have a plan to react against him. I will use the same harsh ill-mannered words in-front of him by saying that he is my role model of my life. I'm a student for the last 17 years of my life and with such a long experience, I made a decision about one thing, I will not let my child go to that coaching center for any reason. A teacher is supposed to be a role-model or a guide for his students. In some aspects, some teachers are like this, they will turn out to be the villain of the story and they will  teach a very important lesson by saying "you should never do like this!". I've seen a lot of them in my life.

Some people believe in one thing 'Strictness is the only way to success'. Some parents are proud to say that their children are studying in the most disciplined school of the area. In my personal opinion, that doesn't matter. In my view, discipline is the outcome of knowledge and wisdom. So, it is better to search for a school that provides knowledge and wisdom rather than running behind strictness. When I became free to think and decide, I never thought of any discipline from my old school or college but, I've heard of some people who says that I'm disciplined. Whatever I learn, I am doing what I like to do and such an activity does not have anything to do about discipline! For me,the words 'self-analysis', 'self-realization', 'wisdom', 'knowledge' etc made a better sense than the word 'punishment'. Education is supposed to make sense to our lives not to destroy its purpose!

I think, I've written somewhere in this blog that 'media acts like a teacher to the society!'. Lets make an analysis!! I've seen a movie called "Race" in Hindi. It was a thriller with unexpected twists and turns! It was my friend who recommended it to me.  I really enjoyed it. Today, I have a different thought. Every movie is supposed to have a message for his viewers and the message of that movie is really weird. The story is about two brothers. A brother cheats the other and killed him and in the climax, the dead one came back and killed his brother(Sorry, I forgot a fact that even their wives did the same as well). Everything was so negative! It was a good example of how a brother should never be. That movie is doing a teacher's job and whatever we learn from it the responsibility rests on its creators! Lets take another example. Rajnikanth movies movies have a usual flow. I've watched Sivaji a long time ago. During the intermission, the story was that, Sivaji has turned to nothing from a very high condition and he had just 1 ruppee in his hand. After the intermission, he changed the whole scene with that single coin and destroyed the evil power(villain). What is the message in his movie? Whatever happens in life a man can win anything if he have a good heart and determined mind. We cheered for the "Race" and we considered Rajni as a joker(Rajnikanth jokes are spreading very fast through our mobile phones,isn't it?) Rajni's movie might look like a cartoon movie but, I respect the message he conveys. So, the point is simple. You cannot blame your teacher for everything, what you learn depends upon what you extract from their lessons.

Sincerely,

Raghu

NB: I highly recommend a movie "school of life",  directed by William Dear regarding this subject!