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!

An Indian Dream!!

I always used to consider myself as an analyzer in my life. Today, I realize that those were not really analysis but, criticisms. Am I not patriotic in this world? Why do I always take subjects which might depress or demotivate people? I've already thought about some serious social issues in India which do not require a good reference in any place("Attitude can change in a split of a second"). Media is the way through which people realize and understand the world. Today, it looks like they are determined to over-expose their news as a part of aggressive expansion of their own business. What are we doing? We are really good in blaming ourselves! I'm not here to criticize or demotivate or even to make a comment on what or why we are a little disappointed with the present condition of India, bu, I need to have a personal belief that I got a plan to create a better India. I do not know how far I'm going to express what I really need to express. At present, I'm trying to express thoughts about a better India.

All I'm thinking right now is a fact that we need to recheck the way we are looking at ourselves. What I've found in my life is a fact that I always used to have a reason to blame everything. I'm not always a positive thinker. I need to change the way I look into things. I need to categorize the information that I'm required to accept and that I need to ignore. I think, many of us are really good in blaming ourselves and enjoying the same. I live in Kerala and I used to crack a joke during many occasions, "Kerala is god's own country with devil's own people". Whenever I talk about some social issues or harthals or whatever, this joke is a usual one which I've accidentally copied from someone else. People like me are everywhere, waiting for their opportunity to blame ourselves and thus to make fun of ourselves. There is a perfect solution for such an insult. We need to stop providing opportunities for them to speak. We are not completely wrong, but we are accidentally doing something which results in a very negative effect. That's where we need to change.

How do we measure development of a nation? Financial terms? In my personal opinion, no one should analyze a country with its economy because it is fragile. We are developing since the stone age and still didn't qualify to gain the name 'developed nation' among the other nations. I think, we need to redefine the term 'development' here. Some people have already defined development  as a process of importing the civilizations of the foreign countries (who claims themselves 'developed'). Do we really have a unique face of our own? I still wonder why we consider ourselves 'under-developed'. Development doesn't mean that we should have highways like the west or we should have pubs and bars just as Americans or anything that the other countries possess. My idea of development is how far we are capable of withstanding difficult situations. India has already developed when we began to think that our nation is a representation of 'unity among diversities'. It can handle almost everything like it did before.

In this very conscious dream, I do not dream about big cities or big highways or even some better industrial units. I am thinking about making some sense. What if we could create some sense which no other country has made so far. Lets take the example of pollution.What if we could bring zero-emission vehicles rather than getting proud of owning a hayabusa at home? What if we could bring our destroyed forests back rather than creating ugly polluting concrete forests? What if we could bring  an end to all non-biodegradable wastes in the country? These are not completely difficult tasks, there are huge possibilities, which are essential for our survival(I watched '11th hour" today and these sentences are the results of its inspiration). We are well civilized and cultured. Indian civilization is well-renowned for its sense-making. We were the sense makers of the history. Our culture and its depth are immeasurable. The knowledge we had in  our past are still astonishing(may I call  it envy?) some of the foreign countries. The only change we need right now is the change in angle at which we are looking at ourselves. We have to regain this 'rich-knowledge' and get back to what we were.

A few days before, I happened to see a report on the the level of intelligence quotient. More than 30% of our population has above average IQ level. I noticed it in facebook and I commented on it like this "Intelligence is meaningless without a place to apply it!". The present condition of India is not that bad, but it could be better if these intelligent people's intelligence is utilized properly.  We are supposed to change something here and it feels like we are nearly at chaos just because of the same reason(intelligence)! People are guided and motivated in a very different way right now. Lets take the example of movies, why do we always get inspired of movies which resembles the foreign culture? I've seen people clapping hands and cheering when they hear the 'forbidden four letter word'(you know what that word is!) in a Malayalam film. I've seen some Malayalam movies which are purposefully copied some Hollywood movies. It looks like, we have lost our face on this earth. We have lost our uniqueness in the world. That is what we need to regain. Stop importing civilizations, create your own if you need to!

I do not want to claim that I'm completely right about what I've written here. I do not want to claim that this post is the only unique post that refers about Indian dream. But, what if I could make some people realize that they are supposed to dream? That is also an achievement!

"People says that it is too easy to be a bad man in this world, but I realized that it is not so tough to be a good man either.All we need to check is the outcome of what we did and the words 'good' and 'bad' doesn't really matter if we could make our inner-mind believe that it is 'good' or at least 'fair'!!"

Sincerely,

Raghu

NB: To be continued.;)

Why should I lead a disciplined life?

I think, discipline involves some sort of sacrifices to everyone. From my early ages itself, I've been hearing a lot about discipline and still it continues. When I was doing my primary school, my school principal punished me by a pinch on my ear for using crackers( I do not know the exact word for it. I think, I can call it 'baby crackers' as it was so small) at school. I never stopped using crackers afterward and that punishment was a pure wastage of time. The disciplinary actions I've ever heard in my life were purely compulsions! I was afraid to use crackers again at my school, but I always had the tendency to use it until I leave the school. I've noticed a lot of people who are extremely attracted to well disciplined schools for their children. I still do not know how these disciplines are measured but, it doesn't make much sense to me. 

Disciplines and disciplinary actions are mostly for building up of mannerism! I believe in one thing, these compulsions are not going to help me gain anything in my life. I never followed all the disciplinary actions I've learned at school. I've always found some tendency to get indisciplined when I was at school.But, some of them remained in me. So, what should I do? I have to destroy this tendency to get indisciplined. My grandfather was also like this, he always used to wake me up at 6 O'clock in the morning which I hated more than hell. Yesterday, I slept at 1O'clock and woke up at 8! But, one day I'm going to realize that waking up at 6 is making much better sense than sleepless late nights!! That is wisdom!!

Who are these discipline makers? Mostly, they are highly matured and experienced people who got some idea of the value of disciplined life! And I do respect them. But, no one can ever compel me to follow their rules and make me look like a disciplined man as I'm already disciplined in my own way! You can convince me to be like you by your wisdom but, never force to implement your level of discipline to my life. It can have a very negative after-effect!! If some disciplines are not making much sense in any part of my life, I am not going to accept it. Discipline should have some intention or aims. If it is good or fair, I might be able to accept if not, I will get back to what I was.

A few years before, my parents used to complain a lot about my addiction to internet, but I do not regret for this addiction. That is the way I am today. I'm not allowed to use mobile, laptop etc at my college. Does it make much sense? Mobiles or laptops are not always bad words. They can be misused but, they are not built for misusing. A security camera is used in a place where the security is under trouble and if there were no trouble, the invention of security cameras will be a waste of time and energy. So, my point is simple. If a rule for making us disciplined is not capable of destroying the 'tendency to get indisciplined', that action is purely non-sense! I lead a disciplined life because I'm not going to gain anything by an indisciplined life either!

"Life is great if you live the way you want to be, but it will be greater if you let others live the way they are!So, avoid unnecessary interferences..."


Sincerely,

Raghu