May 21, 2011

The clean professional!

Some people believe that the only trouble that can ever happen to a man is 'money'. They can value everything in terms of money. I called them economists! Recently, I had an opportunity to sit in an economics class and against all the odds, rather than letting my mind wander around the world, I was listening to everything my teacher was saying. As far as I see 'money' will be the most frequently heard word in those classes. I started to see things in terms of money after that and that is the reason why I call them economists. Anyway, what would happen if there is no 'money' in this world? I will do whatever I like and as there is no money I will fight to meet my needs. I'm thinking about a condition at which no one really owns anything. A matter of real survival! I'm stuck with a small thought 'what will be my profession if I did not have the term 'money' in my mind?'. Today, everybody is supposed to have a job for their living or everybody is supposed sell their efforts, that may be interesting or it may not be so interesting, to live. What if we live a life of our own? In a simple sense, what if we are living a life like an animal?

Every single day, I do a lot of things. To be honest, I haven't earned much money for my living by anything I did in my life, but I am able to survive as my father's efforts can be sold to buy me meals. So, what I am doing in my life is simply the things that I really like to do. What will you do when you are free? Some watch television, some others may browse internet and I used to think when I am free. We can call it hobby. Yes, thinking is my hobby! I never used to get bored of my hobby and the condition will be same for most of us. What about bringing this hobby to my profession? I think, I may not say that I am tired of my work for ever!! I'm thinking and some are paying money for thinking and I will be able to live my life with it. As far as I can believe that there are no one who is foolish enough to do something like that, I am supposed to do some work as well. The reason why I am writing this post is a fact that I've seen people who sacrificed their hobbies for their job and as I have given some efforts to think about that condition, I think I can talk a little about it as well!!

If you get a job, people will begin to question you for sure. I've heard of people asking the question 'How much do you earn?'. Personally, I do not like that question as I feel that it is a small exploitation of one's privacy. But, I haven't heard of people asking 'How satisfied you are with your job?', that can be answered by anyone! . Most of us are taking these in terms of money(Not everybody). If so, everybody is some sort of an economist(according to my definition of the word 'economist'). Job will be a lot easier if you like what you are doing and it will be a lot difficult if you really take it as a punishment or burden. Everybody is dreaming about domination in their life and I've found my domination in the subject 'The art of being me'! But, it feels like it will be a lot easier for me to dominate if I go to the area I really like for my job. Sachin Tendulkar is famous in the world of cricket if he decided to be a chemistry professor I do not think that the name 'Sachin' would ever be popular! Luckily, he did not! So, everybody is having a small inbuilt talent in them and we have to find it to make it useful in our lives. If you are choosing your subject with a support from the word 'trend', I would like to remind you that your life may be a little weirder than you may imagine.

The very best thing you need to do when you are determined to be a professional in a field is to implement a very simple policy. "Accept advices with justifications"! People may ask you to be an IT professional when you really hate using a computer. People may ask you to be a scientist when you hardly spell the word 'scientist'. Because, it is very easy to advice. People may ask you to do a different job as it pays better but, to be a little extra ordinary, it is not enough and the word 'domination' may fade away with your efforts. Ask yourself whether you want a 'survival strategy' or a 'domination strategy' and trust no one other than you. "You are your best teacher!"(Quote from "School of Life")

Thanks for listening!

Raghu

NB: I feel like it is the first time I am writing a post in this blog

May 10, 2011

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 :).


March 12, 2011

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

February 12, 2011

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.

December 16, 2010

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!