Will India ever be able to shed this helpless and hapless image in the face of terrorist attacks. Sometimes I shudder at the thought of how many more attacks can be executed in the free-for-all scenario in any crowded place anywhere in India.
I wish the following lines become a part of real headlines.
India to spend 1% of its GDP - roughly USD 10 billion (Rs.50,000 Crore) over next 12 months on Anti Terrorism Action plan. Money to be spent on Police modernization, Aiding Intelligence with ultra-modern technology, strict security of all points from where explosives can be sneaked in and hiring anti terrorism brains from across the world.
I am no security expert. But believe that for a country like India putting a strong face against the menace of terrorism is not only necessary but also very much possible with a strong will.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Easy Way Out
An easy way out is usually an easy way down. When we make a decision on the basis of short term convenience and/or relative ease viz a viz other alternatives we might be choosing to go under the hurdle rather than over it. And after finishing the race we might come to know that the effort has come to naught.
The realization is almost always in the hind sight!
This applies to one and all: students, entrepreneurs, politicians, sports persons, the list is endless.Here I am not preaching against corruption. Even being corrupt requires guts, planning, innovation etc. Although the downfall may come in different ways, at least the initial (and in some cases steep) rise is there.
I am talking about more insidious vices. And before I share them, I would categorically state that I am not immune to them and trying to get rid of them.
The first vice, complacence, usually plagues the achievers. Companies like Nokia have experienced this. Nokia that lost a significant market share while choosing to overlook the growing demand for dual sim cards found itself guilty of choosing an easy way to simply carry on. There are instances from the arena of politics too. In most of the cases, anti incumbency is a fall out of this weakness of governments viz. complacence. Otherwise with all the power in hand and the right intent who can stop a government from retaining power. Students getting easy 90 percent marks later realize they could have topped and got much better colleges. High performing sales people sometimes rue the lack of one more followup.
The narrower the miss, the bigger the pain.
The second vice which is more rampant due to a larger vulnerable population is Setting soft and easy targets.
In fact it is not the enormity of the target that intimidates. Rather, it is the anticipation of a huge effort that gets people ducking. So what do they do? They go for something which is attainable without a great effort.
On a sarcastic note, I would say that they aspire for a special greatness (something yet to be achieved) : to achieve something great by putting an ordinary effort.
Where does it get them? Exactly where running on a treadmill can take someone: nowhere. We often come across people with similar marks (at ordinary level) through out their academic life, when intellectually they deserve much better marks. Companies that commendably become sustainable against odds and remain sustainable but lamentably remain just there, when they could have broken into the next and the bigger league.
One good thing about success is that not many people sincerely seek it. Therefore, there should be huge motivation in sincerely and honestly beginning with an effort to overcome these two shortcomings, viz. Complacence and Setting easy targets.
The realization is almost always in the hind sight!
This applies to one and all: students, entrepreneurs, politicians, sports persons, the list is endless.Here I am not preaching against corruption. Even being corrupt requires guts, planning, innovation etc. Although the downfall may come in different ways, at least the initial (and in some cases steep) rise is there.
I am talking about more insidious vices. And before I share them, I would categorically state that I am not immune to them and trying to get rid of them.
The first vice, complacence, usually plagues the achievers. Companies like Nokia have experienced this. Nokia that lost a significant market share while choosing to overlook the growing demand for dual sim cards found itself guilty of choosing an easy way to simply carry on. There are instances from the arena of politics too. In most of the cases, anti incumbency is a fall out of this weakness of governments viz. complacence. Otherwise with all the power in hand and the right intent who can stop a government from retaining power. Students getting easy 90 percent marks later realize they could have topped and got much better colleges. High performing sales people sometimes rue the lack of one more followup.
The narrower the miss, the bigger the pain.
The second vice which is more rampant due to a larger vulnerable population is Setting soft and easy targets.
In fact it is not the enormity of the target that intimidates. Rather, it is the anticipation of a huge effort that gets people ducking. So what do they do? They go for something which is attainable without a great effort.
On a sarcastic note, I would say that they aspire for a special greatness (something yet to be achieved) : to achieve something great by putting an ordinary effort.
Where does it get them? Exactly where running on a treadmill can take someone: nowhere. We often come across people with similar marks (at ordinary level) through out their academic life, when intellectually they deserve much better marks. Companies that commendably become sustainable against odds and remain sustainable but lamentably remain just there, when they could have broken into the next and the bigger league.
One good thing about success is that not many people sincerely seek it. Therefore, there should be huge motivation in sincerely and honestly beginning with an effort to overcome these two shortcomings, viz. Complacence and Setting easy targets.
All the best!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Ocean of Greatness
I am yet to know a person in whom i have not seen shades of greatness. Greatness in its variety : commitment, innovation, philanthropy, belief, trust etc. Family, friends, seniors, colleagues, students have inspired me day in and day out. Even Lift-man, Porter, Rickshaw puller etc. have unexpectedly impressed me.
The reason this world moves on with all its glory is this ocean of greatness. We don't waste any opportunity to criticize the moral degradation of humanity. Also our yardstick of greatness is highly adaptable and inexplicable. In the process we deprive ourselves of celebrating this widespread greatness that by and large still overpowers its human frailties.
Come! Let us look around with a new perspective and thank the almighty for blessing us with so many great people. Reach out and be a part of it.
Random Thoughts
- Searching for the answer to the question "How true is your love ?" I realized that the answer lies in another question "What can you sacrifice for it ?"
- In the journey of life sometimes you realize what kept you going all this while : Wishes and blessings of FRIENDS! Thanks to all my friends!
- The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But the shortest distance between two humans is a curve called smile. :)
- One idea that has efficiently been making us inefficient is : Yesss! Finally, tomorrow will be the day when i put my plans into action!
The Art of Justifying
It's simply amazing. The extent to which we can go in order to justify our acts, decisions, ideas, beliefs, perceptions and emotions. When it comes to ourselves, black and white cease to exist. In case of other individual, other families, other societies, other states, other nations, other class, we become ruthlessly objective icons of justice. What US did was absolutely right. Pakistan's position is out rightly outrageous. Damn Kahn (Strauss). etc. But it's a myriad of greys through which we judge the conflicts involving ourselves.
Most of us tend to master this art before we realize. Observing kids will give us an idea about how the art of justifying manifests itself early. This could mean either it is hard wired or kids tend to pick it up early from the elders.The point which i feel is important is that whether this can be related to education. Does education enforces this tendency or curbs it or does not have any impact.
More than education i feel its important from the perspective of stress and happiness.
Before I begin this note (in continuation to my last note) let me clarify that these views on art of justifying are not at all directed at the scientific pursuit. They pertain to the usual social behavior and thought process.
I would begin by acknowledging the obvious: that one of the distinctions of the great personalities is their ability to not only justify their ideas (which is later termed as vision) but also motivate others to have a similar conviction in those ideas. Marx, Lenin, Gandhi exemplify this point.In other words lot of progress that mankind has made can be attributed to the art of justifying.
If I am allowed to define greatness as presence of usual traits in unusual proportions, it can be deduced that all of us have the basic ability to justify ourselves.
It's natural for us to consider our tendency to justify so much integral a part of our lives that we may ignore some of its ramifications which may be insidious for our mental health.
The problem i am referring to arises out of our ability to create unlimited shades of grey which is ill supported by our very limited ability to reconcile them in our lives. Different levels of respect, friendship, commitment, trust etc. hardly help in making life easier. For example, you may chose to trust a person in certain aspects which you have identified using your justification while not trusting him/her in other aspects again decided by you. Having a person in your life whom u don't trust completely can be source of unlimited agony. To top it all we even justify that agony..
You could be on the verge of expecting simplistic preaching of thinking in black white: labeling ideas, people etc as either right or wrong, win or loss, good or bad etc.
This is not what I am up to.
I believe that when we transform our art of justifying into an ability to effortlessly belt out excuses, we equate it with our ability to remain happy. We tell ourselves whatever we did, said, thought was only SLIGHTLY wrong, ALMOST a loss, NEARLY bad. But the worst thing is we don't believe in the TAG that we ourselves put. Result, we block our energies in the act of self justification. Does all this really make us Happy???
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)