It takes true knowledge to understand that all that is around us is false and temporary. This knowledge paves way to accept changes in these temporary things and gives us the strength to accept such changes without affecting us much.

We tend to have personal attachments to many material things in life – like a pen, car, music system etc. When we happen to lose them – or when they become useless – there is a small pain (sometimes heavy pain) and we are not happy to let go of these things even at the end of their useful life. I am sure you may have a few old pens that don’t write, some old books that you don’t read, some old clothing that you don’t wear anymore and many such. These were your proud possessions at one point of time but now their utility is over. Still they please you by being around.

They were never intended to be permanent. Why do you still attach importance to them even after they have lost their utility? Are you not stuffing yourself with unwanted matters that eat into the physical and mental space?

The end of utility to any material possession can come out of ageing, damage beyond repair, loss due to theft or calamities etc. This is bound to happen in one of the many ways. Are you tuned to accept the “end of” these materials?

If you are not tuned to accept these changes and the eventual end of these materials how then are you going to accept the changes in other human being and animals? And how will you accept their end?

So tune yourself to accept changes in all that is around you. The tree that was pleasantly breezing your evenings till yesterday may be gone today. A new slum may crop up in front of your house. You may become old and dependent one fine day. Accept it.

The marvel of God is that he has tuned all of us to eventually accept our own end – our own death. However we have chosen to remain otherwise for all other men and materials that surround us.

HONESTY DOES NOT PAY HONESTLY

"Honesty is the best policy". This was imbibed in our minds right from our elementary school days. On many occasions I have got trashed up because I was honest. My teacher would ask me to stand up on the bench when I honestly told her that I have not done my homework. My father would pulp me when I honestly admitted that I took one rupee coin from his pocket when I was in class 8. My best (girl) friend became my worst foe when I honestly told her that I love her.
No doubt the fulfilment that I got out of being honest is something like standing atop mount Everest - but how long can you stand there? It is too cold out there and not many persons to give you company.
I have observed that the ones who lead dishonest lives are having a ball and the ones who are honest and loyal are getting fried their balls. Rhyming....isn't it?
It is a shame that most of the society (I like to use this generic word) is in shambles today because they have bartered honesty to buy better LIVING, without realising that it is damaging LIFE of the society members in general.
A policeman catches a thief and if the thief is willing to give a lions share of the booty to the policeman, the loot remains untraceable.
Judges, Doctors, Auto drivers.....name them. This disease has crept virtually into every strata of the society like cancer creeps in the affected human body.
The honest ones have learnt how to adjust and live cordially with the dishonest ones. This is where the problem begins.
If this blog can wake up the reader to realise that his honesty is not meant to co-exist with dishonesty of the society, and make him wage a war against dishonesty, then the time spent by me in typing this blog is really well spent.
I tell you again, Honesty is indeed the best policy. To eradicate dishonesty is a better policy than being honest. Let us fight the dishonest lot - either we must win or we must die.

Oh God, He is proactive!!!

Nowadays it is fashionable to talk about being "proactive" which means you are the first one to act in a given circumstance to resolve a problem. Proactive persons take things on their shoulders and try to resolve even cricis situations. To be proactive requires indepth understanding of the various concepts associated with the situation and also a clear understanding of the problem at hand.
Today's business schools teach everything about being proactive without dvelving on "indepth understanding of the various concepts associated with the situation and also a clear understanding of the problem at hand" and leave it to the imagination of the person wanting to be proactive to decide these variables.
As a result a half baked knowledge level becomes a comedy (or tragedy?) when the same is applied in an attempt to be proactive.
A typical proactive conversation that I (ME hereafter) had with a shop attendant (SA hereafter) in an electronic super market is given below. I was just gazing at the various products on display.
SA: Good Morning Sir (a very proactive gesture..........but the time was 7 PM)
ME: Good Evening.
SA: What would you like to buy and may I help you?
ME: I would like to buy a UV water filter from Philips
SA: At the moment we are out of stock for UV water filter from Philips brand and it is expected in about a week's time.
ME: Fine, this is my number. Call me when the stock arrives.
SA: Okay Sir.
With this the conversation must have been over. But see his proactiveness. Read on.
SA: Sir, Can I show you a lovely LCD television and HT system from Philips? (somebody must have told him not to leave any customer without offering all the products in stock)
ME: No, I dont want to buy LCD TV and HT system now. I just want a UV water filter and I can wait for a week for that to arrive.
SA: OK Sir, we have electric iron on discount sale.
ME: Let me see
SA: This one is from Bajaj, MRP is Rs.850/- now it is only Rs.700/- (the same stuff is only Rs.650/- in the shop opposite to this one without any talk of a discount sale and I point it out to him)
SA: Sir, that must be a old stock.
ME: No, it is same as your shop stock.
SA: Is it, I will look into it.....(dont you think I have to say this sentence?)
ME: OK. Call me when UV water filter arrives.
SA: Sir, do you want a mixer grinder from Philips?
ME: No not now.
SA: OK Sir, I will call when stock of UV water filter arrives.
With this I take the staircase to the first floor of the same shop. Bang at the entrace of the first floor were 3 different models of UV water heaters on display from Philips.
I asked the attendant in the first floor why the ground floor staff does not know about this and instead told me the same was out of stock.
He politely replied "He must be a contract staff, not aware of the position"
I asked him "I also want to buy electric iron from Bajaj"
He replied after looking around "We are out of stock. Give me your number. I will call you when we get the supplies within a weeks time"
I could not waste time and went to the ground floor fellow and asked him why the first floor chap does not know about the electric iron from Bajaj that is on sale.
He politely said "He must be a contract staff, not aware of the position"
This is how many persons act in a proactive way without even knowing the facts of the circumstance.
The sentences spoken by them are reassuring if you look at them in isolation. But the fact that they are hollow without any truth in it and without any commitment makes them ineffective.
To all the guys and girls wanting to be "proactive", please take stock of the situation and begin by being "active" - then you can aspire to be "proactive". Love.

STANDING OVATION

Very often we see a standing ovation is given to some speech or performance which has impressed the crowd to pull their weight, get up from their chairs and clap and make weird noises. The speaker or performer is overwhelmed to the extent of bowing to the crowd and saying "thank you", "i love you" and things like that. Did you ever notice that a standing ovation always begins with a few getting up from their chairs from strategic positions in the audience and giving a loud applause, mesmerizing the rest of the audience to follow suit? You can experiment this mass psychology yourself if you are lucky enough to have an audience of about one hundred or more. Just plant about 10 of your friends well spread in the crowd and tell them when exactly to get up and clap. There must be a micro second difference between each of your friends to do this work. Then see how the rest of the unknown audience behaves.
This happens in most of the mass audience where the strategic positioning of organised clappers have been done. A leader or a performer who wants to get drowned in the mass clappings and hysteric noises will have to master this art of "strategic positioning" of tailored applauders.
This shamelessly happens everywhere, be it political meetings, a rock concert or a corporate meeting. It takes a keen pair of eyes to watch this comedy unfold but it takes a very sharp and clever brain to conduct this comical drama.
A man who can get this mass applause by proper planning is revered as "charismatic", "great leader", "excellent speaker", "great performer" - they give him all sorts of titles except the one that he really deserves - "an excellent comedy dramatist"
Watch it around next time, better still capture the standing ovation in a video camera and play it back at leisure. You will learn a new technique to be a great leader or performer.!!! If not, that would help you start off as a good video camaraman.

SINCERITY

SINCERITY. This word is very clear in meaning but the action that we qualify as sincere is often not sincere. We have invented this word to convey the meaning that it conveys - but used often to camouflage the real intentions of any word, deed or action. "My sincere apologies", "My sincere wishes for you", "My sincere thanks", "Yours sincerely" - these are the common lines that all of us use. Tell me what is sincere about any of these? No doubt this sentence looks great and makes the reader comforatable that someone is sincerely trying to be something. But the fact that both the writer and and reader know is that there is nothing sincere about anything. Humans are not designed to be sincere - that is the way the chip is designed. Let us accept it. If any person is sincere to himself - that itself is great. We sincerely dont want to do anyting to anybody. We may do something under compulsion like a "good morning sir" but the reverb inside says "bastard" - there is absolutly nothing sincere about it. If you hear the reverb "bastard" and admit it within yourself that you hear the actual reverb "bastard" - there you are - you have been sincere.

We may really do or say something very sincerely - that can be identified by the absence of this word "sincerely". When the word "sincerely" appears be damn sure that this guy is not being sincere.
Now go and sincerely try to love everyone or at the least sincerely try to hate some things - and be a man to admit it within yourself. And, revel in being Sincere.

Is God an individual or a force? This question may have crossed your mind a few times. It did for me, as well. I made some systematic study and decided that God cannot be more than one, you know that multiple Gods is ruled out, and also cannot be an individual. For one, an "all by himself" individual will not feel amused to create some programmed stuff about which he knows the end results. If he has decided what each of his creations would do, by when and what would be result of such actions then it is as good as assembling a clock. Where is the amusement for God? He knows precisely when the next hour bell would strike. Simple. Hence such a foolish individual cannot be God or God cannot be that foolish individual.
God cannot be a force as well. Our scientists have formulated theories on various forces and every force is definable and calculable. We can measure the force of virtually anything in this universe. We have successfully measured force of gale winds, the ocean currents, the planetary forces and the force with which one spouse hits another in a fight. God cannot be a measurable thing and hence I rule out that God is a force.
I think God is a concept. A concept to streamline the way mankind will think and proceed slowly towards their own end which they will design without consulting each other. No animal ever worshiped God and in fact they don't care if there is a God. They eat, sleep, make merry and die. Precisely what we have not achieved as much as they have. We instill the fear of God in our children and tell them that God is watching over our actions and He will deliver our rewards or punishments as the case may be. This gets rooted into the child's memory chip and recalls itself in every possible situation. The child also develops another chip somewhere which can ignore the memory recall effort of the "god thought rooted" chip. This chip that can override the godly chip is the tool that the real God used to take mankind towards its own annihilation.
This is precisely the success of the concept called God. We wanted to slow down the pace of going towards annihilation and created a concept called God. This concept has slowed down our deterioration and we are still living as over 150 nations and 6+ billion people. If this concept of God was not invented by some well intended brains, we would have been one big nation - a big cemetery with no one to pay homage. We would have ended ourselves centuries ago fighting each other.
So go and tell your child that there is a God watching over his actions - so that your child does not act too fast towards the process of ending mankind. And don't forget to tell your child to teach his every child the same story in the future when he gets his children.
Good Luck. Err....God Luck.