Swami Ramdev, Yoga introduction - Part 1

Swami Ramdev, Quick introduction of pranayama yoga

President talks to spirits

If Pratibha Patil is elected as President of India then India will have a President against whom very allegations have been made and who talks to spirits. I don't understand why UPA under congress can not find any other person for this post.

The outgoing President is a missile technologist and the incoming is a person who talks to dead men. From a largest democracy India is suddenly going to become a country headed by a person talking to spirits.

Primary health care and empowerment of women

Primary health care and empowerment of women are very essential if we want to provide a betterlife to all the citizens. This is like building a strong base for a building to face all weathers in future. A healthy baby will become a healthy adult, a productive citizen who will contribute to the well-being of the people and society. To give birth and to gift such a citizen to the society, it is incumbant upon the society to ensure that the women is empowered.

Following is the link to a very well written article on this subject.

Primary health care and empowerment of women

Religion is a personal matter

Religion is a personal matter. All religions lead to God. Hinduism is my religion. It teaches me to respect all religions. Today there is lot of conflict in the society in the name of religion. This conflict should be removed and religion should be used to improve life of the people.

I invite introductory articles on various religions. Please send the articles to me at my e-mail address - suresh.betterlife@gmail.com. The articles, after review, will be posted on the blog. Review will be done only to ensure that articles do not include any offensive remarks about any religion. Articles should include, how life of people can be improved by practicing the religion as it has been taught by the religion.

Let us do our bit to give a betterlife to all.

Computers of future

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Celebrating Fathers’ Day in a different way

On 17 June is the Fathers’ Day. A week before that, a youth in Delhi paid his respects to his father by shooting at him. Though his father had a narrow escape, his mother had received minor injury.

Elders need support, not sympathy

Crimes against elderly are on the rise. Today, 5% percent of Delhi population consists of senior citizens. Ask anyone of them and chances are that they will tell you that having been left at the mercy of their children, neighbours and society, they are struggling hard to get through the last years of their life. Many NGOs working for the betterment of elderly in the city say that it is time the senior citizens took matters in their own hand.

Friday was celebrated as the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. However, NGOs say that immense efforts made by them are yielding no results as cases of abuse against senior citizens are not showing any decline. Delhi LG said on this occasion that senior citizens should make an effort to reach out to each other and not be dependent on their family. Besides, if their children are harassing them, then they should not shy away from turning them out as well.

Acting without Grace

One thing great about Indian politicians is that they accuse other politicians of the same thing in which they themselves are indulging. Congress has accused BJP of acting without grace in not agreeing to its choice for the President. It does not find anything wrong in the manner it finalized the name without consulting BJP, but wants it to agree to the person whose choice might have had the loyalty and caste factor as main consideration. I feel both congress and BJP have acted without grace. Whatever merit Pratibha Patil has, she will always be seen as a loyalist president to one person who already has a loyalist prime minister.

Is “Rashtrapati” gender-neutral?

Indians never miss a chance to get in to arguments. The moment name of a woman was announced for the post of President of India, self-declared intellectuals got in to an argument whether it will be right to use Rashtrapati for a woman president. Some day that the word Rashtrapati is a constitutional one and does not have any gender connotations. Some others, women activists, see the name of the constitutional post as ‘patriarchal’ and ‘gender-biased’. These people are really blind to the problems the common citizens are facing. Now the media, in league with these people, will waste lot of time, energy and resources on the issue whether a woman can be addressed as Rashtrapati or not.

Pratibha Patil, as deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha, has been addressed as upsabhapati mahodaya. She can now be addressed as Rashtrapati mahodaya. What is there to argue about it?

As an Indian I feel proud

As per an UN declaration, October 2, Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti will be international day for non-violence. The UN General Assembly in a special session on Friday voted for the same. A distinguished honour for a distinguished person.

If Christians are also dalits then why blame Hindus for casteism?

St. Stephen’s college at Delhi has introduced quota for Dalit Christians. There is a long pending demand for giving reservation to Dalit Christians on the lines being given to Dalit Hindus. Buddhists are also demanding reservation for Dalit Buddhists. Muslim also claim that there are Dalits Muslims. So when Dalits are in every religious community then why blame Hindus for casteism?

Moreover, being a Dalit has its own advantages. A dalit can get reservation for his children even if he becomes President of India. If a choice is given, majority of upper class Hindus will opt to be treated as Dalits. Then there is a quota war going on between Dalits as politicians have created casteism amongst Dalits also, SC, ST and OBC. Some Dalits feel that they are not getting more reservation benefits as some other Dalits are getting. Recent clashes between Gujjars and Meenas is a case in example.

Everybody wants to be treated as a Dalit but everybody also abuses Hinduism for their Dalitness. The fact is that now being a Dalit is not a curse, it is a boon.

Striking work is denying betterlife to others

13000 IA staff goes on strike. 32900 passengers are hit. 62 flights are cancelled.

High Court says strike is illegal. Chief Labour Commissioner says strike is illegal. Aviation minister says strike is illegal. Union secretary, by inference, accepts that strike is illegal. He says, we will continue strike even if it is contempt of court.

SC has said that there is no fundamental or legal right to strike.
Fundamental right to free speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution could not be interpreted as providing a license to employees to paralyze a service or industry in pursuit of their personal demands.
No statutory provision could be said to empower employees to go on strike. On the contrary, if the law bans or places severe restrictions on strikes, industrial or otherwise, it will be binding on employees.
There is no moral or equitable justification to go on strike. Whatever their grievances, employees are obliged to take recourse to the machinery provided to redress them. Strike as a weapon is mostly misused and results in chaos and maladministration.

Employers should take strict disciplinary action against striking employees. They are obliged to do it. It is their employees who are illegally and forcibly denying right to betterlife to others.

US denies visas to Hindu priests

Hindu temples and religious groups in the US are reeling from visa denials resulting in shortage of temple priests and stalled temple construction projects. Hindu priests, temple artisans and traditional temple architects are increasingly being denied R-1 religious worker visa because of US regulations weighed in favour of Judeo-Christian terminology.

If such is the case in US then how Christian missionaries are allowed a free run in India? They are forcing Hindus to convert to Christianity, whereas these Hindu priests and artisans seek visa for performing pooja in temples and constructing temples.

It is bad for Indian democracy

One person (that too not Indian by birth) deciding the President of the largest democracy is not good for democracy. Throughout this drama of hoisting Sonia Gandhi's personal choice as President, the only consideration has been the loyalty to her and her family. Earlier a person, rejected by people in last LS polls, was being forced. Now suddenly a woman has emerged as the favourite loyalist. The competition has not been on the merits but on the degree of loyalty.

I am not against a woman becoming President of India. I welcome it, My opposition is on two counts. One, a woman will be installed as President and it will be projected as a great step, But what about remaining women of India who continue to be treated as second grade citizens. Few years back, a dalit was made President and it was talked as a great thing but the dalits of India still live a lowly life. Second, Mrs. patil is being projected as a loyalist to Sonia. I would have welcomed it if she contested the election on her merits and not on the loyalty factor.

Sonia is already having a personal Prime Minister. Now she will have a personal President. It is bad, very bad for Indian democracy. May God save my country.

Should a rejected politician become President of India?

I am feeling disturbed on the news that congress is campaigning for Shivraj Patil for the post of President of India. I am not personally against him. But I have high respect for democratic institutions and feel hurt when these are violated. In last Lok Sabha polls, Mr, Patil was defeated in the election. Majority of the voters rejected him. As an ideal politician he should have temporarily retired from politics and associated himself in public service to regain credibility in the eyes of the people. But he was made Home Minister. It was a negation of the will of the people, a strike at the root of democracy.

Now he is being projected as President of India. The number game and dirty politics might see him thru but it will be a serious blow to democratic principles. I person rekjected by people becomes President. When a dalit became president, throughout his career he was called a dalit president. What Mr. Patil will be called,a people-rejected president.

I paid property tax on line

Every year, for many years, I have been filling up lengthy forms for depositing property tax. for my residential flat. You fill up the form, prepare cheque or arrange exact cash amount. The trcky part was how to assess and calculate tax. After that go to MCD office and stand in queue for hours.You are lucky if MCD clerk does not find fault in your form or else you lost another leave. It was always a nightmare for me.

This year MCD has put it up on their website. I logged in, filled in details about my name, address, age, father's name, floor and few other details. I clicked and all calculatiuons were done and a challan was generated for depositing tax in UTI Bank. it was so easy that I still don't believe that I have completed all formalities in less than 10 minutes.

Those who do not have computer and internet connection at their home, are visiting internet cafe and paying a cetain amount ( some are charging Rs. 20) to get things done.

MCD is saving all the information furnished and a data base of properties is being created without any typing effort on their part.

Certainly a step towards betterlife.

A visit to passport office

Today I visited District Passport Center, Pitam Pura in Delhi. My son wanted to submit an application for renewal of his passport. We had earlier visted the website, read all instructions carefully and had taken all required documents and fee with us. This office has been started as lot of time was being wasred due to unmanageable rush at regional passport office in RK Puram. In this respect this new office is sure a relief.

On reaching there, we found certain differences in information given on website and what was informed to us by people manning the counters. We were told that application will be received from applicant only whereas website said an authorized agent can also deposit the application. Because of this my son could not deposit the application of his wife.

Another difference was, website said that fee can be deposited in cash or draft, but here we were told that only draft will be accepted. Now it was a major problem as going to a bank and get a draft made and come back before close of the counters was out of question. Another day will be consumed. But a pleasant surprise was waiting for us. An executive fron UTI Bank was sitting there and making drafts. We got the draft by the time we completed filling the form.

While planning this office, it was perhaps not anticipated that a large number of people will be visiting. There is very little space in front of counters. With few people only it was full and by 10 AM it was so much overcrowded that it was very very difficult to move around. Another negative thing is that there was no body at two counters. One counter for receiving applications was started only ay 0930 AM. Other counter, giving back original documents after verification, was started even after that. I was surprised to see that both ladies were present in the office but due to reasons unknown to us were not starting work at right time.

I have mixed feelings about my visit to this office. It will be nice if above issues are addressed. Overall a good step.

Baby on plane

This video was shot by my son during their visit to Goa.

All human beings deserve a betterlife

Human beings are the finest creation of God. God created human beings superior to all other living beings. But they have shamed their creator.