Happy 2008 - bring love back in our lives

In 2007 we have seen love loosing to hate, peace loosing to violence. We should stop and ponder. Are we going to allow this to continue or we should do something to reverse the trend?

If we want that in year 2008, love should emerge victorious over hate and peace over violence then we need to bring love back in to our lives. My friends wonder where the love has gone. I wonder too. Has love really gone out of our lives or it is still there within our hearts but has been covered by greed which brought hate and violence to the front? Whatever is the situaion we should re-discover love. Without love we cease to be human beings.

Every year people make new resolutions. I also do. Last year I made a resolution to develop positive attitude towards life and people. I succeeded to some extent. I continue with this resolution for year 2008 also.

This year I make a new resolution to bring love back in our lives. Let love be victorious on hate. Let peace be victorious on violence.

I have many wishes too (list is very long. Here are some):

No deaths under blue line buses.

No killings of senior citizens.

No child abuse.

No violence against women.

No road rage.

No police brutality on innocent citizens.

No expolitation of and discrimination against any citizen.

No terror killings.

No photos of ministers on public ads.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

Certifying quality of hospital services

Last week I visited a hospital to see one of our relatives who had undergone heart by-pass surgery. The hospital introduces itself on its website as - " With over 7000 beds in 44 hospitals, a string of nursing and hospital management colleges and dual lifelines of pharmacies and diagnostic clinics providing a safety net across Asia, ......... is a healthcare powerhouse you can trust with your life. At ........ we unite exceptional clinical success rates and superior technology with centuries-old traditions of Eastern care and warmth, as we truly believe the world is our extended family - something our 14 million patients from 55 countries can warmly affirm".

A very nice statement indeed. The hospital also claims to be the first accredited hospital by Joint Commission International for quality of its services.

Impressed by all this I took a round of the hospital (no doubt only those areas where a visiter was allowed). The real situation was not impressive. The housekeeping was very poor. Preventive maintenance of fire hydrant system was not done as per maintenance plan. Pigeons were freely raoaming inside the visiter lounge. Pigeons droppings were everywhere, on walls, on floor, also on visiters' heads.

I wonder, what quality has been certified by JCI.

If empowered he can become Prime Minister of India

I was returning from work. With me was my client. Our car stopped at a busy traffic signal. It was little chilly in the air, so we have closed the windows. A boy approached us and tapped at the window glass. He extended his right hand and signalled us to give him him some money. My client is against begging. I also do not support it. We signalled him to move away. He looked at us for sometime and kept waving his hand. Then he moved away to another car. Traffic light turned green and we also moved.

This is routine on traffic signals in Delhi. Sometime it will be a girl child. Sometime a woman with a child in her arms. Every one of us is a witness to begging at traffic signals. Some of us give some money to them. Some say we should not encourage them.It is a problem no doubt. What should be done and how it should be done and who should do it? It is question which remains unanswered.

National Secretary, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, says, “The child beggars are part of a forced beggary racket. They are trained how to carry crutches to appear disabled on road and later paid Rs 10 or 20 as commission out of their daily earnings... There are gang leaders that include females also, who keep a check on the beggars so that they could not steal the money. Or if children are found doing so they are beaten black and blue for that... In Delhi, many individuals in Rohini’s Lal Quarters area, have been allegedly running training centres for child beggars. Areas like Delhi ’s Mahipalpur, Mehrauli and Vasant Kunj traffic signals are the main begging points.

We reached my place. I thanked my client. He said that he had been thinking. If properly empowered that kid could become India's Prime Minister. Yes, why not? I said it casually and smiling but it made me thinking. YES, WHY NOT?

Empowerment is what they need, but it is not a priority for those who can do it.

Let us pray for peace

There is so much violence in this world. Daily newspapers are full of news about killings of one human being by another human being. People burning with hate killed fellow human beings in Nandigram. Some people even justified these killings. Then Kolkata was rocked by violence. Yesterday hate mongers killed fellow humans in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad. A distraught lover shot dead his ex-girlfriend's mother and uncle before turning the gun on himself.Such waste of precious human life.

Let us pray for peace. Let us do Shanti Paath.

Like Gayatri Mantra, Shantih Paath is also a very important mantra. It may be recited as a part of Shantiprakanam, however, a Yajna typically concludes with Shantih Paath mantra. This mantra is also not chanted for the purpose of material gains, physical or otherwise.

The poignant prayer in the mantra is for peace everywhere in the universe. The prayer is for every thing in the universe, space, earth, water, vegetation, all learned people, all gods and even peace be free from harm and be conducive for peace. As a final part of the mantra, the person chanting the mantra, requests the Lord to grant him or her that peace also.

Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantih.

Aadmi Ek Chehre Anek - Two faced Indians

Who should be the role model for Indian people? Recently I was faced with this question. My reply was that only such a person can be the role model who is in a state of consistency of Manasa, vacha, karmana . The word manasa refers to the mind, vacha refers to speech and karmana refers to actions. He who has synchronized these three aspects of human behaviour in his life. He who speaks exactly what he thinks and does only those things that he believes in. He must not speak something that he does not believe in. He should promise exactly what he can deliver. He must think before doing anything or saying something. He who loves all. He who does not hate anybody. He who does not discriminate. He who does not exploit. I was still speaking my mind when I was interrupted. Is it not expecting too much of an individual? Yes, I said but here we are not talking of normal people. We are talking of an individual who should be an ideal for others. Where we will find him and do we have such a person? No we do not have such a person. Perhaps God has stopped making such human beings. So I said, let us forget the basics and come to talk of real life. These days every body is his or her own role model. We, Indians really do not need any role model.

These days, people say one thing but do quite another. People advise others to be truthful but get upset when someone calls a spade a spade. In my childhood I read few sayings. One was - par updesh kushal bahutere. We take pride in advising any one at any time and while advising we act as though we know every thing about what we are advising. But in our own life we fail to act as per our own advice. Another saying was - doosro ko naseehat khud miyan phazeehat. This saying also has more or less the same meaning. I read one story by Krishan Chander. He compared people to onion. Keep on removing layers after layers but won't see the real face. Two faced Indians, somebody said. Yes, ek aadmi do chehere. Almost every Indian has two faces. Some even have more than two faces. Kya kahna chahiye - ek aadmi do chehere OR aadmi ek chehre anek. Kuch bhi kaho sab chalega.

Then there was a song - parde ke peechey kya hai? Koi nahin jaanta aur sab jaante hain, par koi maanta nahin. Somebody said, you seem to be talking about hypocrisyy. Yes, in English that is the right word. We Indians are very comfortable with this word. In fact we live it every moment of our life. The height of hypocrisy is that many Indians even do not know that they are being hypocritical. You tell them but they will not agree with you and tell you that you are being hypocritical. Both are right, you and they, both are practicing hypcrisy. In short, hypocrisy has become a way of life for us Indians.

Sometime back Rahul Gandhi spoke about the Congressmen's hypocrisy on khadi and alcohol. It angered those who wear kahdi and can not live without drinking. But in open they showered their love on Rahul Baba but inside ... (your guess is right). They respect Bapu and hang his photo in their office with slogan - 'high thinking simple living. But under the table they take bribe. Yesterday I typed 'passport office' in Google search box, the resultant list contained address of a blog - 'Delhi Bribe Rates'. Passport and bribe, do you see the relation? But it is not hypocrisy. It is a fact of life.

Indian politicians make laws but only for others to follow. When a law becomes inconvenient they change it. Prime Minister looses his sleep over the arrest of an Indian in Australia but sleeps soundly after many people are killed in Nandigram. CPM claims to be working for aam aadmi but sent its cadre to kill aam aadmi in Nandigram.

Somebody said yaar we asked a simple question about the role model and you started a lecture. I replied, bhai don't get angry. I am an Indian and you all are Indians. We all are hypocritical creatures. Only a more hypocritical individual can be our role model.

Are we in our senses when we talk of betterlife?

People live in a society. They have to move out of their house to go to office or on business, to meet their relatives & friends, to take part in social functions, in short to do this and that. For this they depend on the transport system. Some have their own transports. Some depend on public transport. It is natural for the people to expect a reliable, comfortable and safe public transport system. It is a part of their betterlife. But do they get it?

The answer is a very big NO. Delhi does not have a reliable, comfortable and safe public transport system. Blue line buses granted license by Delhi Govt provide a transport system totally opposite to what people need. It is not reliable, it is not comfortable, it is not safe. Rather these buses are licensed monsters killing innocent people when they run on roads. In this year 2007, 98 people have so far been killed by these monsters. With no human feelings in bus owners, bus drivers, transport minister and chief minister of Delhi, it will kill more people till this year ends. Next person to be killed may be me, you or anyone (exempted are politicians).

See some of the headlines:
Blueline mayhem continues: two more killed
Blueline bus strikes again, kills cyclist
Delhi HC anguished over Blueline bus accident
Blueline bus kills 5 in Sarita Vihar
Blueline buses: Licensed to kill, as Delhi CM hems and haws

Delhi CM is still there. Her transport minister is still there. Bus owners and drivers are still there. But unfortunate loved ones of many families are not there. No body is bothered about their loss. PM Manmohan is not loosing his sleep. He and Sonia Gandhi are expressing concern with Bhutto in Pakistan on the loss of lives in the blast.

This Govt is not capable to give betterlife to people. Let us stop wasting time on these unworthy humans. People should get together and create betterlife for each other. May God protect the common citizens of Delhi.

10 betterlife tips

I may warn you first. There is nothing new in these tips. You might be aware and might be trying to adopt them. Recently, I received a mail from gurlzgroup which included these tips. I liked the presentation. I thought, let me share the tips with other bloggers.

While I myself do not always end up managing to put each of the following tips into practice, I do make a big effort to do so each day. This is a list of many peoples' favorite tips to improving their life. All it takes is a little bit each day and you will see wondrous changes.

10. Get off to a Good Start

This means getting up early and eating breakfast. You will have much more energy throughout the day to follow the rest of these tips if you do! If you are so inclined, you can even include a little exercise in your morning routine. If you live with other people you can try to use this opportunity to get everyone together at the table to eat in the mornings. This is a nice way to start the day and a good way to ensure open lines of communication in a very busy household.

9. Keep a Schedule

It is a very good idea to write down the tasks you need to achieve in each day. As you complete them, tick them off. You should not, however, feel like you are bound to your list. If you don’t manage to do everything, it doesn’t matter - move any incomplete tasks from today on to tomorrow’s list. This is also a great help if you are a procrastinator.

8. Take a Break and have Fun

If you spend too much time in front of the computer, at your desk, or doing whatever it is that your occupation requires, you should take a break. This doesn’t mean you have to take time off work - it just means you should try to make better use of your non-work time to do something fun. I always have difficulty pulling myself away from the computer and as a result I don’t go out as often as I should on the weekend or in the evening. But every time I do - I wonder why I haven’t done it sooner. This is a good way to develop new interests, and friends and to break up the monotony of everyday life.

7. Be Generous

Generosity has a tendency to come back. By generosity I am not referring only to money. You can be generous with your smiles, your advice, and many other things. Always try to find a way to help others. One day you may be in great need and people you know will be more likely to come to your aid when they know that you would do the same for them. You might know someone that could use help around the home from time to time - not only are you doing a good thing by helping them out, but you may also make a great new friend.

6. Accept the things you can’t Change

When something bad happens in our lives, we try to fix them or change them. But sometimes we can’t. Often this leads us to spend hours moping and falling in to depression. If you can make yourself accept the things you cannot change - you will become a much happier person. Acceptance of these situations also allows us to start finding a way to cope much faster. For example, you may realize that you have only $10 left in your bank account that has to last the next 2 weeks. Instead of getting down about it, accept that you have no money and work out a way to survive on that amount. You can save yourself from wasting hours in a bad mood by just getting on with life. You will find much more serenity in life following this tip.

5. Learn a New Language

Learning another language is one of the best ways to improve your grasp on English. In my own experience, learning French at high school taught me so much more about grammar than English class ever did. In addition, when I later started studying Ancient Greek, I learnt a lot about the roots of English words - something I have found very useful in writing in the years since. As well as improving your knowledge of English, if you learn a living language you increase the number of places you might like to visit - or make those holidays much more enjoyable by being able to speak to the natives in their own tongue.

4. Break the Chain

If you have a lot of patterns in your life, try breaking them - do something different every day. Let’s say you always order the same meal at your regular Friday night restaurant. Why not try something else this Friday? Not only do you get to broaden your experiences of life, you open up many doors for the future. Not long ago I would never eat oriental foods or seafood. Then one day I decided that I would just try it. Seafood is now one of my favorite foods and I would hate to be without it. Because I discovered that I love Thai and Chinese food, I can eat in any restaurant I want. That first step also meant that I am now willing to try absolutely any food. My disliking for those foods had a much greater impact as well - I would only holiday in countries that had foods I felt safe with. Since then I have been to Oriental countries and loved it.

3. Face the Fear

Every day you should do something you don’t want to do - or feel uncomfortable doing. This varies in degrees for everyone, but we all have little things we can start out with. For example, you may not go to the gym because you fear everyone looking at you - do it anyway! In no time you will be so much more confident that you abolish the fear entirely and can move on to the next fear - maybe even something bigger. Living a fearless life gives you a confidence that is visible to others. Instead of building walls around ourselves, we should be tearing them down.

2. Forget Goals - Live for the Now

Lists of this nature almost always tell you to set and write goals. I am going to tell you the opposite. A very wise psychotherapist once told me that if you set a goal, and achieve it, you are often left with an empty feeling because the goal is not what you thought it would be. Not only does it not satisfy, you inevitably end up missing out on so much life by striving to reach something in the future. Having said this, I don’t think you should ignore the future - it is worth having some idea of what you might like to one day achieve - but don’t focus all of your energy on getting it. A good example of the difference is this: I have a goal to live in France. I spend 10 years trying to save up all my money so I can acheive that goal. In the meantime I am so busy scrimping and saving, that I can’t afford to go out with friends, I can’t afford to live in a nice home, and I am miserable because I am not living in France. On the other hand, if I simply decide that one day I would like to live in France, the idea is in my mind, but I continue to live and enjoy my life. In living my life, I am happy now and not focused on a distant goal. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t happen, I haven’t failed at anything. But who knows what wonderful things may happen in my life in the meantime? A very good fictitious example of this can be found in the film American Beauty.

1. Don’t Procrastinate

This is one I struggle with a lot in my own life. This has been a great challenge for me as I work from home, but taking this job has really helped me to stop putting things off and take control of my life. The feeling after completing a task you would normally put off is a great high - and certainly a much healthier one than some of the other highs in our lives. When you put something off, you are putting yourself into time-debt. You have to pay that debt back and almost always you end up having to do that at the most inconvenient time. By putting off writing an article for the site, for example, I end up having to write one at 7 at night when I would rather be watching a movie and having a drink! Your life will become so much more organized if you follow this rule.