I had this awful gut feeling that I am going hear the passing news of Shailaja and Nanda uncle back to back and there you go - I am awestruck; got the news about Shailaja yesterday and Nanda uncle today.Sailaja was in her early thirtees and Nanda uncle in his early sixties. Both were struck by cancer in early 2009 - A very bizarre co-incidence...
I have never met Shailaja in person, but it always appeared to me as though I knew her very closely. It is due to one of my close friends association with her and her encounter with cancer. I knew about her even before she was diagnosed with cancer in early 2009. Then life started on a roller coaster ride for them.. The same case with Nanda uncle. He was our neighbor and a doctor too. He was an orthopedics doctor and recently got retired from his job. He was helping people in the neighborhood with orthopedic problems for free post retirement. He even helped my mother a year ago with her severe back pain. Nanda uncle was diagnosed with liver cancer probably during early 2009. His illness was diagnosed accidentally when they had a regular checkup and the person that needed the checkup was his wife, not him. But irony, his wife had very minor problems whereas his was more serious.We grew up in the neighborhood where there were football and Cricket matches near our house. many times kids will get injured and go to nanda uncle's house and get treated for free. Once my sister had very high fever, and we ran to their house. He was always there when there was a need...
Shailaja on the contrary was starting her life and had enrolled for Ph.D program in chemistry department in the same institute as her husband. Both had a great life together until cancer monster hit them.
I guess life is such. We have to live in today rather than living in past or in future. As Gandhi said - "Kal kar so aaj, aaj kar so aab" and I think this is very appropriate for people like me who procrastinate a lot...
Both Shailaja and nanda uncle were great souls; spread happiness around them and people loved them dearly. With their passing, we have lost 2 beautiful people amongst us. But their soul will live on.
My heartfelt condolences to their family; may god give them strength to get over the grief. May their soul rest in peace. May people remember them fondly. May nobody encounters cancer in their lifetime - this is my silent wishful thinking...
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Hats off to Khimjibahi - The art of giving..
Today is one of the idle weekends, where I was in search of a topic that I wanted to write in my blog. Just then I read a heartening news in times of India on how a beggar gave alms to the poorer. The story goes like this: Mr. Khimjibhai is a beggar, he makes just enough money to have 2 square meals a day and saves little bit to send to his ailing wife. Now apparently, Mr. Khimjibhai still had some additional savings, so he goes on and donates new clothes in a orphanage for little girls. Not only that, on and off he helps other needy people around with his meager savings.The whole story can be found here. Unbelievable isn't it? Well, there was another piece of news item some times back about an old lady who also happens to be a beggar has saved enough money to plant around 10,000 trees in and around Tamil Nadu. I sit and wonder sometimes when people having such limited resources can bring about such a change in society, what will happen if all of us do our bit. Now the irony is; just on the right hand panel of the same news page, appears another news item that says "Rich getting richer: 120k Indians hold a third of national income".Wow!! while 0.01% people control 1/3rd of the countrys entire GDP, the remaining 99.99% of the people combined together have the remaining 2/3rd of the countrys net worth!! Now am I thinking like a communist? Not at all... The point I am trying to discuss here is not against the rich people getting richer - rather the big money cycle. I am no economist and my knowledge on money matters is very limited. However, I often think how people's attitude play a great role in in-equal distribution of wealth. Yes, you heard it right. Well, we all know that spending money recycles it and reaches people and that is how economy runs. In richer countries people are not necessarily richer, but they have a distinct spending habbit and their money gets recycled faster than poorer countries. In India, people are very frugal and make conscious decisions while spending. That is good, but money remains stagnant in multiple instances. So, now how should we spend our money so that the rich does not get richer?
If you buy a branded shirt/pant, do you know major part of the money goes to the dress designer who is already a rich person. Very small amount goes towards really making it. Same happens when we spend on designer jeweleries, watches etc. When we buy food items from farmers directly, money directly goes to those who produce it rather than buying food at the stores. Similarly spending money on luxurious items also redirects money to the undesirable sources. Similarly buying a product that is new in the market having a certain oomph factor also causes money to go to unwarranted resources. I would rather like to wait till the craze goes down and buy the product after proper evaluation..
Now coming back to the continuation of my last topic on giving back to the society - Are we doing enough? Here is something I would like to discuss..
Here, in DFW area, Texas, there is a temple and every sunday devotees sponsor food for anybody who visits the temple. Most often the money is a donation by a particular family, and sometimes the cost of food exceeds the donation money. In that event, the rest is arranged by the temple trust. Now, at the outset this appears as a very noble act. There are lots of volunteers who just turn up for cooking and cleaning and serving. Initially, I thought - what a selfless act!! Even, the moment I came to Texas, I thought of signing up for the temple services during the weekends. It seemed perfectly logical, but during my 2 and half years stay in Texas, my temple visits was very limited - can be counted in fingers. Have I lost morality or faith or mind? Well, the reason I don't have much affiliation for temple activity stems from the events I have described above.
Now how often we end up visiting birthday parties, wedding parties and gift generously to the otherwise well off people for the occasion? Probably, we are hypocrites and don't want people to think that we are cheap. And in order to hide that, we end up giving something that can be right fully used more effectively if we donate that to people in need! Lets talk about the temple free food event. Almost all the people that are visiting the temple on sundays are quite well off people, riding big cars, having good jobs etc. They just come to the temple, enjoy the free food and leave. Does it accomplish anything or serve any purpose for the volunteers? I don't think so. Instead, if the cost of the food and the labor is charged for a price - which I think should be quite affordable to the affluent lot and the temple uses that money for some good cause, will be so much more meaningful.
We are from a developing country, and there are plenty of hungry people who need food on a daily basis. There are plenty of sick people that are denied of proper treatment. Then why do we shower our kindness to people who are completely capable of looking after themselves? Not only that they are capable of even doing something for the others.
People like the Amabnis spend crores and crores of rupees on organizing parties for the celebrities, but don't show any kindness towards people in the villages not having proper electricity and/or drinking water. Most of us earn enough money that is enough for our daily expanses, but still we don't feel like giving away the remaining to the poor. Most often we misdirect our kindness towards the unworthy people - be it for political reason or for any other reason. I wonder if we can learn anything from Khimjibhai on the True "art of giving"..
Finally thought of quoting some great excerpts from another web site:
If you buy a branded shirt/pant, do you know major part of the money goes to the dress designer who is already a rich person. Very small amount goes towards really making it. Same happens when we spend on designer jeweleries, watches etc. When we buy food items from farmers directly, money directly goes to those who produce it rather than buying food at the stores. Similarly spending money on luxurious items also redirects money to the undesirable sources. Similarly buying a product that is new in the market having a certain oomph factor also causes money to go to unwarranted resources. I would rather like to wait till the craze goes down and buy the product after proper evaluation..
Now coming back to the continuation of my last topic on giving back to the society - Are we doing enough? Here is something I would like to discuss..
Here, in DFW area, Texas, there is a temple and every sunday devotees sponsor food for anybody who visits the temple. Most often the money is a donation by a particular family, and sometimes the cost of food exceeds the donation money. In that event, the rest is arranged by the temple trust. Now, at the outset this appears as a very noble act. There are lots of volunteers who just turn up for cooking and cleaning and serving. Initially, I thought - what a selfless act!! Even, the moment I came to Texas, I thought of signing up for the temple services during the weekends. It seemed perfectly logical, but during my 2 and half years stay in Texas, my temple visits was very limited - can be counted in fingers. Have I lost morality or faith or mind? Well, the reason I don't have much affiliation for temple activity stems from the events I have described above.
Now how often we end up visiting birthday parties, wedding parties and gift generously to the otherwise well off people for the occasion? Probably, we are hypocrites and don't want people to think that we are cheap. And in order to hide that, we end up giving something that can be right fully used more effectively if we donate that to people in need! Lets talk about the temple free food event. Almost all the people that are visiting the temple on sundays are quite well off people, riding big cars, having good jobs etc. They just come to the temple, enjoy the free food and leave. Does it accomplish anything or serve any purpose for the volunteers? I don't think so. Instead, if the cost of the food and the labor is charged for a price - which I think should be quite affordable to the affluent lot and the temple uses that money for some good cause, will be so much more meaningful.
We are from a developing country, and there are plenty of hungry people who need food on a daily basis. There are plenty of sick people that are denied of proper treatment. Then why do we shower our kindness to people who are completely capable of looking after themselves? Not only that they are capable of even doing something for the others.
People like the Amabnis spend crores and crores of rupees on organizing parties for the celebrities, but don't show any kindness towards people in the villages not having proper electricity and/or drinking water. Most of us earn enough money that is enough for our daily expanses, but still we don't feel like giving away the remaining to the poor. Most often we misdirect our kindness towards the unworthy people - be it for political reason or for any other reason. I wonder if we can learn anything from Khimjibhai on the True "art of giving"..
Finally thought of quoting some great excerpts from another web site:
“Rivers do not drink their own water ,
nor do tree eat their own fruit ,
nor do rain clouds eat the grains reared by them.
The wealth of the noble is used solely for the benefit of others?
Even after accepting that giving is good and
that one must learn to give ,
several questions need to be answered.
The first question is
When should one give ?
Yudhisthir asks a beggar seeking alms to come the next day.
On this , Bhim rejoices , that Yudhisthir his brother ,
has conquered death!
For he is sure that he will be around tomorrow to give.
Yudhisthir gets the message.
One does not know really whether one will be there tomorrow to give!
The time to give therefore is NOW.
The next question is
How much to give ?
One recalls the famous incident from history.
Rana Pratap was reeling after defeat from the Moghals.
He had lost his army , he had lost his wealth ,
and most important he had lost hope , his will to fight.
At that time in his darkest hour , his erstwhile minister
Bhamasha came seeking him and placed his entire fortune
at the disposal of Rana Pratap.
With this , Rana Pratap raised an army
and lived to fight another day.
The answer to this question how much to give is
Give as much as you can !
The next question is
What to give ?
It is not only money that can be given.
It could be a flower or even a smile.
It is not how much one gives but how one gives
that really matters.
When you give a smile to a stranger
that may be the only good thing
received by him in days and weeks!
“You can give anything but
you must give with your heart !
One also needs answer to this question
Whom to give ?
Many times we avoid giving by finding fault with the person
who is seeking. However , being judgmental and rejecting
person on the presumption that he may not be the most
deserving is not justified.
Give without being judgmental !
Next we have to answer
How to give ?
Coming to the manner of giving , one has to ensure
that the receiver does not feel humiliated ,
nor the giver feels proud by giving.
‘Let not your left hand know what your right hand gives?
Charity without publicity and fanfare ,
is the highest form of charity.
Give quietly !While giving let not the recipient feel small or humiliated.
After all what we give never really belonged to us.
We come to this world with nothing and will go with nothing.
The thing gifted was only with us for a temporary period.
Why then take pride in giving away something
which really did not belong to us?
Give with grace and with a feeling of gratitude.
What should one feel after giving ?
We all know the story of Eklavya.
When Dronacharya asked him for his right thumb
as “Guru Dakshina”.
He unhesitatingly cut off the thumb and
gave it to Dronacharya.
There is a little known sequel to this story.
Eklavya was asked whether he ever regretted the act of
giving away his thumb when he was dying.
His reply was “Yes ! I regretted this only once in my life.
It was when Pandavas were coming in to kill Dronacharya
who was broken hearted on the false news of death of
his son Ashwathama and had stopped fighting.
It was then that I regretted the loss of my thumb.
If the thumb was there ,
no one could have dared hurt my Guru?
The message to us is clear.
Give and never regret giving !
And the last question is
How much should we provide for our heirs?
Ask yourself , ‘Are we taking away from them the “gift of work? – a source of happiness!’
The answer is given by Warren Buffett:
“Leave your kids enough to do anything ,
but not enough to do nothing !
I would conclude by saying:
let us learn the Art of Giving ,
and quoting Sant Kabir:
“When the wealth in the house increases ,
When water fills a boat ,
Throw them out with both hands !
This is the wise thing to do!
This is another watershed kind of Article
I am still assimilating it …
I will be reading it again and again
[this is taken from soul searchers website http://www.soulsearchers.co.in - it is written by Gurudev Shri Rudrabhayananda]
nor do tree eat their own fruit ,
nor do rain clouds eat the grains reared by them.
The wealth of the noble is used solely for the benefit of others?
Even after accepting that giving is good and
that one must learn to give ,
several questions need to be answered.
The first question is
When should one give ?
Yudhisthir asks a beggar seeking alms to come the next day.
On this , Bhim rejoices , that Yudhisthir his brother ,
has conquered death!
For he is sure that he will be around tomorrow to give.
Yudhisthir gets the message.
One does not know really whether one will be there tomorrow to give!
The time to give therefore is NOW.
The next question is
How much to give ?
One recalls the famous incident from history.
Rana Pratap was reeling after defeat from the Moghals.
He had lost his army , he had lost his wealth ,
and most important he had lost hope , his will to fight.
At that time in his darkest hour , his erstwhile minister
Bhamasha came seeking him and placed his entire fortune
at the disposal of Rana Pratap.
With this , Rana Pratap raised an army
and lived to fight another day.
The answer to this question how much to give is
Give as much as you can !
The next question is
What to give ?
It is not only money that can be given.
It could be a flower or even a smile.
It is not how much one gives but how one gives
that really matters.
When you give a smile to a stranger
that may be the only good thing
received by him in days and weeks!
“You can give anything but
you must give with your heart !
One also needs answer to this question
Whom to give ?
Many times we avoid giving by finding fault with the person
who is seeking. However , being judgmental and rejecting
person on the presumption that he may not be the most
deserving is not justified.
Give without being judgmental !
Next we have to answer
How to give ?
Coming to the manner of giving , one has to ensure
that the receiver does not feel humiliated ,
nor the giver feels proud by giving.
‘Let not your left hand know what your right hand gives?
Charity without publicity and fanfare ,
is the highest form of charity.
Give quietly !While giving let not the recipient feel small or humiliated.
After all what we give never really belonged to us.
We come to this world with nothing and will go with nothing.
The thing gifted was only with us for a temporary period.
Why then take pride in giving away something
which really did not belong to us?
Give with grace and with a feeling of gratitude.
What should one feel after giving ?
We all know the story of Eklavya.
When Dronacharya asked him for his right thumb
as “Guru Dakshina”.
He unhesitatingly cut off the thumb and
gave it to Dronacharya.
There is a little known sequel to this story.
Eklavya was asked whether he ever regretted the act of
giving away his thumb when he was dying.
His reply was “Yes ! I regretted this only once in my life.
It was when Pandavas were coming in to kill Dronacharya
who was broken hearted on the false news of death of
his son Ashwathama and had stopped fighting.
It was then that I regretted the loss of my thumb.
If the thumb was there ,
no one could have dared hurt my Guru?
The message to us is clear.
Give and never regret giving !
And the last question is
How much should we provide for our heirs?
Ask yourself , ‘Are we taking away from them the “gift of work? – a source of happiness!’
The answer is given by Warren Buffett:
“Leave your kids enough to do anything ,
but not enough to do nothing !
I would conclude by saying:
let us learn the Art of Giving ,
and quoting Sant Kabir:
“When the wealth in the house increases ,
When water fills a boat ,
Throw them out with both hands !
This is the wise thing to do!
This is another watershed kind of Article
I am still assimilating it …
I will be reading it again and again
[this is taken from soul searchers website http://www.soulsearchers.co.in - it is written by Gurudev Shri Rudrabhayananda]
Friday, June 25, 2010
Giving back to society..
Lately, "Giving back to society" caught my fancy. At home, we often talk about it. Recently, in a newspaper one article appeared on (link) how ones values are most certainly "wealth" , than any physical form of wealth. This article was on one of Warren Buffet's sons. His comparison of "born with a silver spoon" with "born with a silver dagger" is so much relevant in present day society. It is a fact that only handful of people on this earth control around 99% of the resource - It is so unfair!! Look at countries like USA. Here average energy consumption is so much higher than average energy consumption in developing countries. In countries like India, people travel in crowded buses/trains to work where as in USA, a single person drives a big SUV guzzling large amount of fossil fuel to work. There is disparity in energy usage. An average American has carbon foot print that is 20 times more than an average Indian. But the global outcome is global warming and the effects are distributed uniformly upon the entire human kind. Here, I am comparing resources with wealth with carbon foot print. OK now lets get back to the subject.
The new generation philanthropists like Bill Gates, Warren Buffets and our own Narayan Murthy, Rohini Nilekkani, Sudha Murthy etc.. are doing great job!! All these people are self made - in other words, they have generated their wealth through their hard work. So, they have decided not to pass on their hard earnings to their offsprings completely. Instead they are making every effort on passing large chunk of it to the society, which in some ways helped them accumulate the wealth in the first place!
Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has a trust that supports research and development in developing countries in eradicating infectious disease. Warren Buffet also funds Bill and Melinda gates foundation. All the Indian counterparts of Gates and Buffets(Murthys, Nilekkanis) have also set up similar trusts in India, that are engaged in activities like clean water supply, providing instruments to hospitals, setting up venture funds, helping sanitary condition of the cities just to name a few.
Giving back to society is always considered healthy! When in nature everything else is getting recycled why not wealth? I am not sure whether nature can recycle wealth or not(Is wealth bio-degradable?), but wealth do get recycled but not as frequently as it should be. Kingdoms rise and fall, countries rise and fall, dynasty s rise and fall, I would call all these the results of recycling. But this recycle is a very slow process and does not happen unless there is a catastrophe. An average individual with average life span does not get to reap the results of a wealth recycle in their life time. So, the money recycle should happen more frequently than the rate it is happening now.
In our life time one accumulates things - be it knowledge, wealth or anything else and all that ends when one dies. So, whatever we have accumulated during our life time just gets passed on to our offsprings whether they are worthy or unworthy of it and it never gets released to the society. Now, majority of problem India facing in the real estate sector/housing sector, food inflation sector, is just because some people hold onto what they have and pass it on to their children. As a result of which, there are adequate number of houses, yet real estate prices are insanely soaring. Large number of people are still homeless. Isn't it worth to return our accumulated stuff to the society/universe, the moment we leave it? If such a thing will be brought into practice, this universe will be such a wonderful place to live.. Here is what I perceive as the possible outcome: There will be no dearth of place for people to stay - in other words there will be no homeless. All will have adequate amounts of land to grow their own vegetables, there will be no scarcity of food, clothing and shelter. All will get clean drinking water and live in sanitary condition, there will be no chronic disorder (I assume chronic dis-orders are the result of pollution, food habbit etc.). This world will become a beautiful place to live. Are we all listening??
The new generation philanthropists like Bill Gates, Warren Buffets and our own Narayan Murthy, Rohini Nilekkani, Sudha Murthy etc.. are doing great job!! All these people are self made - in other words, they have generated their wealth through their hard work. So, they have decided not to pass on their hard earnings to their offsprings completely. Instead they are making every effort on passing large chunk of it to the society, which in some ways helped them accumulate the wealth in the first place!
Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has a trust that supports research and development in developing countries in eradicating infectious disease. Warren Buffet also funds Bill and Melinda gates foundation. All the Indian counterparts of Gates and Buffets(Murthys, Nilekkanis) have also set up similar trusts in India, that are engaged in activities like clean water supply, providing instruments to hospitals, setting up venture funds, helping sanitary condition of the cities just to name a few.
Giving back to society is always considered healthy! When in nature everything else is getting recycled why not wealth? I am not sure whether nature can recycle wealth or not(Is wealth bio-degradable?), but wealth do get recycled but not as frequently as it should be. Kingdoms rise and fall, countries rise and fall, dynasty s rise and fall, I would call all these the results of recycling. But this recycle is a very slow process and does not happen unless there is a catastrophe. An average individual with average life span does not get to reap the results of a wealth recycle in their life time. So, the money recycle should happen more frequently than the rate it is happening now.
In our life time one accumulates things - be it knowledge, wealth or anything else and all that ends when one dies. So, whatever we have accumulated during our life time just gets passed on to our offsprings whether they are worthy or unworthy of it and it never gets released to the society. Now, majority of problem India facing in the real estate sector/housing sector, food inflation sector, is just because some people hold onto what they have and pass it on to their children. As a result of which, there are adequate number of houses, yet real estate prices are insanely soaring. Large number of people are still homeless. Isn't it worth to return our accumulated stuff to the society/universe, the moment we leave it? If such a thing will be brought into practice, this universe will be such a wonderful place to live.. Here is what I perceive as the possible outcome: There will be no dearth of place for people to stay - in other words there will be no homeless. All will have adequate amounts of land to grow their own vegetables, there will be no scarcity of food, clothing and shelter. All will get clean drinking water and live in sanitary condition, there will be no chronic disorder (I assume chronic dis-orders are the result of pollution, food habbit etc.). This world will become a beautiful place to live. Are we all listening??
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Degrading moral values..
We get to see honor killing in Indian news papers more often than not in recent past. I am appalled by the fact that someone can take the life of their loved ones just to keep their honor up!! What could be the Psychology of the people that participate in the crimes of the worst order? For them, the pain of loosing a loved one is much less than the imaginary pride they accomplish in front of their relatives by "Setting up a trend". Lets dissect this "setting up the trend" little further. This would mean imparting a warning sign among the remaining survivors to NOT INDULGE in such activities. Or else, get the consequence like your brother/sister did. The outcome will be fear- and somebody will be refrained from doing the same act for fear, not necessarily because it good or bad. So, why some people want to suppress free thinking in their 'wards' by setting up a trend, than to discourage wrong doing by means of debating? So, trying to find an answer on why some people are bent into imposing fear than anything else, I am into looking at similar crimes, and the closest I find is among the muslim countries. In fact they are the propagators of honor and honor killing. So, how does it come to India? Here is how:
Looking at the moral values and work culture among Indians, it is the best among Maharastrians, Gujratis, Rajputs from Rajasthan and of course the south Indians. The worse perpetrators among Indians are the majority of north Indians. Most of the north Indian states are not only under developed, but these are the places where we see maximum number of social crimes against women. People from these states are often MCPs with few exceptions, lack moral value, they lack honesty etc. Why we observe such distinct moral value quotient in different Indian states? Did you observe a pattern? Hypothesis: The more number of years a particular state was governed by the muslim rulers, the more degraded moral values they are going to have. Degraded moral value breeds other ills in the society such as corruption, dis-honesty, lethargic work culture,crime, violence, regression in growth and so on and so forth. Only for the 1/3rd of the countries hard work, India is where it is today. If you take off south India from India, all that will remain is something equal to Pakistan or even worse than that. Look at UP, Bihar, they are degrading so quickly. They are non-functional anarchies with negative growth and development. Places that are towards east could have been Ok, but for their communist culture.
I will give you an example: If you take a train in Mumbai's crowded suburb, you will find 99% of the people have railway passes and the remaining always queue up to get their tickets before boarding a train. Here. it is worthwhile to mention that most of the ticket queues are long and outside the shaded booth under scorching sun!! There may be one or two TTs, and the possibility of getting caught is only 1%. Despite this fact, most of the Mumbaikars end up taking tickets, even if that would mean missing a train or missing a coveted standing position near the window(forget about getting a seat). They invariably take a ticket also in crowded buses. But, it is just the reverse in North India.. Similarly, it is extremely safe for women to travel during late nights in Mumbai, Gujrat and some parts of south India,where as it is impossible to do so in North India. It is a fact that honesty always gives birth to prosperity and as a result of which people from the above mentioned states are more prosperous than rest of the north Indian states..
So, why north Indians are the way they are? Reason, they were almost under the grip of Islam for about 5-6 centuries than other states. Marathas have been fighting and claiming back their states, so they have kept up their moral values, so also the Rajputs. The people that succumbed to Ismlamic invasion are the northern Indian states and they ended up behaving like the islamists..
I recently read an article on "Islamic sexual perversion". This was a very well written article by an ex-muslim, who describes the state of mind of muslim men folks. The reason why they want women to be behind veil all the time, because any displayed skin would mean inviting predators.. Now if you look at sex related crimes, it is the highest in north Indian states. The male chauvinism is highest among the north Indian males and also honor killing is highest in north Indian states. Cheating, lying, deceiving, dis-honesty are some of the islamic culture that has ingrained into our society. As a result of which the north Indian states are still reeling under all these ills. The "sati" system that was prevalent in large part of Rajastan is a direct outcome of islamic predation. Islam allows war prisoners to be captivated as concubines, so Rajput women preferred to be "satis" than to be kept as concubines.
Here is a great book written by Sita Ram Goel on "The story of Islamic Imperialism". The chapter I found most interesting was "The myth of Muslim empire in India" . The chapter I loved most was on Nehru. I had no ill feeling towards Mr. nehru(Our first prime minister), untill I read this one. This article comes totally as a shocker on how little do we know our leaders. Have a look..
Looking at the moral values and work culture among Indians, it is the best among Maharastrians, Gujratis, Rajputs from Rajasthan and of course the south Indians. The worse perpetrators among Indians are the majority of north Indians. Most of the north Indian states are not only under developed, but these are the places where we see maximum number of social crimes against women. People from these states are often MCPs with few exceptions, lack moral value, they lack honesty etc. Why we observe such distinct moral value quotient in different Indian states? Did you observe a pattern? Hypothesis: The more number of years a particular state was governed by the muslim rulers, the more degraded moral values they are going to have. Degraded moral value breeds other ills in the society such as corruption, dis-honesty, lethargic work culture,crime, violence, regression in growth and so on and so forth. Only for the 1/3rd of the countries hard work, India is where it is today. If you take off south India from India, all that will remain is something equal to Pakistan or even worse than that. Look at UP, Bihar, they are degrading so quickly. They are non-functional anarchies with negative growth and development. Places that are towards east could have been Ok, but for their communist culture.
I will give you an example: If you take a train in Mumbai's crowded suburb, you will find 99% of the people have railway passes and the remaining always queue up to get their tickets before boarding a train. Here. it is worthwhile to mention that most of the ticket queues are long and outside the shaded booth under scorching sun!! There may be one or two TTs, and the possibility of getting caught is only 1%. Despite this fact, most of the Mumbaikars end up taking tickets, even if that would mean missing a train or missing a coveted standing position near the window(forget about getting a seat). They invariably take a ticket also in crowded buses. But, it is just the reverse in North India.. Similarly, it is extremely safe for women to travel during late nights in Mumbai, Gujrat and some parts of south India,where as it is impossible to do so in North India. It is a fact that honesty always gives birth to prosperity and as a result of which people from the above mentioned states are more prosperous than rest of the north Indian states..
So, why north Indians are the way they are? Reason, they were almost under the grip of Islam for about 5-6 centuries than other states. Marathas have been fighting and claiming back their states, so they have kept up their moral values, so also the Rajputs. The people that succumbed to Ismlamic invasion are the northern Indian states and they ended up behaving like the islamists..
I recently read an article on "Islamic sexual perversion". This was a very well written article by an ex-muslim, who describes the state of mind of muslim men folks. The reason why they want women to be behind veil all the time, because any displayed skin would mean inviting predators.. Now if you look at sex related crimes, it is the highest in north Indian states. The male chauvinism is highest among the north Indian males and also honor killing is highest in north Indian states. Cheating, lying, deceiving, dis-honesty are some of the islamic culture that has ingrained into our society. As a result of which the north Indian states are still reeling under all these ills. The "sati" system that was prevalent in large part of Rajastan is a direct outcome of islamic predation. Islam allows war prisoners to be captivated as concubines, so Rajput women preferred to be "satis" than to be kept as concubines.
Here is a great book written by Sita Ram Goel on "The story of Islamic Imperialism". The chapter I found most interesting was "The myth of Muslim empire in India" . The chapter I loved most was on Nehru. I had no ill feeling towards Mr. nehru(Our first prime minister), untill I read this one. This article comes totally as a shocker on how little do we know our leaders. Have a look..
Monday, June 21, 2010
Post Party Trauma
Just recovering from a trauma caused by a party over the weekend...
The party was a community event, so not much of cooking work is required, although I feel guilty that I have passed on substantial amount of my work to another nice couple that wanted to help. We humans are selfish beings and we want to survive, even if it involves putting other people in trouble.
This is what happened in this party. Family A was suppose to host the event, but passed it on to family B. Family B agreed initially, but internally terrified. Family B has to do 5 different items and on the top of that they have to arrange stuff for the baby shower as well!! Now this nice family C calls to know the updates and offers to help. Family B is fully aware that family C has some problem and should not be given hard job, but at the same time family B also does not want to take up all the work given to them. So B asks C if they can do a certain job and C agrees saying that they are ready to do it - if that is going to ease B's burden. B knows, this will significantly reduce their work, but it is unfair that C does so much work, but still asks C if they are sure they want to do it. C being very nice says yes, they are confident. So, finally B transfers that job to C although reluctantly and feeling guilty... Now you must have guessed who is family B - it is none other than we..
But hang on the story does not end here!! Hosting party for 60 people in a house is not easy, especially when there are 30 kids of different age groups and gender. I saw in the bedroom, there are 6-7, 8-10 year old boys jumping on the bed. My husband concerned asked why they are jumping on the bed and the reply came - Is there a problem? Now, not knowing what to say, Pramod said, yes, the bed is half broken and will break completely if they continue jumping. Probably then, they got down but continued to jump till the end of the party when no one was seeing.
There is this another group of little kids(2-4 years olds) - busy running from one end of the house to other and levelling anything that comes their way. Intermittently, they would look up inside the 5 gallon drinking water container, remove the lid and spit...:(
Now, there are another group of little girls 5-7 year olds, fighting for balloons and making zillion pieces out of it..
So, in the end, when everyone had left, the house looked like a war zone with scattered objects all over, cakes smeared on the carpet, food material all over, computers frozen, plants broken, drinks spilled on the carpet, left over food all over and a sticky floor...
Now, I feel good that I did not have to do the large part of job that was passed on to C(although this seems like selfish thinking). The fun began when we ended up cleaning all the four rooms and 2 halls. This is not all, the worse part is handling trash. We had about 10 bags of trash that we stashed in our garage. Now there were a lot of left over food there inside, and whole of sunday the food started decomposing and making horrible smell. We tried to cover those bags with another bag, but it did not help much. Finally at about 7 PM our time on Sunday we left them outside(as per rule) for monday morning trash pick up. We felt extremely guilty about the rotten smell and the discomfort it may have caused to our neighbor( My sincere apologies to them). Finally today morning the trash was taken, and again I feel sad for the guys who have to be in that trash truck. How much they must be enduring.. Sigh. Who will teach these people to take only the amount of food on their plate that they are confident of finishing and NOT WASTE FOOD.. If these simple things are taught children early on, it will make this world a very beautiful place to live.. Vowing not to have any community party ever at our place...
The party was a community event, so not much of cooking work is required, although I feel guilty that I have passed on substantial amount of my work to another nice couple that wanted to help. We humans are selfish beings and we want to survive, even if it involves putting other people in trouble.
This is what happened in this party. Family A was suppose to host the event, but passed it on to family B. Family B agreed initially, but internally terrified. Family B has to do 5 different items and on the top of that they have to arrange stuff for the baby shower as well!! Now this nice family C calls to know the updates and offers to help. Family B is fully aware that family C has some problem and should not be given hard job, but at the same time family B also does not want to take up all the work given to them. So B asks C if they can do a certain job and C agrees saying that they are ready to do it - if that is going to ease B's burden. B knows, this will significantly reduce their work, but it is unfair that C does so much work, but still asks C if they are sure they want to do it. C being very nice says yes, they are confident. So, finally B transfers that job to C although reluctantly and feeling guilty... Now you must have guessed who is family B - it is none other than we..
But hang on the story does not end here!! Hosting party for 60 people in a house is not easy, especially when there are 30 kids of different age groups and gender. I saw in the bedroom, there are 6-7, 8-10 year old boys jumping on the bed. My husband concerned asked why they are jumping on the bed and the reply came - Is there a problem? Now, not knowing what to say, Pramod said, yes, the bed is half broken and will break completely if they continue jumping. Probably then, they got down but continued to jump till the end of the party when no one was seeing.
There is this another group of little kids(2-4 years olds) - busy running from one end of the house to other and levelling anything that comes their way. Intermittently, they would look up inside the 5 gallon drinking water container, remove the lid and spit...:(
Now, there are another group of little girls 5-7 year olds, fighting for balloons and making zillion pieces out of it..
So, in the end, when everyone had left, the house looked like a war zone with scattered objects all over, cakes smeared on the carpet, food material all over, computers frozen, plants broken, drinks spilled on the carpet, left over food all over and a sticky floor...
Now, I feel good that I did not have to do the large part of job that was passed on to C(although this seems like selfish thinking). The fun began when we ended up cleaning all the four rooms and 2 halls. This is not all, the worse part is handling trash. We had about 10 bags of trash that we stashed in our garage. Now there were a lot of left over food there inside, and whole of sunday the food started decomposing and making horrible smell. We tried to cover those bags with another bag, but it did not help much. Finally at about 7 PM our time on Sunday we left them outside(as per rule) for monday morning trash pick up. We felt extremely guilty about the rotten smell and the discomfort it may have caused to our neighbor( My sincere apologies to them). Finally today morning the trash was taken, and again I feel sad for the guys who have to be in that trash truck. How much they must be enduring.. Sigh. Who will teach these people to take only the amount of food on their plate that they are confident of finishing and NOT WASTE FOOD.. If these simple things are taught children early on, it will make this world a very beautiful place to live.. Vowing not to have any community party ever at our place...
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Why I write this blog..
This will be my second post today- quite a rare event. Could not stop thinking why am I spending so much time blogging. More blogging == less productivity. Do you believe in this equation? Nah, I don't think this equation holds and truth.
I blog partly because few of my good friends assure me that they are regular readers; besides the fact that I feel I am heard. And this special one today comes as I am idling after my lunch break and thinking what to do before I start working again some boring stuff.
This thought of "Why I blog" was triggered today after I read a good blog post by a graduate student on "why graduate students should blog" ( here is the link). Now, I am neither a grad student nor is this my professional blog, so why should I have it in the first place?
Well here is why:
We lived in CA before coming to Texas. There, we did not belong to any Indian community(or any other community), So our weekends were generally very boring with regular calling home stuff in the morning, followed by shopping, cleaning. In the evening, we will go mountain hiking(We lived in beautiful Simi Valley in Southern CA overlooking few mountains). I would often complain we know nobody and it is so boring here. We came here to Texas about 2 and half years back. We had some old friends here already, joined a big Oriya community. Life seemed to be perfect, lot of activities during the weekends and no free time absolutely. This is exactly what I wanted when I was in CA. Now after getting to know people little bit, I am surprised that people living in this community for over 10 years, hardly know anything about each other!! Here, I will describe a typical social gathering scenario by Indians in US.
Event 1:
Emails are sent: There is a potluck this weekend at Mr/Mrs X's house, please bring in a dish of your choice.
Event 2:
20 family's agreed to join in (lets say A to X).
Event 3:
Family "A" is the first one to turn up. As family "A" arrives, family "X"(host) offers them drink appetizers etc..
Event 4:
Then, family B,C,D,E,F arrive together. X family gets over worked and often can't pay personal attention to each member. Serves appetizer, drink etc. to all the guests. Soon, all other families arrive. House then becomes houseful. Then, people having affinity(read political affiliation) to each other sit in clusters. Note here, in Indian gatherings Male cluster and Female clusters are distinct with a very few exceptions.
Event 5:
It is now time for social interaction. The male folk often discuss politics, US, and electronic gadgets. Being female, I only know what is discussed at the female clusters.
Cluster 1:
Now as curious was Ms X, as she has some breathing time, goes on and joins cluster 1. In this particular cluster, say there is family S, H, I and T. S begins to speak on some interesting event that had happened at work yesterday.
S:(begins to speak) You know what a funny thing happened at my work place yesterday?
H: Go on.
S: There was this girl...(interrupted by I)
I: Looking at her kid - come here what happened?
S: (Now looking worried/confused)Oh, what happened?
I: No no nothing happened, kid is fine.
Mrs V interrupts: My kid has to go for Zumba class now, so X please give food to my kid.
X leaves to give food to V's kid.
T: (hurriedly interrupts) You know my kid is learning zumba dance lessons too.
S: Really?
I: (Intercepts) My kid goes to this amazing math class.
S:(Looking confused, tries to revive the discussion) Where was I? This girl at work... (Again interrupted - this time by H)
H: My kid played Piano yesterday
....... Meaningless discussion goes on for 20 minutes. To summarize, it was just on whose kid goes to which class, which school and good at what at best. Other than that there are no content.. X leaves the place disappointed. Soon X joins another cluster, but again the same story repeated. So, weeks after week, months after month, year after year the same events repeated multiple times..
Now, in the end after socializing for 10 years many people in this group still don't know what is the surname of some people, which place they belong to, whether they had an arranged marriage or a love marriage. How many siblings they have and many more vital information.
This is exactly what happens in most of the social gatherings involving Indians in US and most of the interesting stories remain unspoken. Nobody really wants to hear the other person, with ofcourse a very few exceptions. I would say the attention span of the adults is just few seconds at most. That is exactly why I think everyone should write their blogs. At least you will be heard by someone somewhere. Internet is a very powerful medium that brings people together despite geographic limitations. So go blogging..
I blog partly because few of my good friends assure me that they are regular readers; besides the fact that I feel I am heard. And this special one today comes as I am idling after my lunch break and thinking what to do before I start working again some boring stuff.
This thought of "Why I blog" was triggered today after I read a good blog post by a graduate student on "why graduate students should blog" ( here is the link). Now, I am neither a grad student nor is this my professional blog, so why should I have it in the first place?
Well here is why:
We lived in CA before coming to Texas. There, we did not belong to any Indian community(or any other community), So our weekends were generally very boring with regular calling home stuff in the morning, followed by shopping, cleaning. In the evening, we will go mountain hiking(We lived in beautiful Simi Valley in Southern CA overlooking few mountains). I would often complain we know nobody and it is so boring here. We came here to Texas about 2 and half years back. We had some old friends here already, joined a big Oriya community. Life seemed to be perfect, lot of activities during the weekends and no free time absolutely. This is exactly what I wanted when I was in CA. Now after getting to know people little bit, I am surprised that people living in this community for over 10 years, hardly know anything about each other!! Here, I will describe a typical social gathering scenario by Indians in US.
Event 1:
Emails are sent: There is a potluck this weekend at Mr/Mrs X's house, please bring in a dish of your choice.
Event 2:
20 family's agreed to join in (lets say A to X).
Event 3:
Family "A" is the first one to turn up. As family "A" arrives, family "X"(host) offers them drink appetizers etc..
Event 4:
Then, family B,C,D,E,F arrive together. X family gets over worked and often can't pay personal attention to each member. Serves appetizer, drink etc. to all the guests. Soon, all other families arrive. House then becomes houseful. Then, people having affinity(read political affiliation) to each other sit in clusters. Note here, in Indian gatherings Male cluster and Female clusters are distinct with a very few exceptions.
Event 5:
It is now time for social interaction. The male folk often discuss politics, US, and electronic gadgets. Being female, I only know what is discussed at the female clusters.
Cluster 1:
Now as curious was Ms X, as she has some breathing time, goes on and joins cluster 1. In this particular cluster, say there is family S, H, I and T. S begins to speak on some interesting event that had happened at work yesterday.
S:(begins to speak) You know what a funny thing happened at my work place yesterday?
H: Go on.
S: There was this girl...(interrupted by I)
I: Looking at her kid - come here what happened?
S: (Now looking worried/confused)Oh, what happened?
I: No no nothing happened, kid is fine.
Mrs V interrupts: My kid has to go for Zumba class now, so X please give food to my kid.
X leaves to give food to V's kid.
T: (hurriedly interrupts) You know my kid is learning zumba dance lessons too.
S: Really?
I: (Intercepts) My kid goes to this amazing math class.
S:(Looking confused, tries to revive the discussion) Where was I? This girl at work... (Again interrupted - this time by H)
H: My kid played Piano yesterday
....... Meaningless discussion goes on for 20 minutes. To summarize, it was just on whose kid goes to which class, which school and good at what at best. Other than that there are no content.. X leaves the place disappointed. Soon X joins another cluster, but again the same story repeated. So, weeks after week, months after month, year after year the same events repeated multiple times..
Now, in the end after socializing for 10 years many people in this group still don't know what is the surname of some people, which place they belong to, whether they had an arranged marriage or a love marriage. How many siblings they have and many more vital information.
This is exactly what happens in most of the social gatherings involving Indians in US and most of the interesting stories remain unspoken. Nobody really wants to hear the other person, with ofcourse a very few exceptions. I would say the attention span of the adults is just few seconds at most. That is exactly why I think everyone should write their blogs. At least you will be heard by someone somewhere. Internet is a very powerful medium that brings people together despite geographic limitations. So go blogging..
Free Thinkers
This word meant nothing to me about a year back - but now, I can vow by it and can't imagine life, if it were not for the freedom of thought and for independence!! I moved to the US exactly about 8 years back. Before that, I worked in various places in India and enjoyed considerable amounts of freedom, compared to many other females in India have now. For me freedom of thoughts and independence never came with difficulty, but when I see people with closed mind, I so much wish, they should be exposed to a free society for induction of free thinking..
So, who qualifies to be a free thinker?
People that are open to new ideas, those who can substantiate their beliefs on the basis of logic and data and peacefully debate their ideas and thoughts are the free thinkers. Free thinkers also have the ability to accept or reject a certain school of thought entirely based on logic. Not merely on what someone said before or on incomplete information..
Why Indians moving to US like it so much? I would say it is just the freedom and the free thinking environment - nothing more nothing less. We humans, are the highest evolved life forms(so we believe) just love our independence. Even if you look at animals, they like to be independent than to be en-caged. Studies have shown that pet animals become dumber than the free living forms!So, can we say the same thing about humans? Coming back to living in the US, let us weigh the pros and the cons. Pros: Free country, free society, lots of independence. Those in science can do really well if there is a will and little bit of luck. Now coming to cons: we end up doing all our day to day chores by ourselves - that way we waste our overall working hours. We could do so much more if somebody takes care of that aspect of our life. we pay so much tax, we feel lonely, can't save much for future etc. Social security schemes are a sham, if you managed to work for over 10 years with more than 40 points, you may receive social security once you turn 70(It is going to be 70 very soon), provided if you are a citizen of this country , and if you are still alive after 70!! So most of us work so hard to secure our life after 70, not knowing how long we are going to last. In India on the other hand, we can do so much more - we can get all our domestic work done by someone, we can have family over all the time, we can enjoy the festivities, and to top it all now there is hardly any difference in salary structure between India and USA . So, clearly there is a disadvantage living in US, then what still keeps Indians here? Is it the clean roads, un-interrupted power supply or the cars? I will re-iterate, it is none of the above!! It is just the atmosphere to be a free thinker and the independence and nothing else.
When I visit India, I get appalled by the attitude of people. First of all, there is corruption in every sphere of life. There is so much show up business going on and on the top of everything, it is lack of freedom. I can't go out by myself(ya you heard it right), somebody has to escort me all the time because it is DANGEROUS for a woman to go out alone! Go to villages, people will ask, why you are not wearing saree, tow ring, sindur etc. Is it because you think you are modern? Now, being a free thinker, I would very much like to ask this question: give me a simple reason why I should wear all that you are asking me to wear? But I keep my mouth shut.. People just so much believe in not asking questions. If you ask too many questions, people think you are arrogant. Why should I follow a culture/tradition if that is so inconvenient to me? Why can't I make a choice on how I would like to dress up? We do certainly dress up traditionally during festivities but during regular working days why should I en-cage myself in some cultural dagger net? In my family, there are few people that are quite misogynists. They don't prefer girls to study beyond a certain point. Reason - they will start asking questions and will become open minded. So, somehow suppress that.Many of my relatives often say - don't follow west.
I am big fan of ancient Indian culture and the intelligent women in Indian history. I somehow can't find a link where this present stupid close minded culture came to India.
I have been reading faithfreedom.org for quite sometimes now and I can relate this "don't ask questions" to islamic culture. Did we have this culture before the islamic invasion? Are we not sticking into some stupid aborigin adultrous culture? It is time we Indians wake up and be free thinkers again..
So, who qualifies to be a free thinker?
People that are open to new ideas, those who can substantiate their beliefs on the basis of logic and data and peacefully debate their ideas and thoughts are the free thinkers. Free thinkers also have the ability to accept or reject a certain school of thought entirely based on logic. Not merely on what someone said before or on incomplete information..
Why Indians moving to US like it so much? I would say it is just the freedom and the free thinking environment - nothing more nothing less. We humans, are the highest evolved life forms(so we believe) just love our independence. Even if you look at animals, they like to be independent than to be en-caged. Studies have shown that pet animals become dumber than the free living forms!So, can we say the same thing about humans? Coming back to living in the US, let us weigh the pros and the cons. Pros: Free country, free society, lots of independence. Those in science can do really well if there is a will and little bit of luck. Now coming to cons: we end up doing all our day to day chores by ourselves - that way we waste our overall working hours. We could do so much more if somebody takes care of that aspect of our life. we pay so much tax, we feel lonely, can't save much for future etc. Social security schemes are a sham, if you managed to work for over 10 years with more than 40 points, you may receive social security once you turn 70(It is going to be 70 very soon), provided if you are a citizen of this country , and if you are still alive after 70!! So most of us work so hard to secure our life after 70, not knowing how long we are going to last. In India on the other hand, we can do so much more - we can get all our domestic work done by someone, we can have family over all the time, we can enjoy the festivities, and to top it all now there is hardly any difference in salary structure between India and USA . So, clearly there is a disadvantage living in US, then what still keeps Indians here? Is it the clean roads, un-interrupted power supply or the cars? I will re-iterate, it is none of the above!! It is just the atmosphere to be a free thinker and the independence and nothing else.
When I visit India, I get appalled by the attitude of people. First of all, there is corruption in every sphere of life. There is so much show up business going on and on the top of everything, it is lack of freedom. I can't go out by myself(ya you heard it right), somebody has to escort me all the time because it is DANGEROUS for a woman to go out alone! Go to villages, people will ask, why you are not wearing saree, tow ring, sindur etc. Is it because you think you are modern? Now, being a free thinker, I would very much like to ask this question: give me a simple reason why I should wear all that you are asking me to wear? But I keep my mouth shut.. People just so much believe in not asking questions. If you ask too many questions, people think you are arrogant. Why should I follow a culture/tradition if that is so inconvenient to me? Why can't I make a choice on how I would like to dress up? We do certainly dress up traditionally during festivities but during regular working days why should I en-cage myself in some cultural dagger net? In my family, there are few people that are quite misogynists. They don't prefer girls to study beyond a certain point. Reason - they will start asking questions and will become open minded. So, somehow suppress that.Many of my relatives often say - don't follow west.
I am big fan of ancient Indian culture and the intelligent women in Indian history. I somehow can't find a link where this present stupid close minded culture came to India.
I have been reading faithfreedom.org for quite sometimes now and I can relate this "don't ask questions" to islamic culture. Did we have this culture before the islamic invasion? Are we not sticking into some stupid aborigin adultrous culture? It is time we Indians wake up and be free thinkers again..
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Ragging at the work place
This seem little bit of a off topic, but I am sure 90% of us must have had a first hand experience with "ragging at the work place". In college campuses, it is a common practice to rag the new comers, and this may lead to 2 things - a. firstly, some fun can be derived out of it b. secondly, it is way to get to know the new comers and the seniors well. While there may be severe cases where none of the 2 goals are fulfilled! So, what is the goal of ragging at the work place? I find none.
Often, this stems from insecurity of the colleagues/bosses to jealousy and at some other times it is due to callousness of the people concerned.
I will describe here few of my experiences, although the first one can't be called as exactly a work experience, but nevertheless when we are paid to do a certain job, I would call it a work experience..
In year 1993, I got a CSIR fellowship to do my Ph.D. Merely out of my college and at just 21, I had no clue what the outside world would be. But armed with a prestigious CSIR fellowship, I had great dreams of joining a great lab and doing molecular biology research. With all these desire, I landed up at CPMB(Hyderabad). Here it is worthwhile to mention that I have had plenty of offers from reputed labs, but I chose this one. I landed up in Dr.X's lab. Dr. X was working on molecular pathogenesis, a very enviable area indeed. I considered myself fortunate. My training began with making cotton plugs(for the flasks, test tubes), washing contaminated tubes, petridishes in hot dingy mosquito infested rooms, rinsing them in distilled water and autoclaving them. I was pretty excited initially to be among so many glasswares and learning the art of sterilizing them. Soon time passed by and I was getting anxious as why I am not starting up my project work(that is cotton transformation). I went to Dr. X asking him where I am with regard to my project. So, Dr. X handed me over a complicated paper on BT cloning with tri-parental mating. Here, it is important to mention that Bt cloning was not going to come in my work for at least one year. But anyways, being ignorant, I started reading. First reading - one full day still did not understand anything. Asked Dr. X if I can help in the lab while reading papers. He said sure, handed me over all fungal/stinky contaminated test tubes, flasks and I would read and do the cleaning jobs. At the end of the month, I asked Dr. X if I can begin working, so he said OK, follow this protocol, and isolate plasmids. I was so excited, I am learning finally how to isolate plasmids, then I ran gel, did some DNA extraction etc. Then I asked Dr. X why am I extracting all these? Dr. X said don't bother about it now, just do as I say. When you will completely understand all the papers you have then come back and ask questions. I was disappointed and read harder..
Initially, I joined the center thinking that I should be able to get my Ph.D in 3 years. In fact I registered with Dr. Y(who was the director of the center) for that purpose. But Dr. X was suppose to be my micro-manager. Now after 2 months, I realized, all that I have done is - decontaminating, washing, autoclaving loads of glasswares and centrifuging, running EthBr gels for DNA/plasmids not knowing what for I am doing all that. I was terribly frustrated with my botany background, because I am unable to understand much from the papers, and I have to do all these cleaning jobs. Then for a change Dr. X would ask me to prepare stock solutions, prepare media, clean refridgerators and so on. At the end of 6 months, I was still there where I had started. Dr. Y (my official supervisor) would not bother because he would retire in 2 years. One day, I sat at my table and got an inspirational letter from my uncle. As I read through, I broke down and that never stopped. I cried continuously for 5-6 hours. Meanwhile Dr. X probably needed some cleaning job, so he peeped in and saw me crying, and he left. May be he peeped several times and finally saw I am continuously crying, his guilt consciousness kicked in. He send in Dr. Z, who is from my state. Dr. Z called me to Dr. X's office room and kept asking me what had happened. Then finally, I told him it is because I came here with great hope and for the last 6 months, I am just doing cleaning job and nothing else, and nothing is moving, so I am crying. Then finally, from that day onwards he stopped telling me to do anything and I was on my own. I had a great struggle initially to plan up my work and get going by myself, but I managed finally. I thankfully managed to finish my Ph.D in 3 and half years!!
Immediately after completing my Ph.D, I worked in a college, where I was ragged by my HOD. She would ask me to teach the most boring areas like taxonomy, economic botany, ayurveda, gymnosperm, algae, fungi etc. and she would take up exciting areas like molecular biology, genetics(This was my favorite subject), genetic engineering. She would often ask me and another colleague of mine to bring chairs, bring tea etc. I used to travel atleast 2 hours to get to the work place, but she would keep my lectures from 7 AM till 5 PM with huge gaps in between. I struggled initially, but later managed well and she would be afraid of me for some reason. She desperately wanted me to leave because I was very popular with the students and lecturers from other department. Finally I left, not because of her fear, but because I found another job that was more exciting. In my second job, all was well, till the company came to a situation where it was on the verge of close down. There was bit of ragging, but being experienced, I gave fitting reply. In my thrid job, another younger girl tried to play politics, but I guess it was getting easier for me. So, finally I am here, ragging proof. So, I would say ragging is also an integral part of a job system, the more you are ragged early the better for you..
Often, this stems from insecurity of the colleagues/bosses to jealousy and at some other times it is due to callousness of the people concerned.
I will describe here few of my experiences, although the first one can't be called as exactly a work experience, but nevertheless when we are paid to do a certain job, I would call it a work experience..
In year 1993, I got a CSIR fellowship to do my Ph.D. Merely out of my college and at just 21, I had no clue what the outside world would be. But armed with a prestigious CSIR fellowship, I had great dreams of joining a great lab and doing molecular biology research. With all these desire, I landed up at CPMB(Hyderabad). Here it is worthwhile to mention that I have had plenty of offers from reputed labs, but I chose this one. I landed up in Dr.X's lab. Dr. X was working on molecular pathogenesis, a very enviable area indeed. I considered myself fortunate. My training began with making cotton plugs(for the flasks, test tubes), washing contaminated tubes, petridishes in hot dingy mosquito infested rooms, rinsing them in distilled water and autoclaving them. I was pretty excited initially to be among so many glasswares and learning the art of sterilizing them. Soon time passed by and I was getting anxious as why I am not starting up my project work(that is cotton transformation). I went to Dr. X asking him where I am with regard to my project. So, Dr. X handed me over a complicated paper on BT cloning with tri-parental mating. Here, it is important to mention that Bt cloning was not going to come in my work for at least one year. But anyways, being ignorant, I started reading. First reading - one full day still did not understand anything. Asked Dr. X if I can help in the lab while reading papers. He said sure, handed me over all fungal/stinky contaminated test tubes, flasks and I would read and do the cleaning jobs. At the end of the month, I asked Dr. X if I can begin working, so he said OK, follow this protocol, and isolate plasmids. I was so excited, I am learning finally how to isolate plasmids, then I ran gel, did some DNA extraction etc. Then I asked Dr. X why am I extracting all these? Dr. X said don't bother about it now, just do as I say. When you will completely understand all the papers you have then come back and ask questions. I was disappointed and read harder..
Initially, I joined the center thinking that I should be able to get my Ph.D in 3 years. In fact I registered with Dr. Y(who was the director of the center) for that purpose. But Dr. X was suppose to be my micro-manager. Now after 2 months, I realized, all that I have done is - decontaminating, washing, autoclaving loads of glasswares and centrifuging, running EthBr gels for DNA/plasmids not knowing what for I am doing all that. I was terribly frustrated with my botany background, because I am unable to understand much from the papers, and I have to do all these cleaning jobs. Then for a change Dr. X would ask me to prepare stock solutions, prepare media, clean refridgerators and so on. At the end of 6 months, I was still there where I had started. Dr. Y (my official supervisor) would not bother because he would retire in 2 years. One day, I sat at my table and got an inspirational letter from my uncle. As I read through, I broke down and that never stopped. I cried continuously for 5-6 hours. Meanwhile Dr. X probably needed some cleaning job, so he peeped in and saw me crying, and he left. May be he peeped several times and finally saw I am continuously crying, his guilt consciousness kicked in. He send in Dr. Z, who is from my state. Dr. Z called me to Dr. X's office room and kept asking me what had happened. Then finally, I told him it is because I came here with great hope and for the last 6 months, I am just doing cleaning job and nothing else, and nothing is moving, so I am crying. Then finally, from that day onwards he stopped telling me to do anything and I was on my own. I had a great struggle initially to plan up my work and get going by myself, but I managed finally. I thankfully managed to finish my Ph.D in 3 and half years!!
Immediately after completing my Ph.D, I worked in a college, where I was ragged by my HOD. She would ask me to teach the most boring areas like taxonomy, economic botany, ayurveda, gymnosperm, algae, fungi etc. and she would take up exciting areas like molecular biology, genetics(This was my favorite subject), genetic engineering. She would often ask me and another colleague of mine to bring chairs, bring tea etc. I used to travel atleast 2 hours to get to the work place, but she would keep my lectures from 7 AM till 5 PM with huge gaps in between. I struggled initially, but later managed well and she would be afraid of me for some reason. She desperately wanted me to leave because I was very popular with the students and lecturers from other department. Finally I left, not because of her fear, but because I found another job that was more exciting. In my second job, all was well, till the company came to a situation where it was on the verge of close down. There was bit of ragging, but being experienced, I gave fitting reply. In my thrid job, another younger girl tried to play politics, but I guess it was getting easier for me. So, finally I am here, ragging proof. So, I would say ragging is also an integral part of a job system, the more you are ragged early the better for you..
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Universe is not just random sets of events nor does it go by the theory of probability..
Have you ever thought all the events - that are called as good or bad don't just happen randomly.. I have seen that a lot - have you?t. What is the scientific reason behind it? I guess no one knows, so only people call everything unexplained as god or destiny.
Only yesterday I got a call from one of our Indian neighbors, he generally does not call us, especially when I am alone(my husband is out of town now). And it so happened he was also out of town and just reached yesterday and his family has gone on vacation to India. So, the likelihood of his calling is about say 0.0001%. But anyways, as surprised as I was, I had a cordial conversation with him. Then I gave him my husband's number and he had quite a chat with him yesterday. Today evening, his niece(she also lives in the same town) came down to our house to tell one of her uncles passed away. Now that uncle of hers is the older brother of the gentleman in reference. How bizarre is that? Did he sense anything and called us up to feel better. I am not sure..
Another event which I would call irony is, there was a baby shower planned for one of my close friends at the 'niece's' house in reference. I wanted to conduct her baby shower and because other people chose to do it in their house I backed off. Now, how ironic is that the baby shower that was supposed to be held at the niece's house will be now hosted at our house because of the family bereavement! Isn't this bizarre again?!
I have had many such instances happening in my life and when I look back I can't stop but think that there are some kinds of sign in every aspect of life. When I had my endometriosis surgery, I had subscribed to a message board dealing with endometriosis. I wanted to have excision surgery, and just then there were series of messages on the board about a certain center that had excision surgery facility. Immediately after I had my surgery, in the last 5 years, there were hardly any mention of the center anymore. What do you call this? May be I am seeing things from my angle, but what else would you say? Do you have any such experience that you would like to share?
Only yesterday I got a call from one of our Indian neighbors, he generally does not call us, especially when I am alone(my husband is out of town now). And it so happened he was also out of town and just reached yesterday and his family has gone on vacation to India. So, the likelihood of his calling is about say 0.0001%. But anyways, as surprised as I was, I had a cordial conversation with him. Then I gave him my husband's number and he had quite a chat with him yesterday. Today evening, his niece(she also lives in the same town) came down to our house to tell one of her uncles passed away. Now that uncle of hers is the older brother of the gentleman in reference. How bizarre is that? Did he sense anything and called us up to feel better. I am not sure..
Another event which I would call irony is, there was a baby shower planned for one of my close friends at the 'niece's' house in reference. I wanted to conduct her baby shower and because other people chose to do it in their house I backed off. Now, how ironic is that the baby shower that was supposed to be held at the niece's house will be now hosted at our house because of the family bereavement! Isn't this bizarre again?!
I have had many such instances happening in my life and when I look back I can't stop but think that there are some kinds of sign in every aspect of life. When I had my endometriosis surgery, I had subscribed to a message board dealing with endometriosis. I wanted to have excision surgery, and just then there were series of messages on the board about a certain center that had excision surgery facility. Immediately after I had my surgery, in the last 5 years, there were hardly any mention of the center anymore. What do you call this? May be I am seeing things from my angle, but what else would you say? Do you have any such experience that you would like to share?
Monday, June 7, 2010
Beauty lies in the eye of beholder
"Beauty lies in the eye of beholder" is a phrase that appeared first in 3rd century BC. Amazing!! Today I was sitting and thinking while looking at some of the community pictures - how do we perceive beauty?? Some appear as beautiful and some are not. How do we know if someone is externally beautiful? Is it because some appear visually soothing and the others are not? I am not sure... However, it is certainly worth conducting an experiment where kids are allowed to grow in places where there will be no mention of anything that is beautiful. In other words, there will be no reference to something as beautiful and ugly. And as they grow up, they should be asked to see a range of pictures and will be asked to say whether they think someone is beautiful or not. I am just so excited to see what will be the outcome. My perception will be, most of them will vary significantly on the definition of beauty. Why is it so? Because if I feel someone is beautiful, others necessarily should not feel the same way. So, truly beauty lies in the eye of beholder.. Now when we universalize beauty as something like tallness, slimness, fairness and a certain feature is not what we are born to perceive as beauty. My scientifically trained mind now instigates me to think something like:
when we see a number of cats, we make an impression in our brain about some features that makes a cat a cat. Similarly a dog a dog. So, if we are exposed to a number of data types that is labeled as beautiful, we make a pattern in our mind and anything remotely similar to that pattern is called as beautiful.. How true is this statement. Yet, a number of wars were fought in history for beauty. Its about time we wake up and stop making distinction on beauty..
when we see a number of cats, we make an impression in our brain about some features that makes a cat a cat. Similarly a dog a dog. So, if we are exposed to a number of data types that is labeled as beautiful, we make a pattern in our mind and anything remotely similar to that pattern is called as beautiful.. How true is this statement. Yet, a number of wars were fought in history for beauty. Its about time we wake up and stop making distinction on beauty..
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Want to boycott Israel?
Day in and day out we see plenty of politically correct people making noise against Israel. India is also not far behind in this case. So, what should one do? Boycott Israel? Well this is a great video that says how to boycott Israel, Enjoy....
By the way this is one of the best satirically compiled video and one of my favorites.
By the way this is one of the best satirically compiled video and one of my favorites.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Karmic Konnection
Do you believe in Karma? I think most of us do. From the very childhood it is ingrained on us. We are taught to do good to get back good things in life and that is the reason why most of us do any good at all!! Now what is a good deed? We are all told doing good to others, non-violence, charity, going to temples, following religious rituals are all good deeds. I have some of my relatives, those who believe in Babas. According to them performing a puja according to the religious gurus instructions is also good deed. Strangely sometimes there are some co-incidents like you did some puja and your wishes were granted, then you strongly believe in that particular ritual.
I have experienced something quite different in my life. When I have some idle time, I sit and think on whose shoes I should slip into to make my life look perfect. Then I see people around me, and think may be if my life would have been like X's life, I would have been the happiest. Then I forget and may be few years later, I discover that I indeed have X's life. Then again I sit and think may be if my life would have been like Y's I would have been most happiest.. So, there is no end to it. I will explain what makes ones wishes fulfilled - it has a scientific basis and most certainly can be called as karma. I don't know if it is good Karma or bad Karma. The moment you sit and think somebody's life look ideal for you, sub-consciously you try to mimic every aspects of their life. You have fed your brain with all the minute details about that person, that makes the way of life for them. Once inside your head, without your knowledge you start working on them. So, finally it is your work or Karma that leads your life to the individuals life that you admired most. It is not god or puja or anything else. So, I call it as karmic Konnection. In the end we are what we think...
I have experienced something quite different in my life. When I have some idle time, I sit and think on whose shoes I should slip into to make my life look perfect. Then I see people around me, and think may be if my life would have been like X's life, I would have been the happiest. Then I forget and may be few years later, I discover that I indeed have X's life. Then again I sit and think may be if my life would have been like Y's I would have been most happiest.. So, there is no end to it. I will explain what makes ones wishes fulfilled - it has a scientific basis and most certainly can be called as karma. I don't know if it is good Karma or bad Karma. The moment you sit and think somebody's life look ideal for you, sub-consciously you try to mimic every aspects of their life. You have fed your brain with all the minute details about that person, that makes the way of life for them. Once inside your head, without your knowledge you start working on them. So, finally it is your work or Karma that leads your life to the individuals life that you admired most. It is not god or puja or anything else. So, I call it as karmic Konnection. In the end we are what we think...
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