Racial Hypocrisy

Intolerance has been mood of the moment across the globe. People are certainly intolerant towards everything these days be it values, opinions, religion and the list goes on…

Someone once said “We all bleed the same color”

Just by looking at the quote I am sure everyone who is reading this gets the sense of topic.

Most of us in India directly or indirectly have been exposed to racism and we all have witnessed how indifferently people are treated because of their color/origin. In recent times this topic has gained momentum for various reasons and most of us Indians always talk about condemning it.

But before denouncing the bigger evil, shouldn’t we talk about dealing the smaller evil within us?

They say India is a progressive nation, yet some of us still believe Muslim reading the Gita, Christian visiting a temple and Hindu being an atheist to be a sin.

“Why was Hindi declared as our national language?”

“Oh you are from South India, isn’t Tamil and Telugu the same?”

“North Indians are so western!”

“South Indians are so stingy”

“Oh I thought you are a South Indian because you are dark”

"Are you Indian? I didn't know Shillong was a part of India"

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I am confident we all have heard the same exact quotes at some point in our life, but how many of us tried to really introspect?

When a celebrity mentions that he/she has been a victim of racism somewhere outside we make a big deal out of it, but why is that we never consider talking about how we discriminate and discern people based on where they come from in our own country.

Aren’t we all doing the same exact thing as every other racist? 

We talk about unity yet we divide ourselves in many ways. We all take pride in representing our diverse cultures but it is a pity that we don’t educate ourselves to embrace our differences and accept others’ identity.

It is fundamental that we learn more about who we are and where we stand before pointing fingers at others. 

A Wedding Gift You Give Yourself ; Can Change a Farmer’s Life

One might be wondering how a gift we present to our own self can change someone else’s life. Well you never know…

Even though many of us might not agree, in this day and age weddings have become commercialized. The amount of money we spend on the event not only defines our stature but also depicts how obsessed we are with all the unwarranted attention. I know this doesn’t make any sense to the people who have come here looking for some wisdom, because spending lavishly on a wedding doesn’t have anything to do with contribution to farming.

Or maybe it does, let me help you connect the dots..

Although we all like appreciating someone who goes out of the way to help others, we are still a little skeptical doing it ourselves. Let me give you a small example; recently a young couple opted for a simple register marriage and used the wedding money to serve the poor. I have seen lot of people sharing the article on social media and discuss how much of a great deed it was. But I doubt how many of us would actually have guts or heart to do the same without coming under the peer pressure? 

After I got married recently I had a brief conversation with one of my friends, he is a part of an NGO (Sarvodaya Mitra Mandali Trust) which majorly contributes to the upliftment of society. I say society in general because we have so many issues to be taken care of and it will be a huge lie if I just use the words “poor”, “downtrodden” or “underprivileged”. Anyway coming back to the earlier discussion, my friend asked me what I think of gau dhan and if I would like to contribute towards. I knew what cow donation was, but I never understood how I could be any help in this matter.

In India we have a concept called Gau Dhan or Cow Donation. Each of us might have a different belief/story behind it, but I am not here to talk about that. I have always wanted to do my share for the well being of society in some manner or the other and I have tried in some little way ever since. Before everyone feels that I am blowing my own trumpet, I would like to share something honest and beautiful.

During our conversation, this is what my friend said and I think it made absolute sense. “You must have spent a good amount of money on your wedding. Likewise if you could just keep some money aside as a part of wedding expense and contribute to gau dhan, it can not only be virtuous thing to do after the wedding might as well help a family with their living”. When I started analyzing I realized how we all miss this rationale; “what is less for you can be more for others”.

Even if we could bestow 0.5% to 1% of our wedding expense to something like this we could make lives of so many- specially the farmers. I say farmers because all these years we have heard about their struggles but know nothing at all. Throwing more light on the issue, farmers have always looked for better alternatives to practice agriculture, but may be having a little back up plan might benefit them tad bit more. Recent research by an engineer who founded a start up called “Cowism” not only interpreted how a harmless animal like cow – could be solution to some of the farmer problems but can also help in laying a better foundation for profitable farming and agricultural growth.

To learn more about this, you can go through the link below: http://www.thebetterindia.com/54766/one-cow-one-farmer-chetan-raut-cowism-farmer-suicides/

I am not making a point by any means that only the newly married or the ones who are getting married are qualified to do this, anyone who is strong willed is always welcome. While most of us are looking for million reasons to celebrate every day, just coming together with even a miniscule donation can do wonders for many others.

Anyone who is willing to donate through the NGO is most welcome, you can follow their work on facebook page too. Here's the link: Sarvodaya Mitra Mandali Trust

The sanctity with which we offer help can be equivalent to the sanctity of marriage.

Change to Win

Life does not get better by chance, it get’s better by change – Jim Rohn

Let me start with a story that I know. An art teacher assigned a task to two students in her class.

To one student she said “Plan, design and create a perfect artwork and your grade will be assessed by the work that you show.” And to the other student she said, “Create as many art works as you can and your grade will be assessed based on the best work you created.”

The first student spent enough time planning, come up with innovative designs and finally started working on one to make it look perfect.

While the other student started putting together some vague ideas that she had in mind and started creating different art pieces.

At the end of the class, the grades came out and the best artwork came from the person who worked on creating different artworks than the other one who was concentrating just on one on a quest for making it look perfect.

We often want to change something in life, but get discouraged too early not waiting until what the end result would finally look like. But let’s take the above story into consideration, it is a proven fact that when we start working on something new we are always enthusiastic but as time goes by our interest fades and our energy wears off and we end up achieving nothing. That is what happened with the first student, her approach of making the artwork was driving her only towards one thing. She was only preoccupied with just finishing what she started, never thought of choosing a different path to come up with something creative or different as she lacked vigor.

While the second student was always working on something new, the way she saw things was different each time. She didn’t want to repeat the mistakes she previously did, she grew even more passionate while creating each artwork. That’s because of the “change” in the perspective she had while seeing things and she worked towards getting something extra ordinary rather than just getting an artwork done.

Circumstances will not turn out the way we always want them to and it’s absolutely okay. Embracing our mistakes can help us deal with the change effectively; help us grow as a person. Starting with the toothbrush we use to the career we opt for, in every walk of life change is inevitable, be it good or bad it is always our choice whether to grab an opportunity or to let go. Change becomes our greatest teacher, but only if we give ourselves permission to learn from it.

A little change in everything we do will bring in more zest in life than most of us can even realize. In every day life where we have to deal with numerous issues and multi task on several occasions, our mind cannot be narrowed down in a cage. We might be so burned down sometimes that keeping our mind open to change can actually help us bring some light into our life. Change is awareness about our past and path to future, change is a new hope to something new.

Angels on Earth

Selfless, loyal, enthusiastic, energetic, happy, adorable…I wonder if I can come up with enough adjectives to describe the most wonderful creation on the earth- DOGS! This place would have been so much different without them. Dogs can never be stereotyped for just being a man’s best friend; it goes without saying that they are everyone’s best friends.

Some of the researches suggest that humans and dogs shared an ancestral relation millions of years ago, so it would not be surprising to say we may have similarities in our traits. Or may be get along so well because the some of the refluxes in our brain work along the same line. We may be alike at certain times, yet we are very different extensively.

We come across many people in life; they may or may not stay with us through out. One person might not fit into someone else’s shoes, but unlike us dogs have an incredible skill of replacing their own species even without trying hard. Human relationships are always under constant stress and scrutiny; they can suffer from good and bad times, but with dogs the equation never changes. Even the most strenuous pain seems to fade away the moment we see them.

We always have a lousy habit of remembering all the people who have wronged us and hold grudge against them for the rest of our lives, but dogs are gifted with greatest sense of forgiveness. No matter how we treat them, they forgive, forget and ensure to give us everything in their ability to make us happy. Depressed, thrilled, happy, sad, excited.. any state of mind we are in; dogs try to match up to our emotional mood swings in a way we expect someone to be. Call it coincidence or art of interpretation; their intense odoriferous sense helps them judge people better than we do, assertively making them look out for us in the crappiest situations.

They can be friends when you need them to be, a child when you treat them to be, a toy when you squeeze them, a “dog” when you want them. They bring in energy into our life making us more enthusiastic and healthy. They inspire you in a way no one else does, by surrendering himself yet expecting nothing. Disappointment is never a part of their dictionary. Unnecessary aspects in life do not ridicule them; they follow the idiom Live and Let Live. If only we all could be as beautiful as dogs are, we would not be trying to live our life vicariously through them.