Holding onto ones hurt day after day, year after year, narrows ones perspective of life, skews ones emotional growth and takes the juice out of life for yourself and the ones who love you. It also makes one an emotional retard. Maturity is the hallmark of life development. Having self respect another cornerstone.
Category: Politics & India
Poverty Consciousness, Stinginess and No Payments in India
India may have a 5000 year old culture, deep religious understanding and a depth of philosophical breath that may make many countries and cultures around the world feel highly superficial in emotional and cultural terms, but India continues to be a country with significant poverty and all the related health, wealth, mental and social issues that come with poverty. Given that the Indian economy has taken off over the last 10 years and that liberalization has been in place since 1991, this further confounds the paradox; since significant strides should have already been made.
Economists and governments have tried to address it from several angles and in many ways – socially, distribution wise, financially, subsidies, better policies, loans, grants, schemes etc. you name it and we have tried it. But in my eyes most of these measures miss the mark. The reason is deeper and psychological. It stems from an inherent subconscious manner of functioning most Indians have. And that is a framework of thinking that they can get away with either fooling the system, or fooling people (their own and others) or fooling themselves. In the long run, none of these work. And as the old adage says “cheaters, simply do not prosper”.
Continue reading “Poverty Consciousness, Stinginess and No Payments in India”The Thin Line with Lobbying
Recently lobbying has gained a whole load of currency (no pun intended) in the Indian market, with Ms. Radia in the news for probably perceived incorrect reasons. Lobbying has been defined in many ways and has a huge history. The common definition of lobbying is that it seeks to influence decisions made by governments or legislators for specific interest groups or institutions or groups of people. In fact in many countries, lobbying is not such a “bad” term as sometimes referred to in India and in some it is even the fundamental right of every citizen. For example the ability of individuals, groups, and corporations to lobby the government is protected by the right to petition in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Lobbyists actually use time spent with legislators to explain the goals of the organizations they represent and the obstacles elected officials face when dealing with issues, to clients. At its fundamental level lobbying is just another way of communicating your point of view, to people who could make a difference.
Continue reading “The Thin Line with Lobbying”Can “Culture” Liberate You?
Perceptions and characterisations about being “Indian” in many spiritual groups run deep. Also the way “Indians” are perceived around the globe runs deep, as well as the image Indians give out themselves is varied, complex and even geographically different. Also how spiritual masters percieve different groups of “Indians” runs diverse and deep; and it also depends to which group they are speaking with, when and in what context and sometimes whom they want to appeal to. How American spiritual devotees live and work with “Indians” under the same spiritual roof, is also interesting and hilarious to watch ‘sometimes’ (imagine taking a tight American planned and labelled apprach and dumping it or lets say sharing it lovingly -:) on an Indian who refuses to label things, does not think in a linear fashion and needs many chai breaks and perhaps has never seen a strategic plan in his/her life ha ha).
In any culture/creed debate, generalisations are very difficult to make and at the same time they are still sub consciously made and people behave/react/be proactive based on those sub-conscious vibrations; sometimes vehemently and sometimes lovingly. Being free of culture traits can truly lead to the ultimate freedom. But its a very very subtle process, since culture traits are sub conscious, because they get automatically ingrained as we grow up. Either you were “lucky” (in quotes, because I am sure you planned it ahead of time) to have multi cultural influences in your childhood; or you are bold enough to look into your sub conscious process, be deeply reflective and accepting of yourself (because a lot of junk mail can also pop out of the sub conscious) and then consciously design an uncluttered and “natural” view of the world. And at the same time culture brings with it richness, colour, grounding, love, community etc. So, a very interesting topic.
