Happiness

Happiness are the little joys,

Just look around, Oh girls and boys.

Happiness is here and now

Just feel it and take a bow. 

Happiness is a state, it's a choice,

Just very simple, cut all the noise.

Happiness is easy why make it tough

Just realise, what you have is enough.

Happiness is family and good friends

Just cherish the time before it ends.

Happiness is care, happiness is health

Just understand, health is the real wealth. 

Dripping Diamonds

On the cross-trainer

Working hard,

I see diamonds dripping down

From my face to the ground.

The value of these diamonds

Is in letting them go...

That's how you get yourself

To shine and glow.

It seems hard to start but

You must begin, however slow...

You'd suddenly notice that

You've started enjoying the flow.

Time might be scarce but

An hour to yourself, you owe.

It's the key to confidence or

The prison of constantly feeling low.

It is for the machine

That houses your soul.

Help it function sans friction,

Shouldn't that be your utmost goal?

Use it, don't abuse it.

As they say about your health

It is after all, apparently,

Your primary wealth.

Let those diamonds drip,

Let those diamonds flow...

Get your life in your grip,

Get your inner self to glow...

The Mumbai Crowd

The Mumbai Crowd!

It's fast, furious and loud,

The Mumbai crowd.

There's hustling and bustling.

There's power and proud,

In the Mumbai crowd.

There's a jostle, a tussle.

There's weakness to muscle

In the Mumbai crowd.

There's honking and beeping

There are words and bleeping

In the Mumbai crowd.

On best buses, on local trains,

In taxies and cabs, also on planes,

Travels the Mumbai crowd.

On roads, on pavements,

In high-rise, in basements,

Dwells the Mumbai crowd.

Constant wakeful walk,

Or magical sleepy walk,

But walks, the Mumbai crowd.

Cool winters and summers' noons,

Or be it knee-deep monsoons,

Thrives the Mumbai crowd.

There's good time and bad time

But absolutely no bed time

For the Mumbai crowd. 

Some worry, some fear,

Some hope, some cheer,

Expresses the Mumbai crowd.

It's real, it's illusion

It's confident, it's confusion

Appears the Mumbai crowd.

It starts not to end

It rises, not to bend

Attitude of the Mumbai crowd.

Riches and Rags

Simple and swag

All i see in the Mumbai crowd. 

You love it, you hate it,

You judge it, you rate it,

Carefree is the Mumbai crowd...

Artificial Intelligence - KALI on the rise!?

     Artificial Intelligence is something you would have heard of in the last couple of years. In the recent past, I've had many conversations and discussions with friends and relatives who highly appreciate artificial intelligence. They admire the genius - Elon Musk who seems to be spearheading the research and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). I also admire him for his Human Intelligence (HI) moreover his IQ level seems to be at an enviable level. People seem to be in awe of AI despite knowing how AI constantly threatens to take away human jobs. It has already begun to replace humans in various fields rendering some people jobless. For instance, the latest example in my limited knowledge of AI wonders is the AI platform 'Do Not Pay' which will defend a client in court in one of the most powerful democracies  - America. The platform also claims that if the AI is unable to defend its client successfully, Do Not Pay will pay the penalty on behalf of the client.

    I for one and am not a big fan of AI. I'm in awe of the HI of Elon Musk but not of the AI that these people are so unintelligently creating. One of my close friends argued that AI is inevitable irrespective of what people like me thought of it. Well, that is exactly what I also agree with. But that doesn't make me like it or appreciate it. He even said that my way of thinking is not progressive rather it is regressive. Well, it might be. To add on and explain his point, he even sent a podcast to me in which the well-informed and knowledgeable guest answered questions about the changing world and how AI is evolving too soon. That is exactly what makes me worry for the entire humanity. 

    I worry that more and more people will become depressed due to AI evolution. Even in that podcast, when the highly informed guest was asked about the type of jobs that shall remain in the future, the first answer was psychiatrist and psychologist. Do you see my point? This is exactly what I think and it is not a sign of a happy future. If people won't have a fruitful, engaging, lucrative activity, how will the 8 billion people or the majority of them survive? If AI can do most or all of the hard and creative skills, then we humans would be deprived of realizing our potential completely. How will humans use the remnants of the brain after the smart gadget revolution? 

    In the Hindu faith, we are aware of Kaliyug. The era where the demon Kali creates havoc, chaos, and catastrophe. They say that we are in the middle of Kaliyug and this demon shall surface at the peak of Kaliyug. If you observe closely, the demon KALI has an AI in his name. It is a short name, only four letters out of the 26 English letters, and yet AI. I have neither named KALI nor coined the abbreviation AI. Is it just a coincidence? Here is what I would like to coin for your reference and discretion:

K.A.L.I. - Knowledgeable Artificially Living Intellectual

K.A.L.I. - Killing all life instinct

    AI will have stages of development, five stages, that's what I have learned so far. Stages range from 0,1,2,3,4. For instance, a car that can drive you to your destination, safely, without you having to lift your finger. All you have to do is feed the required destination information. By the way, such car companies advise that it is a must to sit at the steering wheel with your hands on the wheel so as to avoid any unfortunate, rare mishap. Do you realize what that advice does for the company? It completely takes away all accountability and onus from the car manufacturing company. If one meets with an accident because he/she dozed off or was busy talking with co-passengers, then it is his/her fault. So, on the one hand, such companies literally take away our car driving skills by selling an AI car that self-drives, and on the other hand, they ask us to remain vigilant all the time. Laughable, isn't it? As the stages evolve, so does efficiency. The question is how much efficiency are we aiming at?  Over-efficiency is dangerous. 

    Think about it, a lot of people in this world have cars. How many of us understand the mechanics of this machine? Very few of us do. The one thing we know apparently is driving. These automated cars will take away even that one skill from us. I'd like to quote G.B. Shaw's essay 'How wealth accumulates, and men decay'. I would suggest you to search and read this essay to understand. I also wish to clarify here that I do believe in capitalism however AI is extreme capitalism and nothing extreme is good. Rather let me put it this way, anything extreme is harmful, chaotic, disruptive, and catastrophic. 

    Here's some more evidence, the genius Elon Musk himself has warned humans that one day AI could outsmart and endanger us He calls it a demon himself. Source:   https://www.analyticsinsight.net/ai-the-biggest-existential-threat-to-humankind-says-elon-musk/ 

    Nevertheless, he is also one of the founders of OpenAI which has developed chatbots that can accomplish a lot of tasks for humans in a matter of seconds thus replacing humans who are employed to do those tasks. If this continues in the same fashion, humans will have nothing to do. How on earth (literally) are we going to spend time, and survive? Even worse is when the AI outsmarts humans, AI will overpower us. The creator (human) will be the slave then. By the way, even through these AI gadgets, chatbots, and more, only those who are creating them will become uber-rich. The rest of us will go down the slope.     

    So what is the solution? Is it possible to escape this KALI? I think it is. Scientists keep innovating, that is their job. Whether we should appreciate each innovation is our choice. This choice is our power against this KALI. Let us not use AI products that are beyond stages 1 or 2. Let us not use any such AI which renders humans completely useless. Let us use and appreciate only those AI gadgets, apps and gizmos which are completely in our control. Let us ensure that AI remains only supplementary to humans, not even complementary. 

    Next time when you buy or use any AI platform, ask yourself whether want the demon KALI to win and rule or you want to support the KALKI within you?

K - Knowledgeable           vs         K - Kind

A - Artificially                   vs         A - Artistic

L - Living                            vs         L - Loving

I - Intellectual                     vs        K - Krishna

                                                        I - in you

A petition against Competition!

Look around and you will notice constant competition. Competition, which in my opinion, has reached such levels where it hurts. Irrespective of the field you are in, it exists. Beginning from childbirth (Gender?, Weight?, Looks like?, etc.) to school admission (Which board?, Which school?, Activities at school?, Fees? etc.) and the child's grades and further education, so on and so forth. 

It's not just about education, once work life begins, competition seems to increase in intensity. Just a couple of weeks back, we witnessed what competition can do to even established education institutes and to their founders. It creates an atmosphere of anxiety, disappointment and anger.  Businesses competing with each other and employees racing against one another, relatives going through comparisons of various types, the list is endless, isn't it?

As a teacher and a learner, I ask all of you. What should we teach our students? (A) how to survive in this competitive world. (B) how to excel and come out as a winner. Or should we have the wisdom to teach them (C) how not to fall into this trap of competition and comparisons. 

As a parent, what should I inculcate in my kid? Rather what should all of us inculcate in our children? I think we need to incorporate in our children the virtue of competing only with themselves. We must guide them to stay away from this vice of constantly competing with others. The question is - How? 

Remember how the extremely knowledgeable Karna wanted to destroy, kill and defeat Arjuna, just to prove that he was the best archer. Even he was trapped in the vice, wasn't he?

I feel that we parents and teachers need to understand and absorb this first. We must appreciate our individualities first and try not exhibit competition with others. Each parent probably needs to stop comparing kids with siblings, cousins, friends, classmates and the metaphoric "Sharmaji ka beta". It is important to do well in life , no doubt about that. But motivation by comparison and competition is stressful, hurtful and injurious to the body, mind and soul. 

I am sure that we don't want our next generations to be perpetually stressed out. It is time we make conscious efforts to free ourselves from this vice, firstly for ourselves and secondly for the peaceful lives of our children. What do you say? 

Contra view on Leadership

Everytime I read some management quote, I am amazed at the stress laid upon leadership and associated skills. Even self-help books and articles make use of a lot of leadership quotes. 'A leader not only knows the way, but goes the way and also shows the way.' or 'Be the change you wish to see in this world.' or 'Leader leads by example.' the list goes on and on. I got a few on this Republic day as well which got me thinking. 

I wonder if leadership is really so important as it is portrayed. I ask you here 'What is leadership?', 'Who is a leader?' Think of some great leaders you know of or admire, from whatever fields you want to think of. I will mention a few I can think of from various fields. From politics - Sardar Patel, Gandhiji, Modiji; from Indian history - Maharana Pratap, Rani Laxmibai, Shivaji Maharaj; from Cricket - Kapil Dev, Sorav Ganguly, MSD; from the business world - Mr. Ratan Tata, Mrs. Sudha Murthy and Mr. Murthy, and there can be many fields and many more examples...

I urge you to consider the reason why and how these people become great leaders. Is it or was it only about them?  I do not intend to discount any of the exceptional leadership qualities that these extraordinary leaders possessed or still possess. I want to ponder upon and also make you think about the importance of followership. Were your list of awesome leaders not sincere followers first? 

Imagine if each of us literally decided to be a leader, how would the world be then? Would it be paradise on earth or a living hell? I let you decide your answer to that question. After all making correct choices is a leadership skill. Let us explore this thought of followership further. The reason why Gandhiji could become such a phenomenal leader was because people were ready to follow him. We must realise that even the iron man of India was an ardent follower of Gandhiji. History gives you more than enough evidence of the same. Chacha Nehru was also a leader and so was Jinnah. What happened then is an evidence of the side effects of so called 'Leadership'. 

In our life also, we are advised to become leaders. Teach and train our children to be leaders. Are we sure of what we believe in is the correct thing? 'Be the change you want to see in this world.' Think of what happens when some religious fanatics take this seriously. We know how it hurts the world.  Whether it is a school, college, a corporate organisation or a social organisation, a lot of impetus is given to leadership skills. 

I ask you to think of all the great leaders once again. I reiterate, weren't they good, sincere, obedient followers first? For instance - Sardar Patel. He was to be the first PM of India, wasn't he? But he followed his ideals and his idol. I strongly feel that one needs to be an ardent follower first to become a true leader. There is a fine line between leadership and the greed for power and dominance. A true leader understands the difference; example - Sardar Patel. We need to understand that followership is as important as leadership, maybe even more. 

An ideal follower is not the one who inactively and blindly follows orders. Rather she/he is the one who takes directions mindfully, discusses his concerns and then implements wholeheartedly. To make our younger generations true leaders, we need to train them to be ideal followers. To prove my point let us take an example.

Think of Pandavas from Mahabharat. Weren't they ideal followers first? Arjun voiced his concerns to his guide who enlightened him and us with guidance during the war. If Arjun were an inactive, blind follower, the world would would have missed out on so much knowledge and wisdom. By the way, even Duryodhan thought he was a great leader but was he? The difference lay in how they were as followers. 

I choose to try and be an ideal follower and thus train myself to be a true leader for my family and others who think of me as worthy of being a leader. I believe one should Follow First and Lead Later and also leadership follows the one who has been an ideal follower (example - our honourable Prime Minister). I thank you for having followed me in reading my contra opinion and letting me lead you through my thoughts. I welcome your opinions and thoughts on the same. 

School Education and objectives

Being a teacher for more than a decade now, I should be quite clear about the answer to the question "What are the objectives of school education?". The more I teach, the more I study, the more I spend time with my students, the more doubt I suffer regarding that question. 

I feel that education should help students and the educated to make correct choices in life. It should help them to improve their lives (at least) through language literacy, numerical literacy, informed decision making,  ethics, morals, skills that help them being employed, a higher emotional quotient not just higher IQ, financial literacy, a sense of patriotism, a sense of world citizenship, empathy towards nature, etc. 

The reason why I doubt is that I am not sure whether these objectives are actually being achieved especially in secondary and higher secondary sections. By the time a child reaches secondary section, one expects the student to know well at least the basics of Math, Science, Languages and Grammar. Well in my observation, I have seen more uninformed, less knowledgeable students than expected. However, that is okay as the passing marks are only 35% so some candidates may not know so much. 

Owing to the lengthier and complex course curriculum in secondary and higher secondary section, it becomes difficult to achieve those real objectives of education. With the timeline given, education becomes limited to completing the course, learning or memorising and testing. So much is lost here.

Moreover, in today's world of information free flow, students learn from myriad sources. Parents, schools and tuitions are not the only sources of education. Social networking sites, OTT platforms, films, search engines, electronic media, print media (probably in that order), expose one and all to a lot of information and perceived knowledge. The resultant effect is that people have become financially more ambitious (not literate), competitive with one another (unreasonably), materialistic - more than ever, opportunistic - which can be perceived as contrary to EQ and to a large extent immoral and unethical. All this is in stark contrast  to the objectives of education, isn't it?

Education at school, as a whole, must be considered, treated as foundational on which a character would be built. In any case, employment in organised sector relies mainly upon higher education, skills and experience. At school level, the focus should be more on language skills, math functions, speaking skills, better reading exposure, psychology and empathy through history rather than just memorising facts and concepts that generally become useless over time. 

Another major issue that I feel is rampant in our educated youth is that either they are extremely liberal (oxymoron, isn't it?) or extremely strong headed. Shouldn't education help in distinguishing between the right and wrong? Nowadays, there are people who seem to be confused in the grey area. Not everything can be passed as grey; not everything SHOULD be passed as grey that is extremely liberal. Education should teach that anything in extreme quantity is harmful and creates problems. Education should help form informed opinions, promote healthy discussions and respect disagreements. 

As a language teacher, I try to touch upon EQ through the beautiful stories I get to teach in class. My attempt is also to promote opinion forming, expressing opinions, discussions, agreements and disagreements, perspective building, some critical thinking, creative writing, etc though the complex and lengthy course does limit a teacher to explore more. 

I feel that there is a need to teach less chapters but in more detail. Let our education be deeper rather than wider. Whatsay?

Kaabel

That is how the world is.' Kaabel thought to himself.
Not that he had never heard of that before, it was just that he realised it and it went deep down his understanding. Standing alone amidst the woods in late autumn, contemplating, observing nature, this fact dawned on him.

Kaabel was dejected with life and he had multiple reasons to be depressed. Firstly, he had lost his job due to economic turmoil. Secondly, this had spiralled into various other problems, he had become impatient so much so, that his girl friend broke up with him. Friends were few and had distanced a bit owing to their busy schedules. Parents seemed to be sarcastic towards him and his approach to life.

All this was in stark contrast to the time when his career was on a high. Everyone who was a critic now was an admirer then. Kaabel felt lonely. He felt like ending it all. He walked to solitary places searching solace. Once while he was at a place with barren trees around him, he observed that birds flew away from those dry trees. Perhaps the same birds nested in those trees when the trees were green. 'That is how the world is.' Kaabel thought to himself.

He felt one with the lonely, desolated, barren trees. He discovered some solace. He stood there contemplating when he felt a connect with the trees and communication happened. The trees conveyed a message to Kaabel. The largest and the oldest tree said, 'Although we are barren and feel lonely, we stand strong. What you see today as dry and dead will be green, growing and generous to the world again, soon. Kaabel, all you need to do is survive and stand strong.'

Kaabel hugged his saviour and let his emotions flow free. After that motivational session with his new found friends, he stood strong and decided to be generous towards the world rather than being bitter.

First Crush

I had just turned 16 and shifted to a new locality where I saw this cute girl about a year or two younger than me. I realised how sweet sixteen makes you fall in love at first sight.
I used to cycle around, looking at her at the window and occasionally I would dare to smile. I hoped she would smile back, or come down so that we could talk. The best thing about her were her eyes. They were beautiful, they had a certain melancholy to them. I started smiling at her more often. She never returned my smile. I knew she was hard to impress.

One day, she stunned me. She was waiting for me to come out. We looked at each other. Our eyes looked into each others'. She was ready. She flew a paper plane towards me. I went absolutely crazy at God's generosity.
I cycled full speed to pick the best airplane in the world. I unfolded the plane.

It read,
"I am 15 and married to the 51 year old man who you think is my father. I like the way you children play. Stop smiling at me and have no hopes."

I looked up to where she was. Tears rolled down my eyes and she wiped hers. For the first time, she gave me a smile. My heart crushed that day. I realised what freedom was. I wanted to help her.
It was far beyond me....my first crush.

HINDU RASHTRA

There is too much noise around me. I can sense confusion, certainty, agenda, marketing, religion, politics, all at once. No wonder then, there is confusion in the air. There are big words like intolerant, secularism, pseudo-secular, terrorism and its types, divisive politics, religious appeasement, biased media and more. The reason why I consider them big words, is because they're absolutely unfathomable. These words have multiple connotations and are being used in varied contexts by so many influential people, that a common citizen of India gets all muddled up.

Well, it's the election season. Canvassing and anti-canvassing are part and parcel. But I feel that from the past three years or so, there's a lot of noise on a particular topic - 'Hindustan - A Hindu Rashtra!?.' I must say, I was and I am quite intrigued and curious to understand. Now all the words I mentioned above have been used multi-million times everyday around 9:00 PM in almost every household of the country. The members of these families have been passive listeners and active thinkers.

What is the debate?
"India should be a Hindu Rashtra." There are influential people who either go with the motion or against it. I am a common Hindustani. I listened, I read, I thought, I tried, to understand. So to start with, I feel there's a need to understand the word 'HINDU' in 'HINDU Rashtra'. Where does this word come from? Is it only limited to religion? or Is there more depth to the word 'HINDU'?
According to what I have understood, HINDU is the area between Himalayas and Indusagar (Indian Ocean). Therefore, H + Indus becomes Hindus. This means Hindustan is a country which lives between these. SO Hindu is not just a religion. Everybody who was born and brought up here is a Hindu by geography. I am a Hindu by birth(geographically).

I also feel that every country has a culture. American culture means the American way of life. Japanese culture means the Japanese way of life. Similarly Hindu culture means the Hindu/Indian way of life. To understand this point, let us take marriage as an example. According to statistics, nearly 50% of marriages in America end up in divorce. Americans accept divorcees without judging them. They don't see divorce as morally wrong rather they consider it as practically correct.  Whereas in India the divorce rate is as low as around 1%(source - India Today 20 November 2018). Irrespective of any religion one practices in India, divorce is rare. I don't wish to get into what's right and wrong about divorce. That's another debate. But marriages in India exist generally until death separates the two. Everyone in India irrespective of their religion, works upon her/his marriage and divorce is the last and least possibility. This attitude comes from culture. That is an example of Indian (Hindu) culture. The reason why I cite America and India is that both these countries are democratic and both have citizens following various religions. Hence HINDU is a culture. A christian in India is christian by religious following but HINDU by culture(you may replace any other religion with christian). I am  HINDU by culture.

Is there any other reason why we are a HINDU rashtra? YES.
Let me explain with another metaphorical example. India has been known as an agrarian nation even when Agriculture has had lesser contribution to GDP (labour productivity wise and actual contribution). We are agrarian because more than half of Indian employment has been generated by the Primary (Agro-based) sector. When majority of the population is agrarian, we are known as an agrarian nation. In the same way, when nearly 80% population in this country follows Hinduism as a religion, we become a Hindu rashtra. I am a HINDU by my religious following as well.

This HINDU RASHTRA respects each religion, belief and spirituality. It accepts the believer, the athiest and the agnostic as well. Therefore the debate that 'Are we a HINDU Rashtra?' is a no-debate. There is no doubt about it. We are what we are, HINDU - by Geography, by Culture and by majority population's faith.