Welcome Aboard to Adulthood!

Happy Independence Day My Dear INDIA and Indians 🙏

As on every independence day, I got up with a mixed sense of gratitude, pride and pain. Gratitude towards all those who got us our independence and all those who till today help us maintain that independence.

I also feel immense sense of pride towards our Country's leadership specifically our beloved Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi. He is bringing India back to its glorious position of leadership and for that I feel grateful and am in my own little ways assisting our leader.

But the pain takes over me when I see the state of affairs in the individual and collective lives of my dear fellow Indians. I feel so many of us are unfortunately barely connected to our roots and speak the language and display the behaviour of those who are external forces and are still trying to control us by brain-washing us in a very organised manner. Most are not even conscious of this fact :-(

While it is nice to wish each other independence day on this auspicious day and for all the rightful reasons, I would humbly request all of us to introspect within and honestly answer the following questions for themselves:

1. Am I independent of my fears?
2. Am I independent of my anger?
3. Am I independent of my sense of insecurity?
4. Am I independent of my mindset of scarcity?
5. Am I independent of my ego that comes in my own way of progress?
6. Am I independent to be truly courageous to live according to my ethics, belief and value systems?

If we can be individual units who can be independent of all that is mentioned above and enjoy our true intrinsic freedom of being, then our country will also reflect all these and it is only then that we will truly be the world leaders. Let us get more soulful and spiritual to be able to honour and celebrate our freedom in the real sense. Jai Hind 🙏

OKAY, I ADMIT….I DON’T GET IT…..HELP ME, IF YOU CAN!

I have always been a minority….not in my caste…but in my way of thinking…..I can’t help but think differently than what happens to be the popular belief. I have not given up on that habit since this is what helped me win a lot of prizes in debate competitions in my school days and then made me write for newspaper dailies and leading national magazines of repute and even get my very first job. Few of my articles that landed me a job in a national chamber of commerce and industry at the age of 19, inspite of being a science student (only commerce and economics post graduates or PHD holders were the norm till the early 90’s)), were “Mandalisation of India - What it Means?”, “Renewable Energy - Goldmine of an opportunity” and the most appreciated one which was even taken by the Government of India as a serious recommendation was “Gulf War - Opportunities for India”.  Just see which one got appreciated the most - the one with the maximum contradiction - WAR Vs OPPORTUNITY! So, I love my contradictions - within and without :-)

So, here is a thought that has been really bothering me in the last few months and got aggravated with the VGS episode last week and I am trying to figure it out if the whole world is making sense or my contradicting views stand a chance to make sense to the world?

Before I get started, let me tell you, I really feel sorry about a precious life lost or those who are dealing with an extremely stressful life after having lived a King Size comfortable life or even for those who barely had to put their foot on the ground and their life was glitteringly amazing and now have to go through the kind of hard times that you would not even wish for your enemies.  Every time a precious life is lost, and for that matter I feel EVERY life is precious, I feel a part of me gone. Even if I don’t necessarily feel the connect when they are around, I sure feel their loss like a part of me has died. So, this is not to say that I don’t care for any of these amazing souls I am mentioning here in this blog.

Now, let me come to the point. What are we looking at here in these examples? A person starting from a humble beginning, a person who has provided thousands of jobs and helped many in need, and made a huge “success” of an enterprise he or she created…till they got exposed…..and felt embarrassed about the ways and means they took to make it a so called “success”. They enjoyed their success and lived a life king size with the money they borrowed and never returned or hid from the world. When they were exposed, they felt embarrassed and either ran away or gave up their lives! This embarrassment was given the colour of harassment. Before you get really upset with me for saying this, please let me explain what I mean. 

In the case of Vijay Mallya, the company after having a high, went bust. Happens. But then the point is, the company which was in his control did not bother to pay back the loans or even pay the employees whose entire families depended on the monies received for the work they did for the company but still had the conscience of continuing to live life King Size and justify every damn act in the name of business and then when the noose started getting tighter instead of staying put, facing it and making the same promise he is now making - he ran away from the clutches of the law of the country. He did, what he did. Now look at how the “who is who” of the country reacts to this! They feel sorry for the way a great entrepreneur is being treated!! They blame the government for making it difficult for entrepreneurs to survive!! and even blame it on the legal authorities of harassment for having (even if it is for a change or under pressure) done their job of following up on the due payments!!!!! What’s wrong with us? What are we encouraging here? 

Look at Nirav Modi….I am glad that these kind of people who become “untouchables” by the law are being brought to books. I am glad that the Government is taking stringent action against these kind of people who are cheating in the name of business. Whose money you think they are playing around with? Mine and Yours my friends. Instead of standing by our leader who is doing such an amazing job as a PM, we are criticising him? Don’t you think there is something basically wrong in our thinking culture? What do we want? We want all these DACOITS to be garlanded, red carpets to be spread for them and PM should support them to continue the nonsense they have been engaged with? For God’s sake, for years, that is exactly what has been happening and has ruined the entire fabric of our country! My dear country men, let’s wake up, please.

Now, VGS. Yes, I am a great admirer of the great enterprise he set up. But if the model for some reason for a failure, it is understandable. It happens. His letter clearly shows his embarrassment of some of his actions. Good for him. He realised it. He could have corrected. Then he talks about harassment by the IT Dept. Now, there is a huge movement being created to question the power of the IT Dept or law or for that matter the Government. When I see this, I go “WHAT?”. In fact, I would like to congratulate the Retd Income Tax Commissioner who has been asking VGS to declare the hidden transactions. He was doing his job! What is wrong in this? In fact, I want to stand by him, even if I am the only one and probably mean nothing. If one feels so embarrassed that they want to give up on their lives and cannot face the society, when their wrong-doings are exposed, why do that in the first place?? I am sorry, if this seems really insensitive to the precious soul who has left his body or for his near and dear ones….but my intention is not that. Please try to understand. I am only saying let us be more sensitive about the message we are giving out, especially if we are people who are being looked up to as inspiring leaders. 

There are young minds who can be easily influenced by what you say in these kind of circumstances, when for them it is already confusing. So, are we saying, let people do mistakes, not small ones but even to the extent they cannot really handle and let them continue till they get busted and if they do get busted, instead of at least owning up the mistake, correcting it, learning from it and starting afresh - just blame the whole world and give up and then try to get all the sympathies of the world?? Please, let’s act a bit more responsible.

Let’s learn, let’s contemplate before acting and learn from our mistakes. Own up to our actions and die respectfully of hunger than to die a life of regret and embarrassment. While I say this, trust me, and I am sure you all know it, we don’t NEED much. It is our GREED that is killing us. Our self respect is more important and valuable not PRIDE. People who are claiming to be RICH, I get a feeling are only rich because of their borrowings and debts. They are also rich with stress and anxiety. Better to be ORDINARY than be EXTRA-ORDINARY with extra-ordinary amount of debts, stress, anxiety and ego. Let’s re-learn our basic value systems, learn about what life is all about, live a meaningful and simple life which is far richer than the richness of the entire world. Be happy, be peaceful, be healthy with what you need, don’t lose the real richness of life in the meaningless chase for money. In the end, kind of richness and means to richness matters. Only money does not help. VGS had all the money and more to repay and re-start, but either he himself gave up or someone ended it for him. In both cases, it is a precious life lost for a petty chase. 

Let’s learn from these examples and not simply take sides without thinking. If they have done no wrong, they will win the battle in the end with the lessons they need to learn. If they have done wrong and if they have the courage to accept and deal with it, they will still be winners and learn the lessons they need to learn at the end of it. Same applies to me. Every time I go through a hard time, due to my own wrong-doing, I face it, learn from it and become a better version of myself. So, friends, my whole idea is, let’s be careful of what we believe, what we support and what examples as adults we are setting for our future generations. What is the legacy we are leaving behind? 

India is rich because of its spirituality and its culture, let’s not lose it. As Indian’s, it is our duty to learn it, live it and also share it with the world for the benefit of the entire creation and living in  blissful harmony. This is my humble submission. 

I would love to hear your comments and views on this blog. Both from those who agree with the view presented or from those who don’t agree. I would like to learn from both. Thanking all those who read the article and all those who will respond - in advance.  Om Shanti.