The Indifference of Intelligent Minds

I was feeling guilty from a long time due to my indifference towards the burning issues but after some research, I found that most of the intelligent people are like me only. I had seen all of us complaining about the system hundred times but are we really trying to change it. Most of us will become tight lipped on this question. I feel that we have become so self-centered that we forget to see the bigger picture. Until and unless we ourselves are in some mess, we will just be a mere spectator. May be you disagree to me at this point of time but I am sure after I finish you will get atleast something for retrospection.

Let us start with basics. How many of us cast our votes? Only 40%. Out of these 40%, how many know about all the candidates properly. Not more than 10%. That means only 4% among us actually cast their votes in a right way and believe me I was very generous while assigning percentages. What other 96% do? They only find faults with the system afterwards. I am also not different from this lot. Whenever elections are there, we are very happy because we get one extra holiday. I can say for sure that 99.99% among us will never try to choose politics as a career but all of us want the system of our country to be changed. Do you still feel that this does not show the indifference of our minds?

Let us see into things further and take example of sports. How many of us criticise various players in our cricket team for not playing well and even give suggestions that he should play like this or he should bowl like this? Almost 100%. Now tell me, how many of us will support our kids to go and choose cricket or tennis or badminton or chess or shooting or some other sport as a career instead of engineering or medical or management. I cannot even write a percentage for this because it will be in decimals only. We only feel ashamed when such a big country with second largest population in the world wins medals in Olympics in single digits (that is also not a gold medal). Just think about it for a while, we are not capable of winning medals or we are not able to give right direction to the people who can make it happen. I am sure most of us tell our kids who have more interest in some sport than studies that they are useless and wasting their time on it. Do you still feel that this does not show the indifference of our minds?

Many among us accept high salary packages abroad, work for others, earn for others and the technology what we invent there, our poor country has to purchase it afterwards from that country. I know what most of us will say, 'There is no future for me here'. But tell me one thing, who will make that future, who will make it happen. Somebody has to take the initiative or our country will never have a bright future. I am sure that things are changing but we have to increase the pace. We have to stop existing and start living. Until and unless our minds will show indifference to the issues, we will never be able to make any difference to our society. Its time to give people what they had not given to us. Let us act now so that at the dawn of our life, our heart can whisper to us.........Yes we had really done something.

One-Day Cricket - J u s t E n j o y!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The match between Australia and South Africa had changed the face of the game of cricket. Even a team like Australia, which is supposedly the best team in the world today, was not able to defend a mammoth total of 434 runs. In the recent times also, many teams had successfully chased big totals of 300+ runs. There was a time when a total of 200 or 220 runs was assumed to be a safer one but today it is not like that any more. Now even a total of 400+ runs is not safe forget about 300+ runs. It is nothing but beginning of a new era in the world of cricket. Australians would have not even thought that they will be a part of the cricket history in such a way. Thumbs up to the South African team for their performances, especially Gibbs (175 runs of 111 balls). I can say one thing for sure that now we can hope for more number of nail biting finishes and peak performances from all the players (because if they will not perform, they will be out of the team). There will be lot more pressure on the bowlers because in such matches they have to feel the brunt. Lot more emphasis will be there on the fielding also, so that difficult catches can be taken with ease and as many runs as possible can be saved. Batsman like Gibbs, Dhoni, Gilchrist will top the charts of popularity and a team will search for more such options. What is going to be next, god only knows but I am happy that we are going to enjoy cricket more and more and more and............

IRAQ War - Story of an American Soldier

Recently on net, by chance I met an American Soldier who is fighting in Iraq and was on a short leave to his hometown in America. Believe me after hearing his story my heart skipped a beat. I was forced to think that what has happened to us, where are we leading to in our lives.

Initially this guy was very quite but after lot of persuasion from my side he started telling about himself. With pride, he announced to me that he is an American soldier fighting in Iraq to save his country. I asked him hiding my surprise, 'What do you mean by fighting to save America. I thought you are fighting for the liberation of people of Iraq'. He hesitantly replied, 'We are fighting to remove terrorists who can harm America'. Showing further interest, I asked him, 'How many terrorists you had killed until now'. He didn't speak for few minutes and I thought that he may be counting. Suddenly he said 'None'. I got shocked with this revelation and remained silent for sometime.

Slowly-slowly when I was able regain my composure, I told him that 'I heard you people are killing lot of terrorists and you are saying none, why?' He confessed, 'They are not sure that the people whom they killed were terrorists. They can be innocent citizens also'. I sincerely asked him, 'Do you like it' and he said 'No'. I got agitated and shouted at him, 'Then why the hell you want to go back to Iraq and fight and kill'. At that time, he dropped another bomb in our conversation.

'I want to go back because they had killed my brother. My brother died in my hands and I was not able to do anything' was his reply and even though I was sitting so far away from him, I felt his restlessness, I felt the warmth of a volcano ready to erupt and gulp everything coming its way. Still putting up a brave face after hearing his tragedy I probed further, 'Do you know who killed your brother?' He replied calmly 'No'. I asked him in frenzy, 'Then with whom you will take revenge of your brother's death'. He answered in a deep voice 'I will kill everybody'. I pressed pause button to our conversation for sometime so that both of us can come back to reality and let the overflow of sentiments pass.

After controlling my spinning head, I asked him bluntly, 'Don't you think that what you are feeling today about your brother, same way dear ones of all those people you had killed in Iraq would have felt'. He didn't reply to my question but I was sure that he is now in the turmoil of thoughts and emotions. After sometime he quitely replied,'May be but you know my 12 year old son didn't talk to me just because I was not able to bring his uncle back. Everybody in my house wants me to go back to Iraq in search of his assassin and punish him'. I said, 'Very well but if something happens to you also, do you ever want your son to grow up and go to Iraq and do the same thing for you what you are doing for your brother today'. I felt his heart cry and stream of tears flowing from his eyes. Unknowingly I had touched his weakest emotional chord.

Suddenly as if he had come to some conclusion he replied, 'No, I never want my son to go to Iraq'. And his feelings got exposed to me, which he was hiding from me with great effort. He shouted again, 'I never want my son to go to Iraq, in fact even I don't want to go back to Iraq. I am afraid that if I will go back, I will never be able to see my family again'.

After this, I tried my best to persuade him to leave the army job and do something else. I even tried to convince him that the war, which is going on, is not because of terrorism or nuclear weapons, it is actually for the control of Oil in that region but he seemed to be too lost in the twister of his own thoughts and emotions. With this, we promised to be in touch and parted ways but I was left with something to think. At that point of time, I felt that where are we going, what has happened to us, our morals, our emotions. I will not say that he was right but each and every character in his life had played their role to put him in such situation. Why each one of us are mere pawns in the hands of a system made by somebody and rules laid by somebody else, which keeps on changing for the benefit of few bureaucrats. Why can't we make our own system and live our life as per our rules, as per our happiness. I had decided in my life, I would listen only to that what my heart whispers to me..........

MBA - The actual side of the story

I was thinking to write on the hottest career option in our country (where no. of aspirants is growing at a higher pace than our economy itself) from past three days but was hesitant a little bit because I myself did not belong to this stable. Finally, I decided to write so that all of us can see MBA in a different light. I feel its worth writing for a rising sun which may be rising from the west but afterall it is a sun and its rising.

I believe that most of us think of MBA only as Masters in Business Administration or the fastest career growth path, which is not exactly true. MBA is much more then its literal meaning or a career growth path. One should understand that career growth depends solely on yourself and you should be prepared for a complete transformation.

Actually, in my words MBA is: -

M - Maturity of Mind
B - Birth of Basis
A - Accuracy of Actions

The Mighty "M": -

Although M stands for money also which most of us think about but its actual depth is beyond imagination. It stands for 'Maturity of Mind'. After joining MBA this is the first process that gets started and a carefree mind starts its journey towards maturity. Mind start thinking in all the directions and more and more avenues keep on adding to its dimensions. This is when creativity becomes the core of a thinking process.

The Beautiful "B": -

Although B stands for business also which most of us mean everytime but its origination is much before it. "B" actually stands for 'Birth of Basis'. During MBA most of us learn the importance of 'Basis'. Afterall anybody do anything on the basis of something. We start thinking about the basis on which we should do something and this provides us a whole new intelligent weapon. We start realizing what our competitor or any other human being can do or had done and why, by putting ourselves into their shoes. We can also define our success or failures by going into the depth of our course of actions that on what basis I had taken those decisions. If anybody get enlightened with the importance of 'Basis' we can overcome any hurdle in our life provided we are able to find the basis on which we should actually overcome it.

The Advantage "A": -

And finally comes the dimension which makes anybody different from everybody. This is what even many MBA's also fail to master. "A" which stands for 'Accuracy of Actions' is the most difficult art to learn and if you are able to have a command over it nobody can stop you in any phase of life. What actually is it? I can hit a bull's eye provided bull is there. It means that taking correct actions or decisions is not sufficient alone, it is also necessary to take them at the right time. Even bad decisions taken at an appropriate time can be fruitful. Always remember one thing that each and every decision or action in professional life or personal life is time sensitive, if you are accurate in your actions you can sail through any type of waters.

Now I think it is also right time to finish this write-up but before putting an end to it, I would like to say that people can only preach but you have to scratch your own back and decide your course of action, your path of life and always listen to what your heart whispers to you.........