A Rare Someone

This is the only way,

I will be,

I will not change myself,

To manipulate through ,

A cruel world.

SANITATION AND HYGIENE BEGIN AT HOME

Over 600 million Indians defecate in the open. Lakhs of tonnes of garbage are generated each day in Indian cities, which are dumped into ever-shrinking landfills. River Ganga is revered as ‘Mother’, yet remains the most polluted river of India. Lakhs die due to toxic air and smoky chulhas each year out of respiratory ailments and suffocation. Over forty percent of Indian children under five are stunted.

So, what connects all the above gruesome facts? That Indian people as a whole, care little about the filth and degraded sanitary conditions outside of their homes. As long as the garbage is outside their homes, they do not bother. Sadly, they do not realise that all that filth will ultimately enter their own well-maintained, clean homes in the form of disease-causing germs, vectors, poor quality water and air, cutting many productive years of their own and their children’s lives.

‘Charity begins at home’. So should sanitation and hygiene habits be ingrained since childhood at home, and homes be kept clean. Yet there is a need to consider the locality, city, state, country and indeed the planet as our home. “Vasudheiva Kutumbakam”– the whole world is a family. By extension, as this family lives on Planet Earth and this is our only home, it is every human being’s responsibility to keep our living spaces clean and hygienic. Once this feeling and responsibility is heartily felt and acted upon by people, then Earth will indeed be Heaven – what with all the beneficial spill-over effects like a spiritual mind, unpolluted food and air, generation of pure thoughts and living in Harmony with Nature !

This post will first clearly demarcate reasons why sanitation and hygiene are so important for India : what are the real spin-offs in fields like health, education, productivity, innovation due to good hygiene and what are the consequences of poor hygiene. Next, it will

One World, One Humanity

  

Is there power in writing? Can writers bring social change & change the world? #Writing

 

#Writing is a passion for many in the world. In my definition of #writing, I would like to make it more broad-based as including anyone who writes on any medium: social media (including tweets), print and television (includes journalists),  bloggers, content-writers of portals/ads, writers of books/journals etc.

Yes, writers wield the power of the pen/the keyboard/the touchscreen! They influence thoughts, beliefs and indeed, life itself.

Not just self-help and inspirational books which change people's lives considerably, but every such article which reports ills and injustices in society, or every blog or tweet which appeals to do good for humanity-spreads optimism; gives ideas for a safer, better world; explains fast-paced innovations; simplifies financial jargons; exposes corruption/ills; arises people to do more for the state, nation and world and makes life simpler, definitely changes the world for the better by making people more informed, aware, sensitive.

Learnings

A new day,

New hopes,

New feelings,

New learnings.

Open your eyes,

From the dark,

To the light.

Look forward to the day,

With cheer-

With the abandon of a bird,

The passion of a conqueror,

The innocence of a child,

The engagement of a soldier.

Kingdom's Heir

The King on a pedestal,

The Queen behind a veil,

Yet in the confines of privacy,

Where all barriers fail,

Their bodies and souls unite-

An event the Gods hail.

The Kingdom's Heir will be born,

A powerful Daughter or Son.

All will rejoice as,

People don't upon gender frown.

Either the Son will rule,

Or the Daughter shall wear the Crown!

Source

**Linking to ABC Wednesday (Letter 'K' for King, Kingdom)

Indian PM interacts with India's Future

PM Modi has done it again. This time he has reached a new target audience- lakhs of school students across India. He has inspired them. Such interactions are needed more often. Indeed, the PM has to be a leader, an inspirer so that our nation can surge ahead. Glad that we have a PM who fully realises this.

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Things that I especially liked in the interaction:

a) Sharing his notorious childhood activities. It was unexpected!

b) The Nagpur example: On full moon nights, how to connect with the heavenly environment? Simply switch off the streetlights and let the people enjoy the natural beauty of the romantic night!

c) Read. Read whatever and how much ever you can. Read even from the newspaper packet in which pakodas(hot crispy snacks made of gramflour) are served. [Sadly, nowdays they give in polluting polythenes only. He should have driven that message too- STOP USING THOSE POLYTHENE BAGS]

Halt those pearls

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That piercing pain,

That crashing feel,

Those clouded eyes,

And tears reel.

Tears reel,

Till an eternity,

And then a moment comes,

When they halt.

They halt,

Within the limits of eyes,

And pain gives way,

To new vigour.

New vigour,

Which sets you out to achieve,

The Impossible.

The Unlimited.

*Linking this with letter 'H' of ABC Wednesday.

Do the Gold!

She was practicing Table Tennis in the garage of her home. He was shooting his target to glory with his portable shooting practice kit in his hotel room- even while stealing some time away from his cousin's reception evening below. The Men's Hockey Team was sweating it out on the field, practicing hard. She was wrestling in her akhada, her sisters egging her on with better techniques to defeat the opponents. He was bettering his badminton shots at the P. Gopichand Academy under the lights. She was boxing against all odds, like there was no tomorrow, with single focus. He was weightlifting unimaginably heavy weights in a private gym, for the government never kept its promise to give him a world class gym inspite of him being a previous gold medal winner. She was vaulting with all her gymnastic grace and strength to perfect her art. He was throwing the discus again and again, struggling to better his best throw....

........And it rained that night.

Yes. It rained. It felt like their sweat was mixing with the rain water and liberating them. Giving them fresh energy. More strength to wrestle harder. To fight the Judo better. To hit every badminton shot with more force. To lift the extra 2 kgs beyond 300. To drive that hockey stick to hit more goals. To shoot to ever more perfection. To achieve the ultimate. To create history.

To do the Gold....

What do you want to be?

There are only a few originators,

The rest are all copycats.

There are only a few leaders,

The rest are all followers.

Source

There are only a few ideators,

The rest are all adopters.

So what do you want to be?

Are you Ambition-fuelled?!

Living in your own shell, 

Aren't you?!

Why care what's happening in the world...?!

Creating much ado about nothing-

Those so-called 'movers and shakers', 

Aren't they?!

While you prefer enjoying,

In your own sheltered way...!

Drawn the lines,

Haven't you?!

Of what all you want?!

How does Modi inspire?

This is not possible. Unless Modi is gifted with powers to inspire (he calls himself 'Jaadugar' or magician) he cannot move a nation of 125 crore people to tears, to elation, to pure inspiration- all at the same time.

And guess what?! Such powers need not be gifted...they can be cultivated- through years of committed work, through focus, through centralising the forces of the Universe within our beings....the best of 'the power of attraction', when the Universe conspires to give us everything we really want coz we work unimaginably hard for it. Clearly, Modi's life story brims with the cultivation of his extra-ordinary powers to inspire people. Mind you- it's such unending spiritual energy that energises masses and classes alike.

In most of his interviews, I saw a statue of Swami Vivekanand behind him.

Hopes for India : 'Modi'fied

This is an unbelievable and super-decisive victory for Modi-led BJP! In my previous post I had wished for stable government, and look how decisively Indian electorate has voted! :)

This only shows how frustrated Indian electorate had been with so many years of dilly-dallying coalition politics, with minority governments running with 'outside support'. No wonder a meagre number of bills were passed, crores looted while the Prime Minister who was supposed to be the Leader of the Government, sat silent singing shayaris that tsunamis would come if he spoke! And look what his 'Khamoshi' brought about- a 'Tsu-Namo' that's swept India in saffron!

S: See the Sea

See the Sea,

Vast, huge,

Overwhelming.

Propping up the Sun,

Gobbling it too.

Guardian of islands,

Beautiful blue.

N: No Confusion

Source

No confusion,

Decide on one choice,

And pursue it doggedly.

No nonsense,

Only clear thoughts,

To propel you ahead.

K: Killer Instinct

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My blogger friend Rakesh Mondal recently figured out that I was blogging about each succeeding letter of English Alphabet each day. Obviously he was unaware of A to Z Blogging Challenge! Anyway yesterday while commenting on my post J:Jealousy he gave a nice suggestion for letter 'K'- Killer Instinct! Thanks Rakesh! So I've accepted your suggestion and my thoughts on 'Killer Instinct' are below:

What is 'Killer Instinct'?

J: Jealousy

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 Jealousy is a good thing. Just that in movies they show the bad form of it- where someone kills the other or destroys the other. Even in real life, the negative connotation is held closer to heart. Often the destructive human nature takes over when faced with this overpowering emotion of jealousy.

But then we must realise that jealousy is actually a positive emotion and if we channelise it positively, we can do wonders in our life. We just need to forget focusing on the person who makes us jealous. Instead we need to focus on ourselves due to the fire raging courtesy jealousy! Once that fire urges us to achieve the hitherto impossible and surpass our own potential, then jealousy indeed becomes the positive factor of our life! It can make us win and how!

Thank God for jealousy. How else would some great things be achieved! How else would humankind have surpassed the 'me too' syndrome in the quest to move ahead of competitors! How else would humankind race towards ever greater progress?!

So, just like - "Daag achche hain" [Stains are good!], a popular ad campaign by a leading washing powder company in India, I'll also say - "JEALOUSY IS GOOD!"

Just channelise it properly in your lives and see how your lives transform!



**This is my post for letter 'J' of the A to Z Challenge 2014. I thought of writing a free write on 'Jealousy'! :)

G: Great Expectations

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 I

----

Great Expectations,

They have from me.

Just that my time has not come,

So they look down upon me with a frown.

F: Failure vs Winning

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To fail is to feel bad.

To win is to convert this feeling,

Into a burning fire,

Of desire,

To achieve that elusive goal,

To make it elusive no more.

#DoRight:: Be a Do-Gooder for Dooars XI

Hockey is India's national game. Still the story of how badly India has deteriorated in hockey is a very sad one indeed. India which won the admiration of the world by winning a record consecutive six golds in Hockey at Olympics from 1928 to 1956, following it up with another two golds in 1964 and 1980, merely qualified in Men's Hockey at 2012 London Olympics after a long 8 years gap! Adding fuel to the fire, it finished last.

Similar stories plague almost every other team sport in India (exceptions like Kabaddi exist, which is a sub-continental sport). India's Cricket craziness/obsession has zapped out all performance from most other sports.

And what about Football? That lovely team game played by 209 countries all over the world and having far more spectators than Cricket or indeed any other sport in the world?!

Don't even ask!

Yes- 1.2 billion people, enough grounds to kick a football around (though decreasing now especially around cities due to encroachments), least infrastructure needed for this most common team sport- yet our Indian Football Team ranks 152 amongst 209 countries in FIFA rankings of March 2014!

And that's men's football.

Indian women's football team hovers around a much better 50th rank out of 130 countries. That's why they can teach the men's team some good lessons inspite of all the difficulties they undergo to pursue their dream.

Time to spread Inspiration :: Satyamev Jayate

'Inspiring' is an art. Every person's life has glimpses of inspiration for all. These can be spotted by those who make an attempt to look for sparks of it. And the good news is- in a country of a billion plus people, there is no dearth of inspiration in everyday life!

Yet it is true that most Indians are largely inspired by the two so-called religions of India- Cricket and Bollywood. So, life stories and good works of Sachin, Big B, the Khans and so on are too well known and inspire people to make it big in life - to always work with passion and dedication.