There is no such thing as right or wrong. Honey, there is…

What is with this new school of thought :: there-is-no-such-thing-as-right-or-wrong.. and that its all based on perception…
My first reaction to such an argument is… Bleh ! 😛

If you believe in God, this is a no-brainer.. This blog is for those who don’t.

Following is my take on few of the arguments that the followers of this school of thought make:

Argument # 1: Everyone is selfish… What’s wrong with that ?

No, everyone is not selfish.. You want me to give an example… Ha, that’s an easy one, your Mom 🙂
Now one of my lunch buddies would have dealt with this argument by saying that, “Thats  an exception.” (His typical reply when he finds someone having a different school of thought than his)

Oh okay, so here the list goes: Your Best Friend, Your Mentor, Your Dog, Your Favorite Teacher etc etc. Oh ! for me, Jesus tops the list 😀 These are the people whom you cherish and love to talk about… They are honest, they love you and they would have done something for you which made them so special.

Now imagine that most of the people around you are good and helpful. Won’t the world be a better place to be in ? Or may be imagine not so good people around you ?? Any thoughts honey ??

Argument # 2: How can one decide what is wrong and what is right ?

Sweetie, I am quite hopeful that you might have something know as conscience inside you. Remember ??
Okay, now here is how you can use it. Ernest Hemingway once said, “So far, about morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.”

In simple words, if your actions harm or hurt any fellow being, its wrong. And if they benefit fellow beings, ITS ?? RIGHT !! Very Good 🙂
(And I do believe that during such a categorization some actions will surely fall in the grey area. We can focus on those actions sometime later).

And ofcourse, there might be few people who gain sadistic pleasure out of wrongdoings.. We call them PSYCHOPATHS.

I understand that a lot of bad things are being done in the name of righteousness. But as my lunch buddy says, those are all exceptions 😛 Okay, on a serious note, bad actions produce bad fruit even if, its a priest who does it.

If you are afraid of being lonely, don’t try to be right. But that just shows how weak you are (all spirituality, all upbringing, all experiences down in the drain). If there was no distinction between right and wrong, do you think that this world would have existed this long ?? Think about it 🙂

Day ends with Bad TV.. Week begins with Good TV…

I am watching Bigg Boss 7 nowadays (everyday) … I know that it the worst of bad TV.  Still ?!!?

I enjoy watching it and I wait anxiously for the clock to hit 9 pm and so that I can laugh a little.. Oh No 😐

The secret is that I sometimes google the latest happenings in the celebrity house… Tragic 😦

The following thoughts are creeping into my brain and I am utterly confused:

• Am I not the good kid anymore ?
• Am I used to watching people bitch and fight and play politics and absence of this upsets me ??
• Will I get influenced ???
• Maybe I should continue watching this show so that I can deal with corporate politics..
• Oh whatever.. I don’t want to feel guilty over watching a stupid series… And BTW Comedy Nights with Kapil is a good enough show to clear my mind on the Sunday night.. Gutthi, I adore you.. Kapil, you are awesome.. You guys rock !!! 😀

When was the last time you took a decision all by yourself?

When was the last time you took a decision all by yourself?

An easy question.. Isn’t it? And what is the obvious answer?…. ‘Hey, All the Time!”  😀

But please do think for a while…. Do we keep aside all our prejudices before making a decision? Don’t we take a decision and then reverse it due to peer pressure? Does the huge load of information obtained via TV, Movies and Internet affect our decision making capabilities?

Let us first talk about some BIG decisions that we take in life…

• Mr. X wants to go for higher education. He looks around and MBA seems to be the public’s choice. He appears for CAT, XAT, SNAP etc. Gets a call from XL for the PMIR course. He never was interested in the HR job. He never respected the HR job… But he joined the course! Why? Because, some people (known or unknown via web) recommended it.

• Ms. B wants to get married. She is a huge fan of Bollywood movies and TV soaps. She feels that her dream boy would be a perfect husband material. He has loads of cash, has a huge bungalow, a glittering car and no office stress. The best part is that he has all the time in the world to love her. Ms. B looks for such characteristics in every boy and is rejecting them one after the another.

• Mr. Z is all geared up for the placement season. He wants to get into Finance. But has done majors in Marketing as well. He has taken few subjects in Systems and has couple of years of work experience in the software field. Luckily, he has some exposure to Operations as well. Just before the placements begin he finds out that he has applied to some 25 odd companies .. And you guessed it right. He gets into a field that he always felt was not meant for him.

Today we have friendship with someone coz s/he is perceived as ‘Kewl’ by others. We abuse others, coz we feel its trendy. Chetan Bhagat is our favourite author, coz he has legalised the use of words like ‘F**K’. We love Sachin and Dravid one day and hate them the next day (decision is made as per the FB status updates). We wear t-shirts of Che Gueverra without having any information about him. We claim some Professor is ‘GOD’ even if he is the worst one that we have ever met. We love some girl from within but inorder to impress friends we keep on trying up five others.

For how long will this continue? I guess the situation will worsen with time 😦

I am….what I am???????



Saw some posts of facebook publicizing the ideology of “I am what I am”. Nothing unusual but pretty much the same concept promoted by many TV channels, websites and many brand advertisements endorsing the same concept.But the question that often comes to my mind – Has this something to do with the hidden persona in all of us or is it something on which my generation thrives on?

Among the tag lines like  ‘Be bindas’,  ‘stay raw’,  ‘i am what i am’  etc I do feel where has been the underlying human nature to be simple vanished ?   It isn’t that I do not believe in this ideology to be “I am what I am..!!!!” but I just question out is it truly mean what it is?

Right from childhood in every public school a subject called moral science is taught which strictly concentrates on developing children into GOOD human being, ( I don’t know how far has it succeeded) but that is the actual purpose. The stories present in language text books taught in childhood also concentrate on personality development of individual and help him to understand the thin difference between good and bad. More often all this is meant to inculcate the term “VALUES” into the psyche of a child, so that as a grown up being he very well understands true meaning of being a GOOD human.

My question is not that education system has failed to create Good humans but as a grown ups we fail to stick to the belief of good human beings and values. Actually it’s how we look at things, our perceptions and the way we react accordingly reflects how good or how bad we are as a human, as a person. Sometimes when I do something that is incorrect (morally or ethically) I do feel this is against all those good things which I was taught and brought up with and I must not do it. Here comes the call the conscience which intertwined with values helps me choose the right from all wrongs. But what if this call of conscience never arises? What if the values sowed deep within never come out to guide and what if the wrong dominates the right?

This is what the new mantra does, acts more as siphon and allows us to display all the “BADS” in us and that too without being ashamed but rather with a proud.  The mantra is “I am what I am”.

Since when did being outspoken and hurting people became a quality to be displayed (More often being termed as I say what I feel) ? When did getting drunk, creating nuisances, is a part of enjoyment (Termed as I work hard and party harder)? When did hanging all night out with opposite gender, dating and dumping (Between the lines – one night stand stuff) is considered as fun loving (Also termed as I believe in moving on). Well there are many such “qualities” but lets not dig the dirt.

All these cheesy lines -I am what I am, I don’t live by the rule book, I don’t prefer being labeled, I just love the way I am and all such stuff are not merely meant to display the truth about what a person is but act as a cover up and bring out those qualities proudly that people  should try to get rid off. When was the last time any of us claiming all above lines went out of the rule books did a helpful deed or charity. Well that’s something big to ask, lets talk something small – When was the last time we did follow ALL the traffic rules or would that still be called being labeled?

I believe No one is perfect and so imperfections are a part of Humans but rather than flaunting those human imperfections as qualities I need to look beyond them more towards he qualities that are universally accepted

A bit of me is proud to say “I am what I am” but not all of it. It still hesitates because I know there is always a room, for me the room is really huge, the room for improvement. Not for my skills or career but as a person, as a true human.

Note: Hope you would have enjoyed the post. The author of this article, ‘Neelabh Parmar’,  is a very dear friend of mine. It was very kind of him, to allow me, post it here. You can visit his blog at: http://neelabhsopinions.wordpress.com/ I am sure you would also love his poetries posted at: http://neelabhs-expressions.blogspot.com/

Swadeshi….

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul celebrate a goal against Pakistan at the Commonwealth Games hockey match in New Delhi…. I know this was taken a few months back, but couldn’t resist posting it on my blog…!

How dare anyone call her ‘Videshi’!!

Are we Ready?

—- India will surpass China’s growth soon!

—- India will reap on the demographic dividend while the rest of the world fights ageing!

—- Per Capita income crossed $1000! Yay!

—- USA will bow down before the educated work force of Indian some day soon!

All of us get goosebumps when we hear such stuff, but doubts creep in quite soon… May be, because, we are not ready to embrace the growth story yet. You don’t agree with me, do you?

Let me give you an example. Our country has been consistently facing the issues of high fiscal deficits. We know that it can be curbed by one of the two ways: Increaes the revenue by imposing more taxes, increasing the tax base etc, and the other one is, by curtailing the expenses. Since we want to grow fast, we need to invest, thus the second option is not viable. This means that the government should get more earnings through tax. But are we ready to give a large part of our income as tax? Would we not curse the government and threaten to pull it down if it increases the tax bases?

Another reason can be, that sustained growth is achievable only if the fundamentals are strong. Umm… Fundamentals like infrastructure… Infrastructure that includes roads…. Roads that are already over-strained with the current industrial growth…

We talk about dependence on monsoon for better agricultural output, and at the same time cry about food wastage during storage.

Chalo, leaving aside the high level things… Are we ready to change ourselves?

We loose no time to start complaining about ‘sarkari’ way of work but don’t take accountability for most of the things. We travel in a train and soon find that a  ‘without ticket’ is a person who earns Rs. 25000 a month. We hate the election campaigns due to the noises made, but make it sure to party hard and disturb others! Just for the ease of getting things done, we pay small bribes! We don’t give feedback to people around us, just because we don’t want to sour our relationships!

Reforms have to be done on a continuous basis. We have already messed up enough things around us. It’s time to get things right! The Bible says, ‘If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones’. Let us start cleaning our own hearts first!

God Bless India!!

“….. aisi sabhyata jisme ek Catholic aurat, pradhan mantri ki kursi ek Sikh k liye chhod deti hai … aur ek sikh, pradhanmantri pad ki shapath, ek Muslim rashtrapati se  leta hai… us desh ki baagdor sambhaalne k liye jisme 80 pratishat log Hindu hain”

One of the bestest dialogs that I have ever heard… Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and APJ Abdul Kalam, none of them needed this dialog to prove their mettle before Indians…But it feels good, to see someone crafting the whole situation in such a beautiful way…

But why this dialog suddenly? I am unhappy with the way UPA governement is dealing with issues of scams and scandals…. 😦

In the next general elections, who else can we vote for. I had predicted that  after the bad-2 defeat in the last elecions, BJP would understand  that it needed to change the agenda. They criticised Congress and its allies… the problem was that, this was the only thing they did. The ‘junta’ wanted to understand, what NDA would do after it was given the throne. But aah…. no one was willing to talk about that. Do you remeber, Advani had challenged Manamohan Singh to have a live debate with him…. But Advani ji kya saabit kar lete…. Second thing, Singh ji k baare me bura kaun sochna chaahta hai….

Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee, Kapil Sibal… we need them…our country needs them. But the good things of these people are getting covered easily under the BIG scams and inflation… This does not mean that BJP does not have good leaders. But it seems that their vision has been blocked by cashing upon the ‘Hindu’ votes again..

Have a look at the picture…. Look at the fingers 😐 This picture was taken from a Prabhu Chawla article… In this article he says, “The Congress may have outplayed a divided Opposition in Parliament but the victory only highlights the paralysis of governance and time for Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi to assert their political authority“. Very true…

I have become quite anxious…… May be, I very much believe in the 9% growth story… I want the right persons to steer the country forward…

‘God Bless India’!!

Food for thought…

• No one ever got fired for buying from IBM -[ IBM’s marketing campaign when it was the industry leader]
• Spontaneity is an infinite number of rehearsed possibilities! – Peter Drucker
• Eliminating rivals is a risky strategy!  – Michael E. Porter
• The Biggest room in this world is the room for improvement –  Anonymous
• Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment! – Barry LePatner
• India is no longer a country which boycotts foreign goods but buys out the companies that makes them instead- Lead India campaign (Amitabh bachchan)
• By Independence, we have lost the excuse of blaming the British for anything going wrong – B.R. Ambedkar
• 27 European countries can build ‘European Union’ but 28 states cannot unite India – Anonymous
• Money talks…but all mine ever says is good-bye

Saving the best for the end..

• Relative is better than absolute! – Shini Oommen [After the grades were out]



Many prefer what others prefer ..!!

Buzz… thats the word…!!

Umm… where should I start from?

Okay…There is a certain writer who acts as an inspiration to many…. Chetan Bhagat….went to IIT-D, and then IIM-A…. qualifications enough to impress anyone…But more than his qualifications, something else has worked for him.. his writing skills, or should I say, he knows how to create the buzz… I have read three books of Chetan Bhagat. I didnt like Five Point Someone and One night at the Call Center.. But I found the Two States quite humorous…An important thing in his book is that in every other page, the word ‘F…’ appears more than anything else. There is a certain, ever-growing sect in our society, who believe they are born to defy all the rules.. The abundant usage of such words allows them to see this as a fashion, or you may say, allows it to be considered trendy. Three Idiots was a super-duper hit, he then got a lot of air time and you know for what… Today news channels usually keep him one of the panelist for discussion…Believe me, its not fun to watch him get a lot of air-time…

Chalo.. I shouldn’t give him a lot of time either 😉

Yesterday…I watched a movie ‘The man from the earth’. It is about a cro-magnon man, age 14,000 years, who tells his story which includes he meeting Buddha and at the later part he proclaims himself as Christ…. Blasphemy…!! Again the writer seems to try to create a buzz 😦

The politicians try creating a buzz all the time…. news channels like India TV are known for this as a speciality….Do you remember Suhaib Iliyasi, suddenly the police force started feeling menial before him!!  BTW I was a big fan of his 😀

Hmm….Do you want a break in Bollywood? Do you want the media attention? It is very simple, do something against the social norms, and yessssssssssssssssssss, the attention is all yours…

One of my ex-managers once advised me, ‘Shini never in your life try to be become popular, rather try to become respected’… this is a line that I believe would continue inspiring me forever. Why is it so difficult to find such people ?? Why it has become to find people you can trust completely?? Why are we afraid of making friends anymore??

But Oh! its so easy to follow the masses..

Difficult questions….But I guess, shortcuts usually lead to short term gains and long term issues… Dubai Debt Crisis, recent recession etc are examples of such practices. For sustainability, one needs to have integrity and the determination to preserve it….The value system incorporated in a child is an important factor too…

And this is not a cakewalk, very few succeed! Such people, I am sure have a lot of guts and confidence that enables them to cling by their principles till the very end.

I hope that the Lord gives me perseverance and wisdom to do what is right, come what may!!

Udaan ….

After a long time, I got to see some original and sensible movie… ‘Udaan’. The climax was awesome, the actors were brilliant, the songs were melodious and the story was original…!! Check out for the new actor ‘Rajat Barmecha’… very promising!

Oh, yes… listen to the song during the climax, the lyrics is awesome!

The youtube link for the song is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTWz1q2PuV8

Some lines from the song:

Pairon ki bediyan khwabon ko baandhe nahi re…. kabhi nahi re,
Mitti ki parton ko nanne se ankur bhi cheeray….. dheere dheere,
Iraade hare hare, jinke seeno mein ghar kare,
Woh dil ki sune kare… na darre, na darre..

Subah ki kirno ko rokein jo salaakhein hai kahan?
Jo khayalon pe pehre daale woh aankhein hai kahan?
Par khulne ki deri hai parinde ud ke choomenge…. aasman aasman aasman!

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂