lower rank of india in Human development Index

 Any welfare oriented nation  should be very concerned about the lower rank in HDI , because it only means that  ,  their nations are  lagging behind in  health, education and standard of living matters. India, slipping from 130^th to 131^st rank among 188 nations  in HDI ranking is not a matter to be ignored. Ever since, globalization era started,   privatization ,liberalization and deregulation  rules started dominating the economies of the world , only the corporate sector benefited immensely and  aggravated  the inequalities   .  Manufacturing of aircrafts, helicopters ,  defense  equipments , luxury cars ,  nuclear projects,  smart cities, tube trains , satellite and missile programmes   became top  priority projects and the social programmes were neglected .  The result is,  the basic needs  of majority of the population such as food, drinking water ,   clothing, shelter, education and health care  are not satisfied and they continue  to suffer due to joblessness and poverty .India which is loudly proclaiming as an emerging economy , should feel ashamed to occupy such a lower rank in HDI and bother to take measures to improve it . After all , higher rank  in  HDI indicate the wellbeing of the entire population  which would result in higher rate of human capital formation

A worthy Role model

                                            

                                                                      

Teachers usually and parents sometime ask the children  about their role models . Often the answer would be some popular or famous persons or some person with outstanding achievements in  their chosen fields of activity or one of their teachers Very rarely they mention a parent or grand parent  or  some one in their relatives circle as their role model. The reason (as per my view)   is that , may be they are all taken for granted and hence not observed closely. Had they observed them closely and spotted some admirable qualities in them, surly , there is a chance for them to accept one among them as a role model  .

Hence,  I was really surprised  when my thirteen  year old niece told me, when I asked her about her  role model that,  “Lakshmi” the domestic assistant working in her family for more than a decade is her role model,. Wanting to know the reason for selecting her, I further probed  . The following  statements made by her about Laksmi were very interesting  and thought provoking.

 It seems lakshmi has three children , one boy and two girls , an elderly mother and a very irresponsible husband  who is very lazy to go for regular job. Her salary which she gets by working in 4 homes as domestic help is the only regular source of income . Within  that income, some how,  she manages to look after her family by meeting their basic needs and educated all her children up to school final level and given them some skill training with which they could  get decent jobs . Their salary goes only towards the savings meant for their marriages and for some emergency expenses . She  has studied only upto 3^rd standard, yet she manages her finances well.  She hates indebtedness and never ask for loans from her employers . But , with right she will demand increase in salary when ever prices go up, since she understand the dignity of her labour .She never expect tips for doing some additional work, saying that she is not petty minded.

When she enters our home at 7. 30 AM , her appearance is neat  and the smile on her face is  contagious. I have never seen her  narrating any sad story about her irresponsible husband and share her worries about settling her children in marriage.  She takes leave only on unavoidable circumstances and always punctual while rendering her service to the four homes she serves.  She behaves like a family member when her employers home face some crises and shares their distress in her own way ‘

She is very humane at heart . She serves for an elderly couples and a single women, She is  over protective about them .She runs additional errands for them like paying electricity and milk coupons bills and even offer to cook for the elderly couple when they  fall  sick telling them that out side food is not good during sickness. When the single woman is distressed over some matter , she spends some additional minutes in spite of her roller coaster life to cheer her up. This information was shared with us in an appreciative tone by the single woman herself .

 Due to long term service in our homes ,  she takes liberty a like responsible family member and remind us about our monthly  payment of our bills such as for electricity , milk etc., She has never shown irritation , if the work load is more in our home ,some times, due to guests or festivals . She politely tell us, since she has to go in time to other homes, she will do the left out work after she finishes  her routine works in other homes . This shows  that punctuality is important for her   and at the same time she does not “work to rule”as the organised labourers do. For her personal relationship is more important  than material attitude.

She has shared her worries about her husbands irresponsible behavior towards the family obligations and his escapism from them by making her shoulder  more responsibilities. But she has learnt to suffer this situation silently , telling us that, it is her fate and God’s  wish and she can not do any thing about it and her only prayer to God is that, He should give her enough strength and stamina and prolonged life till her children are well settled in life. I understood  from her simple philosophies of life that, this is how Karma Yogis are expected to live .

Once her mother met with an accident and she had to take prolonged leave i.e. for a month  during her hospitalisation and  for after discharge care . Even during such distressed time she arranged for substitutes  for all her employers homes proving that  she is not a mercenary . No one thought of cutting her salary for that  month and called her to get the salaries . She was so moved by the gestures of her employers . Initially she was reluctant to accept the money saying  that, it would be  an unearned money . After much coaxing, she accepted the money saying that . may be it’s  Gods way of helping her through good souls .

I have never seen her with distressed face or complaint about her  financial difficulties . She some how manages her life with the resources available at her disposal . They are- her good health, time management skill, her intelligence , planning skill,  crisis management skill and positive attitude towards life and economic independence without knowing  these terms or the meaning of these concepts which are often narrated by feminists while talking about the qualities required for an empowered women. .

 My niece further told me that, she has never obsered all the  qualities of  Lakshmi closely, . It was her mother who was all the time pointing out her good qualities ,like honesty, hard work ,devotion to work, punctuality , human attitude and perfection in appearance and work , ability face challenges of her life and positive attitude . Then she started observing and amazed at her personal qualities and decided one day that, she would be role model if she really has  to be an  “empowerment women”, so that she will have fulfillment in her life and becomes an as stet to her family and the nation. I too was impressed with her analysis for choosing Laksmi as her role model  and thought there many unsung heroines in the world , who are not equipped with tools of empowerment like higher level education, skill training , healthy food , job with decent pay and family support . they are worthy role models to emulate .

Your thoughts create your world ( this article won the award in the imathra online magazine writing contest )

                                 

                            

                                          

Everything you perceive in the physical world has its origin in the invisible, inner world of your thoughts and beliefs. To become the master of your destiny, you  must learn to control the nature of your    habitual thoughts, through that, your thoughts create your real world .In other words, every effect you see in your outside or physical world has a specific cause which has its origin in your inner or mental world. This is the essence of thought power. Most people  believe in the opposite , i.e.,   they feel or think a certain way because of their circumstances, not knowing the truth that it is their thought power that is creating those very circumstances, whether wanted or unwanted.

 Modern science considers thoughts as energy .William Walker Atkinson told us that "where mind is static energy, thought is dynamic energy - two phases of the same thing" Your imagination is the engine of your thoughts. It converts your thought power into mental images, which are in turn manifested in the physical realm.  Negative thoughts can be calmly and deliberately replaced with positive thoughts. It needs .practice but, it is the mantra that would help to achieve greater life goals in this world. It is estimated that the average person has between 12,000 and 70,000 thoughts a day. This is evidence enough to suggest that your goal should not be to control every thought. It is your dominant thoughts and beliefs that you must learn to bring under your conscious control as they are what largely determine your mental attitude.

It is generally stated that, face is the index of the mind. If your mind is filled up with good thoughts, your face would always radiate smile and that would attract people towards you. Smile is contagious and that would spread fast and create a happy , peaceful and harmonious atmosphere around you. Such persons with pleasant personality would always be sought after and have reliable set of friends around them. Thus your thoughts play a greater role in creating a favorable environment around you and  the world would look like a place worth living with peace and tranquility surrounding you. .

Let us ponder over some of the basic qualities which would keep our thoughts clean and positive

• If you are from families which give grater importance to values of life, you would have been trained in such values of life such as honesty, morality, integrity, compassion, gratitude, tolerance, patience and sacrifice from child hood. When such values are deeply embedded in your thoughts, the practicing of such values in your daily life benefits you in various ways. It strengthens your character, improves inter personal relationship, earns you trustworthiness and you become role model to be emulated.
• If your thoughts centers on the existence of God and His greatness and total surrender to Him, you would always be guided in your decision making activity. Recognition and acceptance of God’s watching eyes over your behavior would prevent you from sinful and illegal activities and would lead you into a right path in your day today life.
• If you  have the magnanimity to accept people as they  are (with their plus and minus points) , it would be easy to create a friendly and social atmosphere around you and you  can live peacefully and harmoniously with more friends and none as enemies and then the world would become  Heaven on earth for you.
• If you  resolve in your mind to help others as much as possible (within the limit of your capacity) and  exhibit such trait of character through your activities, those who are in need of assistance would reach you without hesitation and would be ever thankful to you and rush to help you in when you are in  need . Helping the helpless and underprivileged will help in  reaping  God’s blessings in abundance and that would help our family too  in times crises.  God’s blessings on our good deeds are like high security cover from calamities.
•  If you always welcome others with cheerfulness, others would  find you as an easily approachable person and without hesitation share their personal matters  and seek your advice and that would help them in decision making in some important matters concerning their life.  Giving a kind and patient hearing to others bitter or happy experiences in life would create a special bond between you and the narrator and in their eyes you become mentors. Giving a patient hearing to others unburdening act and consoling them through choicest and comforting words is a great social service. Such a service will help you to realise your self worth. Then, you will have the satisfaction of leading a productive and purposeful life..
• Compassion towards the poor and disabled , respect to elders, friendship and cordiality with neighbours and relatives , loyalty in friendship , dignified treatment of service providers and being faithful to our own religion and tolerant of other religions   are the qualities which would help you  to shape your impeccable character and that would help in earning trustworthy friends, loyal service providers and loving relatives and harmonious living atmosphere in the world which is filled with people belonging to different religions, culture , language and practices . If such thoughts dominate in your mind then, you will not consider others as low caste or high caste and treat them accordingly. Societies which have citizens with such mature thoughts will not become victims to frequent communal clashes and social tensions. Civil society in such nations will have the decency of not interfering with food habits, dress code and private affairs of different communities and we will live in a better world. The poison of communal hatred emanates from our thoughts which needs to disciplined 
• Positive approach towards life’s challenges would make you mentally and emotionally strong. Such persons would be able to think calmly about the use of the resources available to them in the best manner possible so as to manage such crises. If you do not allow negative thoughts to dominate your mind, emotional and psychological well being would be the result .Then you will not be afraid to face of challenges of life.

Persons who practice   the above mentioned ideals  in their life would lead a highly productive life even during their sunset years and they become assets  to the family,  the society and the nation  Such people will surly be enjoying the benefits of their physical, mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual wellbeing:

The following words of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha perfectly capture the essence of thought power:

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is every thing. In a nutshell, your life is the perfect mirror of your thoughts, beliefs and dominant mental attitude. Whether we realise it or not, we are already into creating our reality through our thought power. Every effect we see in our outside world has its original cause within you. Your thoughts create your reality. Internalise and apply this truth and you   will see your action is the blossom of your thought and joy and suffering are its fruits.”

The great google teacher

                                

My friend was always complaining about her professionally qualified, and employed daughter’s lack of interest in learning basics of cooking. She often used to worry how she will manage her home affairs if she doesn’t even know basics of cooking, especially when it is traditionally believed in India that the way to the man’s heart is through the stomach. The daughter always used to pacify her saying that cooking is not a big deal and cookery books would come to her aid. As my friend feared, her daughter had to go abroad with her husband immediately after marriage. So, the mother packed carefully chosen cookery books and told her daughter that, through emails and phone calls, she can get the required recipes and clear her further doubts while preparing them   But there was no need since, the U Tube has become her efficient teacher in offering cooking    guidance since, all types of recipes vegetarian and non vegetarian and Indian and non Indian food verities are taught   step by step with live demonstrations. Hence she has learnt fast the techniques of cooking and even tries new recipes everyday which turns out very well.  She further surprised her mother by saying that  they have  now started inviting friends on weekends for lunch or dinner since she has become expert in making even cakes  and deserts. The mother is now free from her worry and tells other mothers with unmarried daughters that cooking is not a big deal any more because of the Google Teacher.

 When a relative’s daughter settled in USA and decided to have the delivery of the child there, her family was very worried, because of their inability to be with her during that time. The worry about the daughter’s plight during and after child birth grew day by day. They could only give instructions regarding self management and were praying for safe child birth and post natal care.  The grand mother was going on giving instructions regarding when to give drinking water to the child, how to give head bath, when to start semi liquid food etc., and about home remedies for illnesses the baby is likely to develop during the process of growth. They even gave instructions regarding the diet of the lactating mother. The daughter listened to everything but followed none. She started strictly following the child specialist’s instructions and clarified her doubts through young mothers on line forums .Any information related to the child was obtained from the Google Teacher.  The grandmother was nagging her grand daughter to give drinking water to the baby at regular intervals and was heart broken when the grand daughter told her firmly that she will give that to her baby only from 5th month since the child specialist says so and Google search confirms it.

My School going niece was given a project by the teacher .Her mother was worried regarding the products needed, sources to procure them and about the project design. The Google teacher gave all the information needed within 15 minutes.

The college teachers who had to present papers in the seminars and doing their doctoral research work a decade back had to become members of few libraries,   visit them to borrow books and spend considerable time in the library to refer journals and books and zerox the required pages. For secondary data collection on any government schemes, targets and achievements, government’s permission from the concerned dept was required which was usually given after a month.  With this permission the researchers had to visit various departments connected with their research project, wait endlessly to see the officer concerned and have access to the published secondary data. Now how easy the whole procedure has become?  Every government department data is published on line, thus saving considerable time, energy and money. Thanks to the Google teacher’s assistance research work has become less tedious.

 Few months back, my neighbor’s daughter’s marriage was fixed. She is not used to saris. Hence, they had decided to engage the service of a beauty parlor to dress her up in different styles of wearing the saris for different marriage ceremonies. But, the bride’s friends said there is no need to engage a parlor to do this task since, they can very easily manage all types of styles by following U Tube instructions and demonstrations. So much of money was thus saved.

Earlier the parents used to take their children to the book exhibitions regularly to buy those dictionaries, maps, tables, general knowledge books, thesaurus, idiom and grammar books, story books and novels. Every child in every educated family was constantly advised to use Wren and Martin and Oxford dictionary. Now the Google teacher has replaced the use of all these books since every information stored in these books are available online saving money and storage space 

Ask any youngster of today whether they had read that day’s news paper. They will look at you with a puzzled look on their face and ask what is the need for it  when, they get the daily news and breaking news through TV, smart phone, tablets etc., during any time of the day? They think, newspaper reading is the past time of 60+ people  

Even within families, the earning younger members of the family do not seek advice from parents or elders regarding their investment or real estate or tour or marriage alliance matters since, all the required information on these matters are available in the various websites and decisions on these matters are taken after thorough analysis of the Google information and even doubts are clarified through expert’s online assistance. So much of money we would have spent on consultants is saved By the Google consultant.

 The doctors are the most tortured category by the Google generation. If a patient is diagnosed with decease, immediately an intensive internet search is made about everything related to it, the cause, the nature, the harm and the formulas of the medicines prescribed and the side effects of them. And in the next visit the doctor will be flooded with so many questions based on the Google teacher’s information. Most of their information is obtained from UN authenticated articles, yet the flood the doctors with their half baked knowledge on medical matters. If a surgery is suggested, the research becomes very intensive and even after 3 opinions Google research is made for miracle remedies through alternative medicines or home remedies and this results in endless delay in the performance of the surgery to the detriment of the health of the patient Such faith on the Google teacher even on life matters

The teachers have to become alert all the time since the students are armed with more information through surfing internet on a particular subject taught in the class on a day and they come to the class the next day, ready to flood the teacher with all sorts of doubts. If they don’t get satisfactory answers, they get disappointed with the performance of the teacher. In away, the Google teacher poses a challenge to the ability of the teachers in making a class room atmosphere through a brilliant question and answer sessions. The teachers are now forced to become computer savvy to match with student’s expectations and this process has turned many ordinary teachers into outstanding teachers. In away the Google teacher is helping in enhancing and sustaining the quality of the teachers.

A tourist guide or map is not needed anymore for organising a tour. The Google teacher provides A-Z information and anybody can perfectly plan and finalise a tour programme sitting at home

Thus the Google teacher has introduced Information Revolution and save time, money and energy for every one interested in acquiring more and more knowledge on various matters particularly the younger generation who are thrilled with the knowledge explosion of this century. Of course, what do they do with the saved up energy, time and money is another question that, they alone can answer.