India the Golden Bird...! ?

India had been known as a golden bird in past. The main reason was availability of natural resources, which attracted Britishers and others to India in past.

Over the years, things improved by the development phase of the country where emphasis on industry and globalization helped achieve some goals. The primary strength of the country – Agriculture, being ignored by all and now most of the agriculture land is being converted to buildings (mostly where there is no need and oversupply). However, for last 20 years the focus changed and the so-called development is hurting the country, rather than helping.

The challenges which country is facing and will face in near future and which may have wide spread societal impact would include:

1. Rising Population – and its stressful impact on all infrastructure. Unfortunately, have not heard about any program from government to work in this direction.
2. Poor quality air, water and basic food
3. Outdated education system – still focusing on marks and rote learning than skill building
4. Lots of graduates but missing skills and talent
5. Rising Personal interests and greed, leading to poor societal values
6. Increasing gaps between rich and poor
7. Safety of people
8. Lack of direction in policies - e.g Ignorance about tourism potential of India as a big industry
9. Lack of any “nation connect” among citizens – still castes, religion, region, languages being discussed and widely talked about.
10. Complicated processes to do business and focus on money alone by businesses
11. Fear among people – one of the biggest reason for the way people behave in general at home, in organizations and in society.
12. Politics should not enter some basic areas as Education, Sports, Personal choices

These challenges, some of them, might become huge monsters and will reach a point of no return. 

Time to now think seriously and act ! Watching as a spectator will not help.

How nature failed in India!

Today being the World Environment day – 100s of messages are being spread in social media and I am sure 100s of announcements will be made to save the environment.

Quoting from the Nature Journal, 2019 –

“Humans — rather than a giant meteor or a super-volcano — will be behind Earth’s next mass extinction. Future population growth along with economic development will be humanity’s fatal flaws, bringing about “unprecedented levels of extinction risk. Human population growth has increased by 130 percent in the last 50 years, putting incredible pressure on the natural world, according to the site.

“The ever-increasing and unprecedented extent and impact of human activities on land and in the oceans over the past few centuries has dramatically reduced global biodiversity, There is overwhelming evidence that habitat loss and fragmentation, over-exploitation of biological resources, pollution, species invasions and climate change have increased rates of global species extinctions to levels that are much higher than those observed in the fossil record.”

The phenomenon called “development” by killing natural resources is evident globally and no country is left-behind by that. However, will my limited knowledge and discussions with few experts over the years; the maximum harm is being done in India and few other countries like China.

The biggest failure for us in India is neither we have realized that rapid population growth and pollution are biggest threat to survival in the country nor we acknowledge that this needs to be tackled at war-footing. As the resources are limited and being depleted. Number of trees per person in India is among the lowest in the world.

The farms, agriculture land and trees are being totally wiped out for so-called development of constructing buildings. The greed of everyone is such in this whole mass-murder of natural resources that policy makers and implementers, builders’ mafia and everyone involved is continuously and alarmingly exploiting these resources for their own benefits.

Just one example to see is that Gurgaon the most polluted city in the world in 2018 has a limited and small stretch of Aravali forest and hills nearby – which may give them some breathing air at times – but the Haryana government has the audacity and foolishness to pass an order in 2018 to allow construction in that area (whereas Supreme Court of India marked it as a reserve area). The people who are supposed to take care of the environment are the one’s who are taking lead to destroy it. In past there have been 220% rise in breathing related disease in this NCR region.

Anyone who travels by highways in India can vouch that rapidly nature has been widely killed across the country for construction.

The disaster in Uttarakhand near Kedarnath few years back was a result of this greed and uncontrolled constructions by removing essential forest and mountains.

Its actually such an alarming situation in India that repeatedly it is highlighted that world’s top most polluted cities are in India and the resources like water will soon become scarce.

I am not sure what kind of disaster are we waiting for in the country to happen. It will not happen over-night as the citizens of the country are not even aware of the alarming situation and even if some of them are – they hardly take individual or collective actions to save the nature from being exploited daily and every minute.

It should start immediately at individual levels, local communities – with government taking policy and implementation role. Otherwise we do not need any rocket-science to prove that extinction of human race will start from India soon – if not started already!

So rather than circulating the messages on World Environment day and liking them – act now as an Individual ! Not from tomorrow – now and immediate…

The Race to nowhere !

The world has changed over the years. Many good things happened and there are so many technological advancements which help us daily. However, the speed of change is so rapid that we will soon feel exhausted and drained-out. This note may sound negative – but the intent and purpose is to help find positive for each of us by understanding the realities and then acting on it – rather than delaying the acceptance of realities! Whats happening to each of the stakeholders:

Individual – more and more of me and myself is taking over the feelings and care for others. Either there is sense of fear or greed or dissatisfaction – leading to lack of contentment and higher levels of stress and poor health (both physical and mental). Lots of emphasis is on highlighting self and I. The time for self is taken over by social media. Right from child-hood the focus is to chase something and follow a Race (the race of everyone but not for an individual). Inspite of so much social media - loneliness is the biggest problem for people in the world.

Family – the connect in the families are weakening and increasingly moving towards sharing of meaningless Whatsapp messages and glorifying self and missing the connections with others. The warmth of simple life pleasures is taken over by parties where liquor flows and there are hardly any true feelings shared. Even on kids birthday parties- focus is on liquor. The true love is slowing fading away. The simple games of Ludo, Cards played among family members are a gone history. The materialistic society is defining the social values. So many children we meet have fear of education, fear of missing the race and this is all starting from homes; where this fear is compounded regularly by parents and “so called well-wishers”

Community – The community of “development” is more concerned with comparing materialistic items than a desire to build a community where each one will help others and is happy with success of other. Jealousy has taken over the camaraderie. The celebrations as a community are taken over by Diwali melas and Holi melas  - where the focus is to buy and sell and again liquor flows meaninglessly. There are 1000s of friends (and people boast about that on Facebook or even Linkedin) – whereas the “True friends” have become a rare commodity. People who understand you and whom you understand well. The greed and fear is so much prevalent that it is dividing the people and their acceptability. The celebrations and moments of grief are like a formality to complete and move ahead. Everyone seems to be running and hardly anyone knows, where to! I met so many people who have done great and I ask them how did you celebrate and in real sense celebrations are also hurried. The connection with self and with others is getting lost.

Our feelings and appreciations are taken over by emoticons than true feeling expressed in person. The power of hug and expressions are largely through messages and forwarded messages. The height of this is seen when people will send "forwarded messages" on your birthday or new year or festivals.

Regional Societies – The societies are becoming congregation of these communities where there is no mutual trust, respect or love. The disconnect is based on languages, caste, religion and affiliations. We are not able to appreciate that diversity can teach us so much. The key stakeholders of the societies are not driving positive connections but trying to create a divide among people.

National – as a nation; we do not work on building love and trust and respect among people. There is a desire to prove that I am better than you – rather than “we can be better together”. The biggest skill lacking being Empathy. Being together we can make a huge difference to the nation and everyone. The basic survival is the key challenge currently. The ever increasing population, pollution and problems of basic needs are future challenges.

Global – surprisingly the world is becoming much more diverse with more discussion about spirituality and Gandhi and meditation in western world. There are nations who will always create divide among others as they wish to fulfill their greed or power needs.

So can you avoid this change?? – NO you can not. But you can make a change starting with self and then your families and then to communities and nation. Identify your own realities; your own journey; your strengths as a family; your desire to make a positive environment where there is no fear.  Nothing is going to fall if you take-out one hour every day for self and few hours for family (probably some sacrifices in social media may help). Celebrate small moments and cherish them for a longer duration. Make a difference to someone (no one ever becomes poor by sharing). Happiness is in your hands.

If you don’t believe in Power of Magic – Just try it fully (without doubting) for 1-2 months and see the magic happening !

You can take your own sail and navigate your own ships – rather than being navigated !!

Why India is Mahaan (great) BUT still……..

I had a chance to meet many people in India and had discussions from many walks of life and everyone seems to be concerned about something or other (under stress). Some friends shared that India slipped to a very low rank in Happiness Index for the country in 2019.

I also had a chance to meet people from different walks of life in the top happy countries in the world. Some insights I learnt from these countries are:

•        People in general are doing their duties well and have very healthy life and work focus.
•      They spend adequate productive hours at work and then totally detach themselves from work for self or for their families and friends
•      There is lot of community work towards nation building – taking care of nature and surroundings
•      There is no discussion about anyone’s religion or caste or creed
•      People do not have to bother about basics of life (clean air, water, healthy food, infrastructure, safety & security)
•     Children are nurtured to be self & socially confident and are mentored to select their passion as their careers
•     There is no (or much lesser) differentiation between men and women
•     No one is trying to compare with others in terms of material gains
•     People do not want to grow by pulling others down
•      There is no fear of marks in schools, getting jobs, trouble by others, even police is supportive and trusting and there is belief in the families, society and nation
•     Hardly any negativity is seen in media
•     There is lots of appreciation of good and respect for others
•     No one is respected for their wealth or designations
•     There are not too rich or too poor people.
•     There are enough resources for the population

Now I discussed with many intellectuals and looked back at our most lovable country (just by saying that We Are Great – we will not become by shouting loud! There is lot to do and we all are responsible for that; however it will call for a complete revolution to change (hundreds of surgical strikes) and small changes will not impact). We are changing and progress is there; but probably it needs much faster and surgeries than slow medicines.

Population – No discussion to control population; resources are limited and soon there will be fights for resources.

Pollution – Worst in the world. Hardly any actions

Food - Very rarely hygienic food is available. People compromise on anything for their greed

Fear – deeply engrained in all ages (children to elderly). Fear of something or other. Even greed is an outcome of fear – to get as much for self.

Trust – very rare

Ideologies – still we discuss and waste time on caste, creed and religion. So much that 80% of the news are around that

Infrastructure -  no clean water/air, still roads are the promises for winning elections

Education – still obsessed with marks; more than half of the educated are not worth any jobs

Curriculum in so called top colleges – Not changed for decades and we are teaching outdated stuff and then glorifying the mediocrity

Empathy, Belief – is rare and we waste time following babas; wherever all of us very well know what is right

Discussion on social media – obsessed with negativity and whats happening to others. Many fake news and information which just creates stress. The educated are worst to blame; who just forward these. Happy nations are not build with so much negativity being spread!

As a nation we are always worried and stressed and our politicians and media make sure that no one ever is relaxed and happy. In these circumstances we are still living in 1960s.

By writing and sharing this – its does not mean that I love my country lesser than those who just tom-tom about it or I am not doing anything regarding this. I do all my defined Karma and have never compromised on that as a citizen. I have never harmed anyone and try to build positivity around.

There are so many others around us who are trying to make a change. We have to just identify them around us and help them. Community work is the most powerful way to bring any change. I know of a woman in Gurgaon, who is trying to help build sustainable environment and making small steps in addition to her all responsibilities for home; I know of someone who is helping building community connects. There are many of the youngsters who are trying to make a change. These are HEROES who just need attention and may be few hours of handy support in a month. I wanted to share many names – but all of them do not wish to be named. They are doing as their Karma and making a change. People like Azim Premji are also in this country who have donated so much of personal wealth for others.

In real sense – situation is alarming and needs immediate attention. I wish all the best for my nation and everyone of us! Lets do it for our sake and our next generation, if not others!

PS: This note is not to favour or reject any political ideology.