Mind your mind!

Think and think hard, what all these books about mind over matter teach you. They might tell you a lot in 200 pages but it’s nothing but the four lines I tell you; read along. I might not have to come up with it but this is how I put it:

“Your thoughts become your words .. your words defines your character.. your character defines your habits.. your habits will govern your actions and your actions will.. influence your thoughts.”

So chose your thoughts carefully, it makes you the person you are.

Let go, forgive and think good of other and you shall see only good comes back to you- the law of karma.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

Never stop living your dream, someday you shall have one worth sharing.

Come to think of it, life is but a dream or I would say, life is like a dream. We do not choose where it starts or whom to include in it. But it just happens and we continue to live trying to make the best of what we are in. We cannot choose how to end it but to some extend we know, we are the one controlling it. No matter how much we fight we still have to live the dream.

Like in a dream, the most important things in life we have no choice over. Your family, your heritage, your country, your religion, your culture and even your name is not of your making. We accept all this as an integral part of our lives and continue to live and fight with all our might to preserve it, all that we have not chosen.  Just like in a dream, you make all this an integral part of your life without questioning why? But when you wake up, you always have that question at the back of your mind- why did I have that particular dream? But never do we find a perfect answer to that question. And we wonder and keep wondering about the meaning of that dream. So it goes with life.

We will laugh at people for what they are and be proud of what you are or hate someone for what they have and what we don’t. But neither them nor have you chosen were you start in this dream called life. The difference between a man and great man is (as wise men have already said): men live in a dream and great men live their dream.

In the end you might remember your dream or you may not. Sometimes your dream is worth sharing and most times not. It is your choice as to what is worth sharing and what is not. The truth is no matter how and what you dream you have to wake up; what you did in that dream will wake you up happy or feeling miserable.

Never stop living your dream, someday you shall have one worth sharing.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

Ghost of our glorious past.

In wake of the recent events (more specifically the noise on corruption and rape tragedy in Delhi) I have come to realize one thing. The stark difference in thought and attitudes of the younger generation and the older generation here in India.  The young want change for the better and the older give reasons as to why all is not that wrong or keep playing things down.  This has got me thinking why is there such a difference in attitude? Common logic dictates that there is a generation gap, but the gap here I see is that of oceans apart. If you observe the protesters or the people who condemn these acts or the system at large are the younger crowds. Some older folks do sympathies but most just find reasons for justification and not change. The sad part- most of our leaders are old school and that is not going to change for few years at the least.

 So, why is there this difference? This question has troubled me ever since. WHY? After much though I conclude- the answer might be in our history. Now you might not agree with me and I don’t claim to be right; you might have a better argument, but this is mine.

Open any history book on India and the story that jumps out it that of struggle and injustice.  Cutting the long story short, it all starts with: once there was this great nation where people lived happily and had a flourishing culture and were content with all that they had. Then there came a spate of invasions starting with the Aryans, followed by the Persians then the Moguls and finally the western Europeans dominated by the British. Each one bringing their culture, rules and laws that made the living of common man in India difficult. Everyone adapted, blend in but were not happy; were not free. Finally we had had enough, we fought for our freedom and after a long struggle we were free. India is relatively a new nation, just having got its independence in 1947. With most of her older generation being born just few years before the independence, during or after it. Those were the times when the struggle for independence was at its peak, non – corporation with the law of the raj was the fed. This is important as my point comes from this attitude.

The older generation was born with an attitude of rebellion as that was brought down to them from their forefathers. Will this constant change in rules/ rulers and culture, every few hundred years not leave a mark on the attitudes of its people? People did adapt to the changes with an attitude with utter disrespect to the laws of whoever made them. For them it was matter of self-respect and ego to get things done even when the law did not permit it. It was right for that era; those people were right in doing so, as it was their land and why do they listen to foreign rules. Hence we found out ways to gather the masses and bend the system to our advantage using religion, culture and other things as the foundation. Major recent examples will the non-corporation movement, walk against the salt law. Religious defiance – sarwaganik Ganesh ustsavs celebrated in western parts of India, or rise of the Sikh symbolisms of turban and sword to make one unique and bring one’s unique identity out. All these people were great people they wanted their identity to remain their culture to flourish. Bending the law set by foreigners in our land and getting work done his/her way, earned one respect. Standing against the system that was then wrong, that which imposed restriction on our core freedom made martyrs. Then one night we got freedom to make our own laws to be our own leaders.

Unfortunately this sudden change left us more confused than ever. Though we were free we followed their model for years, to govern our free country. Nothing was easy to come nor did we have the freedom to do things freely. Everything was license based, foreign trade as well as ideas in terms of press and media was highly regulated. The politics was not based on progress but mass votes. Education system and sports even today have high degree of government influence. The judicial system though separate from the political system has an open rift between them. For example when the Supreme Court passes a judgment against the government, the government goes and changes the law to favor her. And people fresh out of a foreign rule still had that rebel in them and the attitude that came with it.

Most of the older generation has this attitude of defiance and attitudes do not change quick. We find it ok to break the law till we are not caught, we do not queue and always try to bend the law rather than follow it. Drive in any major Indian city and you will know how much respect people have for the traffic laws. Our leaders all of whom belong to that generation set examples of utter disrespect for the law or the system. As most Indians think corruption is ok till the time you can get away with it (I had written another bolg about corruption, so I won’t comment on it).  That attitude carries on with most of us, from parents to children; from society to society and culture to culture. We are Indians only when we are at war or watching cricket. Rest of the time we are north Indians, south Indians and east Indians, Marathis and bhaiyas, Hindus or Muslims or Catholics, General and reserved.

Why? I ask myself, because we are still trying to protect our identity, we are still living in our past. We have still that attitude of disregard for the law for our women for all that which is not mine. We are still living under the ghost of our glorious past and have no respect to our future as a country as Indians as one.

So is all lost for this great nation?

No! and that is the best part, our attitudes are changing. India had its second independence in the 1990 I would say. When we opened our doors to the world. Internet, innovation and new ideas flooded in. All those born after the 1980 now thought differently, our attitudes were different our access to knowledge was more. All this brings in change in our behavior. Now more and more women work and hold high positions in institutions, more people are getting educated, our cities are growing and there are more inter-cast marriages than before. Would all this be possible in the 1970s-80s India? Hence when something that is grossly wrong happens, like corruption or rape; the younger generation want change want someone to be held responsible and give answers. But the older generation cannot comprehend this and find reasons as to whom to blame and often it is the victim. As they are not used to or their attitude has not got used to the level of freedom have now or made to believe that we have.

Our women now enjoy much more freedom than they ever did and the future will be even better. This is good and at least I do not see this reversing. With women having more freedom than before and India having 1/3 of the world’s population such incidence of brutality against women will be reported.  The crime might not stop or criminals will not just vanish.  Our elders making pointless statements justifying the crime will not stop. However our attitudes will change and so will our thought; not overnight but with time. Once one generation dies there will be new ideas coming in, cultures changing our attitude towards things will change. For this to happen we have to be ready to change ourselves. As the old saying goes ‘Rome was not made in a day’ mere dost.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

SO MUCH SO FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH

The Indian IT act

66A. Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc.,Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device:
  (a) any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character;

To my Friends:

I being a law abiding citizen hereby declare that anything offensive directly or indirectly implied against me, will end in a case being registered against you. Commenting on my photo other than praising me will be considered offensive. I will take offence to even appreciating me sarcastically. Commenting on my posts without liking it is offending me.

Sharing my posts knowingly and unknowingly to people I don’t not like and appreciate, will be grossly offensive to me and is menacing my character causing my enemies to appreciate my genius. As I want them to think of my character as an idiot or not.  Not appreciating my genius is anyways offensive to me.

Any status updates or photos you put on the internet, where you are partying and I was not invited is in all the way grossly offensive to me. Your posts of your fancy gismos and new expensive stuff will be considered menacing my character – it portrays me as a lesser species. Your portrayal in bad taste to anything (absolutely anything) in your status updates is offensive to me, as it just happens to be my favorite.  Similarly if you appreciate anything in your communique is still offensive to me as I happen to hate it.

Finally emailing or messaging me to attend your or your sisters weeding is very offensive- I might have a heart for her and you are just not breaking but stomping on it. I will for surely register a complaint.

To My Managers:

Any email communication or messages of any kind asking me to work late or on weekends is very grossly offensive to me. It menaces my character in its entirety by hinting to me that I am a slave at your command. Emailing me about work is also offensive as it suggests that I am not aware of my duties. This also menaces the character of all my colleagues who are on bench portraying me as better than them in dosing this particular task. It goes similarly for not emailing me work items and sending it to my colleagues; offending me by implying that I am not good at doing the task.

Thank you for the law, government.

SO MUCH SO FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

‘Where they burn books, there they won’t shy from burning people’.

Everyone dreads change, and people will go too great extends to avoid it. However they try they have to change, that the irony, the things they do to avoid change is change in itself. Especially we see that cultures and religions do not want to adapt.  Mostly cultures in homo-sapiens are passed from one generation to another. A new generation comes with change in thought; and technology brings in new ideas. With this new ideas and thoughts there is always a clash with the older generation. The new generation will win eventually when the older dies. However they are then confronted with the next generation of thoughts. It is a never ending cycle.

The problem as I see is that we are trained culturally to follow rather than think. Even so, in most cultures whatever knowledge that is there is not freely available for following. You need to be in a certain sect or cast to have access to this knowledge. Common examples are bhramins in India or priest in the western country. There is this fundamental problem in following, that cultures where formed so that knowledge could be passed from one generation to another. But not all could access it.

In the last 50 years we have seen the world getting more connected. Information passes from one end of the world to the other in matter of seconds. New discoveries adopted and assimilated very quickly today.  Since world war 2 the world has become a more free thinking world. But some cultures still do not want to change. They oppress men, women and eventually progress in their region. In the name of culture or religion, free thought is not allowed, your opinions do not matter and violence is preferred over fair debate. In most cases it is one person whose philosophy is followed by a bunch of followers since most do not want or lack the knowledge to form their own opinion. Then again we have been brought up to follow the system and not question it. Most parents teach their children to follow their culture and not question it, if questioned the all you hear in counter is that it has been this way for generations. Hence most of us seek leaders and gurus whom we can follow, we don’t want to come to conclusions ourselves.

I have seen this happen in most political scenarios, if you question the logic of a leader. They will start with a debate on it. If they have the slightest feeling that you might be right, they won’t change their opinion. But call you name and try to prove how you are not a credible person or how your character or personality is immoral. If their agenda still threatened by your ideology, they will resort to violence.  In most cases such leaders gain mass following not because they want to bring in change but are opposed to change that is happening and want to prevent it. Hence political parties can gain mileage by making religion, language or culture as their agenda.

Most political party agendas are based on vote politics and not progress. However it works that in every personal hidden agenda every voter wants and needs some visible progress. But political party formed on philosophies of saving culture and religion rarely do good to the country and humanity at large. Mainly because any opinion; other than the main leaders opinion is met with violence. I would like to restate Heinrich Heine [ Almansor: A Tragedy (1823)],’where they burn books, there they won’t shy from burning people’.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

Why be Spiritual?

Will our actions be clear when our mind in clean? 
Or our mind clear when our action is moderated?
Are we spiritual to clear our sins or to avoid them?
Then why being spiritual we still sin, lie? 
So why be spiritual at all? 

Always have something to hide, that others need not know.
But then why hide from others if we are not doing anything wrong?
Then why be spiritual at all if we do wrong?
Is it so that we can sin and know we will be forgiven, so that we can sin a little bit more?

Then why be spiritual at all if you know you will not follow.

Sometimes I surprise myself

I like to sketch mainly because I cannot paint. I am not as good with colours as I am with the pencil. This sketch here is part of Michelangelo’s ‘creation of Adam’, it is the hand gesture in the painting that had always fascinated me. So one day I thought of drawing it myself, this is my version. When I completed it I was so fascinated with it and surprised I could sketch that good. I literally stared at the sketch for 15 minutes.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

Dream a Little More

Let me dream a little more,

Let me sleep till I hit the shore

I am drifting in this ocean

Trying to find the way back home.

Let me sleep a little more

Till I find that prefect moment

So I know this is the dream,

I have been waiting for.

Let me not forget the dream,

Let me remember it as I have seen

But do not wake me as yet

There is lot of evil in the world.

Now as I lay on the bed

Wide awake but eyes closed

Not ready to face this world

Wakeup and face the world

Comes this voice in my head

That your dream is just a dream

Finish the dream and make it real

But there are just a few good people here

Who dream, who dream, who dream.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

What is your point?

Somehow it is in my nature that I can argue on both sides of a discussion. I am writing this as
sometimes I have been accused that I do not have a side and I oppose everything that others have
to say. This is not entirely false and I am guilty to some extent. To summarise the apparent question
then, “why?” let me quote Mr. Unknown - “no conversation is more boring than the one where
everybody agrees.”

Let us say 2 guys are discussing which profession is more dignified, being a prostitute, a porn star
or a politician? The first person says “hmmm I think prostitutes are more dignified” and the other
says “ya ya I too think that”. Now that both agree, they move on to discuss something else. Unless
one of them ask “why do you think so?” You as a third person listing to them are left with a big
void, “but why?” especial when you believe otherwise. The inevitable “why?” in such a case depends
on the mood of the participants and their interest in the topic. However when one person opposes
the other it is given that the “why?” is implied.

If you want to get a new prospective on any subject, even though you agree with the other person,
you have to learn to oppose them. Now the odds are stacked against you. If you want to keep the
interest of the group in the debate, you need to have very strong points to back your claims. In most
cases I do have and it is difficult to do so, especially when you personally believe the opposite is
true. This has helped me a lot, in broadening my knowledge gaining other persons perspective and
establishing an image for myself that- I just oppose all that others say.

I do not want the credit for this concept, our parliament has been doing this for ages. For long I
thought the minority party in the parliament are called “Opposition Party” because they are paid to
be in office to oppose everything good or bad. Their agenda is “I oppose you, though I agree with
you. I have an image to keep.”

Great Ideas and philosophies are results of great debates and discussion groups. There are many
examples of these, one famous is the Oxford pub “The Eagle and the Child”. The Rabbit room, were
now well know authors like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien sat and exchanged stories and idea. I have
never been to Calcutta but the Bengalis famous for their debates (and communism) have such
a place called “the Coffee House”. Sadly the new generation have short attention spans and an
inherent hate for conversation and debate other than online- forums. Thus this culture of debate
and exchange of ideas is slowly dying. However the good thing is they do not have to depend on
other for their source and for a different perspective to their though. They have a friend that knows
all called the Internet.

Why Not Anna!!

“Like men, like state” said Plato and true he is. When Anna started his agitation against corruption, it was the first thing that came to my mind. The Anna brigade has been fighting corruption like it is some diseases and it can be eradicated with medicine, in this case the Lok Pal bill.  He could not be more wrong and that is my opinion. I know saying this will make me unpopular, guys will give me names, call me un-patriotic and so on; but like a girl in love these people are thinking with their hear and not head.

In a democratic country everyone has a right to his/her opinion, if I am not to mine, we are not democratic – and this is the first form of corruption in our country. I agree with Voltaire the French philosopher when he says “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.” And I ask you this question; do we in India have the right to speak openly?? Where a farmer is imprisoned for questioning, books are burnt and removed from syllabus for their opinion and women molested for their dressing style.

Humans are by nature very corrupt and moreover corruption is a part of our culture. We can see corruption in every nook and corner in our country not just in the government offices. We expect everyone else around us to be saints but we don’t mind breaking the law.

 You may ask me why I believe our culture is corrupt, and it depends on the definition of the word corruption. The basic and widely accepted definition is “the action of making someone or something morally depraved or the state of being so”, now I might be wrong but this was what I have seen:

·         Most couples prefer male child – female foeticide
·         Women are torched and murdered for dowry
·         If the cops are not around it is ok to break the law
·         Most want their work done first- no queues
·         Most will pay a bribe than a fine
·         We will bargain even if the price is fixed- according to the definition this is corruption
·         We have the north Indians and the south Indians –  you will be favoured if the person in authority is from your cast, region or speak a common language.
·         We do not vote for political parties agenda, but on what the person standing for election can do for the individual voting.
·         We are highly cast based
·         Media and political parties taking advantage of people’s general despair

They are not just problem with Indians, it is a global phenomenon and varies in degree from country to country, but being corrupt is human nature. So coming back to Plato “like men, like state”, the nature, the personality and the dealing of the state is the refection of the nation. It is the mirror image of the people in it; these countrymen whose behaviour in turn is influenced by the social and cultural environment within. If the country had few bad people we would have had few occurrences of corruption. Now that each and every public project has varied degree of corruption; how corrupt the thought of each individual has to be?

I support Anna for he wants a better nation, I want a better nation, a better world. But I do not support the method in which he wants this done. By introducing a committee of non government civilian, we are only introducing just another layer of corrupt people there. As humans are corrupt by nature we shall find different ways to still be corrupt. Though I agree that this might reduce corruption but not completely eradicate it.  We can achieve this by- all of us being a little less corrupt ourselves or making and implementing the laws we have more stringent. Corruption is not a disease, though the media says it is. Corruption is human nature. Corruption is like being lazy, you may introduce laws to make a person less lazy but that will not change his lethargic nature.

Then again, how do I trust a neutral committee of people, appointed by the people to police those who in the first place were appointed by the same people they are supposed to police?

The solution to this, that I could think is ‘similar’ to that what Plato though when he thought about ‘Utopia’. His Idea still stands today!! You may google what it is- I am not explaining it.  But to all intends and purposes it is not a practical solution. 

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

Whatever is Success??

What is success? The definition differs from person to person. But true success cannot be defined. Look at the interviews of personalities who are socially accepted as successful and you will find they do not have a formula. Conspiracy theorist and most of us will argue that they just do not want the other to know. I do not believe this to be true, as there is no formula to success and neither is there a definition to it. Let me narrate a story I heard that will best explain this.

When the Greek philosopher Socrates was asked by one of his students, “what is the formula for success?” Socrates asked his student to meet him at the lake the next morning for a bath. When they met at the lake the next morning, he took his student into the lake till the water was neck deep. Then suddenly Socrates jumped on him and held him under water. He being stronger, the student was helpless and struggled in vain to get himself out of the water. After a couple of minutes he let him free. When the student had caught his breath Socrates asked “What is it that you want the most when you were in there?”

“Air” said the student.

“Success is like that air you needed under water. When you need that something the most, you will struggle and fight for it with all your might to have it.”

 I believe there is no definition for success. In this materialistic world we have associated success by the purchasing power a person has or in plain words by how much money he/she has. Today people just want to be famous and rich. Thus the concept of “your 15 minutes of fame” has caught steam this century. Most want to be famous and rich without the needed to excel at something.

 Most of us do not get famous or successful mainly because we set goals for ourselves. I know this is contrary to the general wisdom of all the motivation books of setting a goal, making a plan and following that plan. If you are setting a goal, you do not NEED that what you are aiming for; you just WANT it, it would be good to have. When you need something, like the urge to breathe when you are under water- you are not down there setting a goal like I should learn to swim or reach the top. Your body and mind stop thinking, you just start beating your hands and legs to get whatever air you can.  You can succeed when that need comes into you and then you find a way to get it.

Read autobiographies of any successful personality and you will not find a goal in there. All you will find is zeal, an idea, a need to do whatever, a struggle to achieve it and get better at it. Money is manmade entity, if something is rare on this planet it is worth more. If you are the best in what you do the money will follow you. I do not know who said this but it say a lot “find what you love to do and then go and find someone who will pay you to do that”. In most case if you love to do something and you are good at it, people will find you and pay you to get it done.

So if you set a goal to be someone- you at most will be like that person. Now as there is only one top spot and that has been occupied by that person you idealize, you can only be the second best. The bitter truth is nobody remembers the second best. Name the second man to set foot on the moon?

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

A few Good Corrupt Frustrated Indifferent Greedy People.

In democracy there are Good leaders, Corrupt Politicians, few frustrated people, the indifferent and the greedy people.

Good Leaders: want a better country, better system and a good society to live in. But the problem is these people are few and less influential than the rest of the leaders. As most times they lack support of the bureaucratic community. The bureaucrats do not support such leaders for their own narcissistic reasons and secondly for fear of all the corrupt leaders for whom they are a rubber stamp to wealth. Bureaucrats have a choice help the corrupt get rich while becoming rich in the process or get stuck is an endless rut of transfers or less influential, low profile jobs. Most chose the obvious.

Corrupt Politicians: They are everywhere. The good part is most leaders are into politics either for it’s a medium to make money fast and already rich leaders are in for more and the power. They naturally do not care about the country or the people they care about the money. While in the process of making money some good they do for the country, that much credit I do give them. Lets face the truth, countries that have grown rapidly to development are mostly were mostly ruled by another nation examples: Germany and Japan after WW2, South Korea, Hong Kong (though not a country), etc. As I had written in my pervious blog how democracy is a perfect model for corruption.

Few Frustrated People: These are a few educated people who are frustrated at the whole system. Few good meaning industrialists, who face tough times getting approvals. Very, very few Middle class and upper middle class people who are just frustrated at paying tax which eventually end up making politicians rich. And the fact that not much is getting done in terms of progress. Yes there are fewer in the few who do care and fight against corruption with rallies and campaigns. Which at time topple government and lead to resignation of leaders who eventually get re-elected to another position in the next government. These few revolutionaries are future aspirants to the throne of politics (whose faith is eventually that of the good leaders) or victims of corrupt leaders.

The indifferent: Ya! most of us fall in this group. We just want to carry on with our lives. We know the system is dirty, we know things don’t get done easily out here. All we want is to go home and carry on with our life. We want the system to change and we occasionally raise a brow here and there but we do not want the hassle. We pay our bribe and get the our work done; who has the time and patience to follow-up and fight; pay up, be free and go home early for that cup of tea. We know our vote makes a different but we just don’t care. Our lives have enough worries as it is.

The greedy: They vote the corrupt and they have a reason to vote. 500 bugs, bottle of rum some free worthless goodies, a job promise or something where they benefit personally. Sometimes yes they get a parks made with huge statues or names of cities and airports changed, that help the society develop. And overall more reservation for deprived communities depriving the hardworking deserved. But the good part is they don’t fail to vote.

So what can we do? A lot!! like take out solidarity candle light campaigns but not vote; send sms to TV channels saying we do not support corruption but not report occurrences you see in front of your eyes. Watch a shame-less girls dance to vulgar lyrics and “cool” dudes insult contestants telling them why their life is worthless, than watch rambling political discussion. Be patriotic on world cup matches, 26^th Jan and 15 August and then tell everyone around you how worthless this country is and how you want to settle abroad. We are the people who would rather pay 50 bugs bribe for a traffic offence than pay the fine money. Sometimes I wonder of those thousands who supported lok-pal bill how many did actually know what it is?

In the end everyone has a lot more to worry about in their lives than a country of more than a billion.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

Fear of the Truth!

We all are gifted; we are born with the ability to learn new things. But just being born with ability does not make us worthy of knowledge and respect. Respect is to be earned and knowledge is to be learned; the willingness to learn is a choice. It is this choice that makes one different than others. For some choose to accept their fate and others choose to create theirs. So do we create the truth around us or are we just the followers of lies passed to us from generations?

To know the truth you need to find it yourself. For others will tell you only what they think you should know. And the truth seems different when you hear both sides of it … from the wrong side and right side. But in the end it is up to you to choose which side of the truth you want to be? Mass perception creates an illusion of reality, but then it is just an illusion; reality never changes, it remains the same. Reality is only revealed to those who search for the truth. Not often do we realise that we are on the wrong sides of the truth, we have accepted our situation and modified our life accordingly. May be we have lost our curiosity in the truth or just accepted our faith and blame our destiny. Overall I believe it is more to do with fear of not wanting to know the right side or sheer laziness. Fear that the truth is the darkest horror we dreamt about, so like the cat close your eyes and make belief. Or the laziness that finding the truth and changing my current situation is a lot of work and this hardship is out of my comfort zone and astray from my ritualistic life that I have myself comfortable in.

So what is this truth that we seek? Philosophers in the form of religion have tried to answer this, but for me they have left me confused and wanting to know more. And yes I am scared and lazy as I fear the truth and do not want to go through the hardship of searching for it.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe

Happily ever after!!

Our fight for existence never ends, and why should it? We strive for excellence every moment of our life. Career, relationships, luxuries and status we need it, no we want it, there is no end. Yet but we do not like change and definitely not struggle.

Pain is a part of life as not everything we get is easy; we need to take the risk to better our lives. There is struggle, anxiety and hope but in patience we wait for the right moment to come. With pain in our heart and hope in our eyes we wait and wait and wait, not knowing the outcome, still pushing through the tough times; we know deep within they shall end. The only thing we can do is try harder. Keep reminding ourselves this is not a mistake nor is this the end. For every step we is a step closer to freedom, freedom of better choice. As reaching our goal does not mean stopping in triumph in glory of our victory it just means we have won just a battle and the war awaits us. Don’t give up hope on losing either for you are still alive, take charge of your losses know your mistakes better and come back as strong as ever.

My mind is deep in thought, “I have tried hard but victory just eludes me, I am still not a winner and am losing my passion to carry on. Now look everyone is sympathizing for me. How but how do I look forward to victory for I see nothing in front of me.” Look I say to myself, “ is this what you want? is this your destination? NO, then why stop here? Carry on further, it might take time and hard you might have tried but now it is time for you to try harder.”

Faith in our hope, that what keeps us going. As we all know how it is going to end but we don’t know how we are going to get started. All we can do is trust our start and take the first step towards the end that we imagined. And as in fairy tales it will all end “happily ever after!”

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

What Idols really means.

Over the years I believe that we have come a long way from the true meaning of what the idols in Hinduism really mean. We have just accepted many things to be true without a question mainly because we are brought up with ideas of our forefathers without questioning them. We have learnt to accept things because they are thought to be true by everyone around us and anyone questioning them are thought to be rebels; who have not been regarded highly in a society which I believe is formed on lies. We see this behaviour in our education system, our government, our corporate structures and cultures alike. If you think deep you might agree with me but overall these opinions are mine alone and you have the right to question them and from your own thought set up your opinions, whatever works best for you.

I got a chance to read a graphic novel on Shiva the Hindu God in which is the description of the Hindu God Ganesha. According to the author Deepak Chopra, who explains that the idol of Ganesha is a philosophy or a way of life more than a God in whom we put blind faith but except it as a model which should remind us of how to live our life. I detail that way of life here, as the Mr. Deepak Chopra’s description of Ganesha matches with my thoughts of the deity.

We all know Ganesha the Hindu God as an elephant headed God with a huge stomach, having four arms with a snake around his belly standing on one foot with his vahana (vehicle) a rat. Symbolically broken down as following:

Large head: We must think deeply and not just say whatever comes to our mind but rationally put forth our ideas.

Large ears: We must listen more and talk less.

The broken tusk: It is to reminder us that no one is perfect, even if it is God himself. So we must learn to accept people with their faults and not be ashamed of our own faults.

The long trunk: It denotes power as well as discernment. Just like an elephant who can uproot trees with it and when needed pick an needle from a haystack. It means that power is not freedom it comes with responsibilities to care for the week and provide a helping hand to those who don’t have the power.

The large stomach: Where most Hindus give the God offerings of food which we see as modaks in one hand of (an Indian sweet) every Ganesha’s idol. It means we must know that there is someone who always cares for us, and the offerings are our worries and anxieties for which we can find solace in God or speaking about them to other who may be able to help us.

Snake as his belt: Symbolises our ego which we must not let it get to our head because lives and countries have been destroyed by a person’s ego alone.

One foot on the ground and other in the air: It reminds us that no matter how high in the social structure or power we get, we must not forget our roots as humans and who we really are. As what has begun has to come to an end someday.

The four hands: One hand he carries sweets as explained above.

In the second he has a rope which means we must always strive to climb higher and strive to make ourselves better human beings. In the third hand he has a Vedic book which represents knowledge; I need not explain the importance of that. Lastly in the forth hand he carries an axe which reminds us that we must destroy our ignorance and arrogance with the power of knowledge which is again represented by book in his other hand.

Rat nibbling at the food close to his feet: The rat symbolises our greed and temptation which is the main cause of all the worries which is symbolized as food here. Do not let greed overpower your ambition and let it not rule your will to achieve your goals, it will only lead to stress in your life.

Doesn’t it sound like all the self help and success books you have read? My point is, understand what these Idols represent rather than just praying to them because everyone prays. Overall consider any religion the bases and foundation of them are the same and to remind its followers of these there is an Idol which is created. All idols have a meaning a way of life embedded in them, embrace that ideology and follow it. There are millions of idols which represent a particular way of life, and they are there for us to be reminded of that philosophy. Hence when we see an idol it must remind you of that way of life. Thu you can make your own visual representation of these Idols and follow what best suits you.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

The Right Balance

Why is it so difficult to strike a balance between what is good to do and what is right to do?

I believe when just one person (me) is concerned in a decision you can balance right.. but when your decisions influence or require the consideration of more than just you (many people).. The decision you make is a balance not of what you want but the collective wants of all the people involved... but that is the right balance though you might think it is not your balance.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

Forgotten Truth

Hindu’s holy book Bhagvat Geeta which literally translates to ‘the word of God’, is a book of Hymns which speaks of philosophy of life. It is a story on a battle field telling what is the right thing to do and how we should be accepting life as it is. Whenever I feel low and whenever I worry about what to do I read the below summary of the book. I have translated it here in English; it always brings my sprit up, because it is not about religion here but a philosophy, a truth which we always forget. Hope it does some good to you.

That what happened, happened for good,

What is happening is happening for good.

What will come your way, will come only for the best.

What have you lost, for which you weep?

What have you brought with you, that which you have lost?

What have you created that which has been destroyed?

That what you took, you took from here;

That what you gave, you gave it here;

That what is yours today, wasn’t yours yesterday;

Tomorrow it would not be yours to keep.

You were born with nothing and you shall die with nothing.

Change is the only truth of life.

Bhagvat Geeta.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

Do we have a Choice?

The world today as we know is the only way it could have been. You might not agree with me on this but that is something I ponder upon.

We have choices to make and each of our choices even though very hard to conceive; we do certain things of which the consequence is our present. Had we done things differently in the past now that we know the consequence of that choice in the present, would you change your choice? Might be the answer to that question would be yes, for many. However at the said point in your life you chose to follow the present path and if I ask why? You would probably say that that was the best choice then. So the fact is you did not have a choice after all, since you just followed what was best for you. And at present you cannot change the past that leaves you will no choice at all. All you can do is change your present and that is the best thing you can do to make changes in your life so then that is not a choice again.

The world at present is the collective choices of all the people in the past. So it is true for the future, that the future of the world is the collective choices of the people in the world at present. As they say when a butterfly flutters its wings in Mexico could cause a hurricane in the US, is for much true. Who would have thought that an act of a falling apple would one day land a man on moon. Or for instance Columbus had got what he was looking for and not discovered US, we would have had a very different world today, might be a better world or much worse.

The question really is do we have a choice? Or just doing what is best for us, is it a choice? When given choices and if we just follow what is the best for us to do at that moment in time and that is the option that we will always chose, then is that choice?

For example when you have been hungry for 2 days and you are presented with an option in front of you or a choice:

Freshly baked cake and a cake which is stale 5 days old with maggots, what would you chose.

Is there a choice in that?

Once your character or personality is built I believe we stop making choices whenever we are presented with an option we will always go for the best option available to us that is hardly a choice. What I mean is that always going for what best suits you even though when you say I have 10 choices, is not choosing or just following what you had already made up your mind about.

I hope I have been able to put in words what I meant to say. In the end if we just don’t have a choice, is everything just destiny? I have no answer to it myself.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)- My Take.

I had heard a lot about the book written by Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist and always wanted to read it. Considering it is one of the few books which has been translated in many different languages, it has to have something special, that it is a motivational book different from the rest- that is what I heard. After reading it I did realise, that the hype surrounding the book, in its true sense is not exaggerated and I am glad that I read it.

It is a story of a shepherd who is guided in his quest to fulfil his dream. In my blog I am not going to give a summary of the book nor am I writing a review. What I present here is my interpretation of what message the author wants to put forth. Everyone will have their own interpretation of the story, this is mine.

The Theme

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." Is the main theme put forth" by Mr. Paulo Coelho. No matter what your dream is you will achieve it if you keep to it.

In your Quest

Certain things will happen which will test your willingness to retain the quest of your dream. But if you overcome the hard times with a will to achieve what you aspire these hurdles shall pass. Hurdles are put in your way just to separate the weak from the determined. For, if everyone one has the same goal only those whose determination is stronger than the rest shall pass to the next stage. As quoted in the book, “Every search begins with beginners luck and ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”

Gain Some, Lose Some

You might not get exactly what you wanted, in your path to success you will lose some but gain a lot in the bargain. As you may learn new skills, start to appreciate certain things and above all gain knowledge far superior than what books can teach you. As quoted in the book “When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.”

Be Ready

Learn to listen to the signs of the universe. When you desire something dearly, opportunities come knocking at your door be wary of them. Learn to grab those opportunities; for, if you nap for a moment and don’t hear that knock you won’t lose but you will have to wait a bit longer. As the universe has its mysterious ways of getting you to your goal and none which show you the path directly.

As quoted in the book, "Not always in this way, but I always appear in one form or another. Sometimes I appear in the form of a solution, or a good idea. At other times, at a crucial moment, I make it easier for things to happen. There are other things I do, too, but most of the time people don't realize I've done them."

In the End

Mainly don’t expect thing to come to you and don’t be surprised if you don’t get exactly what you are looking for as what you get would be much better in return. Nevertheless you will always be richer in the experience.

I would recommend the Alchemist to any anyone who wants to read a good book. The beauty of the book is it does not give you steps to success. It tells you are story, and a very powerful one which is open for any interpretation as the reader pleases.

The author refers to the word Maktub quite a few times. Maktub means “it is written” or what has to happen will happen. Hence if you keep the pursuit of your dream it is your MAKTUB.
So my friends do not just follow your destiny, make a destiny to follow! And the rest will be Makbub.

Cheers,
Ninad Dighe.

Rationality in Faith!

If your question your faith and there arises even the slightest doubt about your beliefs in your mind, you are following your faith blindly. Blind faith I believe is like, walking into a hungry lion’s den believing the lion won’t harm you because your faith tells you so.

Why do people follow their faith so blindly? And why don’t most say, right I believe in most of what you said but hang on a minute, why should I listen to all you say without any rational consideration to all your arguments?

If anybody ever gets to reading this I would like to hear from you in my comments.

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.

In My Religion

I don’t believe in Heaven and Hell as my religion speaks of none (this is intended as pun)…
I feel the notion of torturing someone for eternity for 60 years of sin is absurd

That too When you leave your body here on earth.

If you say God loves every living thing, then why didn’t he make the lions vegetarian and you say it’s a sin if I eat meat?

I am not an atheist but I do not go by religion, I believe that is what corrupts God.

If by changing religion I could meet God, I do not want to meet such a God who judges me by my religion. For if he is God he shall understand, if he does not I better not meet such a supreme being since now God shall not remains "the God" in my mind.

Do not ask me to pray to God through a medium when I can pray to him directly. Don’t give my God a form as I like God unseen.

If anything here must be a sin I would say it is blind faith. (Let me leave the argument at this, but I will argue why, some other day.)

What God desires from me, not that I know.

What you ask me to blindly follow is not that for sure.

What is God’s wish, how are you to know.

What God desires of me, he will tell me for sure!

In my religion I say, is no religion at all.

Ninad Dighe.

Nature’s Idiots

Nature and technology are at a constant war where technology produces idiot proof products while nature idiots... as of now nature is winning.. The exact quote by author Rich Cook, "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning."

I believe nature is producing more and more idiots because we are making products for idiots. Things have become so simple that we can now play games sitting at home while kids pop pills for everything that was normal when I grew up in the 1980’s (Hyperactivity, too enthusiastic and more). It is just evolution taking its course in the millions who refrain from using their brains by inhibiting all the functions which are not necessary and intelligence is one of them.

More so I believe that the developed nations are producing more idiots than ever. With all their schemes of providing the public with all the aids and public funds has taken away their ambition of becoming someone! I have seen this attitude among people “Why do I have to worry? My government will look after me. I just need some extra cash for personal enjoyment”. I won’t say government help is bad but, at what cost?

We are to be blamed for more idiots on earth now than before. As an old saying goes “Necessity is the mother of inventions”, what if we have no necessities remaining what will happen to invention? That just what’s happening where companies tell you what you need rather than you telling them what we want. For example: bottled water, sun cream (we survived a million years without it; how suddenly the sun’s causing cancers?), iphone, ipad, blue ray, 4g, wi and much more. But again not much is wrong with having these technological advances but where do we draw the line: saying this is good for us and this is not.

Think over it, if you still know what that means.

Ninad Dighe.

(30^th June 2010)

Margaret Stewart: How YouTube thinks about copyright | Video on TED.com

Margaret Stewart: How YouTube thinks about copyright | Video on TED.com

In my Religion.

I believe in your beliefs,

Not, my beliefs are wrong.

I reason with your reasons

Just, why my reasons are wrong?

You fight for your reasons

With which you were just born.

So when I question all faith

Tell me, why am I always wrong?

--Ninad Dighe--

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Summary.

I am not a big fan of motivational book but I kind of like reading them for the short stories within them. These stories are kind of more motivating than the book and the authors point of view. The first motivational book I read was “You Can Win” by Shiv Khera, the book had so many short stories in it, which I enjoyed reading. I don’t think I read much of what the author had to say about motivation but I do remember taking the books and reading almost all the short stories within more than once.

With the same motivation of finding short motivational stories in the book “The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari” by Robin Sharma, I borrowed the book from my cousin. I was disappointed as there were not any such stories, the one or two that were there, were not so captivating to me. However the book is written in a different style like a novel about the life changing experience of a very successful lawyer. The book is nicely written and worth a read, as I said I am not a fan of motivational book but a fan of books and believe there is always something to learn from everything. So I present to you the summary of the book here.

The Monk Who sold his Ferrari in Short by Ninad Dighe J

Disclaimer (like the ones in movies and advts) : If you want to know the why’s, how’s and what’s please buy the book and read for yourself.

According to the author there are 7 timeless virtues to enlightened living.

Mastering your mind:

Your mind is like a big garden which you can build and nurture the way you want yourself to be. The thought you plant in this garden is what you want to see yourself as or your dreams. Negative or bad thoughts are like weed which spoil the beauty of your garden and should be avoided. Thoughts are physical things which you as a gardener can control and with your conscious mind must allow only good thoughts to be planted in your garden (which is the subconscious mind).

The book “Power of Your Subconscious Mind” by Joseph Murphy is all about the above concept. Yes, I read that book too, just to see what the hype is all about.

Follow Your Purpose:

We are here for a purpose, now that is an age old mystery which we have not solved, I mean the question “why are we here?” According to the author our purpose is to follow our dream and act accordingly to achieve our dream. The author suggests that we break our dreams into smaller dreams as in personal, financial, family etc and achieve each one individually.

Practice Kaizen:

Kaizen is a Japanese concept of self improvement. Constantly review yourself and try to improve something about you, everyday. The author then explains the importance of rituals and says that we have to cultivate certain rituals that will help up make our life better. Example will be getting up early, meditating, listening to music and/or reading a book, etc.

Live with Discipline:

To put this in short, practice the rituals with discipline. It is important to stick to your routine and cultivate good habits and never delay anything that you thing might be beneficial to you. Do not put away anything for later just because you do not like doing it or you cannot find time for it. Sleep early and get up early, this will give you more time to do more things.

Respect your time:

Same old, time importance thing. Respect your time and the time of others. Give more importance to the people and things that matter to you, focus on priorities. Most importantly learn to say ‘NO’ and live as if today is your last day.

Selflessly serve other:

This is self explanatory. Give, whatever in whichever way you can, not just wealth.

Embrace the Present:

Live in the present or embrace the present of present. Enjoy what you have and do not just worry about what you could have. By worrying too much about what you don’t have, that way you will grow old not enjoying what you have. This is very true, though the author is not the first to suggest it, we have always had that feeling: when we were in school we wanted to be in college and when in college we said school was the best time in my life and so forth.*

(This chapter had one good story that I liked, but the story is similar to the movie ‘Click’ staring Adam Sandler.)

That was the summary of the whole book.

Something I did not like about the book was, there is too much emphasis on Sivana and Yogi Raman, why not use secondary reference like the teacher or the sage. The words Sivana and Yogi Raman appear so many time that it get annoying after some time*. And everything is good till the time he references hut of roses more than a couple of time. Come on keep it real, hut of roses is a bit too flimsy.

All the techniques mentioned are difficult to practice but not impossible. Overall it’s a good book to read. I would not say it is a motivational book but a book that would help you enrich your life.

*This experience might differ from person to person.

Ninad Dighe