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Simple life is a joyful experience, with absolutely no expectations, neither from self nor from others. Some may term it as mediocrity but this averageness is most under rated yet most valuable possessions in our life. Expectations cause anxiety, worry and lead to stress. There are several factors like blaring noise, crowded places, delayed flights/trains, unfulfilled ambitions that manifest into stress. Such factors are termed as stressors. Few optimists believe stressors help to push the individual to his maximum capacity. But is it really so? What is stress?

Air is pumped into a balloon. We see the balloon happily swelling in size. After a few more pumps we see the stretched skin and tension mounting. If we still continue to pump air into it, the balloon will burst. This is, exactly, the concept of stress turning into distress. Stress is good until it motivates to perform better. At one point of time fatigue raises its ugly head. This is a subtle indication of good stress turning into distress. More than often we ignore this warning and end up paying a heavy price.

It is one of the happiest moments when a child is born. The couple is instantly transformed into parents. Amidst this happiness, hugs , mirths and squeals, a worry is also born, a worry about the infections, the germs, and the virus. The mother is robbed of her happiness. Thankfully the infant is still too young to sop up the vibes of stress in his mother. As time passes, this child grows up and learns to observe and grasp things going around him. He observes the hustle bustle of busy life. He learns that life is a mad run. He says good bye to happy infancy and joins the crazy race. Few years on and he is ready for admission in Nursery school. Parents, turn by turn, help him learn counting and rhymes. Lo, he is a smart child. He learns counting, both forward and backward and the rhymes too, within a week. The frenzied parents are proud of their smart progeny. The kid has learnt everything that was supposed to be taught in the school, throughout the year! Unknowingly the parents have sown the seed of stress.

Schools reopen. Mother coos into the ear of the child to wake up. The child is too sleepy. She gives a gentle reminder thrice. Now her patience runs out, as the taps get dry after Municipality timings. Enough is enough; she says and wakes the child with a rude shake or a thunderous slap, depending on the stress level she is carrying within her. What a way to start the day! School life is a phase which is meant to discover, understand the world around us. It is to create our own theories, philosophies and inventions. But, stress plays its vicious role and kills all the natural instincts of discoveries and inventions. The child has learnt to look forward to days filled with stress.

Schooling is, now, to finish in a couple of years. The parents begin a massive preparation for tuitions, extra classes and competitive exams. Phew! Please hold on, take a break. Relax the overwrought nerves. Let the child breathe and take time to understand his goals in life. But, the real issues take a back seat as the priority is to get admission in the best college. The child is put on the horse of ambitions, saddled with expectations of parents, teachers and society. The parents hunt for best tutors, Coaching Institutes and ‘the van drivers’, just like a warrior who prepares for a sudden military offense by his enemy on all the frontiers.

The kids bid a grand adieu to the stressed school days to enter the much coveted college life. The college life is supposed to be filled with fun, romance, freedom and enjoyment. They look forward to experience the glamour straight out of Bollywood movies. But Alas! The enthusiasm takes a nose dive just like a cake baked without baking soda. The child, now an adult, realizes that real challenges have begun, Now. He is worried about placement and social status. The college life is spent worrying for a good placement and rest of the life is spent meeting everyday deadlines in the job. The fatigue starts raising its ugly head. For some it happens early and for others a little late in life. But it definitely happens to all of us.

Apart from serious issues in life, there are several other inlets through which stress makes its way into our life as the choking smoke sails through the open window. Soap operas, viewed for entertainment rate quite high to induce stress levels. The weird story lines, the dialogues, the counter dialogues, the climax, the anti climax, and most importantly the uncanny zooming of shots, to project faces with changing skin tones, to emphasize the seriousness of scene, also indicate our fondness to ensconce stress in more than one way.

At a subconscious level, we all induce stress into our lives. It pervades every thought, activity and each cell of our body. The seed of stress sown at a very young age has grown into a strong tree. This tree never blossoms, neither does it bear fruit nor does it render shade. By the time we realize the futility of this tree, it is too late. How often we hear students committing suicide under pressure, youngster dying of heart attack in the office. These are all the consequences of undue stress. We have turned every stone to build this culture of stress. We have ensured to make place for the stress in our life, just like the Arab who let the camel in. The type of stress we all are facing today cannot be cured with a ‘chill pill’.

How important is it really to win every race in the life? How much does it really count to be richer than the others? How much does it really matter to have a degree better than the others? In this vast macrocosm all these materialistic accomplishments are simply micro issues. They are actually not worthy of sacrificing the peace, beauty and serenity of life. Combatting stress at an individual level through Yoga, Meditation and Aerobics is a temporary solution. The real challenge is to extirpate the culture of stress by educating our generations to learn balancing the ambitions and achievements and also to differentiate the need and greed. We need to strengthen ourselves with confidence and decision making to face all the situations.

What is this life so full of care

We have no time to stop and stare.

Recently there was news that a girl of Class Twelfth from Mumbai committed suicide. She had scored well in all the subjects, but unfortunately failed in one subject, IPR. Regrettably she was the only student in the school who had failed in the exam. On her visit to school she was summoned by the teacher and was humiliated for having spoiled the school result. The girl was already in a great sorrow and could not take the humiliation from the teacher. Alas, she committed suicide.

Lately we have come across many such incidents where school and teachers, to save their brand name and honour put pressure on students. Some are able to withstand but a few crumble under the pressure.

A teacher is not a professional who not been appointed to finish the curriculum in a prescribed time, nor is teaching a profession of routine. A teacher is a mentor. The students look up to him with lots of expectation. He is the one who opens the windows of wisdom and knowledge. Every word uttered by him is the ultimate truth for the pupil. He commands respect and in turn teaches the children to develop a dignified demeanor. Each action and instruction of teacher begets pivotal change in the children. In all cultures, teachers are equated to God. Apart from disbursing knowledge a teacher has to set an example for the students to follow for the rest of the life.

The teacher has to be a fount of virtues for the students. They seek to learn all the virtues through his conduct. This profession is a combined job of a mentor, psychologist, counselor, foster parent, friend, guide and the list is endless.

The teacher has vast experience of kids who come to him with their tender and innocent requests and beliefs. While tending and nurturing the kids, he is in fact doing a great service to the nation in building a virtuous society. Any person, who joins the profession but is not passionate about the job, should immediately look for a different money earning profession. The teachers’ job is not a profession for any monetary benefits, but it is a great responsibility of moulding lives.

It is disheartening to see how schools have turned into brand names, and teaching into a profession. It’s a pathetic situation when school negotiates with pressure tactics to improve the percentage of school performance. The very purpose of education is defeated when teachers focus more on marks and less on education imparted. If students are taught in an interesting way and are inspired to read and understand, discuss and accrue knowledge, the marks are sure to follow.

Lucky are those who have been nurtured by devoted teachers. We all have a simple and heart warming stories to reminiscence of our school times. Its heart wrenching to see children struggling and reeling under pressure, to get cent percent marks. Even an iota of failure is enough to break them. On the contrary one of the basic purposes of education is to teach not to succumb under pressure but somehow collect oneself and forge ahead.

The whole education system needs to rethink. The new style of teaching is destroying the very fabric of education. The changes should come soon and save the children from taking the ultimate suicidal steps. The purpose school and education is served when, even after decades of schooling we fondly remember our teachers for having been our mentors.

Very often we come across stories of successful people who during their early stages of life had tasted the bitterness of failure. Many a times we too narrate such stories to support and strengthen our belief in hard work. The lists of such personalities are endless and quite impressive too. We all know the names, but to mention a few:

Albert Einstein couldn’t speak till he was four and didn’t read till he was seven. His teachers did not pin high hopes on him. But, eventually he changed the concept of physics to earn a noble prize later in his life.

Walt Disney was fired from his job because his news editor felt he lacked imagination. Today his creativity is embossed on several merchandise, movies and theme parks all over the globe.

Thomas Edison was written off by his teacher as “too stupid to learn anything”, but he illuminated the world with his efforts.

Abraham Lincoln, who proved to be a political prodigy, taught himself law during free times. He was also known as the honest Abe, who pulled the nation through the most troubled times.

Sandeep Singh Bhinder is an Indian professional field Hockey player. At a time when he was at his peak he was hit by a stray bullet. He was paralyzed and was confined to a wheel chair for two years. All lost hope of his playing again. But he rose like a phoenix, not only did he recover from the grievous injury but also established himself again in the team.

Ritesh Agarwal started a business of ‘bed n breakfast’ under the name Oravel Stays. It failed miserably. He however didn’t lose heart and started a new business which flourished under the name OYO Rooms.

Amitabh Bachchan , who is a legend in himself has had his share of massive failures and yet today his name is celebrated as a success.

APJ Abdul Kalam, earned average grades in school and was once threatened of revoking the scholarship in school. The history today bears a testimony to his success.

As a parent we narrate the stories to our kids and then we digress from the real purpose of the stories. We start expecting the children to pursue a professional course like engineering, medical etc.. to become a famous personality. We equate the failures of these personalities to the distaste shown by our children in some specific subjects. We coax our children to take up courses and professions not of their choices by quoting the examples of failures faced by these personalities and then we hopelessly hope them to be successful in wrong fields.

In our zeal to make kids successful we forget the essence of the stories. The success does not come as a miracle or destiny. Success is not being a scientist or an Engineer. Success is a result of relentless efforts, toiling, passion which is often invisible in the stories. If Edison is today remembered for the illuminated bulbs, then we must also not forget that he had tried 1000 types of bulbs to ultimately light up the bulbs we use now.

The important point to ponder in these stories is finding the element that turned the failures into success. It is usually exhibiting a single clearly defined focus. It is perseverance, persistence, patience and passion to succeed in your field. If we teach our kids to practice and value these virtues, they will surpass our expectations and do wonders in their lives. Let us not teach them to be like someone else. Let us give them some space to etch an identity of their own, something new, something unique and something really admirable.

We often come across situations which we are unable to comprehend, digest. We discuss the situations, its causes, likely solutions and wait for the administration to take a remedial action. We always live with a strong urge to change the scenario. As a matter of routine we come across children forced as beggars, maids, servants labourers etc.. All these corrupt practices are a vicious racket and have become a part of the system. How often we feel like breaking down the system but these corrupt practices are so deep rooted that we eventually give up after a few trials. Yet there are several unsung heroes in our country who are putting in unyielding efforts and have succeeded in their mission. ‘Bachpan Bachao Andolan’ by Kailash Sathyarthi is one such effort. Despite several Death Threats he has managed to free around 80000 children from the clutches of child labour racketeers. This summer we also came across plight of drought hit areas. Hiware Bazaar is a village which is flourishing with one crore yield of onion and boasts of millions of litres of water bodies. It is one of the villages in draught hit belt of Marathwada’s eight districts. The villagers, did not wait for the administration for a remedial action, instead they captured rain water and created an oasis in the midst of parched belt. Similar is the story of a village in Lamagarah Tehsil of Almora District. The Gunavante couple have initiated a self help movement and they initiated a dependable, feasible and economically viable way of roof top rainwater harvesting. Today, the scenario in this village has changed. It has surplus water and a good crop. A community of nearly eleven thousand people across 82 villages, in Himalayas, spend at least 1 day in a year for the restoration of their villages. A 1995 BITsian has over 500 women and hundreds of farmers with an aim of creating jobs in rural India. His pursuit is to provide employment to 10,000 women. Gangadhara Tilak Katnam is 67-years old. His car now carries eight to ten gunny bags full of tar mixed gravel, bags which are emptied whenever a pothole is spotted. He has filled over 1,100 potholes so far and has exhausted his pension in this process. The list of such champions is endless. The stark difference between these unsung heroes and other common citizens is the exceptional courage, nobility and strength and conviction with which they carry their work. These people did not make the candle march, walk in procession or a demonstration to show their disapproval of the system. Instead the stood up to perform their part with an unshakable belief in something without need for proof or evidence. The corrupt system and illegitimate enterprises are deep rooted in our society and administration. We cannot change either the society or the administration instantaneously. But we can cast away the fear of such systems from our heart. Help each other fight the system. Own the motherland. Do our bit, how so ever small it may be. Even an iota of our effort will go a long way in building a strong nation.

Life is an enigmatic journey. We know not the beginning or end of it. We are yet to unravel the mysteries of universe, the nature around us and the life we lead. In short the very existence is a mystery. A human being is a bundle of body, intellect and soul. There are umpteen numbers of theories to explain the purpose of life. The physical aspect ushers us towards the ‘karma’ concept. The mother earth is our ‘karma bhoomi’. We are expected to do good ‘karma’ to achieve ‘nirvana’. The intellect part urges us to understand and lead life logically, in harmony with others. The soul aspect redes us on a spiritual journey in search of ‘parmatman’. All these theories steer us towards a simple and good conduct in life. They teach us to respect the nature and cosmos.

Religion is one of such mediation that guides us through our journey in life. It sets a bench mark in our day to day life, for general upliftment of self and also achieving salvation. Religions all over the world endeavor to propagate humanity, the quality of unselfishness and concern for the welfare of others. It attempts to instill morality and respect for others.

However the world has witnessed lot of controversies in the name of Religion. People, instead of accepting and respecting the view points of other religions, have tried to influence and change the opinions of others as per their religion. We are born into a religion. The religion and rituals grow within us. It becomes an integral part and our alter ego. We feel pride in the philosophy of our religion but it is wrong to find fault in other people’s perspective. There is hardly any point in proving to the world that any one religion is perfect. The religions are beyond comparisons and critical evaluations. They have come into existence to teach us the selfless attitude to serve humanity. Their role is to help us destroy the inflated and super egos and see a reflection of self in all. Above all they intend to bring peace to self and the world at large.

The present scenario clearly heralds that the mankind has not yet attained the maturity to understand the purpose of religion. In his zeal to demonstrate his loyalties towards the religion, he is destroying the very essence of religion, it was meant to be.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

A company has all sorts of works. The CEO of the company has to ensure setting and leading the vision and purpose of the organization and building the Senior Executive Team. The Senior Executive Team in turn should ensure the implementation and execution of the vision and mission of the organization through the ground staff. The ground staff in turn should work hard to achieve the goals envisaged by the organization. Excellence at all levels is required to achieve the goals. But is it possible to achieve the desired goals if the office ambience is clumsy. No, it’s not. The office should present a healthy and neat environment. Needless to add, the cleaning staff too has an important role. No job is either great or menial. Every job demands excellence at its level.

Excellence is achieved with setting a bench mark for self. By placing high standards we create accountability and responsibility for self. Settling for mediocrity in work is crime. Evaluate the job as a self critic. Excellence also demands knowledge, experience and expertise in the job. But one emotion outdoes all these factors required for excellence, and that is Passion. The drive of passion is so strong that the person goes all out to learn and put his best effort despite all the short comings.

Passion does not require talent. It doesn’t expect expertise or thorough knowledge also. Passion is the enthusiasm for the job. It is an acute and intense feeling of involvement in the job. It is an irrational and irresistible urge to the job. It does not matter how the world interprets it, what matters is, the soulful enjoyment one draws in the job. A job done with passion speaks for itself. We misinterpret passion for working in creative talents. In fact passion is taking onus of excellence in whatever field we are pursuing.

Once a building was being constructed. Three masons were at work. A passerby asked one of them what he was doing. The mason very reluctantly informed that he was doing a mechanical job of putting one brick over the other. The passerby came across the second mason and asked him what he was doing. The second mason replied that he was doing a very menial job which messed up his hands with concrete. The passerby then came across the third mason and asked him what he was doing. The third mason replied with a smile that he was in the process of building a house, which would have airy windows and big doors. The colourful walls would have decorative paintings. The house would be surrounded by lawn, for the kids to play. The third mason invited the passerby to see the building once it was finished. Saying, so the third mason went on to work. This small story depicts the attitude of people while at work.

We all fall short of excellence when we work in parameters set by others. We fail to do justice to our jobs, when we are dictated by external factors and not guided by inner self. Most of us commit an embarrassing mistake that a job is a formality to be justified as per our pay package. In actuality job is the god sent opportunity to render our life a meaning and purpose. It is an opportunity to serve society as well as for self development.

“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”

प्रिया भगिनी पुत्री बनकर

निष्ठा से निर्वाह किया

सिरजनहार हम नतमस्तक हैं

जननी का सौभाग्य दिया

विचर रहे व्रक भेस बदलकर

छल बल और अहंकार दिया

अपना रूप दिया मानुष को

काहे ना संस्कार दिया

हर जुग परखा नाम पलटकर

कभी द्रौपदी कभी सिया

तार दे जो नारी जीवन को

अवतार ऐसा, अभी, नहीं लिया

The women’s day was first celebrated in 1909. The German ladies celebrated women’s day in March 1914 demanding their right to vote. This was eventually agreed to in 1918. The Russian ladies celebrated women’s day in March 1918 demanding Bread and Peace. Similar celebrations were held all over the globe. International women’s day was officially declared on March 8th, 1975. Since then the women’s day is being celebrated every year to empower women. This year’s theme is Pledge for Parity.

This day is marked with celebrations of the economic, political and social achievements of women. Women’s potential knows no bounds. This has been proved by the woman achievers in all the fields from ancient time. Today is the day to remember all the achievers who broke the shackles of society and its obsolete traditions and forge ahead and set an example.

In India woman is worshipped as Devi. The earth, the rivers are all given a status of mother. The ancient scriptures say “yatrasya naryantu poojathe, tatrastu vasathe devataa”. Such is our culture, which needs to be revived. Women have proven to be multiskilled and multifariously talented persons. Their role as mother, daughter, sister and wife comes naturally to them. She inculcates values that build a strong society and nation.

This day provides us an occasion not only to thank the almighty for bestowing us with a wonderful life but also to ponder on our efforts to help the women around the world, who are yet to celebrate this day with equal vigour. There are several women who are still struggling for a decent life, health, education and respect. Let us pledge for parity not with our counterparts but strive to bring parity all over the world to make this world a better place to live as women.

The young generation is always oozing with energy. The country looks forward with lots of expectations from them. The young brigade is expected to forge ahead with new ideas, new thought process, new innovations and a subtlety of compassion for the fellow citizens. They should be the prime cause for ushering in a new era of positivity and development instead my India has become a land of pretests and dissents. It is very disheartening to accept and come to terms with the prevalent situation in the country. Every soul is busy demanding his right.

The Jat protest for reservation put lot of things out of track (literally too). Majority of people agree to the fact that Jats are a well to do community, yet the recent agitation baffled the nation. The group damaged public property, put their fellow citizens at inconvenience and paralyzed the whole system. However this was not the end of the list of disappointments. The news reports appalled us with the accounts of rapes of innocent lady travelers on the high way. The assent, to put on the agitation was itself a shameful act. The youngsters not only shelved their self pride but they also denigrated and violated the modesty of ladies who had nothing to do with the agitation. Such brutish conduct speaks very low about the moral values imbibed in them. A group which lacks a minimum courtesy and respect for the fairer sex doesn’t deserve a preferential treatment. A group which held the whole nation at ransom, how can they claim to be weak and requiring reservation?

Equally intimidating is the JNU issue where the students unabashedly raised anti national slogans, thus humbling the love and pride for our mother land. This incidence has lead to lot of uproar from within but has also bared many a skeletons in their closets. Such acts should have been criticized harshly but several pockets jumped in to justify them. Sometimes we avoid hearing truth because we feel safe in our illusions.

These two incidents have created a lot of commotion and public disturbance. It has exposed the brutal fact that the youth care less about the woman and care lesser about the mother land. It has also unwrapped the fact that they lack mettle and reasoning power to judge situation correctly.

Napoleon Bonaparte once said “Give me good mothers and I will give you a good nation”. Has the mother in our country failed to do so. Has she not been able to educate her son to respect women and die for the mother land? Do we need to ponder on this aspect and give a direction to the youth, who seem to be totally deprived of vision and mission.

अब अखलाक पर इसरार कैसे करे कोई

अपनी ही नीयत पर भरोसा नहीं कोई

अब आजज़ी पर इसरार कैसे करे कोई

अपने ही बड़प्पन पर भरोसा नहीं कोई

अब ज़ब्त पर इसरार कैसे करे कोई

अपनी ही जुस्तजू पर भरोसा नहीं कोई