Ravan

रावण -

हर साल इसे जलाया जाता है, 

हर साल ये अपना कद बढ़ा कर  फिर आ जाता है, 

हर साल इसके अंत पर हम खुश हो जाते हैं, अपने आप को बहलाते हैं, फुसलाते हैं;

और अगले ही पल नए रावण की तैयारी में लग जाते हैं.

देखो शर्म से झुकी हुई है अच्छाई,
क्यूंकि उसे भी मालुम है सच्चाई,

कि ये जीत, ये ख़ुशी, झूठी है, 

क्योंकि अगले बरस यह रावण फिर आयेगा,

सच्चाई को कोने में खड़ा देख फिर मुस्कराएगा. 

 इस बार दृड़ मन की अग्नि में इसे इतना जलाएं, इतना तपाएं,

 के अगले वर्ष हम बुराई की झूठी हार नहीं, अच्छाई की सच्ची निरन्तरता  मनाएं.

- विनय 

Worrying Vs Thinking (Chinta vs Chintan)

My last post generated interest of a few readers in worrying and thinking part. So I decided to think about - worrying and thinking.


"If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today."  ~E. Joseph Cossman

Worrying generally does not give intelligent solutions. It puts you back to the square one. When the problem is not directly related to Raju (emotional you)and Raju is asked to give a solution, he thinks more and worries less. But when Raju has some emotional chords attached to a problem he thinks less and worries more.

While worrying the focus is on problem and the damage being done by the problem(e.g I failed so now I won't get a good job and I will not get good money) and not on ways out of it. While thinking you look at the problem, its cause and focus on solutions (e.g Why I failed, how can improve and if I can't improve how can I earn even without studying)

"Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere."  ~Glenn Turner

In my opinion, while in a problem, human mind works in following manner:
1. Realizing 

2.Worrying 

3. Settling

4. Thinking

5. Acting 


I am sure many of us have come across people who do not realize a problem and hence do not worry / think  about it. So, Raju crosses Pakistan's  border unknowingly and does not even realize what problem he is into and hence, never thinks/ worries about it. This generally happens with the first timers. For example, in LKG I scored zero in Mathematics and yet came back home dancing happily because I did not realize that it is a bad score and can earn yelling of parents.  "I do not know about anybody who worried about his very First exam result." During our initial exams our parents worry, think and act for us. It is only after realizing the value of results one starts getting butterflies in stomach just before the exam or the result. Realizing is thus followed by worrying.

It is not necessary that once you stop worrying you start thinking immediately. For thinking efficiently one needs to have calm and settled mind. The concept of God enables you to worry less and get settled. So they say : "Do not worry, God will set everything all right". The movie 3idiots famous line " All is well" also does the same thing.  There are many people who reach to the settling stage but do not climb to the next stage. They get comfortable and leave the solution to come through someone else. They are optimistic about getting it but mostly passive in finding it.

The problem with most of Rajus and Radhas in this world is they stop at " All izz well " or at " God will take care".

Our ancestors derived the concept of God not to make us think less; but to make us worry less and think more.
But we modified it to suit our passiveness.
"Believing is easier than thinking.  Hence so many more believers than thinkers."  ~Bruce Calvert

In 3idiots whenever Rancho sees a problem he says" All is well" but does not stop at that. He starts thinking how to Escape Ragging? How to design hospital equipments by a vacuum cleaner? etc. The people who are mature solution finders either skip or quickly pass the second and the third step. It becomes their habit and then they become so much used to it that subconsciously they realize, think and act; almost simultaneously. Corporates do not need managers who spend a lot of time on worrying and settling and thus to crack CAT one needs speed.

But Raju knows worrying is of no use still he worries. Why?
    May be because,
1. He has become used to it.(Habit)
2. He does not know about any other option (Ignorance)
3. Because of unpredictability (Uncertainties)

Then, how can Raju stop worrying and start thinking ?
He can try following things:

1. First Raju needs to get aware in which stage he is. The moment he starts thinking about the stage; he actually starts thinking. Getting aware is a step towards thinking. He can further push himself to not to crib but find at least one solution.

2. Story:

Radha went for a trip to a jungle with her friends and got lost. Her cellphone was not working as there was no network coverage. She was worried how will she get back to her hotel. She started blaming, cursing, cribbing and crying. While wandering she found a small wooden hoarding of a " Tree House" . Her hopes got alive and she started moving towards the given direction. Although she could not locate the Tree house she could see a Car on a Highway. The hope and belief that there is a solution called "Tree House" landed her on a some different solution called "highway" and now she could reach her hotel safely.

So, One stops worrying when he knows that there is a solution.  So one needs to know that there exists a solution or at-least believe that there can be a solution and then work it out.

3. While uncertainties can not be eliminated they can be reduced.Raju can reduce the uncertainty by proper planning and execution. When Raju's work is dependent on somebody else's work  he can make followups or find some creative way out instead of worrying.
For the things that you have no control it is stupid to worry.

Ask yourself:
"Mrs Raju is pregnant. Should Mr Raju worry if the baby will be a son or a daughter?"

4. By acting like Rancho or someone else Raju can disconnect his emotional chords with the issue and come out of the problem to discover some some practical steps.

5. Raju can write the problem and the solutions too. While writing the solution Raju must not repeat the problem. He can check how has he moved forward. Defining a problem and writing solutions need concentration, efforts and clear thinking; not worries. Writing can be of great help.

 "Chinta nahi Chinatan Karo"

Well this post is just another opinion.
BUT: Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.  ~John F. Kennedy

Foresight (Part 2)

Continued...visit " Foresight Part 1" for initial part.
2. Thinking:
About past- present- future. An event of future; at present can occur only in a mind.We mostly confuse our act of worrying with the act of thinking. We mostly worry about future and rarely think about future. We mostly talk about past but we rarely think about past.
Bhavishya atith ki kokh se janm leta hai. We do not think about how, why and when we reached the present that we have today. We do not even think about the most certain thing in life i.e Death. Have we ever thought about the way we want to die? In Mahabharta Bhishama once said to Dhritrashtra " Itihaas hame kya bulyega" ( How would history explain our acts?). We should act in such a manner so that when our next generations talk about us they would not have feel ashamed". How many of us think like that? Visionaries do. Dhirubhai did, Mahatma Gandhi did, Arjuna did. For that, one has to think. But in our super-fast world where everybody wants us to be updated with current affairs and use every minute of a day in doing something productive(tangible) we do not have time to think!


3. Necessity :-
Necessity is the mother of invention. Today we do not need to book a trump call to talk to a person; we do not need to wait for 2 years to get a scooter. We do not even need to worry about the duration of our calls as we pay per second! If one has to go to Australia, one has tickets available at a click with the best of hotels according to the budget. I am online on my mobile so I do not need to worry if I am in office or not. We do not need to foresee too much. As we have ready options at every, we do not need to plan very much. That is why we react to situations on time. In addition, somewhere due to this "Real Time" convenience we are loosing ability to foresee things. Everything is available on rent so you do not need to worry about the lifetime cost and thus we follow use and throw mentality. We buy handsets for six months only, we buy clothes for the current season, we recharge mobile only for today, we withdraw only that much money from ATM, which we will use in next two days, we take a job and switch it the moment we get a better one. We do not need to plan for future as we used to.
We work for future like a Ferrari car with maddening speed. However, when we think about future we are like a car with a headlight, which has a range of 200meters.

In life, as in chess, forethought wins.

- Charles Buxton


I am not against modern technologies but somewhere I feel to fight the bigger problems coming in future we need foresight more than ever. I feel software or a technology cannot solve a NEW problem. A soft ware can be developed to solve it but, latter. Only human brain can predict and solve the newer problems of future.

Think about the future because that is where you are going to spend rest of your life.

Foresight (Part 1)

"Those who have vision can make some provision, others might always live in illusions"

I feel that although we are advancing, our ability to visualize future has not improved much. Probably we have better technology to predict how many foot prints of carbon India would be producing in 2017 but we also know that the current recession is a result of the incompetence of highly paid corporates and officers to foresee the wrong effects of sub-prime loans.

Raju is a young boy. You give him a problem he will solve it. But ask him to predict problems. He is at loss. He can be problem solver but not a problem predictor. So for recession he has an answer- Stimulus Package.

We enter a problem and then only we realize that we need to find a way out. In Mahabharta Vidur said to Yudhishtira " Kisi bhi ghar mein ghusne se pahle , ussse bahar nikalne ka maarg dhund lena chaiye". In management terms we call it as Exit Plan.

I believe Indians always have had better foresight but somewhere something is going wrong.
Let us think " how one's foresight is developed and why we could be loosing our this knack (if we are at all)"

1. Knowledge and Experience-

Those who do not know past and present cannot predict future. The person who does not know that Bulbs came first and then CFLs and then LEDs will find it difficult to extrapolate and find next light emitter. A politician’s single statement is enough for an experienced person to predict the next move. While deciding upon the architecture of my new house my dad purposefully kept his room and bathroom small. I insisted on keeping them big. He gave a simple reason "Dear, I am thinking 20 years ahead of you, when your mom and I would find it difficult to move in a large room just to get a towel or a medicine kept in a cupboard. We would prefer everything nearby so that I will not have to disturb you. I want my bathroom to be small so that when I will get old and my bones will get weak I can take the support of walls even if happen to slip." I was speechless. Here is a healthy man who can get better looking house but has visualized his life 20years hence and is planning accordingly. My father suggested a better utility design for a home than I could and probably a young architect can, reason- Experience. We feel the experience available with our parents is not useful today, but we forget even if the course books change the formula of water will not. One should always use the readily available experience with parents just like a reference book.

When we think about our future, we mostly think about our career, but we forget that career is part of future and not the other way round.