Rama- Does he fit in today's society

The answer to this question is a profound "YES" and I would like to explain the reason why I think it is.

All the deeds done by Rama was as a human being , he was given the choices in his life and as a result of his choices he become what he is.

The key is that we should follow his example by spirit and not by letter.
It would have been easy for him not to keep his father's word and become king and live happily ever after. But he thought that it is important for a king to keep his promise where as Dasharatha wanted Rama not to leave the kingdom, but Rama took the hard choice.
When Ravan took Sita, Rama was devastated without Sita and during his journey he showed his vulnerability as a human being but he kept his resolve and rescued Sita.

He could have married any other beautiful princess without facing all the hardship he endured while trying to rescue Sita, But he choose to do otherwise.He has accepted Sita with love and respect after she has stayed in Ravan's Lanka and how many man can do it today?
When he left Sita, he has done it because he thought his duty as a king is above his duty as a husband and although he and Sita suffered throughout their life he never complained.He has never got a chance to see his sons grow up in front of him. So it was supreme sacrifice of self for the welfare of state.

Being Ram is all about ------

- Thinking about others before self .

- Duty is above everything else.

- Public servants should always do the right thing how hard it may be.

- Taking the right choice in life , how difficult it may be

- Being humble, gentle, kind when you occupy the high seat

- Believe in self in spite of overwhelming odds

- Love is the most powerful thing in this world(Ram and Sita's love is timeless)

- What you do in this life is going to make you as a human being.

In today's world when people are only bothered about self and everybody is taking the easiest choice available however wrong or unethical or wrong it may be, Rama is more significant than ever.

India's youth will gain a lot if they realise what Rama stood for in his life.
India's parents would gain much if they would re-read Ramayana and instead of ruthless persuasion of success at any cost for them and their children if they install the goodness in them and their children, India would become a true Rama-rajya
And finally India will be saved from becoming divided into India and Bharat , if its political class rediscovers the true Rama and follow his path.

Good politician- Is this a new dinosaur discovered ???

I am just thinking about the future of democracy and how it is
going to survive in the 21st century and benefit the society. Someone told me that one essential ingredient in a healthy democracy is a good politician which has been missing today in India and perhaps in USA. I have mentioned India because I am an Indian and USA because it is the most powerful democracy and perhaps a model democracy.
So I am in search of a good politician. But before we venture out to find the specimen we must know what the attributes of a good politician are. Now good is a very broad word so I define him/her like this-
· Popular because without that he is not useful
· He must be wise and educated (1st is essential but 2nd is not)
· He must be a visionary
· He must have some achievable goal for the social benefits
· He must be a good executioner of his plan so that he would be able to implement it.
· He must be a good leader. He must be able to carry people with him and convince them of the goal. he must be able to take blame upon himself when things go wrong and must give all the credit to his team when go right.
· He must not be afraid to call that he has done wrong or blundered and must have the courage to take blame.
· He must be able to stand in the face of adversity.
Now let us find him, where do we start? Let us start with our state and
Central legislature because we find all successful leaders there (successful not good) and do we see him .ok what about the leader of ruling party and leader of the opposition parties? Do we find him? Yes but not all the features/attributes are matching. Why, may be because we have forced them to shed some of the characteristic. Ok so how many good leaders we have found out? Less than 15% -20%. That is pathetic .but why, may be the reason lies in their origination place and that is the society, Am I right? I think so because you see today’s society wants people to be successful and not good. So u will see people trying ruthlessly to be successful and not good. How many of you have been told by your parents to be good? Chances are nil or negligible but how many of you have been told to be successful, chances are almost all. So see, they are not to be blamed, all they want to be successful.

Now how to find a good leader? The answer lies in the society. Either change the way our democracy works today because it works in the assumption that what ever persons are coming to become lawmakers, all of them are good. But in reality they are there because they are successful. So we need to have checks and balances in place to ensure that they work within a certain parameter and will do some good because doing good will make them successful and that will force them to be good. Or change the emphasis on goodness and less on success, so that people will be driven towards goodness.
Waiting for your inputs on the subject matter so that we can debate more and may be find out an implement able solution.

The Boss

No no no if you are thinking this is Mario puzo’s next Sicilian mafia based novel then you can not be more wrong! As I am thinking to write it down, I have a faint picture drawn in my mind of the pointy haired boss From Scot Adam’s Dilbert’s principle.

Theme –yes you have guessed it right – it is dark humour. And now as every working individual knows that working under a boss is not a thing for the faint hearted person. I think quarter of the heart attacks are triggered by the boss. (There is no scientific truth behind it but I think research should be carried out and result will stun many people.)

Intention of the Boss. His two motives are-1st- To bring as much pain and suffering to his staff as much as possible without triggering him to leaving the company. And 2nd- to be as inefficient as possible without triggering the company to throw him out. So as you have seen, it is not very easy to be a great boss, it is a tight rope walk and it takes great skills to be able to do the above mentioned things properly.
His secondary work is to bring more budget into his projects as budget decides the winner amongst the boss’s war of superiority. His work is to conduct meetings to delay work as much as possible as to have more meetings, as more meetings mean being busier and generally seen as a sign of being an important boss who is delivering value to the company.

How to survive the boss
- the best way to survive a boss in my opinion is to become a boss or become a weasel as per Scott Adams. As a weasel u would be virtually boss proof and as a boss although your boss would be able to screw you, at least you can screw your staff. The ideal solution is to be a weasel in front of your boss and the real boss in front of your staff hi hi hi….
Other wise if you want to become a boring boss then try to understand the staff and try to fulfil their desire. and this is hard as employ’s are happy when they have free cakes (sorry I can’t include beer here) and snacks during meetings which means part of your budget spent and great pay raise without much work and they have mini teams to torture. But when you raise their salary without work, they leave the company for better pay package and better position.
And because your worker has left the company after getting better pay raise than other departments which have been able to keep their workers to stay with less pay package by being the first type boss, u shall look like a lousy performer and unable to manage people. So I think it has become clear now as daylight as to be like whom.

So best of luck and start now.

Foot note- If you like the piece then I can carry on further.

BIKER IN ME

First the warning:
(For those who do not love a motorcycle or for those who use their motorcycles for commuting not for riding and for those girls whose boyfriends have no clue about what motorcycle ride is all about(no offence intended), please skip this article )

No No No, Do not get me wrong because of the warning- it is not the biker as an speed maniac, it is more like biking as a philosophy and biker as a philosopher exploring his world and himself.

Ok if you think I am a person under heavy influence of drugs and heavy metal then you are wrong. No I am not. I am a biker or rather trying hard to be a biker who thinks his bike as a liberating tool rather than a transporting tool. Ok ok ok enough self praise. I have been introduced to a bike as a mode of transport as a middle class Indian. But it has got me hooked. Why? why not, when you are on your bike for that time you forget this world, you forget the grades, you forget the pressure of study, you forget every worry and you forget about that pretty girl in your class, ok you don’t forget about that pretty girl in your class, actually you think more about her. Got the point? It lets you to dream and it makes you happy.

And you feel the wind in your face, legs, hands, body, ok not in your face because you would be wearing your helmet (you should), but hey you can wear a helmet with a open face. What about that high speed drive on the national highway or that drive in the twisted road or that rain drenched ride with your girlfriend or that ride in the middle of the night ? Quite unforgettable is not it?

What about turning your bike in a high speed corner? Is it not one of your best experiences in your life? It certainly is mine. Someone has said that biking is closer to nature because you do not fight nature; you blend with it and cornering a bike and cornering a car clarifies this like broad day light. When you are cornering in a bike, you are leaning your bike and leaning yourself, you are in harmony with forces of nature and you are not fighting it, you are at peace with nature, but in a car it is a resistance, a violent struggle to keep the line, so sell your cars and start ride a bike.

And the first ride with your girl friend, your first race, your first traffic light drag race. It is unforgettable. Then for me my first Yamaha RX-100 experience, wow! When I am sad I liked to ride my bike without any destination and it has blown away my sorrows. When I am happy I ride my bike to amplify my happiness and it certainly does that quite easily. I feel I can ride and ride and ride without the destination where the journey is the destination. It gives me unadulterated happiness and that is quite a thing in today’s world. Isn’t it? When you ride you see nature in a way that is unique and quite breathtaking.

The fear and joy you experience (yes they come in a cocktail intermixed with one another ) while riding in a ghat road and pushing yourself and the bike to the limit that you can take and after every corner the sensation that how could you have done it and then the next corner, may be a little bit more lean angle or a little bit less lean angle, a little bit more speed or a little bit less speed, mid corner correction, and your mind and the body working in overdrive and you feel like freezing that moment and as I write this I am transported to that moment. I know if you have felt it, u would be feeling that now as you read it and if you have not known this experience then you should go and get that experience and you will know what it means.

One famous biker has once said “there are 2 types of biker. One that has taken a tumble and another one that is going to take a tumble”. I belong to the 1st category. I have experienced the final step to being a biker. It is something I did not like but it is there and you need to understand this to make you a better rider. That way you shall respect your bike and the road. And that will keep you safe .So safe riding.

Shall I continue? I can, but I do not want to bore you but if you really want more then I can continue the next time.

And in the mean time you must read Zen and the art of motorcycle maintance, Motorcycle diaries and Investment biker.

Hi ,

This is my first attempt at blogging. So bear with me.

First something about the name of the blog . I am trying hard to be a blue blooded biker but I have not reached there. And although I am in the IT industry I am not a geek. This name is only to attract readers but I do not want to fool you people , therefore the confession.

Right now I am in South Africa. So I shall write about my South African experience.

So this is all in my first post.