Stress Busters

Pressure/Stress/Worry/Anxiety

 

These have become a part of our everyday lives - not only for people engaging in stressful jobs but also kids, housewives and retired personnel. They are now a constant part of our daily lives. Wen are a worried lot. Most of the time we worry about things that will never happen. Or worry about things that if happen will have no impact on our lives in the medium term.

 

Can these be avoided? YES

Is there a solution? Definitely YES

Do I know it? Definitely NO (if I did I would still have a lot of black hair)

Will you get a solution after reading this? MAYBE

 

The thing is that we have to find our own solutions. There is no “killer app” that life gives you to fix the many problems that we face. To stumble upon solutions to a problem, we need to appreciate that there is a problem and then think about the same. This is really difficult for the mind. Even accepting that there is a problem is close to impossible. We just don’t read the writing on the wall. And if there is a problem the easiest response is not to think about it at all. Just ignore it and the problem will go away. Unfortunately it doesn’t – it is the elephant in the room. Let us see what can be done to address the same –

 

Hobby –

It is a terrific stress buster. Writing does it for me. For you it could be reading, singing, dancing, cooking, painting, philanthrophy, nature, workouts – find out your own stress buster and devote at least some time every week to it. Mind you – socialising is not a hobby. Results are guaranteed, time period for achieving the same depends on you.

 

Love –

It is very important to have a loving circle – family/social/even pets. We love the feeling of being loved and our love for someone being reciprocated.

 

Humility & Kindness –

Kindness keeps the heart in the right place. Humility keeps us grounded and our ego at bay. It also keeps away a lot of stress that the “peer pressure” builds on us.

 

Humour -

Laugh. Find reasons to be happy. Find out what tickles your funny bone. If nothing works – watch the Rahul Gandhi interview with Arnab – it will definitely work.

 

Conditioning –

No, the hair conditioner won’t work.

The reason that we are not extinct (at least not yet) is that we adapt to our environment. Evolution has made us capable of reacting to stimulus. It is like the work antibiotics do in our body – small doses of bacteria/virus builds our resistances. Same with stress. I am not asking you to walk into stressful situations or ask for trouble. As we start handling stress we start getting better at it. The point is that we can get conditioned to handle it. It is like the people who stay close to airports or railway tracks get used to the noise – it is painful in the beginning, it becomes a part of life once you get used to it. The trick is to realise how much can you take. Since you can’t fight and win all battles – choose yours carefully. If stress in the office is high, try to keep the domestic life peaceful. And vice versa.

 

Better to deal with it as we can’t run away from it.

 

If you can do it well, all the glory and the peace is ours to have.

 

After all, “Diamond is just a piece of coal which handled pressure very well”

 

All the best!!

For Love, With Love

The valentine season is here and the “season of love” will start. How long the season lasts depends on each one of us – for some it is a day long and for some a full year long. As for me, I am somewhere in the middle. Where exactly I stand is for my wife to say (PS – she often calls me Aurangzeb. That will give you a good idea of where I stand on this scale). The western world has done such a great job of popularising the valentine’s day that it would today be undoubtedly the second most global festival after Christmas.

 

Love is the most universal emotion. It is also the most complex. Most other emotions derive themselves from love. To put it the other way, if all emotions are the languages of the world, love is Sanskrit – the purest and the mother of all languages.  But what I really like about love is its complexity, the infinite shades that this one emotion creates. Let us look at some of them -     

 

We love our spouses (specially applicable for newly weds) J

We love our parents

We love our siblings

We love our friends

We love our country

We love film stars/sportspersons/legends

We love a subject

We love a political party/leader

We love our gadgets

We love holidays

We love weekends

We love a place/destination

We love food

We love movies/TV shows

We love being in love

We love our kids (until they become rebellious teenagers) J

We love our jobs (well I do) J

We love our in laws (I do that too) J

We love our dreams

We love being desired

We love winning

We love our hobbies

We love all material things

We love the nature/environment

We love our schools/colleges

The list can be very long. The point here the complexity of love, it is in different shades for all the above states that I have listed above.

 

Love is universal. All people have love in their life - they may not just feel it. Adolf Hitler loved to hate the Jews. Osama Bin Laden loved to hate the Americans. You see, this emotion is everywhere. Even animals have it. Let’s keep the basic needs (unless they are confused with emotions) like hunger, rest, sleep, pain etc away and we realise that love is one of the evolved emotion that even animals have.

 

Love is paradoxical. Love seems to be free. But it only “seems” to be so. Ask any lover who is splurging on his/her loved one. It is nowhere near free. Bollywood has made an entire industry around love. The multiplex tickets today do not keep it anywhere near the free category.

 

Love is a great equaliser. We can love the ones more gifted than us or the ungifted (Rahul Gandhi is an exception in this – he is universally unloved except for his part chamchas). We can love those better off than us financially or worse off. We can love someone from the current generation or the previous. We can love someone from our country or the outside. We can love someone with the same value system as ours or totally different.

 

Love is everlasting. Look at the marvels that the world has created in the tribute to their loved ones. The Taj Mahal is the best example. Even the characters in love are everlasting – Romeo and Juliet, Heer and Ranjha, Laila and Majnu.

 

Love is liberating. If you could love everything and everyone the way saints did.

Love is also empowering and motivating.

Love brings out the best in us, the lack of love brings out the worst.

Too much of love will never cause you a disease or get you in trouble, unless you are confusing love with lust!!

Love is pure. Love is unconditional.

Love is passionate. It is also compassionate.

Love is magical.

 

This Valentines day let us decide to spread love around us and also be expressive about it. It is such a beautiful feeling, why keep it inside? We should spread enough of it around to come back to us.

 

Its a lovely thought, isn’t it!!

RaGa is an IDEA

Last week saw RaGa give his first personal interview to a TV channel. Till now the mom and the son have not even taken questions at a press conference – they find it easier to read out from printed sheets of paper and then walk away when they are done. RaGa has also found it tremendously inconvenient to speak in the parliament as an MP. His attendance in the parliament would make any parents of school going children blush. He tried taking questions from students a couple of times in the past 5 years and the embarrassing results are on you tube for all to see.

 

So it was a time for a break from the tradition. It was a time for the “trial by fire” for the “sehazada” to break the shackles and let the country know on his view on important matters, to show that he can think on his feet and take some tough questions. Since his face was already splashed on the media campaign, it was time to go on “prime time” In the event that someone has missed it, the link as below –

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB_eWW5ttaM

 

The only problem was, they made some serious blunders on the way. These blunders made for one of the most hilarious shows that I have ever watched. Mind you, it is hilarious because you know that he has absolutely no chance of becoming the PM. Otherwise, the interview would have been a nerve wracking shocker. Let’s look at the blunders –

 

Blunder # 1 – Pick up Arnab as the interviewer

Classic. Now Arnab is a tough nut and he can be really nasty. He is also a bully. The congress media managers should have anticipated a big problem on their hands if RaGa was sitting across Arnab and the cameras were rolling, unless of course someone within the Congress team wanted to sabotage his career. RaGa should be thankful that Arnab was well behaved with him, he could easily have been nasty.

PS – Arnab was the most well behaved in his interview with Raj Thackrey. Put two bullies in front of one another and you would see the bigger bully prevail.

For those who haven’t seen it –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xosz_ut0U4U

 

Blunder # 2 – Brief him on the questions that might get asked

Whosoever briefed RaGa on the likely questions that could be asked did a very shoddy job. He protested in the middle of the interview, asking Arnab why he was not being asked the right questions. He also tried to cross question Arnab a couple of times. Any mortal interviewer would have fallen for the same, not Arnab. Go back to Blunder # 1. Put a reluctant politician in front of a serious journalist and what you get is a laugh riot.

 

Blunder # 3 – Close Up of RaGa

By the second half of the interview you could see RaGa sweating. He is literally facing the heat of Arnab’s questions. The red ears indicate a rush of blood to the brains – after a long time I guess.   

 

We should really appreciate the courage and the dedication of the Congress spokespersons. They came in the media with after the interview and defended the indefensible. With a straight face they said that what the nation saw was the sincere and honest man doing a good job of what he was supposed to do. They were correct, only if they were talking of Arnab!!

 

The best part was in the middle of the interview. Lalu is an idea, said RaGa to an amused country. No sir, you are an idea, and a funny one at that. You should look at my circumstances to see what and who RaGa is. I am a serious politician who may also be vulnerable. I only mention my family name twice – the press just keeps showing the same things again and again. I have gone through a lot of hardships in life. Phew. Too much burden for the young shoulders to carry.

 

The best part is the number of jokes that the interview generated (Alok Nath has sent a personal thank you note to RaGa for taking the heat off him). My favourite? RaGa will now be the mascot for NaMo for PM campaign – the volunteers will be distributed masks of RaGa and the sight of the same will send voters lining up the polling booths to vote for NaMo.

 

But we must not feel bad for RaGa, we have short memories and are forgiving of such small blunders. The serious point is that this is why one needs enough practice in the middle to get ready for the big role. His father was also a reluctant politician who was parachuted in the job after the assassination of Mrs Gandhi. On the other hand RaGa is being groomed for the position. Groomed for too long I say. You need to work hard to be prepared while being groomed sir. While there is no problem in taking 2 month long holidays every year away from the hustle and bustle of this country, please spend the remaining 10 months wisely.  

 

PS – This was the edited version of the interview. Just the thought of what the unedited version contains tickles me!!

 

Next week we take a break from politics and go back to philosophy.

Why I will vote for NaMo and you should too

Last week we looked at the qualifications of the leading candidates who want to lead the nation and found (not surprisingly) that NaMo is the most suitable. Weather he fulfils his destiny to become the PM of the country will depend on the electoral mood of the nation, which clearly is yearning for a change.

 

NaMo’s opponents realise his popularity with the masses and have some serious allegations against him. On the eve of our Republic Day let us see if the charges against “the best man to lead the country” hold up –

 

NaMo has done little. Gujarat has always been well off

For those who debate that his state has been “traditionally” high growth and well off, please note that delivering such growth on the back of such a high base takes serious effort. Explained simply, for someone scoring 90% in exams, going to 95% needs unimaginable hard work. On the other hand, for someone scoring 30% to go to 50% is not so difficult. The critics can always say that the absolute growth in numbers (20 vs 5) make the second child better. But the fact is otherwise. To keep a state which is already doing well to keep doing better needs serious work. NaMo deliverers on this.

 

No internal democracy

NaMo keeps all the power. NaMo does not delegate. NaMo is the only face of the Gujarat government. NaMo does not let other leaders emerge from his shadows.

And who makes these allegations? The party where one “family” calls all the shots. A party where the decisions of the family cannot be questioned. A party whose elected government has to abide by the instructions of a family member on bills and ordinances. Come on, give me a break!! Let us not encourage such double standards. 

 

Godhra

This is the most serious allegation against NaMo. This is the “Brahmastra” which his detractors use when they are about to lose the debate against him. Mention this and his supporters are supposed to meekly surrender. He is a communal man from a communal party and Godhra is proof, they say. It is important to note that Gujarat has a history of communal riots. Prior to 2002, there were four riots in Ahmedabad with a toll of 912, and three riots in Surat and Vadodara with a toll of 197. About 30 percent of the 1,267 killed in the post-Godhra violence were from the majority community. There have been 17 major riots (more than 100 deaths) since 1967 in India, ten took place under Congress/Allies rule, four under other parties and three under BJP rule. Outlook did a brilliant article on the subject

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?280032

Sanjeev Nayyar also has a brilliant post on the subject –

http://www.firstpost.com/india/not-just-modi-guide-to-communal-riots-before-2002-and-after-688714.html

Let me also state my position on the matter very clearly here. I am totally for the harshest punishment to people who provoke/aid/abet these riots. But the statistics are very clear. The most secular party has been in power when 60% of the major riots have happened. But that can also be because they have been in power for long (too long). However the question that remains to be answered is that why people behind these go unpunished? Is it not the responsibility of those in power to empower the system in such a way that guilty in such acts are always punished? If not, how can you remain secular?

Coming back to NaMo. Godhra happened in 2002. He has been the CM of the state since then and there have been NO RIOTS in the previous 12 years. This in a state that used to see one incident every 5 years. The courts have not found him guilty. However if you listen to his opponents you would believe that he is a mass butcher of the minority community. But then, as above, the facts portray a completely different picture.  

 

Now that we have dismantled the accusations against him, let us look at why he should lead the nation. We look at the softer aspects today, the hard facts have been considered in the last week’s blog –

 

Moved up the ranks

NaMo started at the lowest ranks. Look at where he is today. I seriously believe that he has a lot further to go. He has delivered on all the roles given to him by the party. He has grabbed all opportunities by both hands. He has no famous last name, no big daddy to back him up. I like him because can relate to him as most professionals would. He delivered first and then asked for a bigger responsibility.

 

No blots on image

This is the strongest point in favour of NaMo. He has spent more than 30 years in public life, the last 15 as the CM of Gujarat. He is under intense scrutiny of the media and his political opponents. I am sure they are trying very hard to dig up NaMo’s dirty secrets, to find something that can be used against him. And what do they come up with? Some surveillance of a young woman which was so laughable that it was quickly forgotten. A hindi proverb potrays this the best “dig up a mountain only to find a mouse”. We need to think hard about this – 30 years in public life and not a blemish. No nepotism. No corruption. No misgovernance. No fraud. No greed. No lapse of moral judgement. Highest integrity. Here is a leader who has the cleanest of records and an enviable delivery standard.

Is there any leader in the current crop that can boast of this? This is why my vote in this LS election will go to NaMo and yours should too.

 

It is very easy to get carried away by the misinformation campaigns. We need to dig deeper to see the truth for ourselves. I hope the above will help people make up their minds on whom they will support in the forthcoming LS elections. Make no mistake, these elections are the most important ever and each one of us should take an informed decision for the betterment of our society and nation.

 

Comments are welcome!!

The best man to lead the country

This year we will vote for the man who would lead the country for the next 5 years. When I say the next 5 years I am hoping that we as a country will vote for a decisive mandate to the most deserving candidate. The choice seems to be between Mr Narendra Modi (NaMo), Mr Rahul Gandhi (RaGa) and Mr Arvind Kejriwal (AK). I am leaving out the other hopefuls like Miss Mayawati, Mamta Di, Mr Patnaik or Mr Nitish Kumar as this year their chances look slim, they will have to nurse their dreams a little longer.

 

It is heartening to note that this election has become about the PM candidate and not for the respective parties. In the week that has passed since my last blog the Congress has decided not to name their PM candidate. This is a foolish move in my view and I bet they will find another Manmohan Singh to name as their PM candidate before the elections are over. The “model” of the family holding all the power and a puppet becoming PM serves them well. Doesn’t matter if this model has badly hurt the country, it serves the first family very well.

 

Till now the debates had been NaMo vs RaGa and the result of the debates were causing serious acidity troubles to the Congress loyalists (mind you, there still are many in spite of the overwhelming anger against them). Enter AK. Out of nowhere he has arrived at the scene and captured the imagination of the people with his simple message and accessibility. In the process he has broken the notions that elections in India cannot be fought without money and muscle power and that it is very difficult for newcomers to shake things up.

 

Let us go through the credentials of all these candidates and see which one is the best suited for the top job. No emotion, no hysteria, just plain facts and qualifications to help us in making our decision.

 

Name – Narendra Damodrdas Modi

Age – 63 years (17 Sep 1950)

Educational Qualifications – Masters degree in Political Science from Gujarat University

Track record – Outstanding. Stupendous. Has delivered growth and governance.

Promise – Governance and Growth. Taking India to its rightful place in the world order.

Family Background – Was born in a grocer family, the third of 6 children.

Work Experience –

Has been working from an early age, famously as a chaiwalla

Became an RSS member at a young age

Rose through the ranks of the BJP becoming the CM of Gujarat and the PM candidate of the BJP

Media Score –

Was written off earlier but the momentum that he is generating has led to the blunting of the attack on him

Claim to fame –

Has been the longest serving CM of Gujarat, serving his 4^th term currently

What’s at stake –

Everything. If he fails to deliver the 272 Lok Sabha seats for the BJP then expect a clamour from within his own party to even throw him out of Gujarat.

Proverbial “destiny’s child”

 

Name – Arvind Kejriwal

Age – 46 years (16 Aug 1968)

Educational Qualifications – Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur

Track Record – Outstanding as a leader to start a political party and become the CM. Poor as a CM.

Promise – Corruption free governance, power back to the people

Family Background – was born in a well educated family, has 2 siblings

Work Experience –

Worked for Tata Steel for 4 years and about 10 years in the Income Tax Department

Media Score –

Is a darling of the media, am intrigues to note that the media is always present in full strength at all the places that he visits.

Claim to fame –

Was a prominent face of the Anna Hazare movement, came from nowhere to become the CM of Delhi, holds the promise to deliver corruption free government and give power back to the people 

What’s at stake - 

Not much, still has a lot of time on hands, need to deliver in Delhi

Proverbial “underdog”

 

Name – Rahul Rajiv Gandhi (although Subramanium Swamy disputes that)

Age – 44 years (19 June 1970)

Educational Qualifications – Degrees in internal relations and philosophy from universities of Rollins & Cambridge

Track record – None. Who needs it when you have a famous last name.

Promise - Socialism

Family Background –No need to explain who he is

Work experience – Has been an MP for the past 10 years, the constituency he represents in UP is one of the most backward in the country.

Media Score – The media has been very kind to him. You tube has many videos which if someone else would have said would have created a storm.

Claim to fame –

Great Grand Dad, Grand Mom, Dad sacrificed a lot for the country.  The royal blue blood of the Nehru family runs in his veins. Has been totally ineffective in reviving the fortunes of the Congress whenever he has campaigned for elections

Proverbial “man with the golden spoon”

 

It becomes abundantly clear from this that NaMo is the man to lead the country, there cannot be any comparison between the candidates. But then his opponents also have serious things to say against him. 

 

Next week we will examine the major charges against NaMo and see if they hold up.

The tough questions that AAP and its supporters need to answer

AAP has become the darling of the media. It has been on the front page of all newspapers and the prime time of all news channels for the past one month. Indeed what they have achieved in such a short span of time deserves this adulation, but I am sorry to note that coverage has been really cosmetic. Let us dig a bit deep into the phenomenon and the promise of the AAP and their performance till date.  

 

Playing to the gallery – transfer of officers

What is the first thing you do after you come to power? Transfer officers. If you have enough background on them to know that they are corrupt so as to transfer them on the first day of office then why not suspend and prosecute them? Maybe because you just are playing to the galleries and want to “show” rather than “take” action. Officers have been transferred innumerable times in this country and nothing worthwhile has come out of that. No sir, transfer of a few beauracrats does not mean action against corruption. Start from the top, send a couple of big netas to jail. The minnows will then have no courage then to be corrupt. My question is – do you have the courage to take action against them? I am hoping that you will and am watching you, like is most of the country. But if only applause is what you are looking for then other professions are better suited for the same. 

 

Socialism and subsidies – water, electricity

Socialism has failed across the world, India included. We have been the victims of various socialist experiments of the Congress party. While no person in his right mind is against special benefits for the weaker sections of the society, the problem is the delivery mechanism and targeting of these subsidies. Free water is a terrible idea. So is cheap electricity (where are the environmentalists? Can a scarce resource like water be subsidised for one sixth of the world population?) In fact, free anything is always a terrible idea. Nothing in this world is free, there is a price attached to everything, there should be a price attached to everything. You want to be fair to the customers – create fair competition and let the market forces determine the correct price of the output. What purpose will the audits serve – creating more watchdogs to oversee institutions is a recipe for more corruption.

 

Congress style – keep promising, not delivering

Congress has said “garibi hataao” for the last 65 years but hasn’t delivered. 

Your poll plank was corruption and the need to tackle the same. Great intentions but I haven’t seen anything till now to see you delivering these promises. I hope that you turn out very different than Congress on this.

 

What about issues of national importance

Your colleague’s views on Kashmir were quickly dismissed as his personal, although this is the second time in the last year that he has raked up this issue. We are surrounded by hostile countries. What happens in the event or the possibility of war? Or economic crisis? Or a national crisis? We need clarity on these issues and see your performance for at least a full term before seriously considering you for a national level role, no matter what the media says.

 

Pied Piper

AK is being called the pied piper the way people seem to be blindly following him. Remember, the story ended badly for the rats, the children and the town of Hamlin.

 

The biggest danger

You targeted corruption and then took support of the most corrupt party to come to power, your opinion poll (an elaborate cover up) notwithstanding. So what has happened? The peoples mandate was decisively anti Congress – it was divided between you and the BJP. By aligning up with the party that the people voted against, have you not gone against the very mandate of the aam aadmi you proudly represent? Your supporters will say that you had to fulfil the promises that you made and you saved the people the entire trouble of re elections. But what about your promise of action against “bhrast netas” Most of them are in the state Congress. I hope you will have the courage to take action against them.

 

Congress is happy

The nation will vote against Congress this year. The congress is happy that they have a willing partner who will take away some of this vote from their sworn opponent BJP. Now that the “Delhi Model” of a corrupt party supporting a clean party from outside has been established, many in the grand old party are dreaming the same experiment will be played out in Delhi. AAP will hope to win 20 lok sabha seats and the Congress with less than 100 seats will hope to give them and other rag tags an outside support. Keep BJP out at all costs is the strategy that the Congress has adopted and you are being used for the same, I would say willingly. There are no foes in politics, many would say. But you shouldn’t go against your “core” principals. You did claim not to be a normal political party anyway.

 

What’s the hurry

You need to deliver and then ask for a larger mandate. AK’s favourite dialogue “mai aam aadmi hu, meri koi aukaat nahi hai” seems sincere. You have made your promises, now deliver them, get experience and then ask for a national mandate. Don’t just rush into things, set your house (Delhi) in order first. We hold elections every 5 years in this country so take it one step at a time. Unless you are not sure about yourself and your backers are so worried about NaMo coming to power that they want to keep him out “at all costs” 

 

I admit that it is too early to pass judgement. They have forced both the large national parties to clean up their act, brought back the spotlight on corruption and encouraged more voter turnout in elections, the candidates now would largely be with a clean background. The expectations are high and I hope that you deliver.

 

For delivering you will need to focus on Delhi to fulfil your promises. Don’t expend your energies. We Indians are unforgiving and hate being taken for a ride.

 

Next week I will compare the credentials of NaMo vs RaGa vs AK to see who is the best man to lead the nation.

Build on the momentum – the right thing to do for the BJP

The results of the recently held state elections proved a few things beyond any doubt –

 

1.       If the elections are a referendum of who should be India’s PM then the clear winner will be NAMO.

2.       There is an anti Congress wave in the country – which party benefits from the same remains to be seen.

3.       Agenda for clean and effective governance will find a lot of takers – the emergence of AAP should be seen in this context.

4.       The coverage of the election results gave a feeling that the national media is still reserved in its acknowledgement of NAMO.

5.       Most importantly, Congress will do anything to retain power at the centre – either directly or indirectly (refer the current Delhi government).

 

Given the above it is very important for the BJP to come together strongly and project a united front to make sure that it builds on the momentum that it has generated. Unfortunately, it seems to be doing its best to shoot itself in the foot. Refer to the grand old man’s statement that the mandate refers to the good work done by the regional leaders/chief ministers. I am sure that the statement was made in some context but if you know the bias of the media, why give them a chance by making such statements?

 

Here is what the BJP should have done (and can still do) to build on the momentum –

 

1.       Call a national level meeting to celebrate the good performance in the state elections.

2.       Felicitate the state leaders in the meeting.

3.       Call the erstwhile NDA and fresh allies to join the next government.

4.       Let the national and state leaders (including Advaniji) call for making NAMO the PM of the country.

5.       Let NAMO use the forum to declare that he will not rest until he delivers a Congress (corruption) mukt Bharat.

6.       Let the cadre and supporters take an oath to say that they will not rest until the dreams of their senior leaders are fulfilled.

 

I am certain that NaMo on his own will deliver big for the BJP but if the above is done it will make the task easier and the results much better. This election is for the BJP to make into a close contest from a no contest and they seem to be doing the same. The momentum is clearly with them, it just needs some smart planning and execution to deliver a result that will leave the critics astounded.

 

As promised, next week I will write on the policies of the AAP and hope that they take a U turn from the current destructive journey that they have embarked on.