Demonetisation is more like Remoraliztion

Demonitisation cannot remove corruption. Nothing that government does can ever remove corruption. Because Indian society started to accept corruption as not just a way of life, but the way of life. Most of us are not explicilty corrupt because we don't have the opportunity. An example is the the way some of the bankers suddenly found an opportunity opportunity. This does not prove everyone is innately corrupt. Let me explain my position in detail.

Why majority of us are corrupt?

One of my friend's son wants to admit his son in a college which emphasizes on moral values than on secular education, so that, he can develop a great character.   The college has a very highly competitive entrance examination. This friend asked me if I know someone in the college who can get his son a confirmed admission. He did not find this request ironical at all. Most of us may not find it ironical because we have come to believe that it is our right to seek out-of-turn favors.

We seek out-of-turn favour even for a railway berth when we have a confirmed RAC seat but find it OK to be bounced off an overbooked flight. I mean, our journeys are not always that urgent that we are under stress. We are okay to pay a traffic police a small bribe to avoid paying a fine for traffic violation we shouldn't have committed to begin with.  We are okay to procure subsidized grains, sugar, kerosine, gas even if we are rich enough to afford the same. We are okay to use reservations (in schools, colleges and jobs) meant to make up for economically downtrodden castes, even though we are financially well off.  Sometimes even forward castes and rich families use fake certificate to utilize these.

Those examples cover many of us, but to prove it is most of us, let's take the example of our elections. Even if we have an opportunity to elect an honest person, we would usually choose a corrupt one. There were a few honest politicians who tried in the past. Either they were forced to turn corrupt or they failed. We have our own reasons for choosing corrupt politicians. If we are poor we vote for money or alcohol. If we are lower middle class we vote for freebies like TV in one state, free electricity in another and loan waiver in the third.  If we are upper middle class or rich, we want a person who can do us favours like out-of-turn college seats, jobs, contracts and licenses. Due this, we end up electing corrupt politicians and then lament that they are corrupt. Most of us are morally bankrupt and we don't even know that. Ironically, we tend to see others as corrupt, without looking at our own selves in the mirror.  

Why Demonetisation will fail

In January 2015, I was volunteering in a village and we went for a visit to the temple of village godess which as per custom is outside the village. The narrow path that lead to the temple was very dirty. Villages have of using the area around the path as their toilet. I asked them, if they were aware of a government scheme to subsidize toilets for individual homes. Their answer surprised me. Most villagers have already used the scheme and claimed money from the government. And yet no one construced a single toilet, they just produced bills for constructing toilets. One may argue that the villagers needed money more urgently than toilets. Obviously, someone who is a government servant (probably village development officer) had also confirmed that toilets were constructed. I see it as concentrating on short term benefits than the long term ones. All the schemes of government tend to fail because people find ways to play the system for short term benefits.

So, demonetization will fail too. Not because people who have black money will want to play the system, but because those who do not have black money want a piece of the black pie.  Government  may come up with strict punitive measuers, but these people will find ways around them. When there are floods, water will find a way around the dam somehow. Similarly , a nation with a majority of morally bankrupt individuals will find way around any anti-corruption measures.

Why Demonetisation will succeed

And yet, Demonetisation will succeed, not in removing black money, but in sensitizing people about moral values.

• We have shut the mouth of conscience all these days because we could justify our actions, by saying everyone does it. Thus our inner control failed. 
• We had stopped fearing law because corrupt money helped us overcome law. Government controls failed. 
• Soceity started to admire money more than moral values. This meant that the means we use to earn money did not matter anymore, only the fact that a person is rich mattered. In fact moral values were considered weaknesses and morally upright individuals incapable or impracticle. Thus social controls failed.

With Demonetisation and subsequent IT raids, a few people started to fear a bit. Some are finding ways to take bribes in indirect and hidden ways instead of doing it in openly and brashly like before. Some are thinking twice before flaunting their wealth acquired through corrupt means. Governmental controls are beginning to have some impact.

Armed with this new impact, society finds it easier to look at the means of earning riches and not blinded by the riches alone. While the balance between means and ends is no where close, at least people are deriding corrupt people openly. This is giving rise to some uncomfortable but healthy conversations around good and bad. Here is summary of one such conversation I received as a forward.

"I was travelling by an autorickshaw and the driver was very appreciative of the Demonetization move. Then he admitted that that he has 5 lakhs in cash as his savings that he needs to deposit, but he doesn't know how.  He then elaborated that he earns 4 to 5 lakhs a year through his autorickshaw. I asked if he is not paying income tax for this, isn't that black money?  He remained silent."

Such conversations during an auto ride prior to demonetization would have never happened. If they did, the auto driver would have derided(pun intended) the passenger for his naivette. Social and individual morals are back under scanner. This is what I call as remoralisation of the society. Even, criminals who get easy money by being mules for drug traficking, human traficking or arms are out of jobs due to lack of free flow of cash. Hopefully this pause in their routine hopefully brings in a rethink of ethics behind their jobs.

Why remoralisation may never happen
In spite of all these conversations, it would be easy to shut our consciences, stop all the conversations around morality and find ways to be corrupt. The majority who have already been indoctrinated with corruption may never change. Society may never change.

Or it may.

It all depends on what we want to do as a society and where we want to be. It depends on the long term benefit we see in being morally upright vs. the short term benefit in being morally bankrupt. Government can do only so much - like

• making it difficult to be corrupt by digitization and transparency in government transactions. 
• making it tough to hide black money by imposing digital transactions and recruiting honest IT officials. 

But it is upto us, as a society, if we want to use this opportunity to find our moral value back or to slither back into the moral less abyss. Upto us to choose long-term benefits to the society over short term benefits to the self. Upto us to overcome animal tendencies to hoard things and start being a social being.

God's Favourite Avatar

Once there was this Facebook post on which an atheist and I had an argument. I wrote my argument in a comment and was anxiously waiting for him to “like” it rather than retort. Unfortunately, he retorted with a long comment, to which I responded with an even longer comment. After a few such rounds, the length of each comment was bordering on the size of an essay. At the end of it, we stopped not because we were convinced but because we were tired of writing such long comments. Throughout this exercise I was thinking "Why can't this guy understand such a simple thing? It’s so obvious that there is God." And this thought kept building a rage inside me and by the end of it I was drained of all energy.

I had always been accused on getting emotional with my arguments, while I believed I was completely logical and rational with my arguments. That was the first time I realized that there is quite a bit of emotion attached to my arguments. If the argument left any bitter aftertaste, it was definitely not in my mouth. I think I continue the relationship as if the argument never happened.  What I realized during this incident was that I am very attached to my ideas. In my mind, my point of view is absolutely logical, easy to understand and right. Thinking about, I find it funny that I have to be so passionate about my view point, because I know that my views keep evolving over time. They are never constant, and yet at a particular point of time, I feel strongly about them.

That’s probably why many of world’s biggest massacres were not fight for power as much struggle based on ideological differences. From the crusades to twin towers, it had always been “I am right, you are wrong”. First World-war had many reasons, but it precipitated due to an assassination of the prince of Hungary followed by Hungary making demands with impossible deadlines. Hungary thought they were right in their demands, and it resulted it so much of human lives sacrificed. Hitler killed so many Jews because he doesn’t agree with their beliefs.

On the other hand, no one can fight more bitterly than brothers in arms. “Greatest of hatred can arise only out of Greatest of love.” Some of the family feuds run for generations and in most cases the fight would have started on a petty issue. People in undivided India were living like brothers, until the thought of partition was planted and now India and Pakistan are bitter enemies for no apparent reason.

The word “Islam” means peace and surrender. Sunnis and Shias follow essentially same religion, except for who were their leaders. They have very minor differences in the traditions that are not even noticeable to an outsider. And yet they have been fighting bitter wars between them. Protestants and other sects of Christianity have only philosophical differences. They ultimately believe in Christ and Bible and yet there were so many wars resulting in loss of millions of people. The cause is often petty, but more importantly forgotten. What is remembered is only the bitter animosities and avenging the previous bloodshed.  And the best part is that everyone believes that they are protecting the true lineage of their Prophet.

Essentially, Jews believe in all the prophets before Jesus, while Christians believe all the prophets before Muhammed and Muslims believe in all the Prophets. If all the prophets are teaching a path to God, why is there so much of conflict? Why couldn’t there be a clear cut guidelines by the first Prophet Abraham with a list of names and/or insignia to come? Why couldn’t the Prophets like Jesus and Mohammed clearly establish the fact that they were the prophets of same lineage and make sure that everyone follows same religion?

"Why didn’t Shiridi Sai Baba clearly mention where he will be born to everyone before he passed away so that there will be no confusion? Why didn’t Sathya Sai Baba make sure that all Shiridi Sai Baba’s followers believe that he is a reincarnation? Why didn’t he leave clear instructions of how to find his future incarnation? We may now be confused with many people claiming they are reincarnations of swami.

Context for the previous Paragraph:  Across the world millions of Sathya Sai Baba beleive in Three incarnations of  him:  Shiridi Sai Baba (1835-1918), Sathya Sai Baba, (1926-2011)  and Prema Sai Baba (expected this Century. These followers belong to various religions and follow their own religions but also revere Sai Baba. However, millions of Shiridi Baba followers did not expect Sathya Sai Baba and so they don't follow him. Millions are Sathya Sai Baba followers don't know how exactly will the next incarnation be.  

It could be because God doesn’t care if there are so many differences and there are fights. I don’t like this argument because sending in a prophet or an avatar is a “conscious” decision which is meant to change the way humanity flows and this cannot be without care for the consequences. Given these conditions, my conclusion is that “God loves conflict”. He is more of a Narada than Narayana. (Narada is a devotee of God who through his Mischief caused tiffs between highly ferocious Demons and God and ultimately meet their end).

That statement seems atrocious at worst and counter intuitive at best.  Let me try to support it. The world as created by Lord is of duality. We have light vs. darkness, love vs. hatred and truth vs. untruth. From this point of view, it’s given that He created conflict as much as love. But does He love conflict as opposed to peace? If that is the case why would He again and again preach Love through his Avatars and Prophets. For the same reason, Narada is known to be goading a demon against Indra so that ultimately the demon is killed. 

Ego based on ideologies is arguably the strongest demon created by our mind. The best way to face the demon is to bring it out into open by creating a variety of ideologies. When this demon comes out we automatically develop hatred to our brethren and destroy them to our best of our abilities. God probably is waiting for the day we overcome this urge and instead destroy the internal demon. May be He is waiting for the day we become less judgmental of others thoughts and beliefs. May be he is waiting for us to fall deeply into love which is the only thread connecting all the ideologies, humans and in fact the entire universe.

Hope one day we will be able to appreciate the Narada Avatar of Lord as much as Narayana Form. 

Ramadan month, to me, is always nostalgic , fascinating and heartwarming all at the same time. Nostalgic because I came to Bahrain three years ago just four days before Ramadan month and I had faced obvious and comic challenges with my food. For the uninitiated, In the middle east, restaurants are not open during day day time for the entire Ramadan month. During off days, I neither had access to the office canteen nor did I know how to cook.
Back from digression, this month is fascinating as I try and understand the will it takes to survive a whole month without eating or drinking for more than 12 hours a day. It is also fascinating to see how everyone young, old, male and female follow it religiously. I tried, and really failed at not having water. Heartwarming because Muslims (like all other religions) believe in be good, say good and do good and they implement it wholeheartedly during this month. They are nice to everyone, they pray a lot and indulge in charity.
However, the month ended on a bit of sad note, because of the furore over a mosque being built near ground zero, the site where WTC existed. Pastors burnt/defaced Qurans on EID day which coincided the 9th anniversary of 9/11 attacks. It set me wondering if US government did enough to prevent these events. Compared to this, what was the failure of Indian government in not being able to prevent the Babri Masjid Demolition, where the crowd involved was much larger and the political stakes much higher.
When I Googled how big Islam is in USA, I was surprised to know only 0.6% of population, i.e., 1.6 Crores are Muslims. In contrast the Muslim population in India constitutes 13.43% or 15.5 Crores. Further India was the place of origin for four major religions of the world and cradle for four more religions from first millennium. And then we have innumerable sub beliefs in each of these religions. US speaks one language while India has 22 official languages and innumerable unofficial ones.
Yes, we did have religious clashes since many centuries including first millineum, but look at the number when compared to the number of religions we had. If we take the diversity into account, the relative number of flash points in India is really low when compared to the rest of the world. If we discount politically motivated instances, the number is actually negligible.
It is more of media rhetoric which gives us a feeling that India is divided on religious lines or otherwise. True, politicians are not sparing any efforts to do so, but in general we really are a tolerant community. As Sri Sri Ravishankar said even tolerance is a negative word, it is acceptance of the diverse beleifs and we are good at it.
On Eid day (Ramadan festival day), I was invited for a dinner to friends house, who happens to be a Pakistani Muslim. He invited only Hindus for the evening, because his Muslim friends were either back in Pakistan or were busy with other plans. While we were leaving, the hostess said "I called my mom in Pakistan and said I was inviting so and so, and she was surprised that I was inviting only Hindus. We don't really think like that, we think broader."
In India, it would have been a non event in the sense that Hindus are routinely invited for all Iftar parties and Eids. In fact in villages they celebrate the Hindu festivals with us and we celebrate the Ramadan with them. In fact as mom used to say, in my native village, when the processions of God are taken through village (like nagar sankirthan during gram seva) some of the palanquin bearers and the people breaking coconuts at each house used to be muslims. And no one found it even a weebit odd. It was just a festival for all villagers. This probably is the story across India, as I do not see any reason that my village had to be special.
We really lived together and we really do, excepting for the slight suspicions created by politicians. I find it strange when Europen schools make such a fuss over wearing a scarf, pagdi or other religious symbols to school. I fail to understand how that actually creates any issue, maybe because I have been brought up in such a tolerant country. I owe it to my country for making me a person with such acceptance. I owe it to the world to try and explain how to replicate this acceptance, though I am not really sure where to begin.

Paul the Octopus

There were so many times in my life when I have thought, if only i were someone else. Sometimes it can be a CEO, sometimes it is a sportsman and sometimes it is even a Film Hero. But never in my life I thought I would feel like this about an Octopus!! An octopus which is small enough to be confined to an aquarium. :)

Why would I not feel like this? He has his own wikipedia page, created by others in his honour, he has come in TV shows, and he even has 2.9 Million search results for himself in Google as of date and the number is growing by the second. He is famous, he is a brand today and he even has enemies!!! Looks like he is gathering fame through all his eight tentacles. I am utterly disadvantaged with only two hands to gather mine.

Imagine, when Spain won the football, the first thought that crossed millions of minds is 'Hey! Paul was right'. There were millions of facebook messages, millions of smses and a number of phonecalls just to say this. No one in my colleagues remembered that I also predicted the same. Forget me, most people across the world predicted the same, and yet these remain unsung heros, while Paul has gathered fame along with the molluscs.

And when I heard about the age of Paul, it is depressing. At a little more than 1/10th of my age, his fame is 1 million times more, only compounding my misery by another factor of 10. That lead me to the (soul?) searching question everyone is asking now a days "what exactly is an octopus capable of anyway?"

i was thinking, since its head does not seem to have any shape, he has obviously no brain, a prized possession which is protected by a hard skull in human. To my amazement I found that octopus is very intelligent sea creature. What more, his limbs have their independant brain as well. I was happy to note this, since I unconsciously became a fan of him, more like I do for many famous people. But, a colleague of mine walked to my desk and said, "Oh, then citibank can employ these Octopuses".

That is when the realization struck me how serious a competition this could be. With eight tentacles he can handle four times what I handle and would be very ambidextrous. All they would need is water proof keyboards which can float in aquariums. What more, if psychic is more natural state for them, then they can predict markets, consumer choices better than me. They can manage 'people' better because they know what the other person is thinking, though the 'people' itself may be redefined as Octopuses. I can imagine all the glass cabins at citi replaced with Glass aquariums.

Cost cutting! People will never cut employees anymore. All they need is a feed of mollusc on daily basis. Yes, training cost will increase given their short lifespan, but then there is no HRA, no family allowance, no life insurance and labour laws.

It is time to go with this idea to my bossess, No! directly to the CEO, because all these people would be replaced anyway. See you guys!!

Green World Ideas...

One idea which occurred to me.. Can Government incentivise people living closer to their offices. This will reduce the distance one has to travel and also traffic congestion which is an important reason for increased vehicular pollution.

Like tax incentive if you prove that you live less than 5 KM from your office. Ofcourse lots of bogus proofs will be there. But some level of genunity will atleast contribute to an extent....

At last, I am free to blog. I have been trying to write "something" since I came to Bahrain one year ago, but my blogger was refusing cooperation. Since I am in middle east, every time, I try to open blogger, the welcome page and all the pages appear in Arabic. I did not know how to change it back to English and I tried everything from blogger help to browser settings. Changed browser too..

Finally, today I was tweaking with the Arabic welcome page and was clicking on every button when I found that all I have to do is click on the Listbox on the left (may be right in English version) and change the language... What a relief?

Choice & Attitude

Last month I was busy applying for B Schools in US. While applying I worked very hard and was tensed about the work. Once I completed the applications I am very relaxed and not worried about the result. I figured I have nothing to loose. If I get through, it will be a great career, else, I still have a good career and a chance to apply again.

I have a friend who was also applying along with me. Both of us applied only to top few B Schools. Yesterday when we were chatting, she was worried about the result of admission. Her worry goes lik this, "If I get admission I will be separated from my spouse, except for weekends and if I don't get admission, I would be bored to death at home."

My Conclusion:
A positive thinker has two choices in life. To be happy with the Status Quo or to choose a better status that will enhance the happiness. His only issue is to put in hard-work into the choice.

A negative thinker has two choices too. To worry about the status quo or to move to an unknown status which will enhance the worry. And additionally his worry is how to choose.

Choosing to be a positive thinker is indirectly following Gita because one is not worried about the result, one just works hard.