The Elephant Rope

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.

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Leaders must shun making hate speeches during elections

Hate speeches of any kind whether it is against any individual, political party , leaders or for that matter against any community on religious and secular grounds, need to  be condemned in the strongest term as it only breeds contempt and hatred. History is replete with examples with politicians, individuals and also people from different religious sects making hate speeches and try to derive political and religious mileage by pitting one community or a section of the society against other.

Delivering hate speeches for short term gains, will   only imperil unity and integrity of our country and will create a divide between two sections or for that matter among different sections of the society. Frequency of hate  speeches gains steam  more often during election time when  leaders of political parties in an attempt to score over their political opponents  make  use of such languages  and remarks which are not only derogatory, undemocratic and give rise to communal flare-up but also creates a deep divide in the social and cultural fabric of our country.

One should understand the fact that no individual, political leader, religion or religious seer is above than nation and for them pride, purity, unity and integrity and reputation of  the country should essentially reign supreme in their mind.

With Parliamentary elections just a month away, leaders of our country must desist from making hate speeches against each other to derive political mileage. It is a welcome move that the Apex Court (the Supreme Court of India) of country, taking a serious note of  this social malady, has asked the Law Commission to look into the matter and frame guidelines on curbing hate speeches which not only destroy the fabric of democracy but also violate the provisions of the Constitution  and its hate speeches laws   which aim to prevent discord among its many ethnic and religious communities and allow a citizen to seek the punishment of anyone who shows the citizen disrespect "on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever".

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Choose a govt which can deliver goods

With our country inching towards the end of current general elections, the onus of electing a non-corrupt and performance driven government which can  govern the nation well and  can deliver its promises and commitments made to the people of the country in an effective way, squarely lays on us. The ongoing  Lok Sabha  elections which will witness sixth phase of polling today, assumes significance more so because of the fact that it will see participation of the highest number of young as well as the first time voters who will be exercising their franchise.

The country over the years has witnessed a marked shift in the voting patterns. Unlike the past, when religion, caste used to be the main  influencing factors in moulding opinions of the voters, things have undergone a sea change with issues of corruption, development, price rise, welfare of common people, crimes emerging as dominant factors for the common electorates to cast their votes.

Voters of today unlike the past cannot be cowed down by empty rhetoric of our politicians. Gone are the days when politicians used to derive political mileage by whipping up communal and religious sentiments of the people and formed governments both at the centre as well as in states. Elections in various states in the past few years have categorically shown that elections in India can no more be won by caste or religion based politics. If the government of the day fails to deliver, voters are mature enough to oust it from the power. Assembly election results of the key Indian states which went to the polls last year are testimony to this fact that only those  states which performed well have been voted back to power.

As far as ensuing general elections  are concerned, the issues of price rise, corruption at various level, inflation, lack of employment opportunities , crime against women, recession in economy have been dodging the common people and they want to get rid of these problems for once and all. Keeping in mind the sentiments of the people, almost all the political parties which are in the electoral fray this year have made these issues as its  main electoral planks but there are parties which keep raking communal and religious issues to polarize votes in its  favours and derive electoral mileage.

It is high time the valued  voters of our country needed to be wary of parties playing divisive politics and should consciously vote for those candidates and parties  which can arrest issues of price rise, corruptions and which can provide security, employment opportunities to its people without any malice towards  any section of the society.

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Cast votes sensibly, intelligently

The electoral process for India’s biggest ever general elections is already underway. Over the next six weeks more than half a billion Indians will go to 930,000 polling stations across the country to cast their votes for  the 16th general elections. However, unlike previous elections, the young and first time voters will likely to play decisive  role in the formation of next government. In fact it is the young and 120 million first time voters who will decide the  destiny of the nation for the next five years.

With growing level of political awareness in the country,  the participation of young people in the electoral process as well as in the Indian parliamentary elections though has seen an enthusiastic rise in the past few elections, their dedicated participation in the electoral process is still a far cry.

However, thanks to growing political awareness in the country, of late, educated people, intelligentsia and youths from various streams in the society are actively taking a plunge into Indian politics. Besides growing political awareness, their increased participation in the political system of the country has also been necessitated by  series of scams which rocked the country in the past few years, poor economic growth, lack of employment opportunities as well as  deteriorating law and order positions. Youths of today appear to get set to take a plunge into electoral politics and clear the rot that has set in our society as well as in our government machineries at various levels.

History is replete with examples that majority of the political leaders in our country were voted to power, notwithstanding their questionable credentials. This was obviously because of lack of political maturity of the people who by and large chose to vote on caste and religious lines, And once these leaders of questionable integrity and reputation got elected, they forgot about those who voted for them and indulged themselves in all kinds of unethical things in pursuit of  fame and money, hardly caring for their voters.

It is high time, the youth and first time voters of our country took a united stand to     oust those from power who brought disrepute to our society as well as our country and elect a leader who  can govern the country well, who can arrest ills of our society, who can provide jobs to  our unemployed youths, who   can protect our  women, girls, who can provide equal opportunities to all sections of the  society to prosper and grow, who can curb inflation, who can arrest phenomenal price rise the country has witnessed in the recent past.

The current  general elections have provided a great opportunity to our youths to make use of their voting rights sensibly, intelligently and cast their votes for only those whom they think can deliver goods  and who can govern the country well.

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Let lord Rama be your ideal

Let lord Rama be your ideal…..

The festival of Ram Navami is being celebrated today throughout the world to mark the birth of lord Rama, who is believed to be one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu.

According to Hindu tradition, the four goals of life are Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha are important. All are necessary for a full, complete, fulfilling life. Dharma (religion ) is translated loosely as the “path of righteousness.” Artha is the fulfillment of one’s career or professional path. Kama is the fulfillment of one’s path of physical intimacy (i.e. marriage) and Moksha is the attainment of God realization.

Bhagwan Rama teaches us that when, given the choice, Dharma must be chosen over Artha. When, Bhagwan Rama’s father, Dashratha, the King of Ayodhya, is compelled to banish Rama to the forest for 14 years instead of coronating him as King, Bhagwan Rama takes the path of Dharma by peacefully and agreeably leaving the Kingdom for the forest rather than choosing the path of Artha, his duty as future King of Ayodhya. Then, at the end of the Ramayana, Bhagwan Rama shows us to choose Moksha over Kama.

That lord Rama was a embodiment of all good virtues in life. The mythological epic – the Ramayana talks about the journey of lord Rama’s eventful journey on the earth as an ideal son, an ideal brother, an ideal husband and an ideal king. His life teaches us as how one can make a perfect balance in all his relationships by following path of religion.
As a son lord Rama teaches us to respectfully obey your father’s orders. Sacrifice your own comfort for your father’s dignity. Lord Rama teaches us  -- that as a step-son even when your step mother (or mother-in-law...) is not kind to you, even when she clearly discriminates against you in favor of her own birth child, do not resent her, do not fight against her. Respect her and her wishes.
He teaches us that as a brother, remain loyal to your brother and care for him. As a husband protect your wife, fight for her protection and her purity. But there are times when one’s divine path must even take precedence over the path of householder. He teaches us that as a King, sacrifice everything for your people. Do not worry about your own comfort, your own convenience or your own pleasure. Be willing to put the Kingdom ahead of your own needs.

One who prayers and worships lord Rama with love and worshipfulness becomes large-hearted, pure in spirit, good-natured and dispassionate in thought, word and deed. A true devotee of Lord Rama is his representative, with his power and His knowledge.

Let lord Rama be your ideal. One cannot be a real worshipper of Lord Rama unless one makes an honest attempt to grow in the virtues that the Lord represents. 

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Take care of your health, body

The World Health Day is celebrated by the people across the world every year on April 7 to draw attention of people at mass level towards the importance of global health. It was during the World Health Assembly in 1948 when a decision was taken to celebrate the World Health Day every year on April 7 under the aegis of the World Health Organization, primarily to generate the common public awareness towards the health issues and concerns.

World Health Day targets all the health issues on global  basis and focuses on increasing the life expectancy by adding good health to the lives of people  and promoting healthier living habits.. Since its establishment, the WHO has addressed serious health issues including chickenpox, polio, smallpox, TB. Leprosy, etc. from various developing countries and has played a significant role aiming to make the world a healthy world.

Every year, a particular theme is chosen to celebrate the World Health Day at global level. While last year, the theme of the World Health Day was  `Healthy heart beat, Healthy blood pressure, this year the WHO has chosen `Vector-borne disease’ as the theme of the World Health Day 2014.

It is ironical that despite tremendous advancement in the medical field across the world, a complete control on vector-borne diseases like Malaria, Dengue, Lymphatic, Felariasis, Kala-azar, Japanese Encephalitis and Chikungunya in India is still appears to be a far cry notwithstanding the fact the Directorate of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, a central nodal agency has taken several measures for the prevention and control of vector borne diseases.

Reversing the trend of emergent/resurgent vector-borne diseases is a major challenge. Vaccines, available for only a few diseases (yellow  fever, Japanese encephalitis, tick-borne encepha-litis, tularemia, plague), are not widely used. Vaccine prospects for major vector-borne dis-eases are not good. With the exception of malaria, few other vector-borne diseases have funding for vaccine research.

As the whole world is celebrating the World Health Day today, we all need to pay equal concern to our health, like we pay to other materialistic things in our lives. Ironically in this fast-paced world we   are so pre-0ccupied to achieve our professional goals that concern for our health has taken a back seat.

So take care of your body as it is the only place you have to live in.

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