A wise woman, who was travelling in the mountains, found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveller who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveller saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveller left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime.
However, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said. "I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone."
The ability to share involves the varied dimensions from the joint use of a resource to giving away one’s possession as an outright gift. We find it easier to share joint use, but find internal resistance is asked to part with our valuables, be they resources, knowledge or skills. Also for many of us, sharing is a comparative and reflexive activity. We give gifts to only those who give us gifts.
But the real development of our personality happens when we shed our insecurities towards our possessions. Consider knowledge for instance. Those who readily gift knowledge to the others are more worthy than the greatest of scholars who refuse to share their knowledge. In my profession, the most admired trainers are not the ones who give excellent training programs BUT trainers who have "nurtured" other trainers. Ditto for our most admired leaders. Note that they share both their treasures as well as their spirit...
The ability to gift without any preconditions of transaction helps develop new dimensions to our personality. By letting go, we liberate ourselves. By sharing, we enhance our relationship with the other person. By gifting, we empower our attitude and abilities.
To grow we must let go of the insecurities of possession
Let’s share our valuable gifts and ‘Develop new dimensions’!
Regards
Pravin
Monday, December 24, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
ALTERNATIVES
For every ailment under the sun, there is a remedy or there is none.
If there is one, find it… If there is none, never mind it!
The above verse reflected my attitudes and approaches in life as a teenager. It was sure-fire way to escape stress by just running away from the problem, if it could not be solved. It also involved being slave to a singular dimension of problem solving.
However travelling and interacting with people, especially in the villages, brought me face to face with the reality that single answers often mask the appropriate alternatives. Our major problem is we do not get to the root of the problem. Worse we get stuck to the same static solutions.
Consider “development” for instance. Destruction of existing resources in scarce regard to the stakeholders’ needs cannot be termed development. It is necessary to identify the priority issues confronting the nation and devise effective and appropriate alternatives to solve them. The emphasis has to be to promote sustainable national development and disseminating the means for creating sustainable livelihoods on a large scale, and regenerate the environment. It involves the innovative creation of appropriate technologies, responsive institutional systems and environmental and resource management methods.
Hence the last line of the verse of influence needs to be unlearnt and revised as follows:
If there is one, never mind it; if there is none, go ahead and find it
Progress cannot be exclusive to the elite segments of society. It should be done keeping in mind the immediate needs of our people and the larger vision for a better future for all. Hence it is pertinent to explore the multiple dimensions of appropriate alternatives to create the right development that will be people friendly, people relevant and people urgent. The smokescreen of lip service won’t do! The true alternatives have to be chosen over fallacious concepts.
The same static approach needs to digress
‘Develop new dimensions’ for real progress!
Regards
Pravin
If there is one, find it… If there is none, never mind it!
The above verse reflected my attitudes and approaches in life as a teenager. It was sure-fire way to escape stress by just running away from the problem, if it could not be solved. It also involved being slave to a singular dimension of problem solving.
However travelling and interacting with people, especially in the villages, brought me face to face with the reality that single answers often mask the appropriate alternatives. Our major problem is we do not get to the root of the problem. Worse we get stuck to the same static solutions.
Consider “development” for instance. Destruction of existing resources in scarce regard to the stakeholders’ needs cannot be termed development. It is necessary to identify the priority issues confronting the nation and devise effective and appropriate alternatives to solve them. The emphasis has to be to promote sustainable national development and disseminating the means for creating sustainable livelihoods on a large scale, and regenerate the environment. It involves the innovative creation of appropriate technologies, responsive institutional systems and environmental and resource management methods.
Hence the last line of the verse of influence needs to be unlearnt and revised as follows:
If there is one, never mind it; if there is none, go ahead and find it
Progress cannot be exclusive to the elite segments of society. It should be done keeping in mind the immediate needs of our people and the larger vision for a better future for all. Hence it is pertinent to explore the multiple dimensions of appropriate alternatives to create the right development that will be people friendly, people relevant and people urgent. The smokescreen of lip service won’t do! The true alternatives have to be chosen over fallacious concepts.
The same static approach needs to digress
‘Develop new dimensions’ for real progress!
Regards
Pravin
Monday, December 10, 2007
HUMAN RIGHTS
Today on Human Rights day, I remember the speech of advocate, Satish Sonak at a recent human rights workshop! Like a good mirror, it stripped the façade of an in-dignified world torn by riots, bloodshed and indifference. It is necessary for us to repeatedly remind ourselves that other human beings deserve the same dignity that we appropriate, nay grab, for ourselves.
The human rights watch word is 'right to live with dignity'. The marginalised, the ones who toil, the physically and mentally challenged must have equal claim on opportunities to learn and earn. Discrimination of all sorts has to be first unlearnt in our attitudes and then in our approaches.
Ironically, death does not kill the processes of prejudice. We have no respect for the living. We have no compassion for the dead. The mockery of human rights continues. We attack their dignity with all the weapons at our command. Our weapons are religion, caste and regionalism. The ‘right to die with dignity’ is compromised by our bigotry and intolerance. Rightful demand for non-discriminatory cemeteries and burial grounds are at best ignored.
Human rights are a much ignored value system in a world that is fuelled by a malicious hate towards persons who we think are part of the problems facing us. In fact, we are the problem ourselves. We generate the garbage and hate the scavenger. We grab the land and get furious when the sons-of-the soil stake rightful claim to it. We talk about equality irrespective of gender, caste, class and religion and yet we practice inequality.
The dimensions of progress cannot be exclusive to some and inaccessible to the others. We are all guilty of not having a guilty conscious. The world continues to suffer because we are incomplete human beings. Because the one half doesn't do its human duties, the other half doesn't get human rights. If we embrace our fundamental human responsibilities, our world will celebrate its human rights!
The right to dignity is not just about permitting free thought and expression
‘Develop new dimensions’ to restore natural Human Rights with compassion!
Regards
Pravin
The human rights watch word is 'right to live with dignity'. The marginalised, the ones who toil, the physically and mentally challenged must have equal claim on opportunities to learn and earn. Discrimination of all sorts has to be first unlearnt in our attitudes and then in our approaches.
Ironically, death does not kill the processes of prejudice. We have no respect for the living. We have no compassion for the dead. The mockery of human rights continues. We attack their dignity with all the weapons at our command. Our weapons are religion, caste and regionalism. The ‘right to die with dignity’ is compromised by our bigotry and intolerance. Rightful demand for non-discriminatory cemeteries and burial grounds are at best ignored.
Human rights are a much ignored value system in a world that is fuelled by a malicious hate towards persons who we think are part of the problems facing us. In fact, we are the problem ourselves. We generate the garbage and hate the scavenger. We grab the land and get furious when the sons-of-the soil stake rightful claim to it. We talk about equality irrespective of gender, caste, class and religion and yet we practice inequality.
The dimensions of progress cannot be exclusive to some and inaccessible to the others. We are all guilty of not having a guilty conscious. The world continues to suffer because we are incomplete human beings. Because the one half doesn't do its human duties, the other half doesn't get human rights. If we embrace our fundamental human responsibilities, our world will celebrate its human rights!
The right to dignity is not just about permitting free thought and expression
‘Develop new dimensions’ to restore natural Human Rights with compassion!
Regards
Pravin
Monday, December 3, 2007
Re:CONVERSIONS
“101 converted Hindus to undergo purification rites at Old Goa’
The newspaper item was baffling! Cleansing mechanisms, purifying filters, et al are the norm for products, systems… But how does one purify a human being? The question arises that what is the “impurity” that is being purified? Or is it just the change in the labelling of the product?
Hindus convert for many reasons, but surely, the most important raison d'être is to “hopefully” escape the discrimination based on caste! An oft stated Hindi quote says that “jo kabhi nahi jaati, usiko jaat kehte hai” (that which refuses to be cast off is called caste). A Dalit sister had a fine retort, “Jaat nahi jaati, toh main hi chali jaati hoon” (if the caste can’t be cast off, it is better that I cast myself off)
My friend, Mohandas Lolyakar had a simple poser to be asked… If the converted is reconverted to Hinduism, what caste would he/she belong to? Would they become Brahmins? Or would it be back to the earlier discriminatory label that was the original motive to get converted in the first place?
Fraudsters posing as God men have their own regressive agendas to continue the depraved segregation of one human being from another. It is a shame that the practices of discrimination continue in a land where great reformers like Kabir, Tukaram, Vivekanand and so many others have toiled to wipe out the blot of bigotry from our society. Conversions and reconversions have no meaning if the person is going to be treated as a lesser human being.
Conversions are required, but these need to be in terms of change in our own attitude towards fellow human beings. Casteism is our own form of racism that creates inequality and tramples upon the values of humanism. We need to purify and clarify our own prejudices. The dimensions of reform have to be first developed in our own minds and be reflected in our behaviour, too!
Let’s unlearn our prejudice and embrace the values of humanism,
May the spirit of universal brotherhood ‘develop new dimensions’!
Regards
Pravin
The newspaper item was baffling! Cleansing mechanisms, purifying filters, et al are the norm for products, systems… But how does one purify a human being? The question arises that what is the “impurity” that is being purified? Or is it just the change in the labelling of the product?
Hindus convert for many reasons, but surely, the most important raison d'être is to “hopefully” escape the discrimination based on caste! An oft stated Hindi quote says that “jo kabhi nahi jaati, usiko jaat kehte hai” (that which refuses to be cast off is called caste). A Dalit sister had a fine retort, “Jaat nahi jaati, toh main hi chali jaati hoon” (if the caste can’t be cast off, it is better that I cast myself off)
My friend, Mohandas Lolyakar had a simple poser to be asked… If the converted is reconverted to Hinduism, what caste would he/she belong to? Would they become Brahmins? Or would it be back to the earlier discriminatory label that was the original motive to get converted in the first place?
Fraudsters posing as God men have their own regressive agendas to continue the depraved segregation of one human being from another. It is a shame that the practices of discrimination continue in a land where great reformers like Kabir, Tukaram, Vivekanand and so many others have toiled to wipe out the blot of bigotry from our society. Conversions and reconversions have no meaning if the person is going to be treated as a lesser human being.
Conversions are required, but these need to be in terms of change in our own attitude towards fellow human beings. Casteism is our own form of racism that creates inequality and tramples upon the values of humanism. We need to purify and clarify our own prejudices. The dimensions of reform have to be first developed in our own minds and be reflected in our behaviour, too!
Let’s unlearn our prejudice and embrace the values of humanism,
May the spirit of universal brotherhood ‘develop new dimensions’!
Regards
Pravin
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