M.A.T.

Goa Sudharop, the Goan Diaspora Volunteer organisation, hosted an International Goan Youth Convention on the theme ‘Our Roots, Our Future’. The President of Goa Sudharop, George Pinto set the tone for the convention by sharing MAT: an acronym for Memory, Action and Truth.

‘Memory’ is about knowing one’s roots. To empower our understanding of the multiple layers in our own psyche, we must know where we come from. Being rootless makes us aimless or off-target visionaries.

‘Action’ is about not just being good, but being good ‘for something'. So often, so many of us are busy ‘about nothing’. Trivial pursuits or mundane motivations deny us our own potential to trigger positive transformations by involving in proactive volunteerism.

‘Truth’ refers to the courage of standing up to what one knows is right. It is said so well that those, who do not stand for something, will fall for anything. Integrity is a value but it cannot be an occasional emotion. Truth merits adherence at all times

MAT is a lighthouse template that shows us the way to be worthy as human beings living in an interdependent world. We must seek to be better at connecting to the maze of memory, apt actions and align with the truth.

MAT shows the best way

To BE BETTER every day!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Giver's hands

‘Denaryane det jaave, Ghenearyane ghet jaave…

Ghenearyane gheta gheta, Denaryaneche haat ghyave!’

(May the giver keep giving, may the recipient keep receiving…

May the recipient eventually gain the hands of the giver!)

- from a Marathi poem by Jnanpith awardee Vinda Karindikar

Every day we receive gifts from persons who make life easier for us… the newspaper boy who wakes up before we do… the traffic cop who braves the hot sun to facilitates traffic… the farmer who toils to provide us with grain… the garbage collector who maintains hygiene… the cowherd who gathers our daily milk… these are faces of effort that make our day.

Rarely do we acknowledge the service and generosity of our benefactors… and when we do it is more often in words and rarely in reciprocal actions. We must be better in emulating the attitude and actions of the givers who help us in a greater or lesser way. We must acquire the heart (spirit) and hands (actions) of those who give us so many gifts.

So often, we insist on receiving as if it were our birthright. It would be better to treat ‘giving’ as a fundamental duty. Our worthiness lies in whether our actions result in benefits for others. We must transform from receiving to giving. We must find ways of responding, to ones who provide us with our needs and wants, by acquiring the ‘giver’s hands’.

let’s be better at the attitude to generously give…
acquiring the ‘giver’s hands’ is the way to live !

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Confirm Source

Different persons have been sharing versions of a doomsday scenario for 21 December. They speak about galactic alignment and planet collision. When challenged, they quote NASA to defend their declarations. When asked to forward the referred link, they would sheepishly admit that they were just passing on what they had heard from a ‘reliable’ friend.

Obviously, the ‘reliable’ friend was relying on a source where myth was being flaunted as scientific fact by wrongly attributing it to trustworthy agencies like NASA. But it is pertinent to note that even those, who receive the rumour through the internet, do not visit the cyber space to find that NASA has been consistently debunking all such doomsday rumours.

Dr Carl Sagan had foreseen that ‘pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive.’ Oddly, while we easily accept the incredulous, we do not pay heed to real imminent problems like global warming, pollution, etc, as here too, we do not go to source to confirm reality.

It would be better if we confirm source before we pass on any data that we have received. Whether the rumours are of doomsday scenarios or even personal information, we must always validate the truthfulness of what may seem factual. Otherwise our skill of reasoning will be doomed!

To BE BETTER at evading the rumour vice...
we must confirm the source in a trice!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Expedition

Yesterday, enthusiastic motor bikers rode across the Mhadei River basin. Dr Prithvi Amonkar’s Wildtrek Adventures had organised ‘Bikesscape’ to take adventure enthusiasts on a day long trip through an elegant environment under siege. The bikers discovered the beauty and reality of the hinterland. The experience was refreshing as well as educational.

I suggested to the motor-bikers to watch the film, ‘Motorcycle Dairies’ - the story of a young Ernesto Guevara and his friend who travelled 5,000 miles, on a motorcycle. Exposed to situations and people he would have never met otherwise, the trip planted the initial seed of cognitive dissonance and radicalization within Guevara. The voyage, initially one of youthful indulgence, unfolded into a life defining experience for ‘Che’ Guevara.

We need to move around our world to understand it better. However, just self-indulgent wandering will not suffice. We need to involve a sense of purpose as well. And that purpose will be better served when the experience moves beyond the surface to a deeper and meaningful connect.

The world is full of earnest people but many do not move out of their comfort zones. From the ones who move, very few allow the experience to become substantial because their trips are too short to permit real understanding. Short rides expose us to surface realities, but it is only longer expeditions that can trigger worthy transformations.

To BE BETTER at ensuring transformation,
Our ride has to be a longer expedition!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Lessons of Bhopal

3 December 1984, was a tryst with fatality for people in Bhopal. The Union Carbide plant released methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals, killing nearly 10,000 in 72 hours. Four times the number died from gas-afflicted diseases. Even now, toxic chemicals abandoned at the plant continue to contaminate the ground water in Bhopal and affect its residents.

Sadly the lessons of Bhopal have not been learnt. Hazardous waste from industries continues to be released into air as well as the waters. Manmade disasters are a creation of callous corporate where profits have precedence over human lives. Natural resources and human resource are under attack by the pied pipers of economic prosperity. The appreciation of wealth of a few is resulting in the depreciation of the health of many.

Those, who do not care about the devastating impact of their actions, will always find loopholes in the legal process. Aided by acts of omission and commission by the authorities, the culprits get away. The greatest lesson of the Bhopal case is that when we ignore a crime, it repeats in varied avatars.

It is only to our peril that we may ignore the menace of ‘toxification’ of our ecosystem. Any act that worsens the situation of lives and livelihoods cannot be accepted as development. But plain indignation by the citizens can never suffice. It would be better to treat all manmade disasters as acts of bio-terror and counter them, their promoters and apologists as such.

To BE BETTER at learning Bhopal’s painful lesson,
We must prevent and punish every toxic action!

- Pravin K. Sabnis