Trust

The five lettered word 'TRUST' though looks so simple, has got great meaning and strength with it. Its an emotion where we allow others to know our vulnerabilities believing they won't take advantage. Its difficult to imagine life without trust. Right from the moment we set our foot on this earth to the moment we sleep in our graves we find trust showing its prominence. Trusting our mother, father, brother and sister is a different thing; we share blood relation with them. Its only a friend who enters our life as a stranger, becomes an acquaintance and wins our trust.

"Friendship is not friendship without trust, without it I walk alone."
- James P. Michels Jr.

Friendship is not something which happens in a second; we don't take a person for granted as a friend when we meet him or her for the first time. It's something like Stop and Wait data communication method. In this Stop n Wait method, we send a message and wait for the acknowledgment before sending the next message. So do we share some information with that person, who is just an acquaintance, and righteous response is what we expect as acknowledgment. Trust builds up in this process and the person takes promotion from acquaintance to friend to best friend.

The Doog and the Dab

In every part of our life, when we think or act or in whatever we do, we are always accompanied by two different super-beings, whose presence we feel though we may not see. They peep into your head and try to manipulate what you think and what you do, but finally leave you the chance to choose. They are the Doog and the Dab.

People tend to ignore Dab mistaking it for the Bad. They fail to recognize that Dab is not Bad but the reverse of Bad which is the Good. And in a similar way end up falling into the trap set by seemingly Good who is also sounding similar to Good, the Doog, but fail to recognize that the Doog is actually not Good but the opposite of Good which is the Bad. It is always left to us to know what is Good and what is Bad from all the choices we have in every part of life. Presenting to you, the Doog and the Dab...

Economic Independence

“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again.”

This is a part of the speech delivered by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at the stroke of midnight on 15th August 1947 when India became an independent nation. And today we are an independent nation for over 60 years. But I still wonder if we can really call India independent! It is estimated that 20% of the population is below the poverty line and we call ourself independent. What are we independent of? Ignorance, poverty, superstitions, illiteracy, ethnic clashes, religious riots and the list goes on and on. Yes, we are independent of slavery, torture and injustice from the clutches of our imperialistic rulers. But does that mean we are completely independent. May be we should start celebrating August 15th as the day on which India became Politically Independent and that reminds us of the fact that we are yet to achieve Economic Independence. Gheorghe Elian, in his book "The Principle of Sovereignty Over Natural Resources", rightly says "One can hardly speak of a State's complete independence without its achieving economic independence, after freeing itself from political dependency." Political independence without economic independence can in no way free the teeming millions of the developing world from the poverty trap they are in.

Gandhiji is in a way lucky as he knew what or whom he should fight to achieve a politically independent country. But now we have many to fight against, and some are so trivial that we tend to neglect them even though they matter a lot. According to a recent report by UNESCO India has the highest rate of teacher absenteeism. As a consequence, we have failed to meet universal elementary education targets and we have the largest number of illiterates for any country. Need I say anything about corruption which is prevalent amongst every section of the society at every level. And we talk about independence in this nation where one third of its population earn less than Twenty Rupees a day. Being a part of independent nation, what do they have to celebrate?

We are independent in true sense only when we are economically free, only when no Indian goes to sleep hungry; only when every Indian can lead a life of dignity free from poverty, ignorance, and ill- health

Mumbai Blasts

This is in remembrance of all those 170 odd people who died in the serial train bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai exactly one year before on 11th July 2006. And nearly 900 people were injured in the incident, many severely. According to the Hindu newspaper dated 10th July 2007, many families are still to recover as the earning member of their family was dead or severely injured in the incident. And some victims are yet to recover from coma. Lets all pray that things will be fine for those affected families.

PS: Thanks to Dilip D'Souza for the compilation