Thursday, April 29, 2010

Is it integrity?

Hi friends, the word integrity has got many definitions and all of them are holistic in one way or the other. Whenever I use the word integrity either in my conversation or in my articles, I take its meaning or definition as “having sense of honesty and truthfulness in action”. Many times I tried to give a broader meaning to the word integrity but failed miserably. I love the world integrity and want to be honest in all my actions either personal or professional. As a result of stiff competition in all walks of our life where only the fittest will be survived we see a drop in morality. Now, people don’t bother about right or wrong and want to reach their goal by any means. I want to recall an old incident which happened in the year 1976 when I was studying in SJVP College, Harihar town which is situated in Karnataka State (southern part of India). Much water has flown down the River Tungabhadra which is the main source of water supply and power generation in Harihar and in this region of India but I still remember that gathering in our college hall in which a doctor was invited to address us. The doctor was son of a well-known local business man who was born, brought up in Harihar. After completing his Bachelors degree in medicine in a near by medical college he has flown to USA for higher studies in medicine. He became a proud holder of green card of USA. He became part and parcel of US society and used to visit India on a visitors visa very rarely. In one of those rare visits he was invited to our college where he was a student once upon a time. We were curious and enthusiastic to see and hear an America settled Indian but the sad part was he could not address us either in our local language Kannada which was also his mother tongue or in Hindi which is our National language. First he addressed the gathering of both students as well as teachers and he was very proud to talk about America and its culture. After his speech there was a question and answer session in which we were permitted to ask questions about USA and associated things. But before taking any questions he told the gathering in clear terms: “Since I am a citizen of America, I request all of you not to ask me any such question which may not be in the interest my country America. I don’t want to discuss negative aspects of my country and hope you will not cross boundary and embarrass me. It is my duty to uphold the image of my country where ever I go.”

I was totally confused after hearing his statement which was also a warning signal for naughty students who were eager to ask some specific questions about US culture. At the end of the gathering, the US doctor was a relieved person as no body embarrassed him with such questions and at that moment he might be thinking that he has upheld the dignity and image of USA in front of Indians. I thought, as a citizen of US he was always on his toes to protect its interest but whether he was showing same eagerness to protect India’s interest as long as he was its citizen. Before taking up the citizenship of America (for fulfilling his ambitions) whether he has forgotten the naked truth that thousands of rupees were spent on him by Government of India to make him a medical professional. In those years when he was studying medicine, India was counted in poor countries list as 80% of its population was not fortunate enough to have 2 times food and shelter. In spite of its poor financial condition, India never compromised on allocation of grants for professional education. This doctor in question never thought of his moral responsibility towards India and poor fellow countrymen while switching his citizenship but always tried to safeguard his adopted country. I am happy that he has shown his integrity towards USA but I always wonder why he has not shown his integrity while changing his loyalty.

According to data available, 12% of American scientists are of Indian origin, 38 percent of doctors in America are Indians, 36 percent of NASA scientists are Indians, 34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians and 28 percent of IBM employees are Indians. I think, integrity shown by our countrymen towards USA after embracing its citizenship has made this possible but at what cost? Can India afford this brain drain?

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Observation of a layman

Hi friends, as far as knowledge about ecology, environment and meteorology are concerned I am a layman. Since I don’t have any deep knowledge about these subjects, my opinions about them will not carry any weight at any time. But like any environmental scientist I am also equally concerned about the deteriorating environmental conditions especially global warming. As India lies in the so called tropical zone where the ambient temperature will be high for most of the time throughout the year, the effect of global warming can be experienced more than anywhere else. As mentioned, I am not an expert in meteorology but still I am noticing the drastic climatic changes taking place around my place. Soaring mercury level makes our life horrible and experts say that if this trend continues without any break, those days are not very far when there will be no life left on our earth. But I keep my fingers crossed with this environmental issue because a ray of hope is beaming out for us in the form of another climatic change. In the recent years, I have observed a mentionable climatic change which is slowly picking up. Every time when the mercury level goes up very high and it becomes unbearable especially during summer season, a sudden drop of temperature takes place because of instant wide spread downpour. I feel this trend may be the beginning of a corrective action taken by Mother Nature to protect her children which includes all species on the Earth. Contrary to the popular stories about depleting mass of ice in glaciers, some experts say that there is an increase in the ice deposit. Scientists may read different things from these changes but as a layman I feel that we may enjoy cooler days in coming years and our future generation deserve it.


But the need of the hour is to minimize the generation of green house gases and this require a dedicated effort and lifestyle change from all of us.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Blogging with countrymen!

Hi friends, my journey of blogging or blog walking has given me opportunities to visit blogs of notable personalities of my Great Country. It is indeed a pleasure for me to visit the pages of number Indian bloggers who maintain their blogs on various topics on the earth. I found that most of Indian blogs contain very useful contents and some of them are of very high standard on any scale. Similar to information technology, though we Indians have entered the blog world very late still we are way ahead of rest of the world as far as our enthusiastic participation and quality of out put are concerned. One of the tallest political leaders of modern India Mr. L.K Advani maintains a blog and it is a feast to read his articles which are of very high standard written in a simple language. I am surprised to see his total command over English language. Also I would like to mention about the blog of Mrs.Shobha De who is a well known columnist with modern and liberal thinking. With thousands of followers and visitors, her blog is very popular among all sections of our society and as mentioned in her profile page itself, she is a package of "interesting and unpredictable". I found many personal blogs which contain unique posts on special topics and felt these blogs require more publicity as well as encouragement. IndiBlogger is an Indian blog directory and any Indian blogger can register his blog here for free of cost and can become a part and parcel of Indian bloggers network. An automatic ranking system gives rank to registered blogs and blogger can place a widget displaying his Indi rank on his blog. This ranking system gives a chance for healthy competition and helps us to improve our quality of blogging. Today my blog got rank of 83 out of hundred and I am delighted to see it on the widget placed on my blog. My blog is categorized in Personal blog section and I am not far away from the top rank which is 87 in this section. I thank all my online friends who have helped me to reach this goal especially my blogging Guru Malthy Badri & family.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Indian rituals and routines: Part-3

One of the most common routine practices seen throughout India is greeting each other with a word namaste when two persons meet for the first time in a day. Both palms are placed in front of the chest as shown in the picture while the word namaste is said. You can greet anybody with namaste either he is known person to you or a stranger irrespective of his age. When two persons greet one another with namaste, it is believed that a silent communication take place between inner beings and a good will gets created between two hearts. It is said in ancient Indian scriptures that greeting Namaste is nothing but an act of worship of all pervading supreme power. The persons who know the real significance of greeting namaste will be benefited more in terms of creating positive energy for himself as well as to his fellow human beings where as persons who wish namaste as a social gesture can make more friends for themselves. One can see shade of socialism in each and every rituals and routines which we practice in India and namaste is one of the examples where every individual is treated with dignity and equality. But it is very sad to see that this age old practice is slowly disappearing because of cultural pollution.





Thursday, April 8, 2010

Indian rituals and routines: Part-2

One can hardly see any Indian house without a prayer room or alter where all pervading Almighty is worshiped. In spite of the space constrain in side a house; Indians try their best to spare some space where prayers and other spiritual practices are conducted. Positive energy generating activities including repetition of the Lord's name, meditation, reading of the scriptures, prayers, singing of bhajans or devotional songs are practiced daily by family members. With all these spiritual activities the prayer room will be pervaded with positive vibration and the family members who spend time inside the prayer room will have sacred thoughts which results in creation of positive energy. The accumulated positive energy which originated through regular meditation, worship will take care of the negative energy created by human activities.

Since Lord is the creator of entire creation we believe he is also the owner of our house and as a mark of our love and respect to him we keep a room for him. In this way we remain humble even if we posses wealth. We are only earthly occupants of His property



Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Have a competitive edge in journalism

Media plays an important role in bringing positive changes in all walks of our life and this is good news for people who want to pursue journalism as their main career. But looking at the ever increasing competition in this field as well as the challenges faced by the journalist it is better to equip yourself with additional qualification and class room experience before entering the fray. Looking at the necessity of carrier aspirants in the field of media and entertainment, The 9.9 School of Convergence has come out with “PG Diploma in Applied Journalism and Media Communication” with international standards which is unique in many ways. Under the guidance of skilled faculty who themselves are professional journalists and media practitioners, writing, thinking and creating skills of student are sharpened. At the end of the course, students will come out with all necessary skills and knowledge to become successful media practitioners. Intensive course work, along with experiential learning in a professional internship is the uniqueness of this course and the participation of international faculty will help the student to become a media industry leader with much needed competitive edge, As the 9.9 School of Convergence has connections with various fields of the media and entertainment industry, student can make use of these connections for their professional career.

For more information about the course and its admission process, fee etc. contact 9.9 Media School of Convergence.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Indian rituals and routines - Part1

Hi friends, continuing my earlier post “We will save the Earth!”, I would like to explain why we do light lamps in our homes in India. Hardly one can see any house in India without a glowing lamp in side the worship room and entrance of the house both early morning and evening; in some houses one can see continuous lighting (not electrical lamp). Even in temples we used to light lamps with different oils including ghee made of cow milk. As a matter of fact every auspicious or religious function starts with lighting of lamp. We believe light symbolizes knowledge and absence of light or darkness is ignorance. The Lord is the "Knowledge Principle" (chaitanya) who is the source, the enlivener and the illuminator of all knowledge. Hence light is worshiped as the Lord himself. Where there is real knowledge, there is no place for ignorance and we believe knowledge is the greatest forms of wealth which one can possess and a knowledgeable human being will never do injustice to mother nature and its creations.


The following Sanskrit prayer will be sung before lighting a lamp, which means I prostrate to the dawn/dusk lamp; whose light is the Knowledge Principle (the Supreme Lord), which removes the darkness of ignorance and by which all can be achieved in life

Deepajyothi parabrahma
Deepa sarva tamopahaha
Deepena saadhyate saram
Sandhyaa deepo namostute


A lamp lit with natural oil or ghee keeps the surrounding atmosphere cool and creates a pleasant spiritual feeling which in turn produces positive energy and sum total of this positive energy may nullify negative energy created by our fellow men.




Monday, April 5, 2010

Yet another land mark


Hi friends, my blog has crossed yet another land mark by bagging Google page rank 4. I would like to thank my online friends who have guided me to reach this goal. Also as a blog having PR4, I cannot neglect it any more and need to post useful contents on regular basis.

 
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