The Secret To Being Still

The unethical have a lot to speak about ethics. This is my learning from a set of recent events.
Maybe they do so to cover-up their own misgivings by pointing their fingers at others, to deflect the audience's attention from them or perhaps this is their defense mechanism of denial that is at play or maybe they should be diagnosed with selective amnesia where they forget their own wrongdoings that they beg to be reminded of.
No one is a saint and everyone has a skeleton or few hidden in their own cupboard; every saint has a past and every sinner a future; yet, we like to point out to the small slips and accidental falls of others trying to wear a halo around our head as we carry our self with a 'holier than thou art' attitude while speaking a hypocritical and sacrosanct language all the while.
Do we ever forget to look at the log in our own eyes (?!) before we try to pull the speck out of other's???
Every fellow manages to somehow reach a point of dissonance to justify their stand while criticizing others - the easiest being, 'I did it for his/her own good' statement that is often made to justify their cruel and rude actions. (Bull crap). However, how good are we in the first place to pick on others and/or criticize? Best left to oneself, the least one can do is remain calm and not condemn. If our concern is to help build and change the other, we better do that with gentleness - this takes time. Fruits don't ripen by force.
Why can't our concerns be real as we deliberate a peaceful way to help people.
Some people take this patience for granted and use their very nature to manipulate and get things work their way or they are too stubborn to change or perhaps filled with a heavy and blinding ego, they refuse to see the consequence of their action. Sometimes I wonder about any other choice we have other than being more patient in situation such as these that tests our patience even more. This situation tests us more than it tests the other I suppose.

"He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster.
And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." said Fredrick Nietzsche.

The universe that must support our plans must be supported by our plans too. If energies around can have an effect on us, wouldn't it work the other way around too? To bring the mind to rest, thoughtless and to be still, seemed difficult and impossible at first. With a little bit of reflection, the mind does become still and when we pause, the universe does control the rest around us. If goodness is in our heart, peace can be spread even in silence - while riding a bus, while making tea or even while walking away from chaos - without the need to even set apart any time for deliberating it. There is always space and time for goodness and peace. Perhaps this is zen or perhaps why bother to name it at all...

Pros and Cons of Abolishing 500 and 1000 Rupee Notes

Yesterday night was a bit of an excitement mixed with frenzy for many as  a NEWS spread in India during the midnight hour, once again, since the declaration of our independence. The NEWS was that Modi has abolished notes of Indian Rupee valued at 500 and 1000 overnight - the highest denomination in the notes currently printed. Everyone who has these notes, have time till December 31, 2016 to account it and exchange it in banks or post offices.

The Pros: 

1. Black money stored in the form of currency notes within the country will be flushed out as people will not be able to account the same or exchange it unless they put in a lot of effort to do so
2. Future storing of black money in the form of notes will be difficult as Rs.100 would bulk up more than 10 times and consume as much space than the situation is at present
3. Price of gold will raise; as this will be a safer and more culturally common and relevant way of storing excess money now. This means more returns for people who have been investing in gold already
4. Money might be easier to handle and track with debit card transactions that might become more common as card transactions might be preferred over bulky cash transactions - making business faster and waiting in queues shorter
5. The use of plastic money might boost e-commerce and cashless exchanges - the new trend for start-ups in India
6. Thefts and pickpockets might go down taking crime rates down with it

Thats all.

The Cons: 

1. There is a hint that the notes have been replaced with 'new' 500 and 2000 Rs. notes. Then this whole thing is a humbug. Point 2. of the pros is then off the list (Source:  PM Modi had today banned not just these two high value currency denominations, he had also unveiled their replacement, in the form of a new Rs 500 note and one of Rs 2,000.)
2. Black money storage from the current point forward becomes easier with the current highest denomination doubled. Which means Point 1 and 3. of the pros is off the list too since people will find an alternative means to shrink their storage place and find new space to store more with a higher denomination being made available
3. The whole frenzy of the people to dispose the notes they have is foolish as there is time to do so till this year end. So calm down people; the world is not coming to an end (...yet)
4. Business - especially chota valas who refuse currency notes of 500 and 1000 denomination are more foolish. Business is more important and customers harder to get. These notes can anyway be exchanged and it would be a boost to the business if a shop keeper accepts the notes and gets the commerce going using this situation and reaping the harvest. Requires sense to think in this case - the hardest commodity to ask for anyways these days
5. The corrupt will become more corrupt and find reasons to accumulate what they have lost in this barter in the near future - habits, not notes, that needs to be abolished
6. In this case of taking old notes and releasing new ones, then, is just going to be like how Mohd. Bin Tughlak shifted his capital from Delhi to Daultabad/Deogir - a 'tughlakian' decision that made him lose more than he thought he could earn and an earner of negative press that we learn about till date of 'what not to do'
7. One more ban, one more renaming and one more flop awaiting - as is the sequence in a country where people think like a slow starting tubelight 
8. Anyways, the initial election manifesto was to bring back black money deposited abroad into India within 100 days that entered a delay as it required a change in taxation policies. What happened to that? Did we change our double-taxation system? Are we still talking about that?
9. Wouldn't this exercise make the people who foreignized Indian black money look smarter than their Indian counterparts and help set an example for the corrupt to emulate for the future?
10. Is this once again the typical re-naming stunt that is not uncommon these days. After all, what is in a name?

Seems like the con's outweigh the pros in this (dis)regard just for the simple reason that the notes are going to be re-introduced and very soon, in higher denominations. Was that a calculation intended or a consequence unthought of?! 

However, this great idea (minus the reintroduction bit) I remember coming from a Tamil movie called 'Pichaikaran' that was released in March this year and here is the scene from the movie for proof that the idea is not something that was born yet only something that has been adopted. Talk about originality...

Types Of Children (including the Trophy and Token Child)

Recently I realized that children fall into at least four categories - depending on the reason why they are born or based upon the way they are parented later.

The trophy child like a trophy wife, is the child one has for the status it brings along. Much like how a just divorced and quoted to be impotent man or an infertile woman finds the fastest and quickest way(s) to have a baby... just to prove the point - nothing more and nothing else. For them, the child is nothing more than a showpiece - parents seem attached to this child yet more for self-obsessed reasons than anything else - to create envy among the snoopy ex and/or to shut slanderous mouths and as a proof for their own active sex life. These are children one 'has to' have.

The token child on the other hand, is more like a child/children one has for the very heck of it. Much like how one has one for the very reason that one 'must' have at least one; or when 'more the number of kids, more the verility', is assumed to be true by absurd personalities in some even absurd societies.
Here, it is all about the numbers. How many girls? - this in case it is in the North Eastern part of India, How many boys? - this applies to the rest of India. The token child in many marriages is just born out of no reason at all; with no purpose and of little value. It is like a token exchanged to evade the stigma it might bring otherwise. Born out of the duties performed connected with marriage (including having a child) and raised as a duty connected therewith thereafter. These are children one 'must' have.

The accidental child, like the name suggests, is born out of what the parents might see as a "mistake" including (yet not limited to,) a goof-up while trying to use protection or being too drunk and/or carried away to not use one. These are re-creations made by mistakes during recreations - a foolish one to regret for the rest of the life.
Or these could also be the ones a person is pushed to have not as a matter of choice yet one that rises out of force and compulsion like in the event of a rape or as a matter of tradition (like in the case of a child born to a Devadasi). These children carry the burns and scars and the damage more than the parents. These are children one knows not 'why s/he has'.

The love child on the other hand, is born out of love. A symbol of trust, care and respect that the parents have for each other. This child carries with it the genes and the energy that created it in the first place and enchants others with its very presence. Unlike the other two, these are passionate children who are easy to love and fun to be with. Not just made out of skin and bones, these are children with a heart and soul. Rare yet the most sought after.

Biblically, at least,  we are taught that we are born out of sin; Psalm 51:5 says, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me". This makes sex - a natural need according to science and a non-verbal form of love according to psychology, seem like a sin... if I were to believe it.
Perhaps this is just an(other) attempt by the church to make people feel guilty even from the womb so that they may establish their authority over them for the rest of their freakin life. Children are not conceived by sin, atleast in this category; they are conceived out of love, as they need to be. Love between the father and mother passed on to the child. Love formed out of trust, care and respect above anything else. These are children one 'wants to' have.

Having a job, is similar to having a child - nevertheless a want and never a need - some have it for the heck of it, some to avoid the stigma attached in the event of not having one, many have one by accident and very less for the fun of it.
We get stuck with jobs just because 'we have to' rather than take up a job 'we want to' - much like those arranged marriages many find trapped into which later one justifies to attain a state of cognitive dissonance to put up with it.
Very often, we are stuck with trophy jobs, token jobs and whatever other bastardly job comes our way in the event of not being able to find the true passion or love of our life that brings life and commitment to what we do. It is not just the person who suffers yet also a great deal of injustice done meanwhile to the job s/he holds as well.
Today, we all sell ourselves cheap. The mind especially, is always up for sale to the highest bidder. From becoming the 'other woman' in the white house to becoming a lot lizard for cheapskate punters during a hoe stroll, our opportunities seem limitless when we are not decided. Sometimes, it is not for us or for that money that we work anymore... it is perhaps just for the heck of it and for the fact that we have nothing better to do...          

Excerpts From An Essay On Identity, Conflict And Violence By Fredjeev

Chapter 5 - The Upward Mobility of the Downtrodden

The plight and fight of the socially (pushed) backward and traditionally oppressed communities is more like a life on the wheel. The victims of violence and injustice today being identified and recognized as such, command more than demand their special provisions for upliftment in the name of social justice - be it the Dalits from India or the Africans settled in America or the indigenous people who were devoid of their rights in their homeland like the Maoris of New Zealand or the Red Indians of America and every other colonized country like India that is yet to recover from the after-affect of the mad nightmare of the past.

This self-imposed need to be identified and recognized as one belonging to the victimized, marginalized and scheduled groups is a mandate to avail the welfare rationed from the stored loot of his/her majesty’s invasion supplied in the form of grants, aid and other concessions. This identity of the ‘receiver’ as an ever-marginalized group or as a forever-developing country at large, gets further cemented by the media and good Samaritans of the development sector who make a sensational coverage of this group time to time to showcase them as dirty, humbled and always dressed up in rags while at the same time, the ‘giver’ wears the cloak of superiority, authority and pride to break and throw morsels for the rest to fetch.

On one hand, the people who carry the burden of the earlier oppressors and who are widely pointed to for the blunders committed once for which they have no rationale claim to be blamed, are subjected and go through the same level of human disregard and discrimination which once their predecessors (alone) had to be blamed for. This phenomenon is a turn of the wheel as we see the ones who were up yesterday being crushed by the ones who were down today - just for the simple way in which things have turned. Sadly, identities that were fought to be cast away have simply become more certain, defined, nurtured, wilfully promoted by many and unwilfully thrust on the rest - for the same reason it was earlier done - for survival. 

A resulting paradox - an ingroup that fought against an outgroup for stratifying and discriminating it by labeling it, now takes up yet another fight to belong and be identified with the group it is fighting with - quite ironically incidentally is the new identity the ingroup wants to establish while taking pride in upholding it only reaffirms its identity rather than find opportunities to shed.