PROMINENT WOMEN OF  INDIA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE (1880-1947)

Gender equality is much talked about subject by feminists. In UN human development index gender equality is one of the factors. But in India, from vedic times it was natural phenomenon. Maitreyi’s debate with sage Yajnavalkya resulted in great Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. In that the debate between Yajnavalkya and Gargi is very insightful among all the debates. Similarly in 8^th century for the famous debate between Adisankara and northern scholar Mandana Mishra, Mandana Mishra’s wife acted as referee. Rajiya Sultana in 13^th century is the first female ruler of Asia. Molla in 15^th century wrote Ramayana in Telugu.  This shows how women are seen in Indian history. However in the middle ages there was deterioration in values of India which resulted in exploitation of the many weaker sections, not particularly women. This essay on women freedom fighters is only to reemphasize this point. I hope this will inspire all modern women not to debate on this and simply feel it as natural right. 

Coming to fighting for rights again Indian women are second to none from ancient times. Kannagi is arguably  the first and Silappathikaram is the first epic in world history with woman centric character. As per this epic, she not only reformed her husband but fought against injustice meted out to her husband by Pandyan King of Madurai. But there was reluctance in including women in freedom struggle of India. However these 7 women are certainly the most famous women who  actively participated in struggle at different times in different ways and proved second to none.

1 BHIKAJI CAMA :  Born in rich Bombay Parsee family and married to a supporter of Britishraj,  influenced by Grand Old Man of India Dadhabhai Nauroji and London Hyde park addresses of famous Indians she actively worked with revolutionary Shyamaji Krishnavarma  and even tried to help V D Savarkar. Even Lenin got impressed by her . Like Nauroji she can be called “GRAND OLD LADY OF INDIA”. However Dadhabhai opposed british policies only in Parliament and press and never in extremist way like Madam Cama.

2 ANNIE BESANT: Though Born Irish, influenced by Indian theology she is one of the illustrious women of freedom struggle and worked as Congress President. Along with Tilak she advocated and led Indian Home Rule movement. Later years she was involved more in Theosophical Society and tutored illustrious and unique philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthy. She was role model for many freedom fighters.

3 KASTURBA GANDHI : Though innocent, married to Mahatma at an young age she equally suffered and sometimes more than Mahatma being a woman during struggles in both South Africa and India. Even her health failed during frequent imprisonment and satyagraha leading to her death. Mahatma regretted for not giving proper recognition to her in his political and personal life.

  

4 SAROJINI NAIDU : Daughter of Bengal and Daughter-in- law of AP, poetess, courageous to even criticize Gandhi is undoubtedly  a role model for modern women. Her statement during salt march “The time has come when women can no longer hide behind, under the shelter of men but equally should face the perils and sacrifice for the liberation of the country”. She walked this talk.

5 LAKSHMI SEHGAL : Alumni of Madras Medical College, treated Indian National Army soldiers in Singapore , Captain Lakshmi a follower of Subhas Chandra Bose actively worked for INA, was Minister for women affairs of Azad Hind Government in exile, can be truly described as Modern Rani Laxmibhai

6 Aruna Asaf Ali : Thrown out of the family for marrying a muslim Asaf Ali, a freedom fighter she was the woman who hoisted the national flag during 1942 Quit India movement when all other leaders were arrested by British. Defying Mahatma she actively supported mutiny of INA soldiers in 1946 which is considered as the last straw for declaration of Indian independence by British.

7 DURGABHAI DESHMUKH : Founder of Andhra Mahila Sabha , known for discipline and commitment , she stopped even Jawahar Lal for attending Indian National Congress meeting without taking mandatory ticket. She was imprisoned many times and drove many common women into movement.                

     

DEAD VS SURVIVORS

 

 

Recently   l attended a  training on BEHAVIROUL BASED SAFETY. In that faculty   had told that if you visit the family of any accident victim the pain will be understood and sometimes it may change your attitude and influence your life.

 How true it is? I want to share with you my personal experience and importance of human life and safety and sometimes how decision of each one of us will affect the life of others.

 

               Some years back in one accident one migrant worker from Orissa died in an accident at dam.  I      D was one of the two entrusted with the job of disbursing money (obviously before demonetization) to his dependents. To my utter dismay there was a pathetic scene.

               One side widow of the victim with a two year old kid is standing and on the other side his old parents are standing. Both were virtually fighting for the compensation money to be given only               to them not to the other as they are having no other means to live and the other party may not               at all give anything to them. At that time it looked as if they were not bothered about the dead person but only interested about the money that is being disbursed. But the real point is having lost the only bread earner they are scared about their future and their very survival is in jeopardy. Hence they were trying to catch the last and only hope available of compensation money. Everybody there knows that the compensation money is just sufficient for survival only for few years. It will neither help in educating the children nor help in meeting the medical expenses of elders. We with the help of union leaders consoled them and disbursed the money to both in an appropriate way and somehow managed the situation.  

               But that incident made me think about the importance of life.

               WHO IS MORE IMPORTANT?  DEAD  OR SURVIVOR?

                DID ACCIDENT KILL ONLY ONE PERSON OR WHOLE FAMILY?

                WHO IS AT FAULT? THE PERSON CONCERNED OR THE PERSON WHO MADE HIM TO DO UNSAFE

                WORK?

                WHEN A FEW SECONDS THINKING COULD HAVE AVOIDED IT WHY PEOPLE ARE IN SO HURRY?

                 IS FEW LAKHS LOSS OR A BAD REMARK IS COSTLIER THAN LIFE OF WHOLE FAMILY?

 

 

                              

STEPPING STONES

                      -More people would learn from their mistakes if they were not so busy denying them

It was in December 1988. It was just one year after I had completed my Executive Trainee training at Singrauli and Ramagundam. Ramagundam unit 4, first 500 MW power unit of South India was commissioned in June 1988. Boiler water silica had been maintaining high and condenser tube leakage was suspected. To check this , it was planned to isolate condenser passes one by one. I was asked to stay at Cooling Water pump house control room to take care of any eventuality in CW pumps. One CW pump was stopped and one condenser pass was isolated as planned. After 15 minutes suddenly running CW pump also had tripped on discharge pressure high protection and as a result unit tripped. I was suspecting by mistake unit people might have closed the other condenser valve also causing the pressure high trip. Similarly unit people had suspected that I might have closed running pump discharge valve resulting the pump trip. Suddenly two Japanese people had come running to me from CW pumps which are located in other room and told me that they had activated the protection to check its healthiness. Here I have to describe the background of the event. CW pumps are Hitachi make and these people had commissioned the pumps around one year before. Meanwhile NTPC commissioning team had checked the protections and suspected the discharge pressure high protection was not functioning properly and same was reported to Hitachi. These people were experts of CW pumps but did not know the relevance of the pumps with the rest of the plant. So they had tested the protection without informing NTPC people as they thought that running the pump without this protection was not good  for the pump. 

Immediately I told them what had happened due to their action and explained about the loss of production. They were apologetic and came to unit control room and tendered apologies to everyone present there. As usual initially our people were very angry and scolded them. However later on our people had told these things do happen during initial commissioning phase and assured them that it would not be reported to Hitachi head office. But our people were surprised to receive an apologetic letter from Hitachi Japan. When contacted it had come to our knowledge that matter was reported by those two people only to their company. When asked for the reason for their reporting the answer given by them was indeed a lesson to me. Hitachi will take somebody’s genuine confession in the right spirit whereas deliberate suppression of wrongdoing will be viewed very seriously.

After six  years similar incident occurred. By the time I was unit controller of unit 6. Generator stator is cooled by water. There are two primary water pumps for this purpose. One pump runs continuously and other is a standby. Permit was given to electrical maintenance for checking the module of one pump. While they were working on the module, running pump tripped on supply failure causing the unit to trip. When asked, our electrical maintenance immediately answered that fuse of the running pump might have failed  at the same time. But when pump was started after putting back the same fuse it was running normal. Even though everybody had suspected that it was too much of a coincidence to believe the matter was left there.

I remembered above two incidents after reading the book “ The Power of Habit “ by Charles Duhigs given to me at corporate centre recently. In that two incidents are described about the approach of Paul O Neil when he was CEO of Alcoa. In one of the incidents a worker jumps the safety rope and try to fix the problem of a machine. While he is attending suddenly machine takes start killing the worker on the spot. Analyzing the incident Paul concludes the following reasons. In his own words: “ We killed this man. It’s my failure of leadership. I caused his death. And it’s the failure of all of you in the chain of command.” The errors identified for the cause of the accident includes two managers who had seen the worker jumping safety rope but failed to stop him, a training program that hadn’t emphasized that he would not be blamed for breakdown, lack of instructions that he should find a manager before attempting to repair and absence of a system that automatically stops the machine if someone steps into pit.

In another incident at Alcoa Mexico plant, there was build up of fumes within one of the facilities causing temporary sickness to few workers. The problem was immediately resolved. Workers also recovered fully in two three days. But the plant manager failed to report the incident to headquarters Incident came to Paul’s notice when a nun complained about it during a shareholder’s meeting. Plant managers even though he was one of the most valuable executives otherwise was fired immediately. The reason explained by CEO was “ He got fired because he didn’t report the incident, so no one else had the opportunity to learn from it. Not sharing an opportunity to learn is cardinal sin”.

Primary water incident described earlier is not an isolated incident. Many times all these years I am observing that people not only do not accept their mistakes but also deny  the failure of even equipments in their area instead blame others and other equipment for the problem. As a testimony to this we can see only very few near misses are reported in the plant. This I feel is done because system rewards the people who defend and cover better than others compared to learners and who honestly admit their mistakes. In a country which taught the world about work with detachment ( Karma Yoga ) people identify themselves with equipment and failure of equipment is taken as person’s failure.

In one of the personality development books I read this : When a little child tries to walk and falls an Indian mother will immediately takes him into her lap curses the floor and kisses the child whereas an Israeli  mother encourages him to try once more telling him that these things do happen while learning a new thing. In her anxiety to show her affection and love Indian mother prevents the child to see the reality, teaches him to shift the blame,  denies the opportunity to learn and not allow him to try harder.

Mahatma Gandhi writes in My Experiments with Truth that committing mistakes is not that bad, but not learning from them is disastrous. He describes incidents like how he had learned from stealing some money from his father’s pocket when he was child and some more incidents when he had tempted (near misses ) to commit mistakes before  realizing the values he stood for. In one of the major events in response to a violent incident in a remote  village of  the then United Provinces Chaurichaura he suspended a national movement only to demonstrate the people that for him non violence is more important than freedom of the country for which he dedicated his life.   

We should have the courage to honestly accept our mistakes, discuss them, analyze them dispassionately emphasizing more about issues rather than persons and more importantly learn from them ,  spread the message so that entire organization will benefit from it.

At  the same time organization also should empathize with employees who accept genuine mistakes but punish willful  and habitual offenders. Not disclosing an incident should never be accepted and pardoned. Management should emphasize more about the incidents rather than persons.                        

         

                         

choic is yours

CHOICE IS YOURS

Limiting desires rather than fulfilling them leads to happiness and salvation - Gautama Buddha

For the last 23 years, 26^th August is special and memorable to us. It is the birthday of my two daughters- Pratyusha and Anusha. Though born two years apart on the same day in 1992 and 1994, they also look similar. Many people wonder whether they are twins. We enjoy celebrating their birthday on that day. But for the last seven years, either one of them, or sometimes both of them are not with us as they are studying or working away from home.



But I am really pained to hear questions from some people whether it was planned to have their birthdays on the same day and any surgery was carried out so that the birthday remains the same. I really thank Dr. Srimathi of Hyderabad, not to yield to our pressure. Our pressure was not for the birthday sake, but we were unable to see the pains suffered by my wife for more than 36 hours. But the very experienced doctor was confident and ruthless that delivery would be normal and in that condition she never performs surgery. This brings into my mind a lot of questions.





I am proud of India, not because it has ancient culture, vedas are born here and lot of epics and religions has roots here,but because it is the largest democracy in the world. It had proved many skeptics wrong by remaining a democratic country even with its wide diversity, illiteracy and poverty. Amartya Sen-Nobel Laurette writes in his book-Arguementative Indian that democracy is not new to India.Here is a country where Caravaka's athiest arguments also were respected and from this country Buddha's highlighting of good behaviour rather than good prayer were spread across the world. No Galileo was ever killed in this country for proposing a theory against the then existing beliefs and practices. So freedom and choice were enjoyed by Indians from time immemorial.





However, is it right to have your own choice all the time? Especially opting for surgery for some mere enjoyment of same birthday, for the children or to have a baby born on an auspicious day or for a better horoscope. While I was working at Ramagundam, I came to know that Karimnagar district recorded one of the highest number of surgeries related to delivery and most of them are carried out in private nursing homes. Greed of Gyneacologists was suspected to be the major reason for majority of them.Is it not inhuman? Mahatma Gandhi writes sorrowfully in his autobiography about five legged cows of Benaras. In his childhood he used to see and enjoy them.But when he came to understand later that they were not natural, but the result of artificial transplantation of a leg of a calf after killing, he was very upset. But this was being done by poor people,whereas unnecessary surgeries are carried out by greedy people.





When I distributed sweets at the time of my second daughter's birth, my boss at that time, a very intellectual and effluent by Indian standards remarked- in his own words: '' you are the second person to distribute sweets on daughter's birth,I being the first''. This shows his feeling towards daughters. So it is not surprising that female foeticide, gender identification and declining sex ratios are the major problems in financially developed states like Punjab and Haryana.There is a saying in Telugu  "An illiterate washerman is better than a learned scholar”.





Alvin Toffler predicts in his popular book Future Shock that designer babies will be a reality, if not already existing. Restrictions on Human cloning research in many countries may be putting brakes temporarily, but cannot prevent it much longer.Then , is it right to have one's choice in this or can we have a right choice? All may opt for boys in India and girls have to be imported. Many may opt for IITs, IIMs, IASs, and etc.and there will be dearth of people of other professions.So having your own choice is sometimes catastrophic.





While writing this I came across another fact in newspapers to ponder over. Breast Feeding rate in India is only 44%, the least among the South Asian Nations. Given the choice babies will think twice for taking birth in India.





My daughter passed her 10^th class examination in CBSE stream with a grade of 9.8. I was not surprised when she innocently asked me whether she would be having any choice of studying further without opting for physics as a subject. She honestly told me that she was not inclined to study Physics. Almost all her friends opted for either engineering or medical stream. My colleagues and family friends were also curious to know whether she was opting maths or science as her subjects, as if these were only two options. I advised her not to study any course without interest and learning should always be associated with enthusiasm and not fear. She took a wise decision and opted for Commerce Stream. Then many people tried to console her that all children are not equally bright and there are good opportunities for Commerce students also. With this type of attitude the country can produce teachers, lawyers, accountants, writers and economists etc of only mediocre quality to the detriment of nation's future.





Children should be encouraged to pursue the careers of their own choice and wishes of parents should not be thrust upon. At the same time, it is the duty of every child to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the parents and understand their limitations, before trying to do any work of their choice. Legitimacy should take precedence over Legality.





Pick and choose is not easy and there is no guarantee that we can choose always in our best interest. Former President Abdul Kalam dreamt of becoming pilot in his college days. After finishing aeronautical engineering from Madras he appeared for Indaian Air Force selection test. He finished tenth and only first nine were selected. Disappointed Kalam not knowing what to do went to Sivananda ashram in Haridwar. After knowing the reason for his unhappiness, Swamiji consoled him with these words. “God might have something big in store for you. That may be the reason for you not getting selected. Who knows, One day you may make aircraft and conquer the space”. Rest is history and known to all of us. He went on to become a space scientist, missile man, scientific adviser,President of India,Bharat Ratna above all a great teacher,mentor,guide,philosopher and a role model for modern India.

SHONE LIKE SUN NOT LIKE MOON……..WISH THEY HAD NO SCARS

 When I was a kid ,like every kid I used to wonder seeing the beauty of full moon. Then my mother was reminding me about the scars on the moon. In those days I used to wish that moon had no scars. Later on, I had learnt that moon is only an astronomical object and it is not even self illuminating but reflecting the sun's rays. But even today I enjoy the beauty of the moon and wish it had no scars.

          Similarly there are some great people who enjoyed or are still enjoying the iconic status in their respective fields during late 20th century and early 21st century, in our times have some scars. Even their great reputations could not erase their misdeeds . Because of them even though they achieved many laurels in their good times, they were not role models in a strict sense. As an ardent admirer of them for their achievements I wish they had no scars. I am sure there are many people  who feel the same.

          Sometime back,I read a news item in the paper. During the trail of insider trading case of Mr Rajat Gupta, an alumni of IIT and Harvard business school with a successful career at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, highly admired in business circle world wide, co-founder of Indian school of business Hyderabad, when counsel pointed out the philanthropic activities of Mr Gupta , judge commented that “ I am also an admirer of Mr Gupta for his philanthropy. But that cannot be an excuse for not proceeding against him in the present case”. Eventually he was convicted and he is serving a jail term. Being an admirer of a self made man like Rajat Gupta , I still wonder what made him to commit an act like that. But I sincerely wish that persons like him ought not have committed these ignominious acts.

          While I was studying engineering at Kakinada (small town) I was thrilled the moment I heard on radio that Mohd Azharuddin is the first person to score  three centuries in the first three cricket test matches he played. My happiness increased manifold because he is a Hyderabadi and belongs to my own state. He was brought up in a simple middle class family. His wristy play was prised by many great cricketers and commentators and he is one of the most successful captain of Indian cricket. All these accomplishments crumbled in one day when it became known that h was involved in the match fixing scandal and was banned for life. It is just mother example of persons with great caliber who sometimes compromised in their behavior and betrayed their own profession.

          In 2009, on Jan 7th, while we were celebrating my wife's birthday I was shocked to hear on CNBC the confession of Satyam(truth) Ramalingaraju. He confessed that over the years the company is declaring inflated profits, excess income and even paying the taxes more than required and fooled the investors. Indian stock exchange was already closed for that day but stock tumbled to all time low on NASDAQ. Investors all over the world lost billions. Many Satyam employees lost their jobs. But for the efficient manner the crisis was managed by the government confidence in Indian business would have lost forever. One of the persons effected was my brother in law who lost his job. I am disappointed more because I was proud that Ramalinga Raju belongs to our neigbourinig district and a person from a small town of a farming family climbed to the pinnacle of a mountain only to fall down to the depths of the ocean of shame. Children of next generation may not believe that this is the same person along with Narayana Murty of Infosys, Azim Premzi of Wipro and Ratan Tata’s TCS not only changed the Indian software but also changed the image of India as a nation of seeking aid into a country to be liked or hated but can not be ignored. He Is also the architect of many philontropic acts including 108 ambulance service that saved many lives and the scheme was adopted by Government of India for the entire nation demonstrates his visionary qualities. But Satyam Ramalingaraju’s life is a perfect example of the famous saying “One can fool  some people all the time, All the people for some time but not all the people all the time “. Bubble will burst one day with terrible consequences. It also shows that means are more important than ends and character is more important than name and fame. While I was writing this Ramalingaraju was convicted by a special court and sentenced for seven years rigorous imprisonment.

          Tarun Tejpal became a national hero in 2001 when Tehelka.Com an online paper run by him, carried a sting operation exposing murky defense deals in India. It ultimately led to the conviction of a President of a national party and resignations of some central ministers. The media praised his exemplary courage and people of the nation felt that more number of such people are needed to change the image of the country. Many people tried to coerce him but he withstood all pressure. It is his publishing company that published Arundhati Roy's Booker prize winning novel God of Small Things. In 2013 it took some time for the nation to digest the news of an e mail sent by him to one of his female colleagues regarding the gross misjudgment for his behavior with his female employee in the lift in Goa. After regretting for his behavior he stepped down from the post of chairman of Tehelka as a punishment. The facts of the case will be known only after thorough investigation and trial. But even the revelations of the e mail are sufficient to tarnish the image.  Not only his behavior with the colleague of his daughter’s age but also the way he treated the complaint are in line with the principles his paper tried to protect. By investigating his own case and deciding his own punishment he crossed all the democratic norms for which he had fought for till that time as a journalist.

          Bill Clinton’s statement on Monica Lewinsky affair did not come a day too soon. It is the culmination of lot of Senate committee hearings,investigation,link with earlier alleged affair with Miss.Paula Johnson case when he was Arkansas governor. Even there were rumors of impeachment. The case created as much sensation as water gate scandal which led to resignation of President Nixon. The difference being by Clinton’s time Television penetrated into more homes across the world  and the affair is known to all people across the globe. Real facts of the case are known to only few people. But from whatever known also the behavior is unbecoming of a leader. Fortunately, the affair did not tarnish the image of president Clinton, probably because the moral values of the world changed over the years or it is considered as only a small mistake by the president of the most powerful nation of a unipolar world. Yet it is a definitely a blot on the character of the most popular president belonging to democratic party after John F Kennedy.

          I am not so sure that Jeffrey Archer exactly fits into this. But his talent as a writer and rise to the level of the deputy chairman of    Conservative party from a low of filing insolvency petition makes him as popular as any character of his popular novels. His alleged notorious acts range from financial irregularities, paid sex,lying and perverting the course of justice. He started his life as a bright student of English literature, became a member of parliament, alleged fraudulent investment to bankruptcy, popular writer, rising again to deputy chairman of conservative party, allegation of paid sex, conviction for perjury and perverting the course of justice. But he is always a popular author of many novels mainly advocating optimism. It can be said that  if he writes his own story, it will be definitely a block buster. But it does not teach anything for future generations to follow.

             Mrs Winnie Mandela's story is pathetic among all others. She is the symbol of courage of the modern world. Living outside alone in an apartheid regime when her illustrious husband Nelson Mandela was in jail for 25 years. The life of Mandelas is a new age real epic . Yet after the release of Mandela, South Africa had been freed from apartheid and Mandela became the president he divorced  Winnie Mandela for her suspicious behavior. Allegations against her include abetting self immolations as a form of protest and involvement in the death of a rugby coach etc. Fortunately still she is very popular though with dented image. I sincerely feel that she would have been the ideal woman of modern world without them.

          All the above examples show that reaching the pinnacle of a mountain is easier compared to staying there. Second part is much more difficult because first part can be achieved by sheer talent or circumstances but second needs character and consistently controlled behavior for the remaining period of life. It is especially difficult because celebrity status is associated with lot of privileges, attractions, temptations and power. Lot of control and self-discipline is required to remain detached.

IT TOOK 48 YEARS TO LEARN

                                               IT TOOK 48 YEARS TO LEARN….

FOCUS ON GOALS,  IGNORE IRRITANTS

Avoid thinking and expressing dissatisfaction about irrelevant, unimportant and insignificant things. Expand this area of irrelevance, insignificance and unimportance.

HELP OTHERS TO HELP YOURSELF

Try to help others, timely. Timely help can make real difference to people.  There are many examples. Many people cannot encash opportunities because they could not get help in time and many other people even lost their lives for the same reason. Behind ever success there is always a story of receiving timely help or at least timely advice. If you cannot help at least avoid making derogatory comments on people who help others. Example:expressing passive comments on charitable institutions like Satya Sai Trust, Paripurnanada Trust etc. There may be some problems in them. But we should also express gratitude about the public good and benefits to some individuals rendered by them. Managing one's own family itself cannot be done without blemishes. So imagine running big institutions and that too voluntary organizations consisting of individuals with different cultures, backgrounds and mindsets.

SHARE THE SORROW, ENJOY  THE SUCCESS OF OTHERS EARNESTLY

Love your relations. Don’t restrict your love to only your spouse, children and grand children. This is not exactly love but selfishness with some motive of return. Expand this love to your cousins, aunts and uncles etc. Then slowly extend it to neighbours and friends. Enjoy their happy moments with them apart from helping them in need and sympathizing with them. Ironically sympathizing is easier compared to enjoying happiness because jealousy is the biggest enemy for everyone.  Then extend your love to needy and deprived people. Slowly think about loving everyone. Never think about these words as “it is easier said than done.”

CONTROL YOUR OWN DESTINY OR SOMEONE ELSE WILL…

Take responsibility for your life and be proud of it. Don’t blame others and events for your failures. It is the biggest reason for further failures in future for many people. Take control of your life,learn from mistakes. Do not repeat them. Correct them, prevent them to recur. Expand your horizon. Always think you and you alone are responsible for the failures.

LIVE IN THE PRESENT

Live in the present. Fear of future is the biggest enemy of present happiness. Always thinking about things like children’s education, marriage, promotions, ranking, health of self and parents etc. cause anxiety and eats away present happiness. Many times we are scared by imaginary future events which never really do occur. So enjoy the present, plan for the future, but do not worry about it. Events will unfold as they are destined.

WORK HARD, EARN MONEY, EAT WELL AND SAVE FOR TOMMOROW

Financial independence is fundamental to freedom of individual. Without this one cannot pursue his interests and his own way of living. He cannot act on his own thoughts because he will have to dance to the tunes of his creditors, to the people who help him and so called business partners. Without financial independence one has to live a life of parasite. For achieving financial independence there are two ways. Increasing the income, reducing the requirements or desires. Both have limits for ordinary human beings leading normal life with families. Increasing the income without crossing moral limits is very difficult but not impossible. Reducing requirements and limiting desires without compromising basic needs and satisfying near and dear is also difficult but it is also not impossible. It is very hard but it is always hard to lead a good and quality life. Srinatha and Pothana famous 15th century Telugu poets are perfect examples of the above. Even though possessed with highest levels of knowledge and earning very high income and patronage of great kings in his prime youth Srinatha had to lead pathetic life at the end as he could not control his desires or limited his requirements whereas Pothana with equal knowledge but limited income had the courage to even refuse the ,dedication of his book to the then kings but still could lead a life the way he wanted.  History always respected Pothana over Srinatha for the personal qualities. People like JRD Tata, NR Narayana Murthy, GD Birla set examples for earning money without crossing moral limits, whereas people like Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Pramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi etc taught us the way to limit desires and requirements.People like Mahatma Gandhi and Balagnandhar Tilak personified both.

FEAR IS THE BIGGEST ENEMY

Fear of failure and fear of criticism are the biggest stumbling blocks for people to act and succeed at many times. But inaction is unpardonable and wrong action is only perception. People who do not act not only fail in that activity but fail in their life. But failure in action is many times a temporary setback or failure to reach the stretched goals set by you or others. Reaching 90% of goal or finishing second or third is not a failure as told by some  modern management gurus “you will still be in the pit of you cross 90%”. It is evaluation and stepping stone for further future success. Even Thomas Edison failed 1000 times before inventing electric bulb. History did not call them failures but as experiments. Abraham Lincoln failed in every election starting from ward councilor, Senator, Governor, Vice President before getting elected as President. Many students try for IIT seat or University Rank but end up getting EAMCET Rank or College Rank. But getting EAMCET Rank or College Rank are also no mean achievements. Only the people who are recognized or talked about are criticized. Criticism to be taken as a thing to be reviewed about If it is for development take it positively if not ignore it. Karma yoga teaches you to act without thinking about its results. Results include expecting praise from others for all your actions. Karma Yoga also teaches that inaction is not possible and we are always engaged in some involuntary acts like breathing or killing insects with our movements. Laziness should not be tolerated at any cost.

SPOUSE IS THE BACKBONE

Cooperation of the spouse is a prerequisite for the success of all. There is a old saying that “Behind every man's success there is a woman”. I am not sure whether these words are told in the above context or women guided or at least acted as catalysts in the man's success. Cooperation of the spouse does not guarantee success or development but non cooperation of spouse certainly leads to not realizing full potential or not reaching the goal and becomes hindrance in the path. This should be kept in mind always by any partner who wishes the welfare of the other.

FAMILY IS INSURANCE

One thing we Indians always take as a matter of routine is our parents living together always even though there are some differences exist between them. But it is not as common as we feel if we take the situation prevailing in many parts of the world. Parents living together is the root cause of success of Indian children and we are always at advantage with the family as a pillar of strength behind us. If there are any doubts just read biography of Barack Obama, President of US. Just observe how fortunate we Indians are before cursing our customs and superstitions. We can always rely on family for support in case if conditions are adverse. This is the best and cheapest insurance available anywhere in the world.  Togetherness is happiness not only for us but also for our future generation.

How much is too much? How long is too long?

How much you earn determines the comfort in life, never the quality of life                      

                                                                                -Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev                 

                                                                   

At 75 Russi Modi chairman of Tata Steel was asked to step-down in 1990s. There was lot of resistance from him and ultimately Tata Steel rules had to be amended to remove him for making way to younger generation. That time some articles appeared in press regarding retirement. One of the arguments that attracted me was that Indians plan poorly for retirement. The same article says Indians plan financials very well after retirement but they don’t plan for spending the time after retirement. Just because they have nothing else to do they try to cling to the chair. An astonishing fact in a land that taught Karma with detachment, work without desire.

In fact Indians don’t plan finances either. They just save and don’t plan. They save sometime at the cost of present. Their savings does not result in portfolio. Generally many middle class, higher middle class people save in real estate, gold, Bank FDs and insurance policies popularized and publicized by known people. They spend disproportionately for education of their children, buying home and marriages of their children. All these they think they are doing for the welfare of the children. Doing good to others including your own children at the cost of your own basic needs is a sin according to Hindu Law. This is also is sign of weakness due to excessive attachment. For example we are having lot of politicians who are blemish less till the other day involved in misdeeds for furthering careers of  the children. Satyam Ramalinga Raju had very good name internationally till he tried to save Maytas of his sons. His fate also got reversed like the name of the company. Truth (Satyam) also collapsed like a pack of cards.

The biggest problem and root of many evils like dowry, corruption and black money lies in the unacceptably higher attachment Indian parents have for their children. They want safety, security, better life for not only their children but also for children of generations to come. Love and affection for children is indeed needed. Spending for them to make worthwhile children is needed even for the society but paying even for their misdeeds and to see them happy at any cost is deplorable. Adding to this it makes your real requirement of money uncertain as no one can predict the requirement of others including their children precisely. Because of this they try to earn as much as possible and at any cost even if it meant taking the wrong path. One has to make his child worthy rather than wealthy to lead a happy life.  If we analyze some middle class families we can observe one more thing recently. Father spends miserly and saves lot of money in the form of real estate and gold, then gives it to one or more sons. Sons also have their own well earned jobs, does not touch the father’s property but adds to it and only increase their mental balance of assets. It is especially more prevalent nowadays as in the most the middle class families where both spouses are earning members. It results in dilapidated houses without maintenance, locked apartments in the urban areas   and gold in bank lockers which are rarely opened thus wasting lot of resources. It is no different form black money. Imagine all this money invested properly and in circulation, used for investment and creating employment for the nation. Apart from the traditional preference of gold and real estate by Indians as the country entered very late into industrial revolution widely fluctuating equity markets, poorly managed mutual funds, low returns on bank deposits and looting the hard earned money by some non banking financial companies are also main reason for the above situation. Non compliance of tax and relevant building laws as accepted norm of society, lack of transparency in real estate dealings also results in apparent high returns and safety of real estate investments. Here Government, RBI and Industrialists have some responsibility to shift the savings from traditional areas.

Making child worthy has another advantage. Many people try to justify the excessive earnings and thrifty spending to save money for taking care of their old age needs. Poor people who have to really fear for the old age requirements can not save at their young age. Financial savings alone can not make the old age safe. Many of the wealthy parents are nowadays complaining that their children are not treating them properly or they had gone to far off greener pastures like USA leaving them alone. Emotional needs also have to be fulfilled apart from financial needs especially in later years of life. Our grandparents never felt this insecurity. S.Gurumurthy, noted chartered accountant, columnist for Indian Express writes that traditional family values like Matrudevobhava, Pitrudevobahava are the best for social security instead of relying on social security provided by the Government. Disastrous effects of social security policies of USA, people relying on social security provided by state resulted in largest external debt. If a well developed country faces this situation imagine the effects of broken family values in countries like India. Increasing demand for old age homes is a big cause for concern. In this we should never imitate the west for our own sake. Our schools should stop teaching a big family, small family concept. Small family consists of mother, father and children. Inclusion of even grandparents makes it big. Uncles, Aunts and cousins have no place in any family. With this type of thinking it is no wonder that people feel so insecure. Lack of good health insurance policies and perception of Indians that insurance also is another investment rather than hedge against risk is the reason for health insurance becoming not so popular in India.

Another reason for old generation not living happily with their children is after working at decision making levels for long years at both office and home they are not able to leave that habit to children creating ripples in the family. This is also in sharp contrast to our grandparent’s time.

Another category of people simply accumulate wealth without any motive. They neither invest in productive assets nor make donations to charitable institutions. They don’t even like to part even with their loved ones. This is simply madness without even method.

It is very common now to see people working at even the age of 70 even though really they don’t neither need the job anymore for financial reasons nor it is giving professional satisfaction. Their only justification is that they have nothing else to do. It is a pity that so called intellectual people in seventy years of their life only thing they had learnt is they have nothing else to do except working in offices. For example a simple observation around society will reveal that grandparents not performing their role towards grand children is one of main reasons for depleting values in society. Most of these people are exploited and humiliated in such a way that they are paid even one fifth or one tenth of the salary they used to get before retirement for the same job i.e. they are selling their time and skill very cheaply.

The above thinking is due to the fact that in their active life they never thought about anything except office. They did not even spend quality time with their family or for simple exercises or intellectual, physical or spiritual advancements. Indians generally think hard working means working 24x7 without taking holidays. Another problem is that they don’t delegate for fear of losing recognition. Both will make them crippled in the later years of their life apart from making them unhealthy. If you read biography of successful industrialists or professionals they had enjoyed weekends always and did many more things apart from professional. For example our missile man and former President Kalam is as knowledgeable about politics, philosophy, current affairs and socio economic situation as in science. Putting all your eggs in one basket will be disastrous.

It is very pertinent to mention two real experiences described in two great books written by modern day personality development gurus Mr. Stephen Covey and Mr. Dale Carnegie. Stephen Covey in his personal message in the book of Seven habits of highly effective families quotes the address of former first lady of USA Barbara Bush “As important as your obligations as doctor, lawyer or business leader will be, you are human being first, and those human connections- with spouses, with children with friends- are the most important investments you will ever make. At the end of your life you will not regret not having passed one more test not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent…. Our success as a society depends not on what happens in white house but on what happens inside your home”. Remember Mrs. Barbara Bush is wife of one president and mother of another president.

Mr. Dale Carnegie narrates the life of richest man ever lived on this planet. John          D Rock feller Sr in the true stories sectiono at the end of the book How to stop worrying and start living. John D Rock feller Sr. had accumulated his first million dollars at the age of thirty three. At the age of forty three he had built up the largest monopoly the world has ever seen. The great Standard Oil company. But where was he at fifty three. Worry and high tension living without humor and family life had already wrecked his health. At fifty three he “looked like a mummy” says his biographer. Rock feller had once confessed that he wanted to be loved yet he was so cold and suspicious that few people even liked him. He felt at 53 he lived on borrowed years of life and he was looking like 75. He retired. He learned to play golf. He went in for gardening. He started chatting with his neighbors. He played games. He sang songs. He did something else too. He began to give his billions away to the needy people. He established great international foundation, The Rock feller foundation. He had so changed that he did not even lose one night sleep when he was forced to accept the greatest legal defeat and was ordered to pay the heaviest fine in history. He had his happiest years only after 53. It is recommended to read the full story in the book.   

    

 A word of caution here. It is fashionable nowadays to take any argument to its extremes. So it should not be misunderstood that people should not have motivation to earn, motivation to work and motivation to save. Excessive spending, wastage of resources and leading lazy lives without contributing to any value addition in life are the worst sins any human can commit. It is written only to caution against saving money without re investing in productive assets, earning by sacrificing the present for the sake of never realized future and losing sight of work life balance and family pleasures.

I would like to conclude with euphemism frequently heard now a days. Any thing which is told for better and good living in this is life is called philosophy. Now a days materialism is defined as living in his own way not bound by family, moral, traditional or societal values and not even legal restrictions if possible. Anything less than this is described as philosophical. This is the greatest disservice to great materialistic thinkers like Ravindranath Tagore or Jawaharlal Nehru. Any authoritative thinker on Hinduism does not even consider Mahabharata or Ramayana as philosophical texts. Only Vedas and Upanishads are authoritative philosophical texts on Hinduism. If better and happy living in this life is considered  as philosophical then what about advaitic philosophy that teaches Purusha and Brahma are one and the same. It cannot even be imagined. It is no wonder that we are not believing this theory because we don’t  even deserve to believe that let alone live like that.