Thoughts & Actions

Other day I was travelling from metro. It was a crowded 10.30 train. As I entered the train, I took a corner with good AC flow as all seats were already taken. Near Sakinaka station an old man, roughly 65+, boarded the train and quite confusingly started searching for a place to sit. A young man in his 30’s was sitting in front of the old man. I was looking at him with an expectation and so was the old man.But he simply ducked the old man’s look and started starring somewhere else. As train started with a jerk the old man found it difficult to maintain his balance. In a moment or two another passenger offered his seat to the old man and gave a killing look to the young fellow.

In my mind I immediately cursed the young guy for his behavior and lack of civic sense. Also I started imagining, what I could have said if I would have got an opportunity to tell the guy how he should behave. For some time all passengers made it awkward for the young guy by their tough looks.

As metro left Chakala I moved towards door. The same ‘rude’ young guy sitting next to door also stood up and lifted his bag. Most of the passengers who boarded from Ghatkopar gave him a last look.

The guy in a calm composure dragged himself towards the door with his one handicapped leg and may be short sight. Suddenly everyone’s expressions were  changed. With a slight disbelief, my face was now filled with guilt and shame. Now I was in no situation to look at his face when he came besides me.

Train stopped at the station. The guy with a same pace and composure made his way to the lift leaving a strong and important lesson for me.

Its our thoughts and actions that decides who we are far more than our abilities.
So think thoroughly and behave patiently..

-Swaroop Khadilkar

The Blind Following

       These days we all can easily observe that language of communication has changed a lot. You can read many abusive͵ slang language words, sometimes even cheap and ugly words in many updates͵ replies͵ comments etc. over social networking sites. Please note I am not being gender biased over here, so boys and girls both are using these words with equal passion.


     One of the main reason is culture change we r going through. We all are following US culture & slang language is a part of their culture. Moreover its glorified and given a tag ‘its cool‘. (In a manner very similar to manliness is attached to ‘Galis‘. I have never understood how can you prove that you are a 'macho' man just by saying some rowdy galis.)

       Anyways so my point over here is that, we are changing as change is constant. But there is some problem in this change. Slang language, open culture is not the ONLY part of USA. How come we say we r following US culture and pick only things which are not good.

       People in US have a great quality called as Patriotism which is totally unknown and missing in India. In US they inculcate it at a very young age. They have very good rather great habit of cleanliness. They maintained their society very nicely. Its better not to talk about cleanliness and India.

       Again its a part of their life that they do spend some time for helping their society which is called as community service hours. It is actually taught in their schools. We Indians on the other hand treat underdeveloped parts of our society like an alien. Most of the Youth in US becomes financially independent between the age of 18 to 22. In India we have economical support from our parents even till the age of 26-28 and even after that we leave our parents. We want freedom or our 'space' in US style but parental support in Indian style.

      It is said that you should take good qualities of others and leave your bad qualities. But we are doing exactly opposite of it. We are forgetting one thing that we can THINK. We have brains. We should decide what is good for us and what is not. Initially it is painful to think and decide, but anybody who wants to grow will have to think wisely and act. If we wont do this there will be a day when Western countries will adopt our culture and we will have to 'learn' it from them. ( Don't think I am exaggerating. It has already started in some areas, ask Indians in western countries about who is their Yoga teacher ) So, wake up guys. Sooner the better, otherwise our next generations will feel ashamed about us for leading them to a wrong path inspite of having right ones with us.


-Swaroop Khadilkar.

Best message in Best words

The One who can be followed..

       The age of 6 to 16 is really very very important for a person and his social development. This is the age where our values, principles, morals etc. takes a shape. Many times parents try their best to make us, THE best person.
Sometimes they try to convince us, sometimes they scold us. Love, anger, aggression, patience everything is used and tested to make us a good human being. But most of the times we try, not to follow anything told by parents.

       In this process a very crucial helpful factor is often missed, the one whom we are following. It is the normal human mentality that when some message is given to us by a same generation third person (please note, same generation and not same age), whom we are admiring, we actually inculcate that message in our life. Try to remember the time, when we started to follow a sport or a music band, just because our elder brother or sister, or some Didi or Bhaiya from the colony was following it. Or your younger cousin must have tried to dress in a manner similar to yours. The same logic, applies to everything. If teens are told or advised to follow rules, inculcate good habits by guys from their generation, it will work. It need not be mentioned separately that for this the person passing this message should follow that rule or habit. We, The youth, can not only make this country a better place to live but also make the next generation a better human being.

       For this there must be some communication. A channel through which college going students can talk to school kids, freshers from industry can talk to teenagers. Schools or colleges can arrange for such meets, where we can make the next generation aware about their duties and responsibilities with the help of someone who is a bit elder, but from their generation.


       THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to be taken care of is, whom we are selecting. Because the person selected for passing the message must have some qualities to look after, follow rules, have some ethics.
Now don't even think that ''Aaj kal aise young log kaha milte hai''. We have so many examples among us. Just search them. You never know, you might find that one within you!!



- Swaroop Khadilkar


[P.S. -My personal, selfish goal is to be that ''Someone who can be followed'' for at-least someone. What is yours???]

Value

       We value things in our life usually based on the efforts to get them. When something is easily available, we kind of undervalue that thing or sometimes even that relationship. Please note here we are talking about things we are pursuing and not things which we are forced to get. So we can generalize this thought by saying ‘more the efforts more the value’. 

       We always seek for happiness. Many-a-times ‘the valuable thing’ give us happiness. But what has happened in last decade is, especially with generation Nxt i.e. my generation, we get almost everything easily. Take example of food, the Diwali special chakali, chivada which used to give heavenly pleasure to my parents on Diwali morning, is very common for me. We buy clothes on so many occasions that Diwali shopping is less exiting (except for a type of human being which is called as shopalcoholic). Another best example given by my mom, now days after marriage, girls talk to their mothers on a daily basis. So the divine happiness of a married daughter in meeting her mother is lost.

       We have key to happiness in our life, may however small happiness that gives! I might sound crazy while saying this, but don’t make everything in your life common. Value the timing. Don’t make this as a status issue. You might show off by having anything anytime, but that will reduce ‘the happiness moments’ in your own life. Don't let need turn into greed. May be that's another way of  stating importance of simplicity.

       But one thing is for sure, this simple way of living or limiting the need as well greed, will definitely give us a long lasting happiness.

Just give this whole thing a ‘valuable’ thought.


-Swaroop Khadilkar.

[P.S. - If we apply same logic to life, i.e. when everything in life is just effortless, will the value of life diminish?]

Cleaning The Real Spit

       Just an hour or so after my CA Final exams I was on station for taking permission about cleanliness campaign. It already started few days ago. So I was simultaneously getting informed about previous days. Frankly speaking all I had in my mind at that point of time about campaign was cleaning the station. I was really not able to look any bigger than that. So I was expecting we’ll clean some parts of station, we’ll shout some slogans and will also try to convey our message to public.

       The moment I entered in to railway police office I started gaining a very different view point about things. That place was all filled up with people coming in for various small complaints, making the official completely busy. After that when I got into station master’s office I was lucky to see what all things he has to worry about. Some random cleaning staff was there to inform that there were no bolts left on platform number 2 washroom doors. Another guy was there to ask for a shift change due to ill health of his wife. I was expecting “thike kal dekhte he” type of answer. But I was really stunned when that station master immediately took both the problems to their solutions. After that I got the required permission. None of them commented like ‘what we are going to get from it’ or ‘why are we doing it’.

      The very next day was the 3rd campaign day. I was very enthusiastic and positive about everything. But within few minutes after starting the actual work, I got a glimpse of Indian attitude. There were people telling us it’s not going to change anything, stop wasting your time, why don’t you do something about petrol instead. Meanwhile cleaning was going on. It was really difficult to clean every single stain of spitting. We were for sure getting satisfaction we never ever experienced before after cleaning each spot. We did it for couple of more weeks. We had great responses too. We were blessed to have an attitude to continue cleaning on such good responses. After cleaning any part when we used to watch on next day of campaign it was back to normal. I realized it is so much easy to spit than to clean. It took hours to clean a spot which was getting painted in seconds....

       ......With station some more dirt was also getting cleaned up. Dirt which was deep down somewhere…unknown, untouched. I just realized we are doing the very same thing with our system. We all are spitting on many things in our system carelessly. Without even thinking does anyone really trying to clean it up. Than let it be my approach towards railway offices or de-motivating comments from people. It is all now in our attitude.

       When we were cleaning on station a single ‘well done guys’ from a random person was giving us energy to continue. That’s where our attitude matters. We seldom say ‘nothing is going to change’ and continue doing the wrong things. We should really look at the people who are doing something for a better-good. If we wish to make our nation, our society a better place we need to stop ‘spitting’ on it. If we are not actually trying to change things in a better way, is it really that difficult to just appreciate??

       I think now we should STOP SPITTING ON THE SYSTEM. Instead let’s try to clean it up. A well developed attitude of an adult is hard to change but as we know nothing is impossible. Cleaning the station, shouting slogans, conducting rallies it’s all an outside solution to the problem. If we want to CHANGE something we have to hit the problem from it’s inside. Our own attitude is that ‘inside thing of the problem’.


       Any big discovery happened because someone strongly felt at some point of time that it will come into reality. Let’s have that faith on our nation…. on our own-self. We will definitely discover a new and better India.

Life and lively topics..

       After looking at most of the posts, discussions it seems that LOVE is the only topic in this world one should think about (please note, here even the LOVE means between the couples only). There are so many other important things happening around us. We comfortably decide to ignore them and still call our self educated.       It is said that a knife in hands of doctor can save someone's life but if it goes in the hands of a gangster, it can take someones life. So to remove confusion about what to do with what we have, we chose the so called 'best option'. We decided to do nothing. We became passive. We somehow developed the very famous "chalata hai" attitude or told ourselves "chill mar, jada soch mat" and concluded its the best way to live life. But that is not the solution, its running from the problem. That won't help us at all. We will have to find out the solution.
       But for finding out the solution we should first understand what we have. What is that knife we possess with the help of which we can help someone.

       Everyone has power to think, to decide between good or bad. We, the educated youth, has an additional power to make someone else think, help someone else. We can build a nation. We can revive the lost glory of Indian culture. We can help the world to survive and develop with the help of Indian philosophy, which teaches us simplicity.

        But here we are, stuck into love, films, gossips and all such blah blah blah. Its not bad to discuss these things but the problem is we discuss these things ONLY.

       So Guys wake up. Start gaining knowledge about various things. Start reading books. Have healthy discussions about social, economical, political issues rather than just gossips. Life is much more bigger than just a partner for lifetime. :)



-Swaroop S Khadilkar.

[P.S. - and eventually everyone will have a partner for life]

Simplicity and The New year

Being home for a new year celebration is something which I am doing after 7 long years.
Last time it happened when I was in 9th/10th . The celebration was simple but great. All I had to celebrate was a bottle of coke (which was, by the way, a very great thing for me at that point of time), a packet of Chitos and FM Radio. I was alone in the hall, listening to songs, with Coke and chips. All I remember is I was damn happy and satisfied at that moment.


I celebrated so many 31st after that. New year celebrations having friends, cake, fun, masti, time pass. But I distinctly remember only that 9th standard 31st. As such it was way too simple. It was even dull from a point of view. Still I wanna have that happiness again.


Its true when elders say, Happiness lies in simplicity.

I wish you have a simple but great new year..!!!!

The Cause

       There are two ways in which we can control crime, either by having curative measures or by precautionary measures. Both the ways are important and necessary. Having strict penal provisions and actions is the curative way of control. It will ensure that if something goes wrong it will be punished properly. May be it will also stop some people from committing crime but, out of fear. This is not the best solution, please note, that doesn't mean we should not have it. I am very much in support of strict punishments, but that won’t act as a substitute for precautionary measures.

       We call ourselves a grown up, matured and civilized community. Therefore we should be able to go to the root cause of the problem. If we try to address and fix such problem, there won’t be any need of punishments. So what could be the reasons for rape or sexual harassment of women? Why the number of rape cases is increasing drastically? What is the cause this problem?

       Sex is a natural instinct of human or animal life. But it need not be glorified and showed on screen. Many of today’s bollywood movies picturize sex, love scenes very boldly. When we will be continuously bombarded with love scenes etc, the aggression to have it will increase. Additionally many a times violence and brutality in action scenes is also magnified by films. Now the question is, does that mean film producers are wrong? Movies having love scenes are wrong?

       NO. I won’t say that. We need to understand that these movie producers or entertainers wanna earn their bread and butter. So they will make what is demanded. If we (please note I am saying WE not You) like love scenes on screen, they will give us the same. Now the second question comes is, is it wrong? Again the answer is NO. The problem is that (mostly) we have movies which will ‘only’ have love affairs, melodrama or non-sense action. Is it the only way of entertainment? Why don’t we have movies which are thought based or with a very simple theme? Look at Irani or Japanese thought based movies, pure entertainment with simple but great thoughts or we have great Hindi TV shows like Malgudi Days, Sarabhai V/s Sarabhai.

       But for such movies we should have that taste. We should revisit our taste. People should have some entertainment which won’t induce any cruel, sexual thoughts. Such a parallel entertainment is very important to bring down ecstatic feelings etc.

       First I want to appreciate all those who are coming on street to protest in any way, candle march rally, very good guys. Such symbolic protest is required to get curative penal provisions. Now as you have that ignited positive mindset to do something, change the system, my humble request to you is, it’s the time to move a step forward. Think about the precautionary measure more seriously. Change the taste. Think about what is THE difference between humans and animals. Love, sex is an important part of our life, but don’t make it THE ONLY important part of our life. Let’s widen the horizon of our life.


-Swaroop Khadilkar.

The Chosen One..

We all feel that god has given everyone some duty. Some task, which we are made for. So there is a chosen one for everything, for all the good deeds and we always keep on searching that person. The Chosen One who can lead us, who can guide us, who can spread positiveness, who can AWAKE people.

But we miss the very place where The Chosen One actually stays.... within us. Our own self. Stop searching and let us be the required Chosen Ones. .

This blog is a small initiative to awake The Chosen One within us. With this positive note, let the search begin..!!!

Happiness..

We do so many things just for happiness. A very good career plan, hectic schedules, rushy travels, extra time work, big big parties, expensive gifts & what not. Everything just under the tag ‘for happiness’. You must be thinking how can you say so? Everything above is for money, prestige, place or show off just because we think we’ll get happiness out of it…We miss one very important fact that happiness is not in all these things.Happiness is very simple.
A cutting chai in a rainy day after hectic schedule at a Tapari with friends…. 

The deadly PJ Jungalbandi between classmates & teachers...
Visiting our schools, colleges… living those golden days again from memories…
An innocent laughter of a baby, his nonsense talks, his soft touch…
A late night coffee…
An unexpected appearance of box of Pokemon tazo cards in the corner of our dumping place in house...

Green mountains, blue sky, clean river, fresh flowers, aroma after first rain…. in short beauty of nature…

An early morning walk (specially by late nighters/ owls)…

Reading your favourite novel in a cool calm place…

Looking X-0’s & sketches made by us on the last pages of our notebooks…

Eating biscuits in many awkward, odd positions-situations during lectures…

A fight for ‘who will open the gift’ with your siblings, even in your 20’s and 30’s …
Tapping water bottle when your friend is drinking water from that…

Helping someone selflessly…

Standing patriotically for national anthem at crowded places, classes, our own home sweet home…

Trying to get maximum cashews in Pulav…

Happiness is very simple. You don’t have to run for it everywhere… It’s always with you... You just need positive attitude to get it!!
Happiness is not destination, it’s the journey..!!! 




-Swaroop Khadilkar

The Secret of Growth

Last year we all were listing various stories of slow down, recession. Inspite of all this Indian markets (Bazaars) were full of joy and enthusiasm during every festival. It kind of fascinated me, recession on one hand & colourful Indian markets on the other. Also, we all were very used to the news that India is the future of the world, “The country with highest growth rate”. Analysers present various financial ratios in front of us. But a question always comes to our mind, ’what are the various supporting points which are creating so much of faith on India at worldwide level, Enthusiasm in Indian markets?

Now let’s go back to 1930’s recession time to know a fact. When recession hit hard to Russia, Government was worried of the situation where people were losing their faith of country. A funny but effective solution was given. ‘Ask people to dig some potholes & pay them. Later employ some other people, pay them to cover those holes. They all will spend that money to buy something. This will make producers think there is some demand in the market and it’ll help revival of economy”

Another interesting fact, this time from Japan. Recently Japanese government started giving special family holidays to their employees. By this they were trying to make their family system stronger. A similar step by European countries where they allowed paternity leave after birth of child.

In India we have a very rich culture of festivals. There is a continuous chain of festivals placed in such a way that people will spend their money for celebration. May there be recession or boom, people will buy new cloths for Diwali, Ganesh Idols-flowers – food items and what not during Ganpati festival, gifts-sweets during Rakshabandhan, Makarsankrati. If we look carefully every section of society is considered. Right from Phoolwala, Mithaiwala, farmers to traders transporters, potter everyone gets some importance during some festival. For example, in Maharashtra, on first day of Diwali people break fruit named Karante as a symbol of slaughter of Narakasura. Now the fact is the plant of this fruit requires less water and grows in Adivasi areas. So it becomes a source of income for those people.

Family system is called backbone of our society. Healthy family is essence of healthy society and sound mind is base of happy life. In India we all have moral security and emotional support. It always helps to fight back in tough times. In Indian culture we hear so many example stating importance of marriage, which is the base of family system. Ram who is given higher level of respect because of his ‘Ek Patni Vrat’, now a days known as one women man. Also all the Pativrata women are given respect in our culture. This whole thing helps a lot for sustainance of any marriage.

Now let’s connect the dots. Two most important factors for growth & survival of any country are; Financial and Emotional soundness. Compare the actions taken by Russian European or Japanese government with the role played by festivals and family system in India. You will come to know that the actions of government are taken by Indian culture and that too in a long lasting manner. Like festivals take care of financial factor and family system of emotional. Our culture is complete in itself. Here I have mentioned only two aspects. But the overall cultural formation is done in such a way that each and every situation in human life is considered and handled properly.

We really have solution on all kind of problems. India can truly guide the world. And when someone talks about growth story of India or future of our country, India means we all…You. We can really play a great role in world’s future. But for that we need to have ‘faith’ on our culture, our values. We have so much to be hopeful and positive about future. The great Indian culture is the reason for colourful Indian markets in recession time as it is for flattering financial rations or over all perspective of world towards India. And the cherry on top is you have this Indian culture and heritage is with you, in your family. Just cherish it properly.

The Difficult Path

I believe in positivism. Its not like everyone should be positive, but its good to be positive. There are cynical people around us, some have a provisional mindset. They always like to be prepared for "if things go wrong" scenario. I am not against anyone. Just that most of the time people judge positive guys like 'day dreamer' or the word 'irrationally' is attached to their nature. I don't agree to that.Basically I feel we all forget that here we are talking about nature and not reaction. Nature is something which is permanent, long lasting. On the other hand reactions are immediate, more of a short term thing. We often judge someone by his/her reactions instead of nature and rush to conclusions.

When a person gets angry, irritated after a huge fight that is his reaction. How he behaves after sometime shows his nature. There are people who are always angry or always crying. But if they get a prize they will obviously feel happy and cheerful.

So what exactly we mean by Positivist...

Animesh an above average guy, who usually secures a place in top 10 just got slammed in one of his exams. He was very much frustrated and angry, because he knew he did his best as always. He has 'a off mode' day. He did not talked to any of his friends. At night when he was very much settled with that feeling, he came back to his NATURE. He thought that as his score is so bad (for the very first time), their must be some reason for that. May be that's the chance when he can can get a boost to his studies and outperformed in next exams. He felt very hopeful and happy about it.

I guess the example is pretty much self explanatory. See its really very easy to keep on cribbing about what happened wrong and how it happened. We can really spend out lifetime in such feeling. As time passes we realize that when we are cribbing about things, we are getting a kind of attention (atleast of someone) and with time it becomes our nature. No one is born to be positive or negative, it just happens. So actually speaking its upto us how we want to be. Being positive may not give you immediate attention but trust me, people will follow your footsteps silently. If we try to find out whats good in everything, the world will turn in to haven.
For me positivity is related to happiness. If you (please note YOU) want to be happy, you have to find something good out of what happened and think good, positive about future. All it gives is a hope to live and happy state of mind.

I strongly feel 'It is very easy to be sad, but difficult to be happy'.

- Swaroop..

(P.S. - I love the difficult path.... always)

:)