Towards Resurgent & Responsible India

  "The kind of seed sown Will produce that kind of fruit. Those who do good will reap good results. Those who do evil will reap evil results. If you carefully plant a good seed, You will joyfully gather good fruit." - Dhammapada Sanskrit word 'Vidya' as it was used by the Rishis, Gurus or teachers of ancient India. 'Vid - ya'   means that which light up, illumines. As such, it was identified with knowledge that illumines the mind and soul, liberates from the fetters of ignorance – Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye. When Vidya is imbibed, assimilated with the help of Guru, who always guides you with the moral compass keeping you rooted to the North, the righteousness. The most important tool in a ship, which sails in the high seas is the compass, without it, it will be lost in the vast ocean. No matter how so ever advanced or state of the art that ship is, without compass it’s like a floating log. Similarly no education would be helpful and would gi...

Photography is an art, its science, its music and it’s also poetry. Its the art of taking an instant out of time and freezing it. It’s purely on the way how you look at it. It’s a wonderful and rewarding profession and also a very satisfying hobby. Photography helps you unwind and gives you a chance to explore, it brings out newer perspective to life, by exposing you to your own ability to look at the things from different perspective. Its amazing experience capturing moments and emotions and freezing them on silicon. It could be kids playing on the ground, or some very old person sitting alone at some corner in the park. Photography helps you create painting with minimal effort and miniscule time in comparison to painting with paint and brush.   I started photography when I was in class eight, with an Agfa camera given by my father, who himself was an excellent photographer. Back then, there were only black and white 35 mm films and it was always delayed gratification ...

Courage is a choice, a decision of working against odds, against risks, against chances of rejection. Courage is precursor to many other attributes like honesty, sincerity, uprightness, truthfulness and love. Courage is the oxygen in which all other positive attributes survive.   Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener, defines courage in his wonderful book, “The Courage Quotient: How Sciences Can Make You Braver” – “Courage is the willingness to act toward a moral and worthwhile goal despite the presence of risk, uncertainty and fear” The keyword is “Moral and Worthwhile Goal”. Courage is not just risk taking, the intent for taking risk is also very important in this definition of courage, because even a mugger or a pick pocket takes risk, to call his risk taking as “courage” would insult this great combination of action and emotion. Biswas-Diener found that courage is made up of two processes. The first part is the willingness to take action, and the second is the ability to control f...

Nationalism is not a concept, it’s not a theory as is apparent when you google the word “Nationalism”, it’s beyond those definitions and expressions. It is an emotion it’s a feeling. It is a feeling of gratitude that one feels for his or her mother. A gratitude which can never be paid back. Nationalism is an extension of that feeling, the metaphor mother extends to Mother land,  Matribhumi .   Vande Matram , The expression bowing in front of mother land.  But this mother land, the nation is not a piece of land just having a geographical and political identity; it’s not just about territorial limits. It’s beyond that, Nation is its people, nation is its environment, nation is the air giving life to all those living there.  Being nationalist is not about being dogmatic about your views. It’s about being assimilative, respecting and considerate towards the opinion of others sharing the space with you. A true nationalist would think nation first and as the...

Few years ago, after a shoot and spending overnight at the editing studio, on a drizzling Bombay morning, on my way to the airport, I passed through a construction site; I saw state of the art machinery, the tower cranes, caterpillars, bulldozers, excavators and many more. Not an unusual sight. But a sudden thought struck me and I started wondering how these impressive machines were designed, how they were transformed from few lines on the drawing boards to diesel guzzling mammoth engineering marvels. I had the usual encounter with security personnel at the airport gate, where they asked for the ticket printout and checked my id (Way back in 2012 they insisted on hard copies). While looking at the extra serious and overtly unfriendly face of the CISF jawan, I realized that Indian Railway has scored one point over our airlines. They have done away with the paper ticket. This is actually an internationally accepted environment friendly innovation .You can imagine the count of trees...

Attitude Defines Altitude  Attitude of Belief The attitude of belief and trust can make one think, attempt and achieve impossible things. Famous writer David J. Schwartz in his popular book “Magic of Thinking Big” has said – “Believe, really believe that you can move mountains and you will”. Every action, response, decision begins with belief, of course positive belief, in fact there is only positive belief. The other kind is called disbelief or doubt. There is nothing as ‘half belief’. Denzel Washington in the Movie “Equalizer” tells terry “Don’t doubt yourself, Doubt kills” and reassures her saying “I think you can be anything you wanna be.”   One should be really careful of the subtle suggestion from mind suggesting failure and casting doubt on your ability the belief swings are risky, because, if you even consider the possibility of disbelief, it will engulf you, it has got this sticking property like strong epoxy adhesive. Don’t even try touching it, it wi...