Is there an answer to the disharmony that erupts ever so frequently in our country?

Just looking at the political debates, the social issues and even the drawing room discussions one wonders how India, with its varied culture, beliefs, customs and practices, can ever be united and peaceful.

 

Let’s look at some facts of last century,

1. We have seen 2 world wars, got involved directly in at least 4 wars and faced innumerable internal conflicts all in the name of race, religion or beliefs
2. Last century saw the kind of atrocities mankind can inflict on itself when it focusses on establishing supremacy of its race, religion or beliefs

At the risk of simplifying the issue, I believe the problem is not that of multiple religions, languages, beliefs etc. but it is the need to establish supremacy of my religion, or my language, or my way of living in comparison to all the rest, lack of acknowledging any limitations of my beliefs and practices and lack of tolerance to anything not endorsed by me.

 

We, the people of India, should understand that religion, beliefs and practices are for individuals, though they may have served the need of society at a particular time. But today, if they by themselves are not bringing you and me together and they are no more than an instrument of division/disharmony between you and me then we have to look towards another set of common rules to govern our world. Else even in midst of real social and political issues we will continue to miss the big picture and fight among ourselves on differences that are anyways going to be there just like the differences in each individual.

 

Now if we as citizens of India recognise that

1. Human rights are the only basis of every political and social concern/discussion even with different religion, languages, beliefs and practices.
2. Human rights should be the basis of building the constitution and strengthening the judiciary system.
3. Human rights cannot be violated by any existing religion, beliefs and practices without any exceptions.

Then perhaps, there is a chance that we may have a nation that ensures peace and harmony to its people while basking in its rich and varied religion, beliefs and practices.

The Change Book by Mikael Krogerus & Roman Tschappeler, Translated by Jenny Piening

Rating - 4/4 (Excellent read)*

 

A very interesting read, unable to decide whether I like it or not :). The reason for liking is its brevity and for not liking also is its brevity. I do think I will use this more as a reference to develop and compare my own view of the world. The book is an excellent example of how to say more with less. It uses the various diagrammatic techniques quite innovatively and simply. That’s another takeaway if you deal with ideas and need to communicate them to a large group of people. The book is all about knowing where we are (our world, my world) and how to make changes possible (in our world, in my world). The authors provide a clinical and comprehensive set of ideas and theories arranged very succinctly much to the benefit of the reader. Below is a brief summary of the covered topics

1. Our world – includes ideas on world creation, the political scenarios, the elements that drive business decisions, the human existence here and beyond
2. My world – includes ideas on relationships, living, parenting, beliefs and the changing social preferences
3. Changing my world – includes ideas on decision making, focusing, time management, being happy, role of internet in our lives, investing, death, truth
4. Changing our world – includes ideas on international power play, transparency, team management, environment changes, economic upheavals and innovations, computers today and tomorrow, world destruction

Some of my favourite book features

1. Illustrations
2. Quotable quotes at the end of each chapter
3. Easy to read and understand

I recommend this book if you are interested in most of the topics covered. The book in my mind is like a cheat sheet on important topics, raising your awareness and triggering your curiosity simultaneously.

 

*My rating scale (1-Bad; 2-Fair; 3-Good; 4-Excellent)

Work and Happiness

I wanted to sort out my approach to dealing with work and its result. Note: I have used work, task, and job interchangeably in general sense of physical & mental activity that we perform to create an output. So here we go…

 

Who decides what needs to be done and what need not be done? 

In my opinion, you decide based on your personal, social and professional goals/objectives. If the task adds value to your objective it needs to be done else it need not be done. The key here is to know your respective objectives and to balance these elements of your life by what we generally call as work-life balance :)

 

How to ensure you are happy doing the task that needs to be done?

Sometimes, even though a task needs to be done you don’t really enjoy doing it. The list of tasks that need to be done in your lives can be endless say going on job/cooking/ laundry/ home keeping/ maintenance/ performing certain customs etc. Whether you like them or not is not important in the larger scheme of things. So how do you work around this situation?

a. If you like the task – Awesome combination. You are doing what you like to do and it adds value to your set objectives

b. If you don’t like the task – Leads to frustration. The point is now on how to reduce this frustration. The options you have are

• Continue to work without liking the work and be unhappy
• Don’t do the work and face the consequences of not doing that work (no job-no money, no cooking-no food, etc... You get the drift right :))
• Outsource or mechanize the work (generally seen with home keeping and maintenance kind of work)
• Try to be motivated by thinking that a required work will be completed i.e. become duty oriented (e.g. as an adult I need to do a job and be financially independent or as a responsible family member I need to give a hand in house chores and perform maintenance task etc.)
• Continue to work while simultaneously exploring ways to either bring meaning to the current work or redefining your objectives and preparing for new opportunities

Below is a simple matrix summarising the points

  

At the end of the day, I would like to enjoy what I do and would like to believe that the task is adding value to larger scheme of things.