Making Lives Better

I am sure all of us have tasted success in one or the other form. I am also sure that we all have also thought that our lives can be still better. A few lucky ones are able to realise this. For the rest I have a secret.

Before going to the secret I would like to quote on of my English teacher. When I was preparing for my CAT exams, he had said."Everybody knows at the age of 30 that what should have been done at the age of 20 so that they would have been successful by the age of 30. But these people are not successful. Successful are those who at the age of 20 know what should they do now so that they would become successful by the age of 30."

Anyways let me share with you the secret of making your lives better. The ingredients of a quality life:-
1. भक्ति
2. शक्ति
3. युक्ति
4. मुक्ति

Yes, of course they are not the name of girls ;)

भक्ति is the devotion that is put in the efforts, the dedication towards your goal. शक्ति is the strength, युक्ति is skills and मुक्ति is being dispassionate about it.

There was this great sage called 'Patanjali'. He was an expert of 'mind'. He enunciated this scripture 'Patanjali Yog Sutras'. One of the sutras that I perceived to be the best was ' sato deerghkalah nairantarya satkar sevita drid bhoomi' 

'sato deerghkalah' : For a sufficiently long duration of time
'nairantarya' : With consistency
'satkar sevita' : With respect
'drid bhoomi' ; It will estabilish

In order to achieve excellence the efforts should be put in for a sufficiently long time, without any break, with respect and then you will achieve excellence ; then you'l become successful.When this sutra is implemented in combination with the above mentioned four attributes it becomes a recipe for making your lives better. Then there is a possibility that you may live your life the way you want rather than the way you are actually being forced to live.

Take Sachin Tendulkar for example. This guy has been playing cricket since decade, rather I should say he has been hitting balls for over 30 years now. If you have noticed whenever he enters the field he never misses to touch the field before putting his foot on it and he also expresses his gratitude after every century to God by raising his bat. There is continuity, respect and consistency; and the result is a 'Master Blaster'.

I always used to think that saying is so much easy but its implementation is THE thing. Here came to my rescue the world's largest volunteer based NGO called 'Art Of Living'. This 7 day workshop which was then called YES!+ (Youth Empowerment And Skills Workshop) was just an escape for my boredom but I had never ever in my wildest dreams thought that it would become an irreplaceable part of my life. The one thing that I like best about the workshop is that you just have to come and sit. everything else will just happen. Like if a person wants to do some bodybuilding, he just needs to visit the gym , do some exercise the result of which is a fantastic physique.

Similarly to implement these sutras in life, the mind has to be trained. In the process of training the mind all of this will automatically manifest in your lives. So, the question that comes up here is that how can the mind be trained?  The answer is very simple, you just have to do what you have been doing since your birth - breathe. Sounds rubbish!! Well its not,in the words of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who is lovingly called Guru Ji- Mind is like the kite in the sky and breath is the thread that keeps it stable and longer the thread, the more stability the mind has.


But we have been ignoring this most important aspect of our life. It needs to be changed, you need to take responsibility of yourself, you need to take control of your life and I tell you the easiest way to do it is through breathing exercises and meditation.It is just enjoying your own company. Imagine if you cant enjoy your own company how do you think others find you to be.

And to end I would say there are a lot of  'side effects'  of meditation and trust me you'l love them.

SAY NO TO A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP

Still if you do want to have one, try considering the following three mantras

1. Communication is the key. Use as many sense organs you can to communicate to each other. Visuals are the best. 

2. Meeting is fantastic idea at regular intervals. Keeps the relation spicy :p and yes of course it should be on priority basis on a serious note.

3. Trusting each other is of utmost importance, believe in each other.

VOTE for a BETTER INDIA

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar started this wonderful initiative under the banner of I Vote For A Better India to survey Indians using a 'Happiness Survey’.  

I Vote For A Better India (IVBI) is a campaign that aims at increasing the awareness and importance of voting in our civil society, especially the youth

Campaign objectives

• Increase voter awareness regarding the importance of voting

• Increase voter registration by registering 50%-65% of the unregistered voters before January 31, 2014 

•  50-80 million new voters / ~0.9-1.5 lakh voters per Parliamentary Constituency

• Clean the electoral rolls to reduce bogus voting by ~ 50-80 million

• Increase voting turnout by more than 20% (including cleaning the electoral rolls)

“The aim is not to tell people who to vote for but educate and inspire to vote,” it says.

The Happiness Survey was also conducted in Belgaum. Karnataka under the guidance of Dr.Deepali Patil and Ignatius D'Souza, the Art Of Living teachers. Thousand of people filled the survey.

'Are you happy in life?' The first question which is asked in the survey but it soon moves to ones on national issues like voting preferences, economic status of the country, etc.

Following is the analysis of  751 surveys:-

Khushboo Gujrat Ki...!

This is what happened in Gujrat under Narendra Modi...!

The following write up is a brief write-up in bullets of what Narendra Modi and his team did in Gujrat.

AGRICULTURE:

1.Krishi Mahotsav- Govt went to farmers with scientists providing all info including animal husbandry and area under drip irrigation increased from 12,000 hectares to 7 lakh hectares under more crop per drop program.

2. Gross cultivable area increased from 108 lakh hectares to 148 lakh hectares.

3. Horticulture production increased 350% between 2001 and 2011.

4. 85% increase in milk production through innovative programs like animal hostels.

5. 1.2 crore animals treated in 30,000 pashu arogya melas eradicating 122 cattle diseases.

6. Gujrat's agriculture growth in last ten years was 9% against the national average of 3.2%.

WATER MANAGEMENT

1. In 10 years state constructed 6,50,000 water harvesting structures against 40,000 structures built in the last 40 years.

2. 7% of Gujrat population has tap or pipeline connection against national average of 30%.

3. Gujrats pani samiti program has won UN  Public Service Award, CAPAM Innovation Award and PM’s award for Excellence where drinking water has been institutionalized at community level. This has         led to massive reduction in number of villages affected by fluoride, nitrate, salinity ingress.

4. The only state to inter link its rivers and has its water level increased by 3.17 meters.

5. Paradigm shift from using 75% underground water to 85% surface water.

ENERGY

1. Jyotigram Yojna- Farm feeder lines were seperated from Domestic and industrial lines by constructing a whole new parallel transmission system at a cost of 1,290 crore involving 56,000 km of high transmission lines and 22,000 low transmission line in just 1000 days.

2. 18000+ villages received 24 hours 3 phase electricity.

3. Transmission and distribution loss was reduced from 30.64% to 20.13% by improvising the infrastructure and curtailing electricity theft.

4. Gujrat Electricity Board was in a loss of 2543 Cr in 2001 which in 2010-2011 earned a profit of 624cr. That too without increasing tariff for 7 years.

5. Gujrat is a power surplus state.

EDUCATION

1. School drop out rate dropped from 20.9% in 2001 to 2% in 2012.

2. Unemployment Rate is just 1% compared to national average of 4% approx..

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

1. Business worth Rs 1,700 Cr is being handles by 2.5 Lakh sakhi mandals compising 26,00,000 members under mission Mangalam Yojna.

2. Undrer internationaly acclaimed Chiranjeevi Yojna institutional deliveries increased to 95% against 45% in 2005.

3. Crime against women is 0.7% against national average of 2%.

OTHERS

1. Planned expenditure is 47% against  national average of 33%

2. Per capita Income in Gujrat is approx. 90,000 against national average of 61,000

3. Micro and small enterprises grew at the rate of 85% whereas the national average is 19%

GUJRATS FIRSTS

1. Sabarmati riverfront

2. 2,800 km of gas grid

3. Most successful rapid bus transportation system of the country

4. Largest solar park of the country, produces 2/3^rd of nations solar energy

5. First in Asia and 4^th in world to set a separate climate change department

Other Plans:-

1. Vanbandhu kalian yojana for tribals

2. Sagarkedhu Sarwangi yojna for cosatal community

3. Garib Samrudddhi yojna for Urban poor

4. Mukhya Mantri Amrutam Yojna for senior citizens

5. Roof top and canal top solar projects

6. Swagat program for transparent good governance program

7. iCreate for promoting entrepreneurship and innovation

8. SCOPE for opportunities through English language

9. eDhara for land records
10. eGram for IT enabled services to Rural Gujrat

To Fool You Is Easier Than To Convince That You Are Being Fooled...!

"TO FOOL YOU IS EASIER THAN TO CONVINCE THAT YOU ARE BEING FOOLED"

This blog is in response to people asking me to talk about AAP in facts and figures.

Let me go one by one on all issues.

1.Subsidy On Electricity:-

They had said that they would give a subsidy of 50% but the actual subsidy given is 27.5% for <200 units and 42% for 201 to 400 units. They included the subsidy given by Sheila Dixit in their calculations. And on top of that it is about subsidy. India on a whole has an accumulated loss of Rs.2,50,000Cr and an additional loss of Rs.25,000Cr annually. Credit Suise says that if the tariffs are increased by 10% every year they will come to break even after 3years. So I guess cost cutting is a better idea and supports sustainable development. 

2. Free Water:-

Free water is being given to upto 666l and after that the consumers will pay an extra 10%. This benefit will only got to 20% population of Delhi. On top of it what about the those who don’t have connections and those who live in societies and apartments- these are not getting subsidies. Delhi Jal Board's profit is approximately 467Cr and now this will frittered away by the subsidies.  For God’s sake understand why subsidies are not a solution, they are just like a volcano waiting to erupt. http://www.moneylife.in/article/aap-delhi-water-formula-is-full-of-leaks/35822.html#.UsU5CwCVqtF.twitter

3. Sensationalising Events:-

They said that they won't take any entitlements given to an MLA. Arvind Kejriwal was being given a residence with 6000 sq feet of built up area and 9000 sq feet of ground area. Now after public uproar, is returning it and is saying that will ask Government to find a smaller house. (I’lforward your application to the CM ;p). The AAP MLA's are getting Innovas as official cars with a special number 001 to Manish Sisodia on demand. To this they respond that we said no to red beacons not to cars. One of my colleagues responds to this, ‘Lootne ka tareeka credit companies se seekha hai kya?’ AK took a train to go to Ramlila Maidan for Oath Taking Ceremony for which a special train had been run. I won’t say anything about your three layer security because a CM has to have one. Just to quote, “I will not opt for a vehicle with beacon. I will not apply for security personnel. I will stay in my own house and will also not take up accommodation given to MLAs,” reads one of the pledge letters by Vinod Kumar Binni, a candidate from Laxmi Nagar constituency.  Ms. Rakhi’s car windscreen got damaged because a ball hit it and not because she was attacked.

4. On formation of Government:-

They got approx 10 lakhs votes in favour of forming government with Congress that is less than 10% of the Delhi’s population who are eligible to vote. 74% people voted in Delhi (81 Lakh, 40 Thousand), they received approx 30% votes (24 Lakh , 42 Thousand). Even if we take into count number of people who voted for them only 41% people wanted them to form the alliance and not 74% claimed by them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vanJcgf9CGc&feature=youtu.be

5. On fighting Corruption:-

AK had 370 pages of proof against Sheila Dixit when he was part of the India Against Corruption Campaign and now they ask BJP to give proof and then they will investigate. Totally double standards, I expect you to soon order a probe against her as a sacrificial goat but Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will go free. The outcome will be a failure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiJY7vZW5eY

6. Secular:-

They have made a separate wing to appease Muslims. Prashant Bhushan wants a referendum on Kashmir issue. I hope you know what it means. If not please google.

It may appear as if he is doing a fantastic job but its only short term. He is not understanding the long term implications of his policies. The economy will just fall. He is doing something what exactly happened to India prior to 1991 or what happened to Argentina. His ideology to me sound like one of the commies and trust me we need to evict him now and not give him a chance just we have been giving to Congress.