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Sunday, December 25, 2016

Why is Childhood Woeful?

Growing up, did you ever have an elder give you their complete attention?

Psychologists say attention is necessary for the emotional growth of a child. It bolsters our self-worth.

One of my chief complaints about my parents was that they never bothered to give me attention, or to listen to my stories. I remember being dismissed many of the time as 'saying nonsense.' When I didn't pick up fast enough what they were teaching me, they lost patience. When I slowed down miserably, they lost temper. Then it was Indo-Pak war.

After growing up, most children blame their parents for their personality defects. If only they had listened to me, if only they had let me have friends,..

I was no exception. I blamed my parents for my complexes, my insecurities, my lack of confidence -----------------until I had my own children.

The Infinitely patient super-parent

In the beginning it was a pleasure to explain lessons, ask to clean their tables and keep things clean. But soon I learnt that kids were also human. In fact, more human than adults, in that they took their sweet time to learn new habits, to study. In general, they just wanted to have fun.

Countless were the times when I threw my hands up on seeing new toys and school ID cards broken, shirts soiled beyond recognition, Were they taking a perverted pleasure in seeing my frustration?

And then I remembered.

Myself.

I never could remember a single instance in my childhood when I had done my work on my own initiative, of having taken any interest in studies, or keeping my things clean. My parents had a very tough time in getting me to study.


Why oh, why?

So was this payback? 

From the point of Karma, it very likely is. Everything that you had done has to end up somewhere, and the only logical place for it to end up is its source.

Talk about the cycles in nature. The water cycle, the food cycle, etc etc.

Learning to walk again

In many ways, training a child is like becoming a child again. Otherwise, you will not appreciate their situation and their difficulty in learning new things. Especially children who are differently-abled or are just not academically inclined.

You teach 1 to 100 to your six year old. But the next week, she is still stumbling on sixteen and sixty, seventeen and seventy, While the teacher is already onto multiplication...This may happen week after week, month after month, year after year...

It is easy to lose our patience and shout...but I remind myself this is what I am going to get back when eventually I may become a child sometime. If I am patient and tolerating now, I get it back.

Whatever I do, comes back to me.

If I lose it and shout, I'll be doing irreparable damage to the child's psyche. I've to be patient, and think for a better way to explain.

After all, that's the purpose of human existence...to solve life's challenges.



Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Cheapest Solution Yet For A Country to Go Cashless

Smart card wallets communicating

We have dwelt at length on the currency crisis in India here and here.

Now let's move on to the solution. The Government is working on a cash transfer system based on Unique Identification Number (Aadhar). Great.

In the mean time, here's another concept for an alternative for those people who cannot afford a smart phone and therefore, an e-wallet. It's the Smart card wallet.

The Smart card wallet

The Smart card wallet is similar to a smart credit card. It is able to transmit data in a small range of 1 m. This is all the range that is needed in daily transactions in the store, hotel, pubic transport etc.


  • There are the numerals 0 - 9 on one side with special characters, as in a touch pad calculator.
  • It has a solar self charging surface. Or we can also use a piezo electric charger.
  • It has a mini blue tooth (or other transmitter/receiver) of range 1 metre
  • Each card has a unique identification number.
  • Each card is connected to the bank account of the person. The person must transfer money from his/bank account to the Card wallet (by online banking/ ATM/bank branches).


Sending money

The transacting parties switch on their card wallets to transmitting/receiving mode. The sender types the receiver's unique number and the amount into his wallet, and presses send.

The e-cash lands in the receiver's Smart card wallet.

Receiving money into bank account

The receiver can do this in the same way as transferring cash from his/her bank account (by online banking/ ATM/bank branches).

In addition, the smart wallet can be made compatible with all existing payment systems. e-wallets etc.

Precautions

One has to take care of the smart wallet in the same way as cash wallet, to prevent theft. But this can also be prevented with a locking code.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Be Kind : You Never Know When Luck Strikes!

A road side beggar was singing with a beaten down harmonium in frenetic Mumbai. Old, loose clothes, greyed hair, and a hunchback. People ignored him as they do to most beggars. But a young man was captured by the sweetness of his voice and sat down with him. He complimented him, and while parting, slipped some money into his hands, in the guise of a handshake. The boy's name was Shahbaz Ali.

A few days later, Shahbaz got a call from an NGO that he had been selected for an interview with Sonu Nigam, India's leading playback singer. A man in an Innova car came to pick him up..It was Sonu Nigam who had disguised himself as a beggar, as part of an initiative of Being Human, an NGO.

Watch the video recording of the incident.

Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Trailer | The Journey | Jan Kounen, Anne Paris

Jan Kounen is an acclaimed French film director many of whose films study altered states of consciousness. His films take you into a different state of mind. He had made a film on Ayahuasca, the medicinal drink the Amazonian Indians use for inducing altered states of consciousness.

He has also made Darshan, a film on Mata Amritanandamayi, well known mystic.

In this later film he explores the world of Anne who reached a different plane of consciousness with the help of Dolphins.

Truth is simple, we humans complicate it.

Friday, December 02, 2016

Whither India?

These are just some videos of how life is faring in the national capital, three weeks after the currency note ban.

Sadly, there was no consideration for how the people in the lower economic stata would suffer. How can you expect them to buy a 5000 INR smart phone and start using a mobile wallet overnight? (It's also difficult to withdraw cash from mobile wallets to your bank).

The government should have made IMPS transactions free or developed a system to transfer cash via mobile SMS.

These videos show how the aam admi is faring:










These are all people who are supposed to be working (10 am). Instead, they are standing in queues. How many millions of man hours did India lose on account of this note ban? It's no wonder the GDP is sliding down!

Let's hope nobody gets the idea of invading Pakistan to divert attention from this mess.

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