Beyond Oneself….

Yesterday I saw this movie U Me n Hum starring Kajol and Ajay Devgan. So, what’s the big deal about watching a movie? Well I also saw another short film of about 30 mins which is a Telgu movie and is revolving around two friends who collect waste and obsolete products from the street. So am I trying to boast that I managed to watch two movies yesterday?

I guess a big NO. Then what’s the fuss about? Read on…..

What moved me is the fact that both the movies were based around the central theme to look beyond oneself. Generally, we are so lost in ourselves that we really don’t want to bother ourselves with problems and sufferings associated with another person, especially if we don’t know that person.

In U me n HUM, they showed that how kajol, Ajay’s wife, suffers from Alzheimer and with the onset of each day, how her situation becomes worse. Poor Ajay feels that it’s too difficult for him to take care of Kajol at home and their child is unsecured in her custody. So he takes her to a private clinic where she can get better treatment. Mind you I am not saying that he doesn’t love her, however, somewhere ‘ME’ becomes bigger than ‘U’ unintentionally. Let me not complicate it, in short a lot of times we feel that though we love a person, it will be difficult for us to take care of him/her due to the disease or age, however, we forget that what that person needs apart from medications is the support of the near and dear ones. It will be difficult to manage the show, however, once we can let our central tendency to think of ourselves aside and think from the other person’s point of view then we shall be able to make some headway in our relations.

Coming to the other movie, two boys who are very good friends and are living in a dilapidated condition, finds a little girl who has no one of her own. One of the boys whose name is Kachra feels that he should not leave the girl alone like how they were left alone in life in filth. He wants her to go to school and live a normal life; however, his friend is skeptic about them being able to manage her living, education and food expenses. Kachra feels that one needs to look beyond the cocoon of self comfort and try to do our best for the happiness of others, often we forge close relations with people we never knew from birth.

To be precise, what I learnt from these movies is to look beyond ourselves and constantly increase the diameter of the circle of quality relations in our lives and now onwards, will atleast make an attempt to look beyond myself to help another individual. I guess that’s the least we can do to safeguard humanity on this planet.

Food Wastage -> Food Crisis ???????????????

Recently I went for a marriage where the only thing I could see was food, food and more food, which made me mull over the fact that our country is supposingly going through a food crisis.

Having said that why is it that a country like India that use to export food grains till recently has started importing the same? There are innumerable reasons that have been cited in the magazines, newspapers and other media sources.

Nowadays, farming has become unattractive due to lack of assistance from the government. Seasonal changes have been erratic. Farmers find it much more feasible to rent out their land or sell it off. SEZ’s have been growing in numbers. There is lack of awareness amongst the farmers about the modern ways of farming. Per hectare yield is very less in comparison to the developed countries. Population is growing at an alarming rate, which was always the caseJ

These are some of the reasons responsible for the food crisis; however, having said that there is shortage of food in our country, what are the measures that we as individuals can take to reduce the sufferings of the people.

On an individual level we should be more responsible about our actions and attitude. If we can move from the attitude of ‘I’ to the attitude of ‘We’ then we can make a significant difference to the problems prevailing in our country. We generally feel that I am paying for it so how does it make a difference whether I eat or not. We tend to take it lightly when there is easy availability of food or when we have enough money to blow. When we will start respecting the fact that we have access to food and have gratitude towards that then we shall be able to reduce the food wastage on a personal basis.

Having said that there are many NGO’s and group of people working to collect food that is wasted on a daily basis. If we can keep their numbers handy then it can definitely help all of us combat this problem and help people in need of atleast one square meal.

Whereas the support to farmers is concerned, we can hope that the government wakes up and provides the necessary incentives, technology and fertilizers to make farming attractive.

Hope we all will atleast make an attempt on an individual level to be more responsible with our food wastage habits.

By Vipin Kandwal

Problems in Third world:
In a bipolar world with influence of USSR and USA a lot of states across world wide were pushed towards the umbrella of either of the pole, nevertheless many nations like India chose neither and created the parallel world called third world. The circumstances all over have altered since then. Bipolarity got diffused and American hegemony is now clouting the globe to establish and reinforce its supremacy. India, a nation a string advocate and member of third world had gained prominence and acceptance across the nations irrespective of which world they belong to. The liberalization has affected economies worldwide in different ways. Especially India on various parameters has grown manifold post 1991. However, it has brought various new challenges with itself besides already haunting ones. Looking closely we see the consumerism has been injected within everybody. Globalization has allowed the producers in developed markets to harness the potential of immense population in third world nation by manufacturing and selling the low cost products to these countries, which poses direct threat to the producers and business community in these nations.
For e.g. in case of India we see retail has come up with boom, FDI is flowing in everywhere. Almost every consumer segment has foreign player as a leader. Pepsi Co, Coke, Mc Donald have become aspirational brands not that they do social evil but because the impact of the business opportunities being lost to these giant players by the local business community is essentially a matter of concern. It inspires the big corporate houses to eye the business integration which promotes consumerism at the cost of disintermediation of various small players for whom the role in the chain is livelihood. Provision stores Vs Big Bazaar or Reliance Fresh Vs Green grocery vendors are the contemporary examples of the same. The increased wealth in few pockets is being generalized to project the healthy picture of the economy is quite beguiling and skewed towards the motive globalization. The worst seem to be situation for the poor nations where developed and developing nations together push their produce to fuel the engine of their political/economic power status. In globalized world everything happens abruptly to woo the target nations for e.g. In 1990s India which was ugly suddenly produces two Miss Universe and four Miss World and other Miss XYZ have quite a long list. The problem is the folks who recognize themselves and their nation as a retrograde are mesmerized by these trifling recognition for someone on behalf of nation and fails to or may refuses to understand the meticulously thought plan behind the same. Thanks to liberalization that we want to consume anything and everything.
Would somebody tell Reliance that they need to compete with corporate of their or higher or comparable stature and not Doodhwala and Sabjiwala; poor guy is left to starve or do work of lower dignity for the labor involved in the profession is mostly unskilled.

Introduction

It was during the cold war that the term ‘THIRD WORLD’ was coined. It came from various sources and thus had various connotations. One of them being-all the countries which were not aligned to either the communists or the capitalist NATO. Thus, it made a common block for all the non aligned countries. However, the second connotation is more baffling. It came from the term ‘third estate’. This term was coined during the Russian revolution to represent all the people who couldn’t be categorized as rich or priests. Thus, it in one sense meant ‘others’. However, with the progression of time the term ‘third world’ has come to be representative of all the under developed countries. According to the term there has been a generalization towards all these countries as having the same kind of economical, social and political conditions. Poor infrastructure, unstable governments, high corruption, starving population, huge destitution-all these and others came to be almost synonymous to the ‘Third World’.

Looking at the current scenario many countries from the third world have grown and moved towards development. This is a diverse group encompassing countries falling in different stages of development-economical, political or social. India is one such country. India since its independence and specially since 1991-when its markets were opened, has taken large strides in development. It has grown at a very high rate. There have been improvements in the infrastructure, the social conditions have changed (though not hugely). Thus, the changes have happened. The country has come to be recognized as a force to reckon with in the world affairs. And thus there has been a call from various parts of the country to shed the tag of the ‘Third World’.

All this seems very rosy, but looked at carefully though, we have made big improvements and deserve to get the tag of the third world removed but the third world attitude has still plagued the populous of the country. The streets are still no different to dust bins at our homes. We still tend to look for ‘chalega’ things rather than looking for the best and the human development index is still staggeringly low. The parents are still scared to let children do anything except securing top ranks in their classes. ‘What work’ is given more importance than ‘work’ itself.

So, where do we go from here? Do we keep blowing the trumpet of economic development or we start looking beyond it? Are we going to still say that we are the best country in the world without any proof to support it or we are going to seriously work towards the best? Would we keep struggling to prove the people of our potential or we would first prove it to ourselves? Come lets join hands to unleash our potential and prove it to ourselves and the world that we don’t aspire to be either the first world or the second, we aspire to be ‘The Greatest World’.