Public Servant or Public is Servant, blurring lines.....

Every Central Government employee takes an Oath of Allegiance before joining office, reflecting their commitment, integrity, and dedication to the welfare of the people of India. How come its essence gets blurred soon after one assumes charge of office? Let's not forget that all administrative services are paid through taxpayers' money. Let me remind you, the Indian Police Service and Indian Administrative Service both end with the word 'service'. It is unfathomable to treat the people of this country, or its public, like servants instead of being a servant to the public. The very fundamental essence and foundation of these police or administrative offices is to serve the people. Why can't our government offices be more like corporate entities—more cooperative and target-oriented with public satisfaction as the goal? After all, this is what is expected of them.

Until when will we carry colonialism in our offices? It's been more than 75 years of independence, and we still haven't been able to overcome this pre-independence-era colonial legacy of the "Lathi." Our forefathers fought the British "Lathi" to gain independence, and yet the leadership of independent India is unable to protect its citizens from the "Lathi" of public servants, who are otherwise supposed to be subservient to the citizens.

Why do private vehicles have number plates that say 'Police' or 'Rajya Prashasan' or 'Kendriya Prashasan'? Cars with completely black-tinted windows and sirens on personal vehicles flout the rules to display a sense of power with impunity, which is nothing but a mockery of the government and its judiciary. If anyone raises an alarm and reminds these officials of their duty, they are slapped with fake cases or charges, and it is left to them to fight the system and prove their innocence. The police and the administration are meant to instill a sense of confidence in the public, not in the criminals.

Why is there a disparity between public servants and the public they are meant to serve? Whenever there is a VIP movement, the people are made to suffer like third-class citizens in their own country. Why can't these politicians and top government officials travel the same route and face similar difficulties? Only then will they realize the grassroots problems. After all, for whom and against whom is the 'Siren and Escort Culture' intended? The people of this country elected officials to work for them, not to remind them of the pre-independence era by enforcing the Siren Culture, which pushes citizens aside when their own elected members are on the move.

The government is making tall claims of shedding colonial practices by changing the names of cities and renaming policies in Hindi. While these are welcome steps in the right direction, stronger fundamental reforms are required from our leadership in both political and administrative domains. District Magistrates and police officers must be seen as representatives who would deliver on the promises of the government. Bureaucratic inefficiency and office arrogance continue to plague citizens. It's time for political services, administrative services, and police services to undergo reforms to work as public representatives of independent India, not of British times.

Any inefficiency, lackadaisical approach, or unlawful command of authority by any government official should be dealt with an iron fist. After all, citizens have hired these administrative and security services for the betterment of society. The sooner we understand this, the better; otherwise, we might face civil unrest like that in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. Recently, Kolkata witnessed an outburst of citizens against the RG Medical College case, in which police atrocities came to light. It's a wake-up call, before people take to the streets to put an end to the Siren and Office arrogance against their own citizens.

Jai Hind!

Achieving Your Vision and Goals...

The single most important thing in life is to have a vision, it is like a picture in the mind of an artist, as to what is he going to paint ? Without which, his canvas is blank and so is the life of a person without vision.  If one  doesn't have a vision of his own, then one would always be working for someone else's vision and purpose. It is therefore better to have your own purpose and strive towards it. No vision is small or big,  it is yours and no one else understands it better than you. Vision of an Independent India was seen by our forefathers and millions gave there lives to realize it. It's now our turn to envision a dream of Developed India, but will we be able to realize it by 2047 ? Is a question to be answered by present generation and the answer lies in our true commitment.Well ! that's a vision for an entire generation of any nation, but let's first learn how to realize a dream at our personal level. What do you think, which is the one thing that will do it all for you?. Yes ! you guessed it right,  Commitment, is the answer, but no amount of commitment will work, if you do not allocate time for your vision in your daily schedule. Know what, do a fact check for yourself, if you are  controlling your time and routine, then you are in the direction to realize your dream, but if someone else is dictating your routine, be assured, you are part of his vision and not yours.  If you have to manifest your dreams, you need a currency called 'Time'. It is this currency of time, that you need to take out and do those extra certifications or skill development classes or a deep research for the Startup that you want to commence. If one can learn the art of scheduling the time and sticking to it, I think one can achieve anything in life. The survey and studies suggest, that to attain any new skill, it takes 45 minutes each day  to 20 hrs of practice in a month. The key is not 20 hrs but 45 minutes every day, so the consistency in spending time on your vision would get the results for you. If you are a student the grades would improve for sure or the sales for business person and its applicable to all walks of life. The quantum of time currency required may differ for each  goal, which has to be decided by the goal seeker, ie you. But the beauty of this  currency of time is that, it gets credited into your  account called 'Schedule' in the bank called  'Calender'  every day without fail for your entire life, giving you a fair opportunity to achieve everyday. But the key remains, where and on what you spend it, would decide the manifestation of dreams.  If you spend it on your vision, you would see it happen, else the person who controls your time would utilize your time currency  for achieving his vision. I wonder, why most of us don't achieve our goals ?  It is because, we often miss one or more important steps to finish the goal. Let me tell you, all these steps are sequential in nature and connected like a chain. If you miss any one of them the connectivity is broken.  Vision is a desire and goals are achieved. Giving your vision a date, would turn it into a Goal. Break it down into an achievable tangible Milestones, apply Time allocation rule to block the calender and lastly review the Milestones.

 Let'sts do a relevent example for  students, who actually need it the most. Say, you are a student and you have a vision of getting Distinction Grades. As learnt so far, quantify your vision to make it a tangible goal of say A Grade or 9 CGPA or 90%.  Analyse  the syllabus, check out ref books and arrange notes as part of skill sets development and resource management, if not done till now. Break it down into milestones, chosing correct milestones is an important activity, in this case let's say exams have three months to go, so completing syllabus should be the first milestone in next 45 days and then should be two revisions of 15 days each,  revision 1&2, as two seprate milestones. One week for attempting previous years question papers and in final week, work on last minutes doubts and prepare for first exam. Now list all the milestones with dates like Compĺeting Syllabus, Revision 1, Revision 2, Previous Year Question paper and Last minutes doubt revision. Once all the milestones have been listed.

Next most important thing, is to allocate Time  in  daily schedule and calander. Take your calander and mark your milesstones on it. The chapters required to be covered should be marked daywise within the calander meeting the milesstones to draw out your plan. But the key activity, which will bring about success is the allocation of time in the daily schedule for studying chapters of subjects. Please remember, if you can not plan it on paper, then you would never be able to implement in actuals. Blueprint of your study plan as per miles stones should be in crystal clear. Once you are clear with the blueprint and its daily scheduling ,you are almost there, now all that you need to do is to implement it. Remember, the last most crucial ingredient for success is the commitment to live your plan, as planned in the blueprint. Now, if you need to make some sacrifices to meet milestone, so be it, but the milestones are required to be met as per laid down time lines. Remember, if milestones remain where they are , the end result will also be what you had planned. If you achieve your milestones, you are bound to succeeded. But you can achieve milestone only when you allo One can use Google calander and mark all Milestones and daily schedule to keep a  track.  cate time in daily schedule and follow it. 

One can use Google calander and mark all Milestones and daily schedule to keep a  track. Lastly, keep calm don't  panic and focus on your blueprint. 

Another simple example to understand the concept is for most of the people in their 40s.

Vision is to lose weight in next two months. Adding a date, makes it a goal. Losing 1 Kg per week is the milestone. Develop the skill set required, in this case analyse your diet and bring out actionable activities. Most important step is to allocate time for it, let's say 1 hrs daily in the schedule. Let me warn !, you will have enough deviations and petty reasons to skip the schedule, but come what may, remind yourself to stick to the time allocation and then the magical unfolding of your dream would happen.

 Do you know, where we fail ?  It is in, utilizing the time, for which it was allocated. Let me assure you, think of anything in this world and you can achieve it. Just breaK it down into milestones, allocate and control your time and then manifestation of your dreams is bound to happen. Remember everything in this world can be  achieved, with the bricks of commitment being cemented with the time in the  daily schedule. 

Have a Vision and power to endure it...All the best....

Tripps Art Rocks....

                           

 

                   

   

           

My journey to Mathura....

Leelas of Lord Krishna are many and one such I experienced at ISKON Temple. A Sunday morning we had gone to take darshan of 'Kanhaiya Ji',  ISKON temple's architecture  is a marvel by itself and the rush on Sunday was unbelievable. With a great difficulty could find a place to park. I had my father & Mother in law along with us. Father inlaw was actually suffering from very low vision to be left alone and therefore was being escorted by the children at each step. Good to see values being inculcated among children. When we reached the main hall it was full of  devotees, we looked for some place to settle and then mother and wife went to take darshan, after they returned, my son became the pointsman to guide,  as we went little ahead I saw a shorter line and I just entered,  at the entry I was checked, the person at the check point said "it is for members and non members to buy ticket", I shot a reply with confidence "Member, Member", the guy at the spot gave a little vague look but in benifit of doubt let me go. After the darshan we came back and somehow I had an inner feel to take darshan once again, probably I was being tested,  and this time again at the line I mentioned "member" though my innercounsous gave me a call that it was incorrect, but I thought if I declared I am a non member, he would ask me, just a few minutes back I had said that I was a member, so I maintained my statement not realising that He knew everything !!. Well, as I came back after second round of darshan,  I saw my wife's wiered expressions, it was clear to me that something was amiss, soon found that a clutch purse which was kept inside her hand bag had been picked away, which had about 11k cash. After that it was all cursing, why God did it to us? Why me? somewhere I knew the answer but had no guts to reveal the truth after all it had been a loss of 11K and Ladies don't pardon even GOD then who was I to be pardoned. Well, we raised the complaint with the authorities and came back home with a heavy heart. I was discussing with wife , when I told her that I think I knew why she lost purse, it was God who taught us a lesson, I explained her that I lied as being a  member to take an undue previelage and we paid cost of skipping the donation que. I told her if I recollect it correctly, it was the second time when I repeated the mistake then she had lost the purse, may be the God had to teach  us the lesson. She said "I have told Krishna Ji you did this to me, I would not come to your temple for darshan" I said but you shouldn't have said that.  A few days later, know what happened, we got our transfer order to Mathura the Birth place of Lord Krishna. She said I wouldn't come to your temple, Krishna called us to His place...and my journey to Mathura began.....

Tme Management Mantra: TIME allocation is the key to Success...

If I were to ask you, to name a few currencies of the world, you would have told me Rupay, Dollar, Euro and so on... but wouldn't have mentioned 'TIME' as a universal currency. Sounds crazy! Then lets discuss and I am sure by the end you would be in agreement. Time is the only eternal currency that has ever existed since time immemorial. All wise people have stated "take control of your time and life will be in your control". Do you know, time is like any other financial currency? You only get to buy things, when you spend your money on them, you don't get to buy things when you don't spend money. Exactly like this the abilities on which you spend your time currency are the fields in which you excell and the more you spend your time the faster and farther you exccell. So, you see, it is important to mark and check, the core activity on which you spend time, because  time is finite in terms of how much you have in a day and infinite in terms,  that you will get it everyday, but let me caution you, it's finite when you look at your entire life span. If we understand this, then I think we are done and can achieve whatever we want. All you need to do, is to pick up right activity or ability in alignment to your goal.  Spend the currency of time on it and see the magic happening. The progress is initially slow but after acquiring the threshold the progress rises exponentially.

 Try it out and find it to be true!. As the financial typhoons do budgeting and allocation, Time is also required to be allocated. All successful people allocate the time to their goals and mark it in their calendars, which sets the bearing and serves as compass. Well, if you don't allocate the time, the beauty is that, it would any which way pass. Allocation defines the organised construct of your day and reduces the randomness. If you are not organised the randomness of the schedule takes over and the progress made is least.  The sum total of randomness is always Zero, its a universal law and it holds good. Often we see the success of a person, but never realise the amount of 'Time Currency ' spent on it to get this success. Successful people allocate time to buy success, unless you allocate time you can't buy success. Hey! Don't  get me wrong,  only allocation won't  help, execution and  living through the allocation is most sensitive part of it. You know, it is well said,  "Show me your calendar and, I will tell you, five years from hence where will you be". Don't look at your Kundli, instead look at your calendar daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Have a vision in you life , put a date and convert it into a goal, allocate time towards it in your calendar and see it manifesting.  If I were to put my  learning in a simple and subtle way , it would be "Allocate Time and Manifest your Dreams".  Ok, do an exercise, close your eyes, and think about your dream, it could be seeing your son as an engineer, daughter as a doctor, fixing up your relationship or for that matter, you may want to be a perfectionist in a hobby or a sport of your liking. But the moot question remains same, how much of time have you voluntarily allocated to all these dreams of yours on daily basis? Do you have them slated in your daily  calendar? You don't have to tell me the answer, you know it for yourself. Your calendar is your compass  for life time, if these dream destinations are fed in it day by day and month by month then you are bound to reach at your dream destination else you are onboard a ship without a rudder. If your calendar is blank, then it will get filled by somebody else's priority and you would end up working for somebody else's vision. So better have your own and cement it with time allocation. it's profound piece of advice absorb and follow. Hope to see your dreams manifesting.

Inner Consciousness : A Journey Within.....

I was thinking, that did Lord Krishna only give teaching to Arjun ?  Why not to others ? Why not me?  What wrong have I done? Why am I deprived of this great wisdom? Having read Geeta at least thrice, I still couldn't figure out it's true meaning,  each time I read,  I would  find a new meaning to this greatest scripture of times. Ones own life is the best teacher,  it teaches you a lesson at every stage, so how could the lessons of 'Geeta' be missed by this greatest teacher of times called " Life". While I was mulling over these thoughts, I got my answers. In this Kurukshetra of life, Krishna is with each one of us.  We all have Krishna in ourselves, yes! its our "Inner Voice", which acts as a voice of Krishna, constantly talking to us. In the ocean of life, our inner voice is the guiding light of the Light House, it always keeps guiding us to the correct path to be treaded. In this world, which symbolizes as Mahabharata, He is within us in the form of our 'Conscious' guiding us at each step . In fact, the battle of Kurukshetra for each one of is different, as our life's struggles are different. Krishna without any bias continues to show the path, irrespective of weather we follow it or not, which is a matter of choice of our free will. The inner conscious at each moment in life reflects upon the beacon of truth and dharma. It is we, who become Dhritarashtra, blinded with lust and greed. Krishna showed the path of Dharma to Dhritarashtara in epic times and even now continues to do so for each one of us today. Kauravas didn't pay heed and met their destiny. In this Kurukshetra of life, while we live, we have a choice to make and write our destiny. Krishna is with all and within each one of us. Some of us  who realise it are like Pandavs and those who don't are like Kauravas. Each one us is a Arjun of his own life, who is bound to turn victorious in the battle field of  Kurukshetra called 'Life' provided the caveats of consciousness are observed . Our body is like a chariot, on which we as a Arjun ride in the battlefield of our life and  our consciousness is the charioteer guiding the path as  Krishna. Therefore, if you are living in the Krishna consciousness your are destined to crossover this battle field.  Our mind is  like a Arjun. It is in a state of confusion and chaos among the rights and wrongs of the worldly action. Amidst the fog of utter confusion in the Kurukshetra of life, it's only our conscious which can pave the way through. The path may not be to our liking, but believe you me it's the only path which is right. You would agree with me,  our 'Krishna' the' Inner Conscious'  always guides us on the  path of Dharma. It is up to us to decide weather we want to be Kauravas and ignore the path or be Pandavas and follow the path. The beauty of life is that Kauravas, Pandavas and Krishna all are within us. It is our 'Free Will' which decides the course we set on. If we choose to be Kauravas, the Krishna with in us leaves and we can no longer listen to Inner Conscious. This is the precise reason ,why we say that criminals don't have voice of conscious, because his charioteer Krishna left long back when he chose to be a Kaurava. When I talk about inner  conscious, by no means, I am  prophesying you to follow a yogic life devoid of worldly pleasures. We all are humans and can not live without them. To be alive and ticking we all need a goal and aim to be achieved. Life without a goal is like a ship without a rudder. You are the Captain of your ship and Inner Conscious is your rudder. If your ship  has to sail on a voyage, you are the captain, set your own destiny. If you don't lay out your destination and principals now, it will be difficult to correct the course midway.  Set your Goal, set yourself on a voyage guided by the light within you.  Like a Arjun,  be focused in life to achieve what you desire.  You may be a student aspiring to achieve a examination goal or a businessman desiring to be a millionaire and for that matter you may be anyone. But be like a Arjun, single mindedly focused to realize your dream in this battlefield of life.  But what is important is the journey of your dreams and the road that you travel. It must be the one enlightened by your inner conscious else you may reach your destiny but your success will be short lived.  

Camaraderie Above All....

Somewhere in NEFA Valley altitude 15500 feet, mercury dipping and anchoring to sub zero levels. Chilling wind blaze added another level of difficulty freezing every inch of the body and any exposed skin would immediately turn blue. To know, what it was, one had to be there else you can only imagine. We, the band of boys held the fort for the countrymen. That night I had a knock on my Fiber Re-enforced Plastic hut, FRP as we called  it. It had a small 10 feet x10 feet space, but it seemed like a palace at those altitudes, where not even a blade of grass grew. I wondered who was it, the voice came " sahab ji main haan Satnam, maadi ji problem" ( little problem in Punjabi dialect). I knew it's never a minor problem, when you are being called upon at night, else these boys would have sorted it out themselves. He said " Harnek  nu saans Chad gai hai" ( Harnek is having difficulty in breathing). I rushed out of FRP, though it was barely 50 meters but it almost took 10 mins to reach the other  FRP. Walking and breathing were a task by itself,  oxygen levels were much below the normal, any effort of walking would leave you panting. I saw Harnek gasping for breath. I really couldn't understand what could have gone wrong. Without wasting even a minute picked up the magneto phone and called up base camp asked them to connect me to the doctor. The doctor spoke to me and tried to understand the situation , I was trying to explain to him and comprehend his directions as to which medicine was to be given. We had a medical box  which had probable medicines with a list of symptoms. Doctor told me, it appeared to be a case of HAPO (High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema) a medical emergency condition when water gets accumulated in the lungs, it's a common illness at high altitudes due to low atmospheric pressure. But the problem is that, if the water is not taken out of lungs  it progresses very fast and turns fatal in few hours else the other solution is to lower the altitude of patient by use of HAPO bag. It's a bag in which patient is made to lie-down, it is closed and air is pumped into it, this maintains the atmospheric pressure around the patient and within no time,  whatever altitude we may be at,  the atmospheric pressure around the patient is brought at par to that of sea level.  Both the things didn't  seem to be working out, neither was I medically trained to drain out the water from lungs, which only trained doctors could do, nor did we have the HAPO bag. The nearest availability of doctor and HAPO bag was at least 6-8 hrs of walking distance. All eyes were staring at me and wanting to know my call about the situation. Easiest was to wait for the Helicopter evacuation till the morning, but that too had a dark lining, in case if the weather packed, heli would not turn up and by then we would have lost time beyond control. The only reasonable option left with me was to head for the road head which was about 6 hrs of walking distance, but with a man on stretcher,  it would take us nothing less than 6-8 hours of continuous walking. And in this option, one thing was  for sure, to find a doctor with an ambulance and HAPO bag. My conscious call was certain, that I was not going to take any chance and let Harnek take last breath  on my lap. I asked to prepare at least a party of 8 boys in buddy pairs and a stretcher to evacuate Harnek . We knew, it was not going to be easy in this sub zero temperature. Doctor asked me, if I was sure and didn't want to wait for the Heli evacuation in the morning. I knew, the going was going to be tough, but we were trained for tough turfs. Life at these inhospitable terrains was  any which way not easy. Well, without wasting even a minute, we picked up Harnek and headed for a tough call that I had taken. Among those present in FRP not even one person had iota of doubt, how will it be undertaken in the fierce cold night, because everyone knew tomorrow it could be him needing shoulders to rescue. The journey began at 2100 hrs in the night in buddy pairs lifting Harnek on the stretcher, the descent had made the load to be more on the shoulders of the front bearers and while up-climb, it was the turn of rear bearer's shoulders to bear extra share of burden. So you see, life balances it out, no one is at advantage in the fair game of life. As the journey with Harnek began and the time passed,  the buddy pairs kept shifting the whole night and shoulders began to bleed, lungs were gasping for breath. At 15000 ft carrying own weight is a challenge and with added weight of a person on stretcher with the inclined gravity makes it difficult beyond imagination. It's sheer girt, determination and camaraderie that kept us going that night. That night I realized the fiber that kept us bonded was strong, it withstood the test of time, even the freezing chill and the fatigue beyond physical capacity couldn't break it. It was about 0430 hrs in the morning when we reached the road head. Doctor was already present there waiting for us with an ambulance and a HAPO bag. Harnek was taken to Base hospital. Later we learnt, it was a confirmed case of HAPO and any further delay could have been fatal. That night though our shoulders bled, but we saved Harnek. We didn't only save him, but his family and our faith in the camaraderie.  I salute the camaraderie of my band of brothers who stood by my side in my decision.  Jai Hind !!