Solving the wrong problem

We wish to make our country clean by giving some media interviews and doing some awareness campaigns. The problem of no dustbins, poor waste collection and waste management, and no toilets goes unattended. Similarly, we aim to clean the holy river Ganga by doing some cleaning exercise on some famous ghats. But the issue of no drainage network in the cities, industrial effluents and idol immersion has gone unaddressed. We wish to clean the air in the cities. For this, we run the schemes like odd-even in metros like Delhi. But the problem of poor public transport, ill-equipped roads, poor law enforcement and inadequate traffic light systems is not been looked into. No wonder, all these efforts which are aimed at changing behavior of people goes wasted.

The administrative and policy making paradigm needs to understand that changing people's behavior is the last and the most difficult step in the successful transition to a new way of life. Before this last step, the system needs to ensure availability of alternatives to the existing systems and should ensure supporting paraphernalia to the existing things. If a dustbin is placed at every corner of the street and waste is collected from it on a regular basis then we do not need swachch bharat campaign. One can see the level of cleanliness in big hospitals like Medanta and public places like metro. It did not require any dedicated swachch bharat campaign. It happened on its own. These places provided means and resources necessary to keep the space clean and at the same time, they helped in building up the social norm of cleanliness. In fact, the Government could have built a number of portable toilets on highways and in the cities using the campaign money. The biggest disappointment is the railway stations across the country. We need to re-engineer the railway coach's latrine to collect the human residue instead of letting it flow on the railway tracks. Just putting a notice in the compartment stating that one should not use the toilet when the train is standing on the track won't lead to change in the behavior. Not everyone can hold his urges while your train is standing on the track. As a consequence, the central rail stations like Nizamuddin are a den of shit, filthiness, and deathly smell. Similarly, putting the warning sign which calls for the ban on smoking in the train is not sufficient. Railways should put smoke sensors and cameras on the train.

Our focus on the change in the behavior and change in the lifestyle is premature and over-emphasised. Rather government should first focus on creating alternatives and then should prod people by way of imaginative incentives and other persuasive techniques to adopt new systems and a new way of life. Sadly, for long we have been solving a wrong problem.

Learning from a cricket match

After a long time, I watched a full inning of India of today's match against England. In the end, India lost but it left me wondering about the amazing quality of cricketers of remaining calm under intense circumstances. It is so similar to UPSC's preparation. Intense pressure, confusion about what to do and what not to do, big hit or singles, rotating strike or holding on to it and many more things. It is so similar to UPSC's preparation and also so common to our daily life.

One quote from the commentator was very inspiring. "Fortune favors the brave". If filled me with some energy. Quitting the job was a tough decision. Except for a couple of people, everyone opposed it. Even I was reluctant and half-hearted and double minded during all the negotiations. But somewhere things rolled and I nudged forward a little step in an uncertain territory. It's a new opportunity. Looking at today's match helped me in realizing that one does not need to be jittery and confused. All you need is determination, discipline, and dedication.

It is so easy to say do not give up. People perfect preach others about the need of following one's conviction. I preach it all the time to my nephews and nieces. But putting this in practice is damn difficult. We Indians not only miss the spine for this courage and ability to move into unexplored territory but we also lack the overall ecosystem for the same. I say so for the following reasons:
1. The society is deeply focussed on what others are doing. The introspective appeal is missing in the social system.
2. Our child-rearing processes make us image-conscious. As a result, we fear to break the social and psychological barriers.
3. The inherent human tendency is to move towards stability and security. The social system strengthens it. Even our religion used to preach us to not take up sea voyages. For these reasons, Indian never became great sea-fearers.

Maybe some of us have the spine but social ecosystem causes a lot of problems. Many of us go to foreign territory and do great things. They are the same individual who would spit on the road, lack discipline and become gossip-monger while they are in India.

Anyways, the cricket match was fun. It exhibited the power of confidence, calmness, and conviction. I wish I could achieve the same but how is the big question.

The real heroes

Have you ever wondered who are the real heroes of our society, people who are really inspirational, who are the go-getter and who make things work? Definitely, it is not the movie stars like Salman Khan who are not as large-hearted and heroic in their deeds in real life as shown on the silver screen or Rajani sir with his robotic stunts who in real life is past the age of retirement. The real heroes are the people who are able to maintain discipline in their life. People for whom discipline is not a boredom or monotonous rigmarole. Rather it is a holy ritual for them. One who can move beyond the temptations of comfort, sleep, and chilled life.

Learning the art of discipline is a difficult deed. People fail often than they succeed. It's really tough. Especially when all the motivation required for maintaining discipline has to be drawn from your own inner self. But there lies the path of success and happiness in that ritual. It feels good when you are able to achieve those daily small targets. All the great sportspersons have it in them. Be it Virat Kohli or Serena Williams or Michael Phelps or the Usain Bolt. They are great beings. On the face, they look, eat, and live in a similar fashion as rest of us. But their mind operates at a different level.

But just discipline is not enough to reach to those levels. It also requires three other things. First is the power of concentration. Many of us struggle with this. Some or other background thoughts always keep making noise. Second is the power of nishkaam karma. It is the belief in the theory of eternal actions which drives us to work despite failures and problems. Very few of us possess it. It is doubtful that many of these superstars, heroes, and sportspeople would also be having it. Probably that is the reason, they are prone to depression as and when they are dethroned from the seat of attention and fame. The third is the power of anichcha. It is the realization that everything can change. Every situation can change. Every moment is new and brings with it loads of positive and negative possibilities.

The power of four is the true mantra of success: Power of discipline, Power of karma, Power of concentration and Power of anichcha. Only those who master these four are the real heroes of the human civilization. The one who dances around the trees or cut the bullet into two parts is only an entertainer.

Palmistry: A crippling science

A person's palm is a mirror of his inner thoughts and orientations. It reveals about person's past life, present status and future directions. But not many people are true experts of this art. It is a correlational science where every single mark on the palm has some or other meaning. But only a few learned individuals can truly predict and interpret the meaning of those mysterious markers and lines.

Often a question is raised whether palmistry is science or an art. Some even questions its authenticity like is it fake or a real thing? And some intelligent beings believe in creating their own future instead of being curious to them about it? This article discusses each of these questions to help people who wish to know the real nature of palmistry.

Firstly, whether it is science or an art. For this, we need to understand how lines are formed on our hand in the first place. Those who are a disciple of science would know about the concept of Corona Discharge in the electromagnetic physics. According to this concept, any charged body when brought into contact with ionizing particles of a fluid radiates electric signals. Further, the intensity of discharge of radiation would be highest at the sharp corners. Our human body is also a box of electric and magnetic signals. When it comes in contact with atmosphere then it also begins to discharge and the intensity of discharge is highest at the hand palm and the foot. When the charge radiates out, it leaves the imprint on the palm in the form of lines and markers. Therefore, in a way it is the representation of inner bodily energies on the palm. Now some of this energy gathers in our body as result of our daily actions. While some of it is the result of our past actions.

Humans thoughts are nothing but electro-magnetic signals of energy. Palm imprints are the result of radiation of these energies. Palm reading is only an empirical understanding of these markers and understanding and knowledge of their relations with our past, present, and the future. I say it empirical because the knowledge of relations and meanings of different markers have not come from heaven. Rather it is a result of compilation of large volume of observation and correlation work done by our ancient rishi munis. It is akin to the behavioral and observational research of social sciences where we identify patterns and meanings by crunching numbers. Unfortunately, most of the text is lost due to lack of preservation and foreign invasions. Therefore, palmistry is a kind of pseudoscience. It thrives on correlational research. It only tells you the direction but it does not accurately predict the future. It becomes an art when the observer is able to combine this with his knowledge of face reading, non-verbal cues, and astrology. Some people (nearly 0.001%) have some natural instinctive intuitional super powers due to which they are able to take palmistry into an altogether higher territory of prophecy, foretelling, and divination.

The loss of original texts answers the second question as well. With very less text around, we have very few genuine people who are able to tell something concrete and real. As an observation, nearly 98% are fake. These fake people survive and make their living on the anxiety, tension, and fear of uncertainty which is widespread among people. The rest 1.9% of them know a little bit of palmistry and use it for their purpose. Hardly 0.1% are the real knowledgeable people who need to be respected and acclaimed.

With so much fakeness and nuisance around, is it really worth spending time on such a subject? Should we not be focusing on creating our own future. Anyway, palmistry itself says that lines change every three seconds. Then why should we be investing time into this subject to satisfy our inner anxieties?

In my personal opinion, palmistry has a crippling effect on person's psyche. It is always better to start with a blank slate "tabula rasa" in mind. It makes you sick of your hand, prejudice your mind in a certain direction and put roadblocks between you and your soul. If one is fortunate enough to find a true teacher of palmistry then it makes sense to seek some advice as every one of us feels some or other kind of directionlessness at some or other stage of life. In those situations, a nudge, a little steering, and a conviction inducing prediction are good for our anxious soul. But mostly, it kills us with some fake predictions, negative directions, and does it best to shake our convictions. It handicaps our winning tendencies and turn us into a fatalistic being.

I have been suffering from an obsessive disorder of looking at my palm at least once in each hour for last 10 years. Sometimes I wish, I could get rid of this tendency. Once I even bought the gloves which doctors wear while doing surgery so that I won't be looking at my lines. But unfortunately, I failed in overcoming the obsessive compulsive behavior.

May god give me the necessary strength to overcome this depressing attitude of looking at my hand and give me the power to create my own future rather searching for signals in the hand.

Random stuff

I was reading news on TOI and saw the picture of Vin Diesel with our acclaimed glamorous glorious Deepika Padukone. The news elaborated on how Vin Diesel was received with great fanfare in India. News channels were also going gaga over his promotional visit. I felt some sort of bewilderment on the news. Hardly anyone in India knows who Vin Diesel is? But people are so excited to see him perform lungi dance. Probably the same mentality of receiving foreigners and people from other culture with gratitude and generous heart had led us to make space for Britishers in India.

This habit of treating guest as a god, We Indians have it in us. Vin Diesel comes to romance with Deepika and we are getting excited about it. The amazing site of the Indian girl squeezed in the burly arms of muscular Diesel pleases us. We feel happy telling ourselves aawww what a lovely couple. We are the perfect Abdullah in that Begani Shadi of which we have the maxim "Begani Shadi mein Abdullah Deewana".

Being Abdullah is a good thing in a perfect loving world but a dangerous weakness in a predatory world. This is where we are different from the west and I must say better than them. The westerners are people with inherently xenophobic mentality. Look at the H1-b visa issue. Or look at Brexit. The great Britain which encroached in every possible part of the world grew fearful of some skillful immigrants who threatened the job prospects of locals.

Anyway, I was watching a short video on Ratan Tata. He said a good line, Life should be a sinusoidal wave. The moment it becomes flat, it will be death just like a flat line on ECG. Nowadays, I am struggling with maintaining self-discipline. It is not easy. It is like overcoming yourself and beating yourself with no audience around. Most of the time I fail but somewhere I am growing in the process.

I have quit the job. It was a classic case of negotiations going wrong because of confusion, miscommunication, ego and job politics. Sometimes, I question myself that how can it happen? I always thought of myself as a good communicator and a balanced sort of person. But anyway it has happened. It helped me understanding the psyche of an unemployed and jobless person. It must be a decimating experience for people especially for those who are unskilled as well. It also helped me understand that why unemployment and job loss has been the biggest cause of revolutions in the human history. It reminded me of one of the psychology experiment where a toy is taken away from the kids. The experiment showed the destructive effect of taking the toy away over the psyche of the person. Hunger and starvation go one step beyond. Ancel kay's Minnesota hunger experiment showed the impact of hunger over person's mind and personality. Hunger has the power of turning even the sanest person into an evil. It fragments the psyche, makes us aloof from the world and goes to the extent of bringing the animal instincts out of we civilized humans.

Anyway, In my case, there is not much problem given the skillset and my history of moving into unsettled from the settled spheres. Somehow I feel it is a nudge of destiny to achieve my dream. I feel the world is conspiring for me. Little narcissistic thought but that's the true feeling.

Anyway, read a couple of Mark Twain's famous quotes. Summing up with two of them.
We are all in the gutter but some look at the stars.
To succeed in life you need only two things. Ignorance and Confidence.

A tale of 100 excuses

This week was a disaster. I wasted every single evening.
Sunday evening: Party
Monday evening: Party hangover
Tuesday evening: Wrote some article
Wednesday evening: Party
Thursday evening: Party
Friday evening: Read for exam
Saturday evening: Exam hangover
Sunday evening: Class hangover

The cost was Writing, Exercise, Psychology, Objective questions and Book reading. Now, god only can save America.

Has Modinomics failed us or we have failed Modi?

Long years ago India made a tryst with the destiny. It was a painful wait of 68 long years before we could redeem our pledge, not wholly but substantially. At the stroke of 8 o' clock on the eve of 8th November 2016, when the black money hoarders were counting their daily income, India woke up to black money and corruption. A moment comes but rarely in the history when a whole nation is Modified in a moment. A new age begins, when the soul of a nation long suppressed under the burden of a monster of black money and corruption wakes up to write a fresh script of its economic independence. This must be the thought in the mind of our PM and many other in the country who understood the importance of the decision.

People often say that Modi should have done some preparation or some background work. Possibly yes. There were n number of things he could have done but could he be prepared 100% in any time of the history. The answer is no. Just like India was not prepared when it claimed its political independence, this time also India would not have been fully prepared for this economic freedom. The unforeseen challenges were bound to occur. The labor pain was sure to happen. But similar things happened in 1947 as well. Pakistan was attacking Kashmir. Princely states were reluctant to become part of the union. The cold waves of the cold war were leaving us shivering in those times.We survived the change of 1947. Can we survive this time around?

Let us analyze the reasons of why were we able to survive the onslaught of the events following our political freedom. We had four things back then. First, we had a Gandhi. Second, we had a Nehru. Third, we had a Patel. And fourth we had people who were ready to sacrifice for the country. Gandhi was a peacemaker. He was a spiritual leader with a pragmatic mind who had control over all the sections of the society. His one call was enough for people to lay their arms and embrace each other. Second, we had Nehru. He was a congressman at heart but more than that he was a nationalist and a true statesman. He believed in the process of building the institutions. He had a democratic vision for the national progress. He understood the importance of personalities but never gave it a precedence over institutions. He was fortunate enough to have the support of a leader like Patel. Patel was a master planner. He was a champion of Chanakya Niti. It was his effort which resulted in the unification of the country. Fourth, we had people of the country. People who were ready to walk the extra mile in support of their leaders. How is the scenario different today? Why are we losing the game in the process of remoditisation or demonetization of the country?

Well, Who had thought that size of the new note of rs. 2000 would not be same as the old note of rs. 500. Nobody would have imagined the problem of low credit off-take from the filled coffers of the bank. Modi would not have believed that the whole country will change the exercise of notebandi into bhaibandi. All the major economic players be it jewelers or petrol pump owners or property dealers or kinship networks woke up to collude and convert the black money into white money. Sadly there is no Gandhi today whose command would have reminded people of their dishonest deed in this yagna. There is no Patel who could have foreseen the challenges and prepared accordingly. And the Nehru of the day i.e. Mr. Modi himself does not have an image of a politically unbiased personality. He has not emerged as a true statesman. His image of a hardcore brutal politician and a polarizing past make people skeptical of his moves.
However, one must appreciate the courage and bold spirit of Mr. Modi to take such a big political risk. And my belief over his political prudence and his leadership skills allows me to put my faith into his leadership. He may have failed in gauging the challenges but his intentions should be kept beyond question.

Today the demonetization move of Modinomics has boomeranged in our faces. Out of 14.5 Lakh crore, almost 14 lakh crore have come back to the banks. It means demonetization has become a mass black to white money conversion scheme. This has not happened because of the loopholes in the plan of moditization or so-called demonetization. Rather it has happened because people in our society has allowed this to happen. We wanted Modi to be tough. But we ourselves could never become tough. Tough to our neighbors who came begging to hide their black money or tough to our friends who wanted to launder the black into white money. So in a way it is not modinomics which has failed us. Rather it is us who have failed Modinomics.

The tragedy of commons

T

Please do not confuse the title with the ecologist Garrett Hardin's theory of precedence of individual self-interest over social interest. I opted for the title because I wanted to highlight one of the basic flaws of the policy making. Be it the policy making in the corporate world or be it the policy formulation in the high offices of the government. There is only one victim that is the common man. Despite the constitutional mandate, political prudence, and corporate value of uplifting the people at the bottom of the pyramid, our policies result in the maximum damage to this section of society.

I recently had a chance of conversing with my educated, modern, good-looking, tie-wearing, suited-booted friends of who have completed their education from some of the esteemed management institutes of India like IIM. It was a really disappointing conversation.We were talking about demonetization and to my utter disappointment, most of my friends failed to even recognize the problems of people at the bottom of the pyramid. It seemed like, for them, India is just the upper-middle-class urban-centered smartphone-equipped group of people. We may differ in our assessment of the intensity of the problems and we may agree to the point that such problems are like labor pain. From the womb of this time of the history, a new and stronger India will emerge. But rejecting and denying the fact that people at the grass root are facing any such problem only reflects the high degree of indifference, elitism, narrowmindedness and failure of management education. In my opinion, IIMs' should be renamed as IIIM i.e. Indian institute of indifference and management.

No wonder, their views reminded me of Ralph Miliband idea that management education is the fountainhead of the bourgeois class. And possibly for the same reason, engineering education despite being technically more intensive, is much cheaper than the management education. These management graduates sit at the helm of big corporates and design policies for the corporate. Obviously, one who can not even notice the problem of the people of common man will fail to find any solution for their plights. The the whole corporate world becomes a middle-class and upper-class centric phenomenon where the profit margins are extracted by exploiting the cheap labor of the lower class.

Further to this direction, such corporates form an important cog in the wheel of the military-industry-politician complex. The politicians win the election using the funds provided by big industrial houses therefore, their full effort is invested in ensuring the profitability of such people. The ultimate tragedy in this whole calculus is the common man.

I wish the bureaucracy brings the corrective influence and our education system focuses more on the development of the multi-dimensional thinking of the management graduates. Until that happens, the tragedy of commons will continue to occur.

Media in the democracy

Media is considered the fourth pillar of democracy. It is the conscience keeper of the government and the Society. It keeps a check on the activities of the government and acts as a bridge between the vox populi and the ears and eyes of the government.

Oftentimes, government becomes blind after capturing the echelons of power. This behavior is more prominent when the government is without any credible opposition. Lord Acton has precisely put it "power corrupts". Corruption does not have to be strictly monetary. Disturbing the balance of democracy is also a form of corruption. It is even more fatal because it injures the soul of the political balance of the nation. Those in power often reject this injury as the expression of the will of people. The recently proposed definition of corruption in the draft prevention of corruption act may also take a very conservative view of corruption. But in reality, power corrupts and absolute power corrupt absolutely. In such precarious situations, Media acts as a lid on the absolute exercise of power by the rulers. Therefore, Media acts as a guard of the soul of the democracy. Just imagine, what could happen if the guard itself becomes the predator of the soul?

Well, one don't need to constrain her imaginative faculties. You just have to open your eyes wide and you can see it happening in every walk of life in Indian political setup. Media has lost its non-partisan and unbiased status in the recent times. Every channel is patronized by some or other political party. Every political party has invested their hard earned black money into some or other print or TV media platforms. Those who are unaffected from this money flow are so ideology driven that even from a fifteen feet distance the newspaper stinks of biased and prejudiced content.
For example, Surya TV is owned by DMK, Jaya TV is owned by AIDMK. CNN-IBN and NDTV speak good of Congress. IndiaTV and ZeeNews have already sold their content to BJP. The Hindu smells of the left party opinion. Times of India has become a mouthpiece of Modi.

It is so sad that people are fed with opinions and paid news instead of facts and unbiased news. The anchor tells us what is right or wrong and what is correct and incorrect. The beautiful young girls who are probably not able to gauge the indirect impact of their news feeding behavior on the democracy, continuously try to capture viewers attention using her high pitched voice and excess makeup. Even a simple news is pitched with such a high baritone and drama that it can wake even Kumbhakarna out of his deep sleep. And suppose if Kumbhakarna is in his sixth-month hibernation then all you need to do is change the channel and put NewsHour debate or Arnab show on the TV channel.
I bet even Kumbhakarna will wake up from the noise which the anchor and his guests make on the subject.

Today Newsrooms have become noise rooms. News has become noise. The debates have degenerated into cat fight among the so-called sober, elite and educated members of the society. It is sad to see such state of affairs. The one news keeps doing rounds and rounds since morning till evening. The effect of the camera, sound, and video animation is added to highlight certain aspect like a climax scene of a K-series serial. Recently I was watching the SP crisis on the TV. The news channel kept showing the same video for the whole day in slow motion. Akles bhaiya walking towards Netaji and throwing tantrums against chacha Ji. The channel kept showing the same sequence, highlighting the event with red circles and markers, on a trifurcated screen. One screen showing the fast movement, other focusing on chachaji and third one showing Akles bhaiya in slow motion. It was funnier than a Kapil Sharma comedy sequence.
Does this mean there is no hope of saving the true character of our democracy? Has the democracy become politically colored?

The answer to this is yes as well no. Democracy is no longer white anymore. It has become politically colored. The media is slowly injecting color in the soul of democracy. But a new face of media has emerged. The social media. It was a ray of hope in the early years. But has it lived up to its potential? Has it done any better in providing correct news to the common man of the country? That will be take up in some other blog. Till then Goodbye.

Demonetization and Modi

I always wonder if Modi is a philosopher king of Plato or is he a Gorbachev of USSR who is trying to bring perestroika in the form of demonetization. I was not a big Modi fan in the teen years of my life. His Hitler-style of working and communal blemishes on his past always made me skeptical of whether he would be able to lead India in secular and sober sense or not. However, I started listening to his speeches more regularly after he got elected to power. It changed my perception a little bit. The recent step of demonetization has created mixed feelings in my mind.

I love him for his boldness and courage in taking this step. The political-economic-social cost of this step is very huge. He has put his personal reputation at the stake in the process. But on the downside, he has pushed the whole country in an uncertain territory.

He is considered akin to philosopher king of Plato because he has no political dynasty. He is learned and a self-made individual who has learned from the book of life itself. He is above nepotism and corruption. But the analogy is incomplete given the fact that he does show favoritism to his party BJP. His rejection of opposition which is essential for the function of democracy creates doubt in people's mind.

On the other hand, he is seen as Gorbachev of USSR because be could not correctly gauge the kind of preparation which country needs to successfully reap the dividends of the demonetization plan. India will not collapse as a result of this. But a general outcome would be the end of saving culture in the country. Jobs will be lost because businesses would be forced to follow rulebook. However, the new jobs won't be generated immediately. Every new industry and new business have a certain gestation period. The setup and flourishment of the business will take time. Therefore, for the time being, the joblessness will be on the rise. This will create a fertile ground for agitations and unrest.

Amid the dynamics of Plato and Gorbachev, what may eventually come out is a Putin of Russia. In the aftermath of USSR collapse, the country had become a den of oligarchy and corruption. The project of accelerated privatization under Boris Yeltsin had virtually transferred all the political and economic control in the hands of Businessmen like Guinsky and Berezovsky. Just like Adani and Ambani of India, they became the invisible king or the king-makers of Russia. However, when Berezovsky helped Putin's rise to power, little did he know that he is putting nails in his own coffin. As soon as Putin got hold of power, he asked these oligarchs to surrender their shares to the state. He set out fair processes of auction and tender. He meticulously managed his image through the use of media. This led to the revival of Russia and era of Putin.

The same may happen in the contemporary India. Although with an Indian twist to the things. Modi may call for banking nationalization in the light of bad assets. He has already nationalized the total household savings of the country by way of demonetization. He may ask the big NPA holders businesses to surrender their assets to the state and may play an active role in their auctioning process. He will not disturb the big houses of Adani and Ambani but he will pick on the second-rung business class which has huge bad loans and may assign this to the new players. Already Media is polarized heavily in the country.

Anyway, be it a philosopher-king or the Gorbachev or the Putin, Amid all the confusion and chaos of demonetization, India has no other option except Modi. Only he has the guts to go the full length on the issues of Benami reforms and digital economy. The fear is in the process he may end up killing the whole generation of the entrepreneurial class. Plus the lack of innovation on the part of businesses is leading to the stagnation in the job market.

India is standing at an inflection point. It may go either way. Either it can continue with the status quo or it may forcefully tread the path of reforms. Time will tell whether Modi will become Putin or will he remain a Gorbachev.

Why is it necessary to lead?

If you do not lead then you are led. Being led means being manipulated. It means your thoughts are not your own. They are engineered. There are two kinds of leaders. One who empowers their follower. Other is who disempower their subordinates and followers. Every one of us is a leader in some or other role. A father is a leader to his children. A manager is a leader to his team. A politician is a leader to his people. As a teacher, you are a leader to your students.

Nowadays, the first kind of breed has become rare. The first kind of leadership requires generous heart, high sense of competence and security. It requires unique qualities of true mentorship. They lead by example. They lead from the front. Some fine example of such leaders is Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and people like Bill Gates.

The second breed is more ubiquitous. They are found in every nook and corner of our daily lives. Such people believe in manipulation and hegemonic domination. The moment they understand that the subordinate is a strong contender for the position he is holding, they would try every possible means to decimate him. Generally, such decimation occurs in a vicarious fashion by way of shaking his confidence. For example, teacher rebuking his students instead of answering their curious questions. Parents shouting at their children when a child tries to take independent decision. Politician creating hurdles for anyone who poses a threat his position. And a manager attempts to subvert his employee by putting extra workload or giving him lower rating or making him believe that he can't do it.

Such people act as a glass ceiling for our ambitions. They tend to put a lid onto our imaginations and inflict injuries on our can-do attitude. To overcome this transparent yet stifling veneer of subordination, it is necessary to believe in yourself and be your own leader.

Today every successful person we see around ourselves is a leader. Followers are never the achievers. They only remain followers. Only one who has the ability to lead becomes successful. What is the prerequisite to becoming an empowering leader?

First, one should have self-believe to the degree of madness. He must be stubborn and obstinate to a very high degree. Second, one should be fearless. Be it fear of failure or fear of being wrong or fear of being different. Third, one should pursue an idea and should just pursue one idea at a time. Fourth, one should be ignorant of criticism. When a mediocre person aims to become a leader, other mediocre people try their best to stop this attrition from their lot. They try their best to pull him down. In the process, they criticize him or ridicule him or laugh at him or try many other things which can shake the person's confidence. A true leader remains unmoved from any of this. Fifth, leaders are master of the art of living happily in the moment of uncertainty, anxiety, tension and stress. Sixth, leaders should be good in emotional profiling of their followers. Sixth, a leader needs to have a history of failure in some or other walk of life. The taste of failure helps him in becoming more resolute in his goals, enables him to deal with his frustrations and help him in becoming humane.

The absence of any of the above six traits will make him deficient in some or other way. For example, the absence of sixth quality will make him an insecure or mean leader. The absence of fifth quality may turn him aggressive, and angry. This way either he becomes unethical or reclusive in his nature. The absence of fourth may turn him into a joke. He will constantly be in a self-correcting mode.

A big question which arises is whether leadership is an inborn talent or is it a learned behavioral trait? The answer to this is both. Just like every other thing in life, leadership is also a combination of heredity as well as environmental factors. Generally, A true leader is more a product of environment than the inborn skills. After a stage, Leadership is also about human relationships and emotional intelligence. Both of these are learned skills.

Coming to the main topic, why is it necessary to lead? The short answer is if you are not fulfilling your own dream then you are fulfilling someone else's dream. So it is important to pursue your own dream and for this it is important to lead.

Year 2017

Without much ado, I will directly list down the new year's resolution for the year 2017.

1. Without a doubt, the first and foremost is to keep the phone in flight mode when I am studying or working.
2. Paper and pencil writing at least 5 days a week and 5 blog writing every month.
3 Sleeping before 12 o'clock every day.
4. Reading and Revising newspaper at least 6 days in a week.
5. Reading 12 books in the entire year.

This is it. Company, music, exercise, job, technology, teaching, travel and every other shit can comfortably take back seat for first 10 months.

Review: Year 2016

I started the year 2016 with a resolve that I would be reading one book every 15th day. I had committed to myself that I would be blogging on a regular basis. I wanted to keep a check on my fitness level and wanted to engage myself in my general hobbies of music, teaching, and other items in the to-do list. As per the philosophy of SMART principles, I had set following goals.

Finishing one book every two weeks and writing a review for the same.
Writing Daily blogs.
Exercising at least 5 days in a week
Reading newspaper at least 5 days in a week
Learning one new technology every three month
Registering my NGO and company
Starting a book readers club
One fun trip with friends
Writing 3 articles of newspaper grade
Sleeping before 11 in the night at least 5 days a week
Meditate daily
Learn to set realistic goals

In the light of above goals, let me evaluate my performance of the year 2016.

The year began happily. I shifted from Bangalore to Noida. The sister's wedding was scheduled for February. With the grace of god, It went really well. Soon after, I joined the new job in Noida. So the platform was all set for me to take up new things and fulfill all the commitments. But sadly not much happened. I was again trapped in the spiral of Civil Services. It left me with no time to spare. When It comes to UPSC preparation, everything else takes a back seat. The same happened this year.

I could read hardly 7-8 books in the entire year. The notable one being The tipping point by Robert Gladwell, Infinite Justice of Arundhati Roy, India Shashtra by Shashi Tharoor, Emotional Intelligence by Travis Bradberry, Company of the women by Khushwant Singh, The 50 Psychology Classics, and Kashmir in Vajpayee years by A.S. Dulat. Some were left unfinished. The social animal being the notable one in the list. The one under progress is Sapiens by Yuval Noah Hariri. I wanted to read 4 more books but my other commitments, slow speed, and my lazy being held me back.So the task remained incomplete.

Blogging came really well. I was able to make a century of the posts. It felt really good. I wish I can continue the tempo and keep writing on a variety of topics of socio-economic-political importance. But here also, My target was of writing a blog daily. I could hardly do that. So it remained incomplete.

The fitness routine took a blow because of my inability to manage so many things at a time. Somewhere the lethargy had set in and after initial months of consistency, I slipped off the track and did not pursue it with as much vigor with which I should have done it. So it remained incomplete.

As far as the newspaper is considered, I was fairly consistent in current affairs coverage. The insights coverage was regular though it could not reap many dividends. But It was good and somewhat satisfactory.

One place where I miserably failed is in learning a new technology. I had bitter experiences on the job. It served my purpose, though. I learned a lot about organizational politics, negotiations, and skills of identifying good apple from the bad apple.

I was able to register my company. As far as NGO is concerned, The association with Vishwa Ahimsa Sangh flourished to the next level. So performance on this task was satisfactory though the task itself was less important. Though I could not hold on to my schedule. A lot of improvement was desired but It was OK.

The most notable and satisfying achievement of the year was my trip to Kailash Mansarovar. In the heavenly abode of Lord Shiva, I feel so blessed and fortunate to be invited to this serene place in-person. Even now I have all the voice recordings of my journey and I feel the temptation of writing them in my blog. I feel so much empowered and so much calm when I close my eyes and think of those moments when I was standing at the feet of Lord Shiva and was looking at the Kailash mountain with mouth agape. I think that moment would be added to my list of blissful moments which I would choose for my deathbed.

The biggest disappointment of the whole year occurred when I faltered in the prelims examination. This one possibly trumps everything else except the great Kailash. Even today I wonder, why is it that I need to exhaust myself for scoring a victory? Why does it not happen with less effort? Why was I not so motivated and focused in the month of July when I needed it the most? Anyway, whatever is gone is gone. The best way to overcome a failure is to look forward and keep walking.

Overall, a mixed year. Did some wonderful long pending things. Was fortunate to visit the heavenly abode. But when it comes to my dream, the dream was disturbed even before it began properly. Anyways, now is the time to prepare a new vision and new list of things for the year 2017. Hope to do well in this year.