The ultimate reality

Every day of our life begins with some ambitions, some desires, some goals and some disappointments. We run, run and run to fulfill those goals and desires. And then every day ends with certain unfinished tasks, some unfulfilled dreams and some sort of incompleteness. The cycle goes on and on and on. And finally, in a turn of events, we all reach the same final destination. We meet death. All the goals, desires, dreams, and disappointments become meaningless at that point. Everyone looks similar in that state. Be it a chief minister of the state or a maid working under her. Everyone become a loaf of mass. Everyone lies naked. All anger, frustration, hatred toward oneself or others or the society members become meaningless. I had this intense realization yesterday.

I was traveling back from Old Rajinder Nagar after taking my class. I got down at metro and took a cab for home. The cab arrived after few minutes wait. I got in the cab and the journey began. The google maps lady suggested a very lengthy route to the driver. I was little cautious so in a span of 5 minutes, I asked me three times about why is he taking this lengthier route? He was also clueless. But as always, everything happens for a reason. A motorcyclist was traveling in front of us with a child and a middle-aged lady. Suddenly a pit on the road came. The roads were dimly lighted. The pillion rider could not reduce his speed and bike had a jerk. The ladies do not sit tightly on the two wheeler. I have noticed that they do not take any support or do not hold the bike tightly. The lady fell down with a thud. The trajectory of fall was such that her upper part of the body happens to hit first and the whole flattened on the road without any movement. We were just behind them. I asked the cab driver to immediately stop the cab and got down to check if she was OK. She was just lying there, without any movement. I checked her. She was breathing but blood was oozing out of her nose. We immediately packed her in the cab and set off for the hospital.

Her male relative who was riding the bike was coming on the bike. The child came with me in the cab. I was asking the lady to speak something. But she wasn't. She was trying to breathe from her mouth but the whole body was motionless. The child was crying and I was surprised to see the instinctive reaction of the child. She was begging her mother "don't leave, don't leave". Maybe the child had witnessed some other deaths also and possibly she was behaving in a similar manner or may be her instinct were telling her that something serious has happened to her mother. I kept asking the daily to remain conscious and speak something but she was just lying in my lap. The tears were rolling out from her eyes onto her cheeks. She was not able to speak, neither able to move her legs or body parts. Suddenly her effortful breathing stopped while we were on the way to the hospital. But the child kept begging her to no go. For a while, I just thought that she is gone. But then suddenly she took a deep gasp of air. As if something infused life in her. Maybe she just went for a while and touched the death but only to return for her child. She started breathing again. We reached the hospital, took her to the emergency. The doctor received her immediately. I was told that she has slipped in the comma and she needs to be put on the ventilator of life support system. Doctor was little rude and straightforward in his conversation but possibly that is the nature of his job.

After a while, I left the hospital but the episode kept looming over my head. I was thinking about the fragility of the human body. The reality of death and futility of doing great things and suffering from anger, frustration, and pain in everyday life. Even the emotions of love, joy seemed nonsense for a moment. When I was in the cab, I was looking at the face of the lady. It made me think that life is too short to think of anything. Just live it. joyfully happily. Do whatever you feel. Do whatever you like. Do not regret anything. And just chill. You never know when you may also die.

What's up Saurabh Jain

My frequency of posting blogs has reduced but the content and topics of discussion have increased in a proportionate manner. My tummy is bulging out because of lack of exercise in last 6 months. So beginning the exercise schedule is the next thing on the card. The crunch of time, restlessness, and tendency to simultaneously engage in an unmanageable number of activities is as usual. I feel like an incorrigible obstinate kid. But that's how the things are and I am bearing with that.

A number of exciting things happened in the past few days. From meeting girls in family settings to taking an unplanned trip for RTI activism to fighting on the job, it is all a new landscape for me. It is exciting as well as boring. It is exciting in a sense that I am meeting people from different walks of life. It is a welcome change from the career-oriented approach. It is boring for the reason that I am discovering that this is it. This is the life about which people write books, sing paeans, and talk incessantly. All nonsense. Nowadays the feeling of loneliness has increased a little bit but given the workload, there is just no scope for these feelings. Youtube has come to my rescue in killing this loneliness but eventually I end up killing my precious time as well.

Anyway, I met a couple of interesting people on my trip to Lucknow for RTI purpose. One was Mr. Javed Usmani Chief Information Commissioner of U.P. His resolute style of working impressed me. He entered the office around 11:30AM and by 1:15PM he finished all his work. Seeing him in action was impressive. He made quick decisions and spoke fluent complicated judicial jargon in Hindi. Another person I met was Mr. Anand Dixit from Sitapur. He is RTI activist who came to my rescue. He helped me in drafting application and advised me on how to proceed in my case so that Mr. Usmani agrees to accept my document despite procedural mistakes on my part. The third person was an interesting stranger beautiful girl. I was moneyless and ticketless after finishing my work at Information commission office. Somehow, I reached the railway station by using public transport. All the trains were running late. Some were canceled. So undecidedly, I headed to a nearby Bus stand. Even buses were running at full capacity. Thankfully I was not alone. I spotted six-seven people in the similar situation and initiated a random conversation about how to reach Delhi. Suddenly the idea of hiring a cab to Delhi sprang into my mind. Others found it interesting and agreed. We went to nearby travel shop and bargained hard. Finally, the travel agent agreed for arranging a vehicle. But then few guys backed out and only three of us were left me, she and Gaurav. After a while, even Gaurav backed out. So it was only me and her. I called up my one of my most caring and dependable friend Kiran. True to her generous nature, She booked sleeper bus coach tickets for both of us. And the journey began.

The girl(nickname pari) was very unusual. She agreed to travel with me without even knowing me. She was bold, tall and beautiful but given the state of affair in U.P., I kept wondering about this strange thing. Anyway, we reached the bus spot. I requested the driver to allocate us different seats, the side one. The Driver did not relent. He gave us the sleeper birth in the same compartment on upper deck. I was quite reluctant. Never ever in my life, I had shared a bed with a girl. But she looked unfazed. Anyway, I was tired after daytime work. I took my space, changed my clothes and sat easy in the compartment. She joined a few minutes later. She was charging mobile on the lower deck.

She was tall, beautiful and bold. We started our conversation. My mobile was switched off as usual due to lack of charging. The lights in the compartment was not working so I was not in the position to read anything. Surprising, I felt very jobless. In the meantime, she got comfortable and stretched herself lying beside me. We started the conversation asking each other about our background and details. I was as usual little reticent in sharing my details. She belonged to a marketing team of real estate company. True to her job, she was outspoken and extravagant in her description but she spoke sensibly. I was enjoying discussions with her. Slowly, she slipped into sleep. For whole night, I kept looking at her. She woke up almost 100 times. She was feeling cold. She had no baggage with her. I opened my bag and gave my warm lower and warm shirt to her plus the head cap. She was feeling cold. But somehow I stopped myself from touching her and cuddling her. I do not know if I was right or wrong. There was no lust in my thoughts but there was curiosity, care, some attraction and futility of this whole scheme of things in my thoughts. We just kept talking to each other for the most part of the night. She was not afraid of sleeping beside me. Anyhow, I managed to pass the night easily with her.At the end of the trip, She gave me her phone number and card. I forgot to give mine. We bided goodbye to each other. Overall it was a memorable and exciting bus journey with a lot of bumps and swings lying beside a beautiful girl, looking at her face and talking to her about so many things of life as I had nothing else to do.

Her joyful and trustworthy nature reminded me of a quote from an old friend "good people always meet good people". I have no intention of approaching her. Though she asked me to call her up and my curiosity still remains but I do not see any purpose in doing so. Kind of adamant and incorrigible person I am.

Classes are going on as usual. Students are reluctant to join but this will pick up in near future. Most important is that I enjoy doing it so will continue with this. However, I need to ration my time more appropriately. I have become very undisciplined in past few months. Will work on this. There are many more observation about life and things. But will write some other time in detail. Till then good bye.

Necessary preparation before demonetization?

The whole country is standing at an inflection point of development. One path leads to the corruption free promising India while other may trigger a nightmarish experience of national collapse. A glimpse of the initial chaos can be seen outside banks and ATMs but the real pinch will be felt when the demonetization will lead to job loss and a decline in industrial production. Many expert analysts have predicted short-term threats to our social economic and political life. But very few people have commented on the timeliness of the decision. Was this the best time for this move in terms of preparedness? Could we have made some arrangements? Is secrecy not given a paramount importance which has led to this situation? Was this jerking off of whole nation from the black money hangover the only way to execute this plan? Is this the economics which drove the politics of the move or vice-versa?

In my opinion, following ten things could have been done before taking this initiative.
1. Hire at least 10000 IRS officer on contract basis to conduct the tax collection drive in the entire country. There are lakhs of UPSC aspirants who are qualified enough but falls on the other side of luck. The government could have absorbed them through the existing scheme of the examination on a 10-year contractual period.
2. Land records digitization should have been expedited and connected with the Adhar accounts. The technological prowess of overlaying techniques should have been used.
3. The mobile van model of ATM should have been tried and tested and popularized in the whole country.
4. The government could have waited few more years. The GST bill was on the anvil. This is expected to bring down taxation rates. This would have increased the taxation compliance for the large segment of population by itself.
5. The RBI should have increased the prevalence of lower denomination currency. At least the figure of 86% prevalence of rs. 500/1000 could have been brought down to 65% without getting attention in the public in a gradual manner over one to two years.
6. The report of Ratan P Watal commission on the spread of card payment was pending. The government could have waited and implemented its implementation first before shaking the whole nation.
7. The original scheme of Jan Dhan account should have been fully implemented. By this the country would have been prepared to switch to banking system. Today those accounts are conveniently used by rich people for conversion of black money to white money.
8. At least all the government offices, services and amenities should have started accepting the card payment and online payments. This would have reduced the corruption to large extent.
9. Jewellers, real estate people, mining barons and politicians account could have been scrutinized and audited by the additional force of 10000 in a detailed manner.
10. Political parties funding, NGO funding and religious organizations funding could have been brought under RTI rule.

Overall, I feel the step was premature. It was taken in haste, without proper political and economic accounting. Modi is a seasoned player of politics so it is hard to believe that how could he make such mistake or take such a polarizing and risky decision. Black money is substituted by the dark thoughts about the future of the country.

Rules of Negotiation

1. Always plan your conversations.
2. Know your options.
3. Do not hurry in responding.
4. Never cross etiquettes.
5. Everything is a perspective.
6. Do not take it personally.
7. It's fun.
8. Always have a plan B and know when to trigger it.
9. No regrets.
10. Do not accept others excuses.
11. Capitalize on others mistake.
12. Don't vie to gain sympathy.
13. Be calm and be forceful in your ways.
14. Never raise voice.
15. Always keep smiling.

Emotional Intelligence

Last time when I wrote the review of Emotional Intelligence book, I missed one very important point. The point is "Emotional intelligence is unlike intelligence quotient". Your IQ more or less remain stable. But Emotional Intelligence varies on the seasonal basis. Whenever a new experience occurs, some rejig takes place in your emotional corner. Neurons move up and down in the limbic system. Some people find the new equilibrium very soon and come back to their normal state while others take some time to understand the new incident and to tackle its emotional repercussions.

Why does this happen? It happens because every day when we begin, we carry an emotional baggage of the previous day. The bags get heavy and heavier as the time passes and eventually it causes huge disequilibrium in your emotional state of mind. Eventually, one fine day, a naturally calm person turns violent or vice versa. There is nothing called right or wrong emotion. But awareness of self and other emotions and ability to manipulate self and others emotion is the key to higher emotional intelligence. So let say you get angry one day. This does not mean you are not emotionally mature or intelligence. The question is "whether you were aware of being angry? Were you able to control your anger? Was the anger intentional to get what you want from the other person?"

For me, last one month was turbulent. My focus was divided. My attention was missing. There was self-doubt about my own priorities and my ways of getting what I want? Even today I am not sure if this is the way to go about it. But then comes the wisdom. Play everything as if it is a game. Do not fear to loose anything. Do not bow down. Negotiate hard. Take it as an experience. Do not show your soft side. Do not tell others about your weakness. Do not let your priority become your weakness. And most important learn to not let your work spill into your studies.

During IAS preparation, the best way was to ignore ignore ignore and let go let go let go. So now if you are not letting it go, make sure that you don't let this interfere with your studies. That would be the best emotionally intelligent behavior.

Principles of politics

Never fear to experiment.
Be ready to backtrack.
Know your strength.
Hide your weakness.
Wait for the moment.
Challenge the powerful.
Discover escape routes.
Network is the key to win.
Identify the polarizing issues.
Communication is your skill.
Know the weakness of your opponent.
Keep opponent confused.
It is a risky game.
Always fight to win.
Never loose hope.
Opponents make mistakes.

Girish Nikam

"Hello and welcome to the Big Picture". These lines reverberate in my mind whenever I think of Girish Nikam. The guy has left an indelible imprint on my psyche and psyche of many others. His shows were like the staple diet for aspirants of Civil Services Examination. I always dreamt of giving a civil service interview with Nikam as one of the interviewers. What an experience that would have been? However, death is the ultimate reality of life. Howsoever high any one becomes in the life but death will ultimate dust all of us.

Nikam did not just deliver the content. He taught us a way of thinking in multi-dimensional and multi-perspective manner through his program. My respect for him increases multifold when I juxtapose him with Rajat Sharma, Rahul Kanwar and Arnab Goswami. The latter set of journalist sold their journalistic ethics to sensationalism, partisan politics and money power. Among those soulless spirits, Girish was a vanguard of ethical ans sensible journalism. May his soul rest in peace. Your lines will keep reverberating in my mind for time to come.