Religion & Humanity...

This article is a personal opinion and is not meant to hurt anyone's sentiments. If it does, kindly pardon me and inform me in the comments if anyone feels offended and this post will be removed/modified (if necessary)

What is religion? A set of rules defined by a set of followers to guide their generations to come to work in a controlled and socially acceptable manner. But does it makes the non-followers wrong? Does it means that someone who doesn't believe in god or worship god in any other form, is not a creation of god? Does it means that all species other than humans are not created by god and hence don't deserve to live (since only humans follow a religion (HINDUISM/ ISLAM/ SIKHISM/ CHRISTIANITY etc.) 

If the answer is NO, then why do we fight among ourselves in the name of religion. Why we feel that our god is superior and others are inferior. Doesn't it reflects our lack of understanding and faith in GOD. Do we think their are different gods who create us and asks us to follow them only? And if we believe that there is only one GOD (whatever we may call the name), then what difference does it makes if other people worship GOD in a different name? 

Lets say a man has four children. Two of them calls him as "dad", while other one calls him father and fourth one simply calls him by name out of love or whatever the reason. Does it means that they are not the children of same person or that first two (since they are in majority) are right and other two are not their brothers /sisters. Will this make any difference to that man who is father to all four of them? YES!!! It will make a difference to him if his children start fighting among each other. It will make a difference if one of his children is hurt by others just because he calls him by a different name. But as long as his children live peacefully among themselves, it should not actually worry him if they call him dad or father or even by name.

We humans have such a short life to live and we waste it to fight among ourselves for something we don't even understand. We fight in the name of religion, ready to kill anyone from the other religion; but have we ever wondered that the food we are eating was grown and sold by a Hindu or Muslim or a Christian? Have we ever wondered which god has created the animal(s) that we worship or we keep in our family as pets? Have we ever wondered what will happen if we all start fighting in the name of religion and if the war continues till all men and women from all religions but one are killed. Will it help us in any way or help us to progress? I guess NOT!!!

  

Annually we have spent more than 1400 billion USD (for top 25 nations) on defense budget in 2014* & similar figures for 2015* In contrast annual budget for NASA & ISRO was of order of 18.5 billion USD & 0.89 billion USD respectively (for 2015-16)** Also the education budget for 2015-16 has been approx 10.19 billion USD*** for a highly populated country like India and same is approx Rs. 117.65 billion USD*** for a developed nation like USA. The point being tried to explain here is that if the money being spent by us annually on destruction is instead used for education or scientific advancements, we as a human race can move far ahead than what we are now. 

Not to go into fiction really, but if some day our planet Earth is attacked by an alien species or if the Earth becomes unhealthy enough to not able to sustain human race anymore; are we ready to face the crisis? NO!!! we are busy fighting each other instead. And if such a situation does happens only a handful may survive at the best (if we humans do survive)

I am no prophet or someone great and I do follow one particular religion. But that has never stopped me from making friends from other religion and treating them with same respect that I will give to friends of my religion. If you agree with my views, kindly spread the message of friendship and peace so that we may achieve a better and peaceful tomorrow for our next generations to come.

*source: 

(1) http://www.globalfirepower.com/defense-spending-budget.asp, 

(2) http://books.sipri.org/files/FS/SIPRIFS1504.pdf) 

** source:

(1) http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-02-28/news/59613146_1_20-crore-rs-6-crore-satish-dhawan-space-centre

(2) http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/Agency_Fact_Sheet_FY_2016.pdf

***source:

(1) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/budget-2015/student/Union-Budget-2015-13-hike-in-allocation-for-higher-education/articleshow/46412288.cms

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_United_States_federal_budget

गिरते हैं वही खेल के मैदान में जो दौड़ा करते हैं......

गिरते हैं वही खेल के मैदान में जो दौड़ा करते हैं
वो क्या गिरेंगे जिन्होने कभी दौड़ना सीखा ही नही
(a common saying of course)

पर

जीतते हैं दौड़ वही खेल के उसी मैदान में जो उठ कर दुबारा दौड़ते हैं
जीतेंगे क्या वो जिन्होने कभी उठना सीखा ही नही !!!

Planning to Buy a Car... But don't know if you can afford one??

Often we consider the price of a car while buying it, and may be the power, comfort, fuel economy etc. Especially while buying a low cost car, we put emphasis on fuel economy but often neglect other costs associated with it. Here's a approximate tabular representation that how a car's running cost may go to almost 40-50% of its purchase price.

These table which are based on very raw calculations show that if you drive your car for approx 30 Kms a day for going to your office and market etc., you may run into shedding about 40% of its purchase price every year. This doesn't takes into account cost for emergency works like accidental damage, techincal problems etc. 

Of course if you are going for further higher grade cars / luxury cars, these figures may not scare you, but if you are a middle class working person, you may want to re-think about your plan to buy a new car. 

And for those who consider car is a necessity now a days, this table still indicates that owning a car shall still be considered as a luxury meant for your comfort only.

DOWRY - Is it legal or illegal in INDIA

DOWRY - a word that usually causes fear, or rather terror sometimes, in the mind of the parents of unmarried girls in India, especially among the middle class and economically weaker section of the society. First thing that comes in mind are the news and other known instances of deaths & tortures on the brides by their respective in-laws. Considering the exceptions where the bride's family takes advantage of the laws to harass their son-in-law and his family, Dowry is still considered as a necessary EVIL in our society. But is it really an evil, or is it the people who are evil.

The Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 prohibits the request, payment or acceptance of a dowry "as consideration for the marriage", where "dowry" is defined as a gift demanded or given as a precondition for a marriage. Asking for or giving of dowry can be punished by imprisonment of up to six months, a fine of up to Rs. 15000 or the amount of dowry (whichever is higher), or imprisonment up to 5 years.

However it is worth noticing here that the gifts given without a precondition are not considered dowry, and are legal, per section 3(2).

So, legality of Dowry in India is a debatable issue, as it becomes difficult to prove if it has been demanded or given without pre-condition. Howerev if you are a parent or brother or sister of a girl and willing to give gifts to your loved one, it is legally acceptable as per above said information taken from various sources. 

PLEASE GRANT ME BAIL - I AM UNWELL / I AM OLD

This is one of the most common excuse that politicians, celebrities and other men and women with power, give whenever they are convicted in a case and sent to jail. They always try to seek bail on Medical Grounds or Citing their Age as a consideration. SO, SHALL WE MAKE IT A LAW TO GIVE IMMUNITY FROM LEGAL PROCEEDINGS TO ALL THE SICK PEOPLE (ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH POWER AND MONEY IN THEIR HAND). SHALL WE ALLOW THEM TO DO FURTHER CRIMES AND REMAIN FREE ON BAIL FOR FURTHER CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE OLD OR BECAUSE THEY ARE SICK.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY HOW THEY BECOME SICK AND UNWELL SUDDENLY, WHEN THEY ARE ORDERED TO GO TO JAIL. Before any such decision, how come they are holding their positions with power and doing their job / business AND SUDDENLY BECOME UNWELL ON THE NAME OF BEING SENT TO JAIL. 

And if they are given excuse and granted bail on medical grounds, why their are people in the jails who are old and sick and even die in jails, but don't have power or money. IS THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION DIFFERENT FOR RICH AND POWERFUL PEOPLE AND FOR COMMON MAN WHO DOESN'T HAVE MONEY AND POWER.

As a common man, I am not personally against any leader / party / businessperson or anyone else who might feel offended. But as an Indian, I along with majority of people falling in the category of COMMON MAN wants fair justice for all on equal grounds and no favoritism to so called VIPs or VVIPs

Rishton ki dor...

Naazuk Hoti hai ye rishton ki dor,
Inhe yun aazmaaya nahi karte;

Nahi aata jo un ko hum par yakeen,
Aise roothon ko hum bhi manaaya nahi karte !!!

What has MBA taught me...

Some students (including myself before completing my MBA) often wonder, why shall we go for MBA. Does it really teaches us anything? Is it really worth to spend so much money on doing MBA, rather than finding a decent job and starting ahead? Well, I will like to share my personal opinion and experiences on the matter.

Well, even though I have done my MBA in Marketing as major subject, we have learnt about Finance, IT, HR etc. etc. too. It often left us wondering, why shall i learn finance or IT when all I have to do is marketing. What do I have to do with learning about balance sheets or ledger entries etc. Well I got my answer after joining my first job. 

Often the engineers and marketing personnel get in argument with finance over their demand for documentation for every single penny. Little do we understand that what is a single rupee for us accumulates and becomes a headache for the accountant if it is not matched with the documents; and that they have to show the documents they ask from us to their auditors (of course sometimes they become over strict and a bottleneck, but this is a general explanation)

Coming back to the main topic, What has MBA taught me or helped me with? Well, if I compare myself with my colleagues at similar / same position, I do feel more confident than they do. I am ready to accept more challenges, ready  to take more risk and understand the business better as a whole. And it is not just me. This is a general difference I have observed during my short career spanned  over three different jobs. 

When we do higher studies (MBA in this case), we do get not only knowledge but also a sense of responsibility and our expectations increase. And consciously or not, but when it happens, we are ready to take more responsibility, higher risks and individual decisions. We aim for higher positions and it naturally helps us to get in managerial position at later stages. This may be one of the many reasons, for why companies prefer MBA graduates for higher managerial posts, or help their employees to secure MBA before taking higher positions. 

So, in short I'd say that MBA may or may not help academically especially for certain streams, but it does help to groom the students for the next level in organizations; from being managed to managing others. 

:-)  ----- DEEPAK GARG -----  :-)