Monthly Archives: June 2012

There’s no dearth of totally nonsense pictures circulating around FB. Earlier, I talked about how private corporations are unfairly targeted by ignorant propagandists on FB.  Here’s one more:

What is wrong with this picture?

The owner of a private corporation is shown earning a fortune while the lowest level employee receives almost nothing. People who haven’t been sufficiently informed about government failures could be forgiven for failing to comprehend the false propaganda spread through this picture.

Agreed, the CEO of a private company earns at least ten times more than an entry-level employee. But that does not mean the entry-level employee is left poor. Almost 80% of the time, an entry-level employee in a private enterprise earns considerably more than a similar employee working in the public (government) sector. This is a known, indisputable truth — just compare a clerk in HDFC bank with a clerk in SBI. Who earns more?

Obviously an HDFC employee, because HDFC has an obligation to provide superior customer service to its clients. In comparison, an employee of a public bank has no incentive to deliver great customer service because he’s not paid for that. He’s only paid to finish regular formalities and leave as soon as it is 5 pm. If you, the client, are late by even five minutes they will stare at you as if you have committed a crime!

Also compare the level of corruption in HDFC bank (which would be almost negligible) with that in any government bank!

Yes, individual scams may occur every now and then. But are such scams exclusive to private corporations alone? Con artists are as much found in the public sector. And such criminals MUST be punished. The difference today is that for a particular crime, an executive in a private company is implicated and jailed for 30 years while a similar executive in a government company roams free.

The correct version of the above picture is thus as follows:

The central government sets aside literally BILLIONS of funds for the poor. And how much of that actually reaches poor? Negligible! India’s poor have been suffering from hunger and poverty since more than SIXTY years of independence, and India still remains one of the poorest countries in the world. So blame the government, not the private corporations who in reality create employment and raise the standard of living of the people.

But most importantly, please DON’T BLINDLY BELIEVE! Question every picture and article you come across on FB. In fact, question everything in life. Only then can you hope to know the truth!   

5 EXCUSES we use to justify our unethical behavior

Posted on by

Don Soderquist, the former COO of Walmart, visited Marriott School of Management (Brigham Young University) approximately three years ago when I was an undergrad studying business management. I had jotted down key takeaways from his speech, which was essentially focused around various ethical challenges faced by business leaders in real-life situations. Following are the five most common excuses people give themselves to justify an unethical behavior:

Excuse #1:   “There are situations when it’s okay to lie, cheat or steal.”

Although it may be appropriate to lie in dire circumstances, it is often not easy to determine the direness involved. One may give all kinds of excuses to label the situation as dire so as to justify their unethical behavior. Is it okay to lie in order to save a life? Is it okay to speak untruth to save your mom from grief? And what if your mom expected you to speak truth to her? While these are bad examples, the point is the answers to these questions are subjective and depend on individual situations. Whatever be the situation, beware of becoming too liberal with justifications you give to yourself. It’s very easy to fall into the excuse-trap, especially when no one is watching over you!

Excuse #2:   “The world has changed its values, so I must change mine too.”

We hate being labeled as traditional and boring. We dread being stigmatized as Harishchandra. Fearing various social stigmas attached with being “too truthful,” we often justify our unethical behavior citing the above statement. Watch out for such pitfalls!

Excuse #3:   “Everyone else is doing it, so I must do it in order to compete.”

This myth is very common in business environment. Western companies who bribe foreign officials in order to close on expansion contracts often use this statement as a defense to justify their act. “If I don’t bribe them, my competitor will. I cannot afford such loss of profits,” says the anxious executive to himself. But in saying so, he fails to comprehend the deeper truth.

Agreed, you may incur short-term losses through losing deals to your rivals, but your shareholders (and the larger society) will hold you in respect for your commitment to social good and ethical behavior. Over the longer term, you’ll win their trust, which will in turn earn you significant profits. Even if not for profit, one must adhere to truth for its own sake.

Excuse #4:    ”It’s legal. So it’s ethical.”

Not every legal act is ethical. And nor is every illegal act unethical. As a general rule, you must follow the law of the land. If the law says you must not drink alcohol (for instance in Gujarat), one must follow this law at all costs. If you don’t agree with the law, you have the option to lobby for a better law or vote for a better candidate in the next election. Even better, you can stand in elections yourself, win, and then bring the change through better policies. I understand that given the corrupt political environment, it may not be pragmatic for honest people to contest elections, but that should not be used as a ground for violating the existing law.

Excuse #5:   “A leader cannot be ethical and successful at the same time.”

I come across this statement every time I express to someone my intention of participating in politics in future: “You are too honest. Your kind can never win elections.” While there may be some grain of truth in such excuses given the real-life, corrupt political scenario, I’d not be willing to compromise on ethics to succeed in politics. That would only set a wrong precedent for future generations. It’s better to NOT contest elections than to win through a bunch of criminal records.

Finally, it may help to remember that we are not perfect. In fact, we are replete with faults. The point is it’s far better to fail a hundred times on the path of truth than to succeed in the path of falsehood.

You DON’T need to consume meat to build muscles!

Posted on by

One of the most common excuses given to justify meat-eating is that animals are a crucial, indispensable source of proteins — Vegetarian diet simply cannot provide proteins necessary to build six-packs. As you’ll see below, such conclusion is absurd and can only come from a severe lack of critical thinking!

When it comes to dietary choices, most people falsely assume causal relationships having no scientific backing. For instance, they may think, “Arnold Schwarzenegger consumes tons of boneless chicken breasts and egg whites daily. He is also a world-class body builder. Therefore, eating meat builds muscles.” This may be true. But to extrapolate, based on this argument, that some other person is weak and skeletal because he is a vegetarian only displays sheer ignorance.

The fact that proteins exist abundantly in a vegetarian diet is incontrovertible. A recent article in Times of India is worth sharing widely. I searched the link online but couldn’t find it. Seems like TOI hasn’t uploaded it yet. I shall provide a link as soon as it is made available. Till then, here are some excerpts (my comments in square brackets).

Talking about Varinder Singh Ghuman, the article notes:

“The Jalandar-based father of two, who plays the captain of a national kabaddi team in the film [Kabaddi Once Again] is, in fact, the captain of the Indian bodybuilding team. An IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness) pro champ and former Mr India, Ghuman was spotted by director Sukhminder Dhanjal at a bodybuilding championship in Punjab in 2010. Here, as he does on various local and international platforms, Ghuman stood in a silky underwear, his long brown hair punished into a tight pony tail and oil-laden muscles flexing so that his web-like network of arteries and veins surface. His body is now a road-map. 

Varinder Singh Ghuman, vegetarian

Many find it hard to believe that Ghuman, who has also participated in Arnold Classic, a body-building tournament held by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Ohio, is a vegetarian. Or that his biceps owe nothing to animal protein or egg white. After all bodybuilding is perceived to be the prerogative of vein popping men thriving off meat and artificial enhancements. “Everyone has asked me to eat eggs and meat in order to gain muscle mass, but as I am a vegetarian for religious reasons, I decided to stick to my diet and rely on hard work instead.” recalls Ghuman, a Gurusikh whose staple diet consists of yellow dal, chapattis, green salad, curd and lassi. 

Though he does not discount the role of genetics in the sculpting of his broad, movie-screen-wide body, he believes his rippling bodyowes a lot to his intensive research on vegetarian nutritional sources. 

The belief that skinless chicken breasts and egg whites are central ingredients for building mass is widespread in the world of bodybuilding. but this is a myth, argues Ghuman, who has built quite a reputations as the first India vegetarian bodybuilder.

Ghuman says he learnt during his research that colostrum, the milk produced by the mammals in late pregnancy and early lactation, is a good source of protein, growth hormones and anti-bodies. Since Ghuman’s father own a large dairy farm, access to colostrum was easy. That along with whey protein shakes and small meals through the day helped him scuplt his body.

While bodybuilding isn’t known for its herbivores, there are enough examples, both internationally and closer home, who prove the notion wrong. Hiralal Dhillan, head constable in the Punjab police force who won the Mr Universe crown last year in Mumbai, says he owes his 18-inch biceps and a fit 65-kg body weight exclusively to the pious platter of soya beans, dal, lassi, and dahi. “The trick is to eat eight small meals a day instead of three big ones,” says 34 year-old  Dhillan, who interestingly wasn’t always a vegetarian. It was in 1997 that he decided to shun meat for spiritual reasons. “I lost fat and my weight improved. I gained 10 kgs,” recalls Dhillan.

“That you need meat to build body mass is a misconception,” says Dr Randhir Hastir, who is a trainer at the National School of Bodybuilding and Fitness and has coached, besides Ghuman, many greats such as Prem Chand, Hira Lal, Dalip Khali, Jagjit Singh, Manjit Singh, Nawal Kapoor. “Each individual only needs 1.5 grams of protein per kg of body weight and this is easily available in a vegetarian diet,” he says, adding that lassi, nuts, chana, dalia, and khichdi are good sources of proteins for vegetarians. “Most vegetarian animals you will notice are bigger in size.” he says.

Derek Tresize, an international vegan bodybuilder, used a similar argument in his piece for the website One Green Planet: “If plants have no protein and you need protein to grow big and strong, how on earth do animals like elephants, gorillas and oxen get so big and strong only eating plants?”

While these success stories have inspired many budding talents to follow the green route, foreign visits can sometimes turn out to be excruciating. In countries where plant-based food is not always easy to come by, they feel lost. Two years ago, during the Mr Asia championship in Dubai, Dhillan, for instance survived on a uniform platter of rice and potatoes for six days.” Daljit Singh, who is a Commonwealth silver medalist and ranks no 4 in the world, on the other hand, that nobody comprehended vegetarianism in Hong Kong. “As we are used to combining liquid diet with solid meals during the course of the day, it was especially tough. In the end, they had to arrange a special vegetarian meal just for me,” says the 44-year old Singh.

But vegetarianism has paid in other ways too. Ghuman will soon be endorsing a line of food supplements launched by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Besides, he has also landed a host of Bollywood offers.”

Hopefully, this post will clear all myths and misconceptions associated with the role of plant-based diets in bodybuilding. You can not only avoid unnecessary violence, but also build impressive curves through switching to a wholesome and less violent alternative to meat. Please share widely!

Who is the REAL thief?

Posted on by

This picture has been circulating widely across FB. What is one MAJOR flaw in it?

It is NOT the rich who robs the poor. It is the government!

Remember that when it comes to the total wealth of an economy, the pie is NOT limited. If the pie were limited, then it would have become a zero-sum game. One would have had to steal from another in order to become wealthy.

Let’s say there exist only two persons, Mr. A and Mr. B, in a hypothetical economy. The total wealth (size of the pie) of this economy is Rs. 2000 — both earn Rs. 1000 each. Let’s also assume that this wealth is limited and cannot increase no matter how hard these people work. In this situation, Mr. A has to appropriate wealth from Mr. B in order to become rich i.e. he has NO other option than to “steal,” albeit legally, from Mr. B.

In the real (capitalistic) world, however, the pie of wealth is not limited. Mr. A can work hard to increase the total wealth of the economy. He need not steal from another because it is no longer a zero-sum game. Rather than Rs. 1000, he can make Rs. 2000. Hence the total wealth of the economy becomes Rs. 3000. Mr. B still earns Rs. 1000, which means his wealth didn’t decrease by Mr. A’s getting richer.

GOVERNMENT, THE REAL THIEF!

While the process through which the state steals is far more complex, here’s a rather simple example: Through taxing rich people and businesses, it collects astronomical funds every year and promises to use these funds to alleviate poverty through providing various subsidies (consumer goods at cheaper prices) to the poor. Do subsidies really help? Indian government has been providing subsidies since independence, yet truth is India still remains one of the POOREST countries in the world. Before the crops (at subsidized prices) even reach the poor, they are either consumed by the relatives of authorities or rot unused in government warehouses. Billions of funds are lost (stolen!) by government officials along the distribution chain.

So, with slight modification, here’s how the above picture should be:

In fact, providing significant tax-reliefs to rich businesses and investors is the BEST thing any government can do! It helps attract more investment and reduce national unemployment. There’s no dearth of evidence regarding this fact. Only fools think otherwise!

India’s RIDICULOUS $10 billion contribution to Europe’s bailout!

Posted on by

I’m flabbergasted at the developing nations’ proposal to bail out European nations from their self-created crisis. If you don’t know already, India has proposed to contribute $10 billion (approx. Rs. 55,000 crore) to the IMF.

An obvious reason (excuse!) given in favor of such astronomical contribution is that the crisis, if not contained at the earliest, could severely harm India and the world economy. It is also anticipated that our “loan” is essential in order to have more say (voting power) as shareholders of the IMF and to play a leading role in the world economy. Who cares if India has its own poverty and hunger problems to deal with (before being reasonably capable of helping external allies)! It is also totally immaterial to our ministers that literally thousands of crores of taxpayers’ funds are wasted in India in the name of food, fuel, and fertilizer subsidies without even fractionally alleviating poverty and hunger.

There are strong reasons why bailouts must be vehemently opposed. European crisis is nothing less than an attempt at suicide. It is created voluntarily, not through natural causes. Take, for instance, Greece: the socialist disease of ‘entitlement programs’ in Greece has left the nation totally destroyed.

The Greek government doles out millions of euros each year in (1) public wages and (2) pension payments. To understand how these two (in addition to other entitlement programs) contributed to the recent Greek crisis, note that both items combined make up almost half of the nation’s annual budget. Public wages mean compensation payments (wages, salary, etc.) to millions of government employees. Superficially, it may seem charitable that the government employs so many people and also pays them generously. But economics is often counter-intuitive — a public policy that initially seems beneficial may actually backfire and cost the nation a fortune!

How so?

1) Public wages ultimately come out of taxpayers’ pockets. Government taxes the citizens and distributes (often ineffectively) the collected funds among its servants in the form of wages. This wouldn’t be a big problem except for the fact that the Greek government doesn’t really know how many people actually work in civil service. By its very nature (incompetence), the government finds it difficult to keep track of so many employees.

Also, note that government funds are limited and depend on the amount of tax collected. Paying out huge salaries to millions of government employees is unsustainable in the long-term. How much will you tax people? The government eventually HAS to run out of funds. On the other end, paying low salaries to its employees is also unsustainable as it would seriously hamper the quality of service delivered to the citizens. The only solution, therefore, is for the government to hire very FEW employees and pay them high wages.

2) In addition to this, public employees in Greece are provided other entitlements such as (a) a bonus equal to the salary of extra two months and (b) a guarantee of long-term employment. Such undue benefits (out of taxpayers’ money) only end up making people lazy. It is grossly unfair to tax hard-working people (and businesses) and use this tax-collection to fund the prodigal citizens. Similar argument can also be made for unwarranted pension payments.

The truth is entitlements DON’T work! They are a symptom of the disease called socialism — which has only ended up making countries poor. Wouldn’t it be wiser instead to use $10 billion for strengthening the domestic economy through providing tax-reliefs to private businesses and investing in increasing agricultural productivity? Yes, Europe’s economic recovery is crucial for all of us, but there’s no guarantee that donating (or loaning) funds to IMF will pull Greece out of the crisis that it created out of its own accord. There’s also no guarantee that Greece will not make the same blunders again.

A truly capitalistic system punishes the loser and rewards the winner. It doesn’t bail out losers only to encourage other potential losers to take more risks in future, fully confident that foreign taxpayers will save them in case of a default.

Who is a true Arya?

Posted on by

Arya or Aryan (with an ‘n’) is a Sanskrit term which literally means “noble.”

The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), which says that Aryans were originally Europeans who migrated to India millennia ago, is a sheer myth. Migration never occurred. And since migration never occurred, Vedas weren’t brought from outside. They were conceived in India itself. To read more on this issue, visit this link.

Contrary to the popular misconception, being an Aryan has nothing to do with being born in a particular race, religion, or nation. It does not imply superiority on the basis of ancestors, birth, or bloodline. According to Vedas (where the word was first used), you become an Arya only through noble actions.

Be proactive and make the whole universe noble-minded.

Be proactive and make the whole universe noble-minded.

In particular, a person can be called an Aryan if:

  1. He seeks to preserve and protect righteousness in the world through combating falsehood wherever he sees it. 
  2. His fight is focused not against a particular religion, caste, or nationality, but solely against untruth.
  3. To arrive at truth, he uses his own intellect and does not blindly rely on scriptures, gurus, prophets, teachers and others. Most importantly, he questions everything. He doesn’t accept anything that is illogical, irrational, and uncorroborated by the laws of nature (or science). He listens to his conscience, his inner voice. 
  4. He shuns arrogance and maintains humility. He learns from his mistakes. 
  5. He does not remain silent at the face of oppression – even if it means fighting alone.
  6. He practices nonviolence to the highest extent possible, but does not shy away from using violent means where justly required (for instance, at his nation’s borders).
  7. He is ruthless to the enemies of truth.
  8. He controls his desires and seeks to serve others.
  9. He maintains equanimity i.e. evenness in the face of success or failure.
  10. He is brave as a lion, perfectly fearless and unflinching in the face of challenges.

All other definitions of Aryan “race” as delineated by most Western scholars are myths, only urban legends. And now since you know what Aryan truly means, you can commit to calling yourself one by following the above-mentioned points. Doesn’t matter whether you are a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. It also doesn’t matter whether you belong to Shudra caste (which again is a myth), or a Brahmin caste. EVERYONE can be an Aryan (noble).