BAN LIQUOR – ECONOMY, GDP, GDH, PER CAPITA INCOME WILL BOOM IN INDIA/NATIONS!

Just 25 years back, if somebody used to drink liquor in India then it was very bad thing, people used to talk about that person in derogatory way and feel pity on him as that person was walking the wrong path. Today situation has turned around so much that if somebody is not drinking then he is considered as kid and drinking alcohol is associated with somebody’s manhood, some daring act & enjoyment.

What happened in this period and how come nobody is even noticing what is happening with people’s lives and economy of nation. If one observes how liquor got its position in Indian civilization then one finds Television, Cinema, bad politicians and greedy global businessmen have systematically done this.

If one observes movies of last 30-40 years in India, one can easily find one common thing in every movie & that is liquor glass, bottle in the hands of hero. Whether it is occasion of celebration or deep distress he will drink liquor. People always like to associate themselves to hero and they copy what hero is doing. This is exactly the point which liquor companies understood and targeted hero. Even if you see many TV commercials one can see many liquor ads in which liquor associated with Valor, bravery, celebration of the person who is drinking it. Again many famous cinema and sports personalities do these advertisements which are aired every few minutes on each channel which have huge impact on youngster’s minds. If you observe carefully, religious people do not drink liquor or get involved into any immoral act as their religiosity stops them, these days many movies are targeting this religiosity and trying to break people from that. Infact these days even television serials have many liquor scenes which are introduced in very subtler or blatant way. In India, % of men drinking liquor has gone up drastically and liquor companies are making huge money out of it but hunger for money is not satiated as they want more money. If one observes carefully then one can see women are being targeted now as if women start drinking, then it is again huge market and things are going in that direction. If you see many recent movies, liquor glass, bottle is in the hands of lead actress. Recently I was watching one TV serial along with family in which party is going on in one Punjabi family, suddenly one girl takes another girl (returned from Australia) into corner and asks her “Have you started drinking or not? or have you drowned name of Punjabis?”. I was stunned after seeing this. Punjabis are associated with liquor. Children of Guru Nanakji & Guru Gobind Singji who saved this nation is being associated with Liquor! This is shameful. Today if one visits de addiction centres then one can find many girls/women as well and this was not the scenario few years ago.

Another important aspect in liquor consumption is its availability and politicians have played major role here. If one recounts number of liquor shop or bar before 25 years and current numbers of bars and such shops then there is drastic difference. Number has gone up multifold and governments have given licenses to thousands of people. Many say there is huge corruption in that as well. One can easily find liquor shops on every road, you may not find milk dairy easily but you may find liquor shop easily. In one of the drought prone district of Maharashtra, there is no water for irrigation or drinking but there are 700 liquor shops/bars in entire district!

Another aspect which is playing out is free liquor! Whenever there are elections, politicians are giving free liquor for almost 1 or 2 weeks and youngsters drink it lot as it is free but then get hooked to it. Not only politicians but big corporate houses are doing same. You take IT companies, under the garb of project budget they allowed liquor in project parties which is free and young employees (even old ones as well) started drinking it heavily. One more route through which liquor is entering in people’s lives is social drinking. People think they are drinking little bit and that is fine and it is cool as well but soon this little bit turns to be major part of people’s lives and they don’t even realise.

If we look at the statistics of liquor in India alone then one must get concerned and stunned. More than 1/5^th of the alcohol produced in the world is consumed by Indians. According to one study liquor market in India is growing at 30%. In 2015 alone ~ 20 billion liters of liquor was sold. Value of whisky, wine, beer etc sold in a year amounts to near about 2 lakh crore (~30 billion dollars). All other types of liquors (toddy & country liquors) are not even considered in this. It is estimated that many people spend 50 to 60% of their income in alcohol. This means billions of dollars are flowing into the very few pockets (owners of these liquor companies).

Other dangerous aspects of high liquor consumption are domestic violence & abuse, fatal accidents (drink & drive), addictions, health hazards (lever getting damaged, brain damage, stomach related issues, depression etc), extra police efforts needed for tackling of crimes arising after alcohol consumption, untimely deaths, costs of putting people into deaddiction centers, loss of productivity, It is estimated that every day in India ~15 people die from alcohol and to me this number appears very small from what is the reality…These are the costs arising due to alcohol consumption and further billions of dollars go into this (several lakh crore). Just imagine how much money these liquor companies must be making across globe as many of them have presence across globe!

If costs and effects of alcohol are so big then what will happen if we ban it! It will be big boon to humanity and economy. Lakhs of crores that are going into pockets of handful of people will remain in the pockets of millions of people. Savings rate of people will increase. Many people will get out of poverty in few months. Once people have money in their pocket and they are in their consciousness & alert then only they will be able to buy other necessary things for their family Ex- Good cloths for children, toys for them, saree for wife, building good house, good utensils in kitchen, good quality of groceries, holiday with family. Just imagine how much economy will boom due to growing demand for various products and services. Money in circulation will increase and so tax collection of government as well! Right now money that goes into few pockets and gets locked will start circulating in market resulting into booming economy which will further create millions of jobs. Imagine money that will get saved in healthcare, increase in productivity, lesser burden to police means they will be able to dedicate their time to other more important issues. If one thinks carefully then Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Per capita Income will improve drastically due to booming economy.

Most important factor which will improve is GDH – Gross Domestic Happiness index. There will not be so many domestic violence or abuse incidents, there will not be untimely deaths after which small children and mothers struggle for their survival, more savings, more time for family, more jobs etc will result into happier families which is most important goal of any government or nation. Looking at all these factors first thing any sensible society should demand is ‘Ban On Liquor’ and any sensible government should first put this ban in place!

ONE OF THE REASON WHY FEAR ARISES…. GET RID OF IT….

I don’t think there is anyone who do not want to live fearless life. Fearlessness is the basic quality if one wants to live like true hero. Despite of this, rarely there is any one who have not feared of something in his/her life. Sometime or other fear pops up in our lives and many times we are not even aware that fear is taking over us and ruining our lives.

Swami Vivekananda says

“ It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven even in a moment”

“The earth is enjoyed by heroes. This is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say, “I have no fear”. Tell this to everybody “Have no fear”.

 

Everybody wants to live like hero. When we watch movies many of us are on the side of hero only and later on copy/mimic what hero did in that movie but one thing ruins our heroism and that is fear. Why this fear haunts so much that people even forget their lives to live?

One of the main reason I have found is selfishness. It is one of the biggest reasons fear pops in people’s lives and many of the times people are not even aware that they are being selfish. When our thoughts, our lives, our motives revolve only around ourselves this thing called fear keeps chasing us!

Just do this experiment with yourselves – whenever you are fearing something, someone or some situation ,central figure about whom you are thinking is yourself. This “I” or “My” is predominant there. We are always thinking about my life, my money, my wife, my children, I may get hurt, they may kill me, I may lose, I may get beaten up etc. Our central thought revolves around only ourselves. If you ask somebody to raise his/her voice against corruption or bad elements, many will say “I have family, children and I do not want to get involved into this”. They accept this injustice out of their fear and out of selfishness their thoughts are evolving only around themselves and which is leading to fear.

If somebody has fear of water then central thought is “I may get drowned”. If somebody has fear of exams then central thought is “I may fail”. Even few students do not attend exams out of fear. Fear takes over them and then they start feigning illness or something else. Ask someone to join Army and if he is fearful then he will say “I do not want to die so early”. Again this “I” takes over. Ask someone to stand up and address audience of 1000 people and out of fear and ego he /she may not be even able to stand up properly. Hands & legs may shake. Central thought of the person could be “Will they laugh at me? Will they accept me? Will I speak properly?” etc etc. People get drowned in thoughts of future where they are the only central figure.

It is out of fear, selfishness that people do not raise their voice against bad elements, corruption and wrong in society and this is biggest reason why many countries are in bad shape.

To overcome this fear, solution is very simple. One must broaden his/her vision. Start thinking about others, have higher and broader aim/vision. If you are thinking then think big, why to think about only about our one family, think about entire society, think about entire nation ,think about entire planet. More and more vision is broader, more and more responsibility is taken then this fear will disappear. When this selfishness will disappear then this fear will also stop popping up. When we start working towards bigger goal which will benefit for entire society then many of fears will disappear. Look at all the freedom fighters, look at all the soldiers they have no fear as they lived/ are living for bigger cause.

One needs to remember that there is difference between being fearlessness and being stupid. One cannot say that I am fearless so I will go and stand infront of train or one cannot say that I will go and stand up infront of roaring tiger as I am fearless, then that person is being stupid.

Once we overcome this fear then we can move in the right path and that too with speed and right now need of the time is people overcome this fear with broader vision!

“If you are really my children, you will fear nothing, stop at nothing. You will be like lions. No cowardice. Do you understand? Be true unto death!” – Swami Vivekananda.

INCREASE YOUR SAVINGS RATE…SMALL HOLES CAN SINK BIG SHIP…

These days many a times we hear people saying that “My savings are almost nil”, “My salary evaporates in first 10 days of month”, “I don’t know where my money is going”.

I think right now in current times we have lowest savings rates and we don’t know what to do or many times we even don’t realise that we are saving absolutely nothing. In current world of jobs where we are financially dependent on our employers and our no of years of employment are also fixed then it is very important that we have good savings with us to meet any crisis & our post retirement life which gets affected by rising inflation as well.

To begin with, best thing to do is to document our expenses. If you can’t do daily then its fine but do monthly. Atleast figure out which are the fixed expenses that you incur monthly these are the ones which whether you earn or not you will have to Pay. Figure out which are the expenses that are variable, costs of these expenses vary. Note down all such expenses with monthly cost incurred on them. Then extrapolate that cost as annually, 5 yearly & 10 yearly. I am sure you will get stunned looking at the huge amount we are spending on these items over 5 to 10 years.

Remember Saving happens over the period of time, you cannot have huge money in short period of time (unless lottery or some wrong business). Figure it out which are the avoidable expenses, which expenses you can reduce & take action on those. I have prepared one table with expenses extrapolated for 10 years. You can also prepare such table with relevant items & see the amount over period of time.

Now observe, out of your list, how many you can easily avoid, how many you are incurring because of your lethargy/ignorance. If you see whatever we are incurring as routine, is actually eating out lot of our money over the period of 5 to 10 years. Also notice that how many of these items were relevant before 10 to 15 years, how many newly got added. If we observe such items are increasing with every passing year. I have left few rows blank as values could be too variable & depends individual habits.

Even for our groceries, food, for so many things we just go to market and buy ready-made items. Our ancestors used to prepare most of the things at home. Still in rural India people prepare lot many things at home Ex- Pickle, papad, chutneys, masalas, chips, various snacks etc. So many things are prepared at home & it saves good money.

Can’t we wash our own car? Can’t we wash our own utensils? How many phones we need, how many gadgets. If you see these companies will keep bringing on newer versions of electronic goods, how much money we can spend on it. These companies are so big today mainly due to our lethargy/bad habits/succumbing to euphoria to own these gadgets.

If we see, we are living like kings/queens but we need to remember that we are common people and every common person cannot afford to live like king. When common people start living like King for sure they are going to go Bankrupt!

YOU CAN’T AVOID POLITICS…LEARN IT…

‘Politics’…As soon as people hear this word, many of them distort their faces. Many say Politics is bad, it is dirty world. Many of them stay away from it and many of them fear of it thinking it is extremely bad.

Whatever efforts one puts to stay away from politics, one cannot stay away from it. Whoever you are, where ever you are it is going to confront you and if you run away from it then slowly it will start haunting you.

Politics is not only there in political parties but it is there in our day to day lives. See some of the examples…You go to office and you hear many people saying ‘our office is filled with bad politics’. There are lobbies, boss favors particular people etc. It affects you…

If you are in some business then also you are going to face it. Your competitors will be playing all sorts of tricks and games to outsmart you to gain more and more business. You will have to face this politics.

If you are in government job then politics is at unimaginable level. Just look into police department. You will be horrified to see internal politics there and how much those people are under pressure. Same goes with any other departments. Right postings, promotions or holidays they face politics in everything.

If you are sportsman then also you will face it. Right from selection to leading your team everywhere people will try to outsmart you or by hook or crook gain prominent position. People play politics to control various sports organizations as well.

If you join some NGO or religious or spiritual organization then you may face politics there as well! In desire to achieve fame, to gain some power people try to outsmart each other.

If you are student then also there is politics. Out of competition or jealousy you will have to face it. If various companies are interviewing students for jobs from same college then one must see how suddenly friends become competitors and one can see politics there as well!

Look into the lives of these movie actors or TV actors. For getting good roles, a good movie there is politics. There are lobbies and if you go like very straight forward person there, you will be soon fried up! (Many of these actors/actress are already leading horrible lives but that is different story!).

Not only your enemies but you may get amazed to see that some of your friends also might be playing politics with you. Some of them will be with you only till the time there is some benefit from you. They leave you as soon as there job is done or there are no more benefits from you. They may leave you if they find someone else is more powerful or useful. They may cheat you out of their jealousy towards you.

Not only friends but your own relatives also might be playing politics with you. Just see around and you may notice that there could be politics going on in your family.

Basically it confronts us at so many places and in so many different roles. If one ignores it every time then soon he/she will be ignored as well. Today middle class is the biggest class on the planet and most of them stay away from politics and in return they are totally ignored by politicians. They take care of ultra-rich (out of favors) or poor (for votes).

Basically politics is art of taking care of people and ensuring welfare for all. It has very broad perspective. There is difference between politics and conspiracies. These days conspiracies are being called as politics. Politics is seeing & building the way of welfare for all. One needs to see opportunities for this, various innovative ideas, apply all strength and sacrifice whatever one can! Among all the difficult circumstances find out the good way and do good for all. If you need to do acting then do it, if you need to show little bit of anger then show it, be shrewd but bring good to all. Final aim must be to bring good for all. To forbid good people from joining mainstream politics various print & electronics media portray that it is the world of bad people and only goons enter and rule this world. Watch movies and see what kind of politicians are shown.

More and more you stay away from it, you will observe that more and more you are ending up towards losing side. Soon incapable undeserving people will start ruling you. Soon donkeys will start riding horses. Nations where youth don’t look into politics are in dilapidated condition. If you are running away from this politics then stop doing that right from this moment. First thing is face it. Observe it. Observe what people do, why they do, what people say & why do they say that. Check the intention of people (little bit). This observation can teach you many things and you will be aware of who is doing what. Who may harm you and who may support you. Who is good and who is not. To learn swimming one needs to enter water and then only one can learn. Similar way face politics and whatever situations come your way and keep learning your lessons. Remember straight trees are cut first and similar way very goodie goodie simple people also will land up in trouble. Be innocent & humble but at the same time remain firm and invulnerable. So do not run away from Politics but learn it!

OUR BRAIN IS SLAVE OF REPETITION

Nature has given us this beautiful gift – our physical body. Many of us rarely know or observe its functions and how it works. I am sure if we are asked where is liver or where is kidney in our body and what are their functions then many of us will not be able to tell. We are not taught about our body during our education period and we remain unaware of what is good or what is bad for our body. I am not doctor or medical student but I thought whatever I have learned through observation, experience, I shall put it down.

It is said that one of the wonders of this nature is our brain and if we carefully observe then it is very true. One property of our brain is it becomes slave of activities that we repeat. It gets used to it and then our body functions automatically like that without any efforts.

If we remember our childhood when we were learning numbers or alphabets what our teachers/parents were getting done from us, we were asked to write number ‘1’ 10 times or 100 times or move our pencil on ‘1’ again and again. If you observe what we were doing we were repeating that activity till the time we master it and just observe today we can easily write so many things without much effort but at one point of time we were struggling so much even to write simple alphabets. Even this article I am writing so easily. Our brain has become slave of it and we can do this very quickly without realizing this phenomenon.

When we were growing up and started learning & playing new sports, remember how much we struggled to learn those, football, basketball, badminton, cricket, archery etc. We played those again & again & mastered it. What did we do? We repeated it again and again and our brain became slave of it. Have you observed so many complex moves of particular sport we can do so easily because we have enslaved our brain by repeating things again and again. What is practice? You repeat your methods of playing and master over it. What is core to it, repetition!

Do you remember how we learned to drive Car! When first time we sat on driver seat how conscious we were. We were unable to perform so many functions of pressing accelerator, releasing clutch, using brakes, changing gears (if your car is not automatic) at appropriate timing. It was so difficult. We continued learning and today we can drive car so easily. We have repeated this activity so many times that we even do not realize that we are pressing accelerator, releasing clutch, changing gears. We are singing, thinking, even few are smoking while driving Car! So many complex activities our body is doing and many times we are not even aware of those. Our brain has been enslaved to it and it gets these functions automatically done.

When we were kids we all must have enjoyed bathing the most, playing in water, enjoying shower or enjoying each mug of water on our body. Now when we have grown up, many of us are constantly engulfed in many thoughts. We are thinking even taking bath. Even though we are lost, our brain is applying soap on our body, it is washing our body. Many times afterwards we think ‘Did I have a bath?’ as our mind was lost somewhere but our brain did the job. If we observe this phenomenon it is just amazing. Our brain got enslaved because of repetition of our bathing activity.

Remember when we started using first time computer/laptop how consciously we were pressing keyboard, looking at each button and pressing it consciously. After repeatedly using it now how fast we are using it and few people sometimes even look very minimal at keyboard and get their work done.

Sometimes we hear music so much, we listen few songs repeatedly and you will observe when later on we are not listening automatically we mumble those songs. Infact sometimes we wonder why particular song is coming in mind. We have repeatedly so much that it start showing its effect.

Few people have this habit of having tea or coffee as soon as they get up in the morning. If they don’t get it then they become restless, they get headache or they don’t feel fresh. They have repeated this activity so many times that their brain is enslaved to it.

Look at the people who are addicted to alcohol, smoking etc. Their brains are enslaved to it. Infact I have heard that few people can’t do their routine work unless and until they consume this. Their brain is enslaved to this and in turn they destroy their body and life!

You look at today’s marketing tactics, advertisements and their frequency. We are continuously bombarded by advertisements on television, internet, print media, radio, hoardings on road, on bus stations, train stations, airports, even on our tickets, theatres. We are continuously bombarded with advertisement. If you look at them most of them sell crap and look at advertisements, they are so ridiculous. Look at our brain how it works. When we first time see some ridiculous advertisement on television how we react – ‘What nonsense’, then few more repetitions and we start ignoring this nonsense, few more repetitions and then we are not even aware that it is non sense, further more repetitions & subtle mind gets used to it and further more people buy those products. This is how most of the big brands are created today who are making huge money. I checked nutritional facts of one of the cola brand, it has 0% vitamins, 0% minerals, no fats etc. Even though everything is zero, people are drinking those and companies are making billions of dollars. Look at continuous bombarding of so many beauty creams, beauty products, shampoos etc. Have they really benefited or we just buy by succumbing to advertisements. They could achieve this because they enslaved people’s brains by continuous bombarding of their advertisements.

Look at with what movies, TV serials, print & electronic media are bombarding us these days. Extra marital affairs, break ups, divorces, multiple marriages, vulgarity, movies filled with violence, serials filled with conspiracies, actor/actress drinking liquor & portraying it as cool thing to do. It is getting continuously bombarded as they want us to accept it as normal thing. Just see few decades back ‘Divorce’ was such big thing, people used get shocked to hear such news. Look at today, families are breaking up for small small things. Most of the wisdom we get is from our family & once it is broken then people lose wisdom and they can be easily fooled or trapped in any propaganda. It drives consumption & related business. When people separate from each other, they need different houses, television, fridge, utensils, furniture and so on. It creates big demand and big corporate houses make big money!

If we observe ,if we repeat whatever that is good then it will uplift us and benefit us and if we go on wrong path and repeat bad things then our downfall is imminent. If one wants to stop some bad habit then one of the ways they can do is do not repeat your activity for one week. Set target of one week. Don’t decide for whole life then it becomes big burden. Once one week is over then set target of two weeks and continue. One more thing you must ensure that do not look back and count since how many days you have not smoked or had liquor etc. I am sure this will help.

In India there is saying ‘Mooh me RAM aur haath me Kaam’ means one must have & repeats lords name and must have good work in his hand and move ahead in life. You repeat divinity’s name while performing your daily activities and make your life also divine. This is how ‘Mala’ (In India) or rosary also works. You repeat god’s name!

I am sure good repetitions will uplift us, I am also walking on the path and improving myself!