QUESTION

Question is a noun and a verb. A question is asked expecting an answer from the other end. It may be oral, written or through a medium of signs or otherwise. We cannot imagine human interaction, without questions and answers, in some form, in life or profession. Sometimes silence may be a sign of question or answer. We ask thousands of questions in our lifetime in various contexts and situations to get what we want or give others what they need. We ask quite ordinary questions expecting similar answers from others in much part of our lives or professions. That’s why we are remaining as ordinary creatures forever. There are many intriguing, inspiring and influential questions which we should ask ourselves or others occasionally at least to grow psychologically. I present you some characters and the questions they should ask themselves or others often. You may be one of those characters.

1. Individual

a. What is the purpose of my life?

b. Who is creating and ending this life, and why?

c. What is the importance of knowledge and skills in human life?

d. How should I play my role extraordinarily to make my life fruitful and sublime?

2. Employee

a. Have I the knowledge, skills, standards and values to expect, deserve and do a great job in a place?

b. Am I updating myself regularly to meet the emerging demands of the job or just remaining complacent?

c. Am I depending on my employer helplessly or is it that he/she cannot find a great employee like me if I quit?

d. Am I working here for salary, increments and promotions alone or to contribute to the happiness of humanity?

3. Student

a. Am I going to this school, college or university for spending time happily or to learn something great?

b. Are marks, grades and certificates important for me here or am I struggling to grow as an intellectual?

c. Is institutional learning meant for finding a reliable source of livelihood or for psychological refinement?

d. Am I studying here to improve myself or bring a dramatic positive change in the lives of people around me?

4. Spiritualist

a. Where is God and what should I do to reach Him?

b. Am I attaining spiritual powers steadily depending on my practice or sitting here to impress others artificially?

c. Why should I shun material life and struggle to see God, leaving all these temptations and attractions around?

d. What is the nature and power of a human body, soul and God and who can guide me greatly on this path?

5. Teacher

a. Have I acquired the required knowledge and skills to be a great teacher to all my students?

b. Am I working here for livelihood and comfort or to prepare thinkers for coming generations?

c. Am I updating my subject knowledge regularly or teaching something for formality sake only?

d. What are my standards and values as a teacher and is anybody learning something from my life?

6. Entrepreneur

a. Am I starting this business to earn money hugely or serve the humanity at large?

b. What is the positive difference my products or services are making in the lives of others?

c. Am I learning principles and ideals from my competitors or treating them as my enemies only?

d. Why should anybody work for my company, leaving all other employers in this domain of business?

7. Doctor

a. Did I choose this course of studies to impress my parents and society or serve all efficiently and kindly?

b. As a doctor, am I worrying about money I am earning or the quality of service I am offering to my patients?

c. Are patients treating me like a commercial and artificial bloke or one with great healing and consoling powers?

d. How can I alleviate physical and psychological pains in my patients within a short time with limited resources?

8. Lawyer

a. Did I study law to save the good from the bad or to present a criminal as an innocent one somehow?

b. Am I learning and arguing my cases based on those laws only or depending on my active conscience often?

c. What is the image of a lawyer or judge in the contemporary society and why did it happen till now?

d. Am I cheating my clients regularly arguing useless cases or guiding them towards right path honestly?

9. Devotee

a. If God is omnipresent and omnipotent, why should I struggle to promote Him in every place or occasion?

b. Am I going to a temple, mosque or church to tell lies addressing God or to beg Him to guide me in the right path?

c. Does God like my following formalities in life or understanding and serving the helpless kindly and ideally?

d. Am I appearing religious or spiritual to attract others or to represent my true character in this position and dress?

10. Scientist

a. Is science a part of God and religion or that religion and God can be created through scientific methods?

b. Was this universe created from nothing or from something and who created that something initially?

c. Can science explain everything in this universe based on cause and effect theory?

d. Can science add comfort only to humanity or transform them from beasts to humanists, idealists and thinkers?

11. Politician

a. Have I become a politician to serve the poor and the helpless or to cheat them exploiting the anarchy here?

b. Does politics mean tricks and gimmicks or establishing and following standards and values for welfare of all?

c. Are people appreciating me because I am a powerful politician or because I did something great for them?

d. If people are equal to God, why am I appearing and living as a greater one than them, publicly or privately?

12. Artist

a. Am I living and working to satisfy the artist in me or changing myself continuously to earn faster?

b. Is my art guiding the people in the right path or bringing them into a wrong path artificially?

c. Does anybody suffer or die in this world if I shun this art field completely and live doing something else?

d. Am I continuing in this art path for my comforts and benefits or to help the humanity magnanimously?

13. Police

a. Are victims and people treating us like unscrupulous blokes or custodians of law and order?

b. What wonders are we doing to bring peace and order into the lives of people in our jurisdiction?

c. Are we treating all kinds of people and victims alike or rich and influential ones differently?

d. Are we struggling to uphold the rights and opportunities of the people or torturing them regularly?

14. Regulatory authorities

a. Are we ensuring whether everything is perfect in our domain or just passing time enjoying our sinecures?

b. Did we get into this profession for good reputation and earning opportunity or to discipline systems and people?

c. Are we servants of people? If yes, are we thinking and working honestly to solve their problems regularly?

d. Are we following the established norms 100% always or violating them often as there is nobody to question?

15. Businessman

a. Is business a source of profits for me or a way of understanding and meeting the demands of humanity at large?

b. Am I doing what is profitable for me always or something good for anybody that buys what I offer?

c. Am I educating my customers speaking truths frankly or cheating them nicely telling them beautiful lies?

d. Am I doing this business transparently and legally completely, or concealing many bitter realities smartly?

16. Lover

a. Am I in love with her because she is physically attractive or is it because I love her character mostly?

b. Do I have the same kind of love, affection, care and respect for her rest of the life or is it just a desire?

c. Am I telling her lies to impress her and acting smart to make her believe that I am more than what I am really?

d. Is it an accident that I loved her or is it that I am making this choice deliberately after careful thoughts about it?

17. Husband

a. Am I treating my wife like a great guest in my life whom I should always treat with sensitivity and empathy?

b. Has she completely changed to suit my desires and preferences and is she thinking and behaving like my servant?

c. Am I struggling regularly to compromise and sacrifice many things in my life to be her ideal husband?

d. Is this relationship a formality for me or am I building and depending on it with wholehearted devotion?

18. Wife

a. Am I impressing him with my bodily features and attractions only or with highly appreciable thoughts also?

b. Am I happy with him because he is offering me a safe and secure life or is he more than that in many respects?

c. Am I controlling my desires and fantasies according to his abilities and realities or crossing those limits often?

d. What am I doing regularly, often or rarely at least to make him realize that he is very vital in my life?

19. Friend

a. Why should my familiar folks treat me as an extraordinary friend in many respects?

b. Am I maintaining my circle of friends because they came my way or have I chosen them because they are great?

c. Are we friends thinking and acting differently from others to bring a great change in the lives of others?

d. How many of us are willing to do something great for the sake of others in our circle, when they are suffering?

20. Celebrity

a. Are many admiring and following me because I am doing something great for many on my own or is it madness?

b. Am I struggling to gain and retain this status of celebrity or has it all happened naturally over the years?

c. What is my personal contribution to bring comfort, benefit or happiness into the lives of others in this world?

d. Are others acting before me to make me believe that they love and admire me or is it just acting by all?

21. Professional

a. Is this profession really needed in this world? If yes, why should anybody enter and continue this profession?

b. Did I choose this profession because it gives me money, comfort and status or because I deserve it 100%?

c. Am I doing many artificial and immoral things to promote myself in this profession or am I genius?

d. Am I this professional because I have a lot of related knowledge and skills or am I just acting this role well?

22. Journalist

a. What is the positive change I am bringing in the lives of people through my intellectual and creative contribution?

b. Am I asking others such questions which are relevant and needed or just those which they can answer easily?

c. Am I following those standards and values which I am advocating and propagating through my contributions?

d. Am I learning and improving myself continuously to comment on contemporary issues authoritatively?

Kids question a lot when they are at school. Enthusiasm, passion for knowledge and skills, circumstances often guide us towards questioning what is given and encourage us towards doing something great for ourselves or others. Questioning implies dynamism, critical analysis of given things, planning for future, perfect assessment of the current situation and a strong desire to elicit the best inputs from others to achieve something great collectively.

If you are not questioning yourself, anybody or anything around you, it means you are suffering with one or many disorders and demerits. If you stop questioning, you stop changing. Assess yourself in the following way.

1. You believe that you are unable to change yourself, anybody or anything around you, despite your best efforts. You are accepting that you are a buffoon, idiot, rogue, scoundrel and criminal. If you are unable to contribute anything to your life or others, in your lifetime, yours is a useless position in this world. Shame on you.

2. You are so lazy and complacent that you expect others to do something great for you and others. Change requires questioning the given things. You should know what is wrong now and what is right to be done there to make it into a better atmosphere, culture, situation or condition.If you are not innovative and creative, you cannot question well.

3. Whatever change and advancement we are observing now in our lives, societies, companies, countries and other places across the world, is all due to the questioning attitude of those inventors, scientists, pioneers, freedom fighters, philanthropists, social reformers, mentors, visionaries, martyrs and others. Questioning greatly is a virtue.

4. Questioning attitude and orientation of life often pushes one towards thinking better and acting differently to bring a marvelous change in all constructively. They don’t remain satisfied with the existing development and contemporary scenario around them. They want more. They think more. They struggle more. They achieve more.

5. To take the best decision in a context, to benefit yourself or others substantially, you should ask a series of interrelated and logical questions one after the other until you arrive at the best choice of all available. Questions direct you towards analytical thinking, logical planning, constructive efforts and ideal pursuits in the long run.

6. Some questions may be very long but answers would be short. Some questions may be very short but they expect us to answer comprehensively, extending it to many answer sheets or discussion on it for hours together. What is life? One may need to write one’s autobiography in 500 pages to answer this short question.

7. Asking questions is easy but answering them is difficult, very difficult or impossible. Can you answer these questions? Where is God? When do you die? How do you live? Are your parents good? How much money do you want to live happily forever? Do you love your wife or your mother the most? Can you awake a dead man?

8. Questions often irritate, insult, inspire, scare or console you. Do you have discipline at all? Don’t you know this much also being chairman of such a big company? Can’t you think innovatively and act bravely to achieve something great? What do you do if we fire you right now? Don’t you know that everybody is suffering around you?

9. Questions chase us silently in our life or profession. We may not be able to answer them but we feel their pressure almost every day and night. Am I living up to the expectations of my wife, parents, children, society and nation? Am I helplessly depending on this employer or is he relying on my supreme knowledge and skills? Who am I?

10. To know about others, mostly we depend on questions. We cannot imagine a formal interview or interaction between unfamiliar ones, without questions. Questions demand answers. Answers satisfy our ignorance, innocence, curiosity or ego. Questioning softly and impartially elicits better and constructive answers in many contexts.

11. We rely on questions for evaluation of standards and values of others. We conduct many tests and examinations to assess the status and talent of different kinds of learners and students at many stages of their lives and professions. Question means expectation and authority. One answering it mostly accepts and follows the other submissively.

12. We can use questions to improve our knowledge and skills continuously. Ask, when in doubt about something or somebody, the right one. Don’t ask silly questions to pass your time. One that questions intelligently keeps a boss, a society, a race or a religion active and ideal. If you don’t question, fools rule you and idiots make fun of you.

Questioning for formality sake keeps you outdated. Questioning out of burning curiosity to change yourself or others makes you and others dynamic and visionary. Questioning to know the unknown and continuous internal struggle to define, describe and reorient yourself towards brighter paths of personal and spiritual growth makes you into a wizard of wonders and achievements. What you question and how you answer others shows what you are really. Question often for self-analysis, self-criticism and self-reformation. If you fear questions, you block your growth. 

STANDARDS AND VALUES

Standards and values are very important qualities in human life. They may be ideated, proposed, discussed, decided, established and executed by an individual, society, state, company or religious body for creating and sustaining an expected and desirable order of discipline and achievements, in the short or long run, minding the welfare and happiness of those depending on a family, business or other entity of human interaction. Generally standards and values stand for high moral values and virtues practiced and appreciated by idealists and thinkers of a society or nation in an age. They help bring an order in a set of disorders, demerits and chaos. Standards and values are like foundation on which a great structure of beliefs and practices can be established and continued for long. People die. Employees quit. Family members miss or pass away but standards and values keep influencing that entire structure of holistic culture. I present some hypotheses to let you understand the difference between standards and values.

1. Ramana is a very poor man. He has five children. He belongs to the community of barbers. He decided never to quit that profession to honour his forefathers. It is his standard, which he set for himself and his future generations. He or anybody after him should never indulge in unfair professional acts for making a profit fast. This is his value. Whether his descendants follow his standard and value is beyond his control. He believes and practices those norms.

2. Govind Sahani started a milk business in his village in 1898 for his livelihood. He used perfect measurements to weigh milk while selling it to others. It was his standard. He never added water or any other substance in the milk to earn more profit, cheating others. He could not make a profit out of this business by 1913. Many fraudulent business entities entered this segment of business by this time. Govind could sell milk to very few ones. He could not look after his family members well. They did not like his attitude. They begged and warned him to change according to the trends of the time. He did not change. He did not like to cheat others even when he was in adversity. A man, who believes in the greatness of virtues, should not leave that path of ideals, despite hardships on the way. This was his value. He believed in, struggled and followed that culture.He died in 1935, leaving nothing back for his family members. Values keep a man so strong and inflexible that he cannot quit that noble path even on a deathbed.

3. Standards are mostly rules and regulations specifying who should do what, when, where and why. For example: My father gave me 100 mango fruit and asked me to sell each of them at a price of five rupees in our local market between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. This was to test how I follow what he said. These were standards I should follow. He also told me that I should sell them to highly honest, poor and admirable customers only. He instructed me how I should sell those mangoes. I should ensure these qualities in them, through a casual chat with them or otherwise, before deciding to sell our mangoes to them. My father explained me ‘how’ I should reach my goal. These are the values I was expected to follow while selling mangoes as per the standards set by him. I should sell them meeting these standards and values only. My father would not be there. Nobody would question or doubt me even if I had sold them according to my mood and preferences. If I had subjected myself to what my father instructed me, I was just an implement in implementing a culture established by him. If I did not find such customers on a day, I should not sell them to undeserving ones. I should bring them back home. My father may throw them in a manure pit.

4. Ramesh comes to his company in time, stays there for nine hours, does what his supervisor said and behaves politely with all. He is following standards set by his employer blindly without applying his intelligence and common sense. He is an automated and artificial employee. The company does not grow much by such employees.  Ganesh argues with his superiors whenever he finds that something is wrong there. He does not talk politely with all. He reprimands anybody with indiscipline and narrow-minded attitude. He often advises the management on key areas of business growth, clearly knowing that they never value his inputs considerably. His effort is to do what is good, not what impresses others. Ganesh is a man of standards and values but Ramesh is just a man of standards. Doing something formally and mechanically does not bring much progressive change in any society. Some standards make us into machines. Values make us into sensitive, analytical, rational, ethically oriented, visionary and constructive thinkers and practitioners. Standard is like a road. Values are like direction boards placed along.

One following standards and values should not think or worry about profit or loss while talking about or doing something but whether it is good or bad to his customers, family members, employees, people, beneficiaries, victims or country. Doing good things is his ultimate and unalterable motive, goal and destination. He must be prepared to lose anything to reach this goal but not reaching there somehow. There is no place for arguments and discussions in the grand path of standards and values. Do or die is the policy to be implemented. It is a journey of self-imposed discipline, ideals and vision. He does not do anything to satisfy his ego or false prestige but to hold on to a virtue, which he believes firmly. The struggle is for perfection and adherence to a noble objective and philosophy. It’s an ordeal for all. In history, we remember some great figures because they lived for such standards and values.

The Journey

How we live and what we do regularly for ourselves or others largely depend on standards and values we believe in and practice. We mind our mind when we follow standards. We obey our conscience while adhering to values.

1. Standards and values are not those which can be changed frequently according to our moods, circumstances and preferences but those which change our attitude and lifestyle. They should change us. We should not change them.

2. Standards are enough in some aspects of life and profession. There is no need of values. Suresh donates 1,000 rupees to an orphanage every month. He believes that it is a good entity, serving the disadvantaged ideally. He does not check every month whether they are following their stated standards and values regularly or not. He has no time and intelligence to do it optimally. It is his blind belief that they are good. So, he is just following a standard. Karthik walks to the extreme left of a road in any part of India. It is a regulation of the government there. He is following it blindly. He does not think whether it is good or bad. Following something blindly is also necessary in many aspects of our lives and professions. Obeying to laws on our land; saluting a superior in defense services; submitting document proofs to get a license; leaving footwear outside when entering a shrine; smiling at others to share a feeling of joy and togetherness; taking something to offer when going to meet children, patients, old people and pregnant women; standing up when all are singing our national anthem; swiping our attendance in a biometric device when getting in and out of our company and things and activities of this order. There is no question of morality in these ways of life and profession. Just do it, is the norm. We need not think about it much beyond that.

3. Values define and dictate how we should live and act in many contexts and circumstances. They are like carvings on boulders inscribed by sculptors. Once written, we cannot change them. We have to follow them strictly or get out of the race. It is a struggle for the highest order of discipline and accountability to one’s self, not to others. It is our sincere effort to award a certificate of merit to ourselves impartially, questioning and debating within us about what we achieved, who benefited from it and how we did it all. Manohar asked his 10-year-old son what he would like to become. He promptly replied, ‘I want to become a doctor’. Manohar asked another question, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘I want to serve the poor’. Later, Manohar tried a lot to change his attitude. He sent him out of home at a stage. His son did not change. He became a doctor due to his willpower and idealism. He served the poor in many parts of the world and earned a page in the history of humanity as a great doctor with ultimate values. Those with values don’t talk much. They express their character and attitude through their noble acts of humility and humanity. They don’t analyze their character much. They don’t mind the arguments and comments of others, including media. They believe that doing something is great. They do it without compromising at any stage of their life. They don’t change their attitude, behavior or lifestyle to satisfy anybody, including their employers, rulers and God. They are dictators of their own accord. They dictate themselves what is right. They practice it to satisfy their inner self.

4. Standards and values decide the value of a person, society, religion, nation or company, in the short or long run. One talks a lot in public places to impress others but does not implement any of them. People act smart roles before him. They don’t trust or respect him internally. Many Indians frequent different bodies of religious and spiritual discourses and practices for formality sake. They never change to the better. What is use of such religious cults? Many shallow politicians and unscrupulous economists often struggle to project India as the biggest democracy in the world or in such a way that it is great in many respects. Our political criminals spent millions of rupees to conduct commonwealth games once but they don’t have money to build adequate number of shelter homes for millions of desperate Indians, who have been sleeping and dying on footpaths, graveyards and roads in pathetic conditions. On one hand, in our decorated temples, we preach that ‘service to man is service to God’ and on the other hand we treat poor Indians like mosquitoes and flies and rich Indians like honourable citizens of this nation. There are no standards and values in Indian politicians or majority of Indians now. This is why India turned into a dustbin of unrest, poverty, pain and loss over the last few decades. Very few know what standards and values are. Very few of them only follow these standards and values. No nation thrives for long without standards and values.

5. What are they teaching in our premier business schools and colleges now across the world? How to make a harmful product but present it as a useful and attractive one? How to sell it fast and make huge profits? Nothing to worry about the health and welfare of our customers, who buy our products taking them as great ones, based on what we are projecting in our ads of various kinds. Why are foreign companies recruiting some of those coming out from IIMs with huge packages of salaries and perks soon after they complete their MBAs? They are masters of cheating. They are chameleons. They are hypocrites. They are wizards of words and acts. They tell sweet lies and sell poison to ignorant and impoverished people in many countries. They are trained and conditioned actors to the core. They devise unbelievable plans to bring huge profits to their employers. They have no standards or values. Their standard is to sell more. Their value is to expect more from their employer in the form of increments, bonus and other perks. When our educational institutions are preparing such idiots there, how can we expect standards and values in our entrepreneurs and businessmen in many fields? 60% of the products we are consuming now in India are either of low quality or highly adulterated ones. What are our politicians doing? What is the President of India doing in Rashtrapathi Bhavan? What are our lawyers and judges doing in courts of law? What are our police and regulatory authorities doing? They have no standards and values. They mind their comforts, luxuries and privileges. They are not bothered about penury of our helpless people? They make us come to a police station or court of law until we get disgusted about that process and withdraw ourselves from that complaint or case. They have no morality or capacity to solve our problems. They are not interested to know about our difficulties and pains as ordinary people. They sell alcohol at a roadside shop. When we go to a cinema, they play an ad advising us not to consume alcohol. They advise us how to save ourselves from thieves, robbers, rapists, fraudsters and criminals because our police, lawyers or judges cannot do anything against them. Law and order is a formality. Democracy is a game of the influential for fun and comfort of their own for a period of time. The fixed role of opposition parties is to blindly blame and criticize those in power, somewhere, somehow, to make people believe that they are supporters of their rights and custodians of their self-respect. Where are standards and values in this scenario of India now?

6. Never believe that only intelligent, rich and educated people feel and express standards and values in their lives and professions. Illiterate and poor Indians are following standards and values more than the elite in many parts of India even now. I know about many tribal men and women who bring fruit to the local markets and sell them at unbelievably low prices. Middlemen decide the rates there. We bargain with them a lot. We don’t like to pay much to them because they don’t know how to say sweet words to cheat us. We don’t bargain in a showy cloth store or five star hotel because it is a place of beautiful idiots where mutual cheating is the expected custom and false prestige is the accepted culture. There are still hawkers and vendors who walk miles or sit in a corner of a local market to sell their fruit or other kinds of produce to make a little profit. It is enough if they can live out of the profit they make there. Survival is their goal. They don’t cheat others because they are not trained in that art. They suffer silently and die in pitiable conditions in those remote places of India. Are not beggars, disadvantaged tribes, old people and peasant farmers the valuable citizens of India? What are we doing for them? If there are many reasons for why we are able to live comfortably and happily doing a job, a business or cheating somebody directly or indirectly, there are more reasons for why they turned and remained so for long in this nation. If ours is a welfare state, where the welfare of the helpless and the affected is our primary concern as a government or society, what could we do for them during the last 60 years or what can we do in the coming 50 years? We are good at making promises on every stage as politicians or individuals but not in keeping those promises. We are training Indians to live in a plethora of dreams, fantasies, illusions, delusions and imaginations but not reality. We are projecting India as a developed nation before other nations in international media and conferences, hiding our disorders, demerits and crimes beautifully. We are begging millions of dollars from international agencies of financial assistance and spending it carelessly in quite unproductive arenas of human civilization and culture. We beg 100 rupees from a rich country and donate five rupees of it to a poor country. Are we beggars or donors? We don’t ask these questions to ourselves? Our media persons don’t put such questions to our prime minister, chief ministers or businessmen. They ask sweet and soft questions to powerful and aggressive ones. If I am not worried about my standards and values; if others don’t expect them from me; if my parents, siblings, society, state or nation don’t train me in these moral aspects of life and profession, how do I change; how do you change and how do we Indians change? We are being pushed to live and work without standards and values. We are suffering silently because of the negative results caused due to our negligence towards these vital qualities of humanity. We must come out of this dirty path.

Realize and Redirect Yourself

To grow as individuals, entrepreneurs, politicians, employees, devotees, farmers, students, youth…we must understand the importance of standards and values in our lives and follow them as far as we can do.

1. Do what is right in a context or situation. If you don’t know what is right, know it reading great books or talking to experts or idealists in your access. If you don’t know what is right and don’t do it, you remain as an idiot always. To grow and remain as an admirable individual, you should have constructive ideas and ideal pursuits of your own.

2. Doing any business for making profits fast is the choice of sinners and criminals. If you are one, you are a burden on this earth planet. God did not send you to this world to think and live like a scoundrel but a noble living entity. Are you serving the humanity through your business or cheating and punishing them with your harmful products and immoral and illegal services. Believe that your bad Karma chases you. Nobody can save you from that fire of God.

3. We choose leaders to guide and save us from our difficulties and pains. When they fail to be honest custodians of our rights and dependable guides of our lives, they fail to be our good leaders. Time teaches them lessons soon.

4. Don’t expect too much from your employer. Instead of questioning him about your increments, bonus and other benefits, ask yourself, ‘Do I deserve this treatment?’, ‘Am I improving my knowledge and skills continuously to efficiently fulfill my job responsibilities?’, ‘What is my actual contribution to the growth of this company?’, ‘Am I spending my time constructively while in the premises of the company or wasting time regularly?’. When workers and employees don’t have standards and values, their employers lose business and face losses quite often. Instead of participating in union meetings and public shows, think about your plight if your employer asks you to go out. You are depending on him more than he depending on you. You are a helpless and hopeless beggar in his campus. A beggar should not dictate norms to a donor. If beggars make much noise, the donor throws them onto the road.

5. Don’t do what you like blindly. You are not a master of goodness. You are an idiot of false prestige, disorders and demerits. Realize your actual worth as a person or professional. Improve your image slowly changing your thoughts, acts and lifestyle in the right direction. Don’t live cheating or frightening others. It is the characteristic of a fraudster.

6. Don’t go to a meeting or temple for formality. God loses nothing if you don’t go to His temple. That expert trainer or preacher does not feel blissful if you appear to him there in that venue. You are going there to ask God to forgive you and to promise Him that you would live ideally thereafter. Prayer without repentance is useless. Attending meetings for formality sake is worthless. Know something good from others. Practice it to change yourself first.

7. Great change does not happen suddenly. You ruined your orientation of thoughts and lifestyle, due to your ignorance, stupidity, carelessness and eccentricity, for many years. You need to struggle hard and take a long time to cure the psychological disorders of this nature. Accidents occur within seconds. Self-reformation takes many years.

8. Don’t imitate celebrities or admire idiots of any kind. You should analyze what is right or wrong in a person, situation or context, applying your intelligence, creativity and rational thinking. If others always advise or dictate you how you should work and live, when do you use your brain and conscience, the tools of self-defense and self-analysis, freely given to you by God. Start questioning about disorderly things and regressive circumstances around you and contributing your part to the expected positive change around you. Help yourself first. Guide others later.

INTERPRETATION

Interpretation, as far as human beings are concerned, means how one understands or decodes what others said, expressed or wrote, in a context or situation, based on one’s background, psychology, knowledge, experience or condition. There are many people and creatures around us. A number of incidents occur about us regularly. We face different situations. Each of us does not understand it alike. Our emotions, passions and attachments in relation to other creatures, phenomena and events in this world, change, depending on how we understand them. I present some hypotheses and how different people, observers or critics understand or decode them from their perspectives. This is an attempt to understand how our perception and interpretation change the way we live and how we make an impact on the society.

1. A girl told a boy, “I love you”. He does not know her. 

a. She liked his physical appearance instantly.

b. She saw him doing something good somewhere but expressed that feeling of praise now.

c. She mistook him to be somebody else she knows.

d. She has a broad mind. She tells many just like that to let them know that she loves humans.

e. She wanted to know how a boy responds or reacts if she tells so.

f. She is suffering from a psychological disorder.

g. She is a criminal. She kidnaps him later and gets him killed as part of a business deal.

h. She wants to marry and live with him. She wanted to initiate a relationship in this order.

2. There is a dead body, floating in a pond. Many gathered there and started commenting.

a. He committed suicide due to some pressing and inevitable problems in his life or career.

b. Somebody/some killed him somewhere for retaliation and threw his dead body here secretly.

c. He would have entered the pond to drink water or take a bath. He drowned in a pit and died.

d. A poisonous creature in this pond might have bitten him when he went there with a purpose.

e. It is a matter of black magic. Some killed him to acquire more negative powers.

f. He was suffering from an uncontrollable chronic pain. He jumped into this pond to get rid of it.

g. He felt guilty of something he did knowingly. So, he died to atone for that sin.

h. A priest told him that he would go to heaven if he would die voluntarily during that auspicious time.

3. He became a billionaire within a span of 40 years.

a. He inherited millions of dollars from his father and developed his businesses.

b. He earned a lot of money illegally and immorally in the disguise of his multiple businesses.

c. He has secret relationship with a network of criminals. He got much money from them.

d. He committed many murders and crimes to remove all his competitors in the business.

e. He invested his intelligence, creativity and dynamism to grow his business single-handedly.

f. Many of his friends and well-wishers contributed tremendously for his growth over the years.

g. He invented and introduced such products and services which have huge demand everywhere.

h. He bribed all government and private agents to develop his business rapidly.

4. That political party was started a century ago. It is still functioning effectively.

a. Those that started this political party were great idealists, visionaries and patriots.

b. They have such standards and values which attract great persons and retain them.

c. They act a lot internally and externally. Opportunists and businessmen continue in it always.

d. They change their standards and values as per trends. Such blokes only join and be with them.

e. It is being run and headed by a family. Those that love that family join it out of admiration.

f. Other political parties failed to come up with better ideologies and action plans.

g. Voters in that nation are uneducated and foolish. They love that party for no reason.

h. They collect huge money illegally and immorally to run their party attractively always.

5. Maha Moha is a great religious cult. It has a huge network of abodes and followers.

a. Saint Sodha, who started it, infused such spiritual and religious power into this cult.

b. That founder is innocent and unscrupulous but others started treating him as a great saint.

c. Those that follow it blindly don’t have rational thinking. They take it all for granted.

d. Excessive funds flew into it in course of time from devotees. They expanded it rapidly.

e. Many like their standards and values. Millions of people joined it rapidly to benefit from it.

f. They tell sweet words about life and death. Devotees deeply enjoy their words and acts.

g. VIPs and celebrities follow that cult. Ordinary people also join it for this reason.

h. They know how to attract and retain many devotees. They tell many lies and do gimmicks.

6. Many treat that wife and husband highly ideal. They look ‘ideal couple’ to all.

a. They compromise and sacrifice many things to be calm and peaceful always.

b. They are helpless. They cannot live without each other. So, they remain together.

c. They have cold war between them but they never expose it to others.

d. They are unbelievable hypocrites. They act smart roles while before others.

e. Both of them have ideal family backgrounds. Their noble attitudes keep them happy.

f. They are living together for the sake of their children. Both of them are mentally sick.

g. They follow their religious values deeply. They are following those norms as a couple.

h. They strongly believe that unity is strength. They are struggling to keep their bond strong.

7. He worked in that company for 25 years. He became its MD one day.

a. He remained with that company for long because he had no other better choice.

b. He joined it as an ordinary man but later improved his knowledge and skills tremendously.

c. It was just luck that all his subordinates respected and helped him ideally always.

d. He suppressed or killed many, secretly, over the years, to reach that position. He is a monarch.

e. He reached that status just out of his hard-working nature, standards, values and vision.

f. Whatever he did became a wonder those days. God facilitated his growth throughout.

g. He bribed many and manipulated every opportunity in his favor to become its MD.

h. He sacrificed and compromised a lot in his life to become so one day in that company.

8. Millions of employees dream to work in that company once.

a. The great standards and values of that company attract many to work there.

b. They pay more salary, perks and facilities than any other company in the world.

c. Employees can work comfortably and happily there. There are no chasing deadlines.

d. That employer has billions of dollars. He pays all ideally, not minding profit or loss.

e. There is a huge scope to work creatively and do wonders. Many like that freedom.

f. They promote their brand name extraordinarily. Working there is a matter of prestige.

g. They invent and sell highly unique products. They make huge profits every year.

h. Highly influential persons own that company. They earn a lot illegally and immorally.

9. Philanthropist Jobi Tadlo was murdered publicly. Nobody knows who killed such idealist!

a. He became so famous in that country that many were envious of his growth in that fashion.

b. He left his family, society and culture to help and guide others. He turned vulnerable this way.

c. His social service and awareness campaigns affected the profits of many companies that time.

d. He had an illicit relationship with a lady. Her relatives or well-wishers killed him brutally.

e. He decided to donate his property to an orphanage. His relatives did not like that idea.

f. They killed him wrongly instead of somebody else. They regretted it later. Nobody knew it.

g. A religious fanatic did it. He did not like that fame, which he achieved through that religion.

h. He has many unknown enemies in that country. One of them killed him out of rage.

10. They say that unique animal Mosiju lived and died in Japan only millions of years ago.

a. Senior scientist Jangu Poma researched on this matter for years. His word is final.

b. It is just a work of fiction. It is an imaginary creature. Many believed it blindly for years.

c. Mosiju was mentioned in the holy book ‘Gorolo’ by saint Thosa. It might be true.

d. Anthropologist Samtek Danosy condemned the existence of such creature in many papers.

e. Historian Curios Jaglin met many tribes in China and Japan before reaching this conclusion.

f. Archealogist Molare Asuha wrote in his famous book ‘Mojo’ that Mosiju did exist once.

g. Saint Podu Tengsu stated that Mosiju was a lab creation of noted scientist Injamin Bohas.

h. Natives have anecdotes about it. They say that they saw it. They worship its pictures daily.

11. King Asahaya Sura banned marriages in his kingdom for 100 years.

a. Historians condemn the very idea that such a king ruled a kingdom in human history.

b. He believed that marriages lead to children, family bonds and lack of patriotism ultimately.

c. Nobody devoted to his/her spouse only those days. He thought, then, ‘why marriage at all’.

d. He could not tolerate many being happy with their spouses and children, not minding him.

e. Many believe that marriage led to a variety of social evils and taboos. So, he banned it.

f. Sura had 16 sisters. Nobody came forward to marry them. He banned all marriages out of fury.

g. Sura believed that celibacy is an instruction of religion. Everybody must follow it strictly.

h. His royal priest said that his kingdom would ruin soon if marriages take place there.

12. Loma Neni bought ‘Falling Sky’, an abstract painting, for one billion dollars.

a. He believed that life has no meaning at all. Then, what’s wrong in doing such things.

b. He could perceive and decode such essence in it which others failed to trace and appreciate.

c. He wanted to become famous as one that bought an ordinary painting at an extraordinary rate.

d. He wanted to present that gift to his great friend, who knows nothing about paintings.

e. Art consultant Gibbo Jaba advised him that he should buy that art piece at any cost.

f. He did not know how to spend his huge money. So, he thought, he could do this, for no reason.

g. Many believe that it was the last painting by the classic artist Jangmuni, who turned a recluse.

h. Critics commented that he did not pay that much money for that painting at all. No evidence.

13. Anybody that lives in that house is becoming bankrupt or disappearing mysteriously.

a. It is just coincidence. No house has such mystic power to influence the destiny of a resident.

b. Somebody wanted to buy that house. He intentionally created and spread such rumors.

c. There are many undesirable and ominous ruins under that house. They have negative power.

d. There is a devil in that house. It is retaliating against anybody that lives there. They believe so.

e. One with the power of black magic is living somewhere there. He is influencing them.

f. Centuries ago a great saint was humiliated in this place. He cursed that site ruthlessly.

g. Many workers died during its construction due to natural calamities and cruelty of owner.

h. Something wrong is there in that house. Saints and scientists must investigate it for long.

14. Many valuable assets were taken away from that place after the death of that demigod.

a. Many opportunists and hypocrites were there. They stole them all soon after his death.

b. He was not actually a saint. He was a magician. Such people only stole his assets casually.

c. Politicians and other interest groups poisoned him to death to take away his assets.

d. He was just a victim under the control of many villains. This theft was just one example.

e. The government was ineffective and corrupt. So, fraudsters manipulated this situation.

f. It was just a rumor. Nobody ever saw what were there in the possession of that demigod.

g. He never made proper arrangements for management of those assets. They stole them easily.

h. He buried many assets somewhere therein. He died without informing anybody about them.

15. Opema Nabaga became a super power, as a nation, within five centuries.

a. They grabbed that beautiful land from innocent and helpless tribes, who lived there.

b. They deployed millions of bonded laborers to beautify their houses and country.

c. They planned meticulously, struggled hard and achieved sustainable development slowly.

d. Many opportunities came their way. They faced challenges bravely. Built a land of wonders. 

e. They committed many crimes and sins in their passion for rapid growth and prosperity.

f. They knew how to manage people. They used intelligence of the wise and toil of the innocent.

g. They create enmity among many nations. They grow manipulating the situations there always.

h. They achieved ultimate development based on the values of freedom, equality and fraternity.

16. Dimura Jaho proposed to many beauties. He was very rich and ideal. Nobody married him.

a. He did not study much about the psychology of beauties in his region during those times.

b. He did not know when, where and how to propose to a girl or woman in his knowledge.

c. He was so soft, ideal and silent that they found him as a passive and worthless guy altogether.

d. He could not approach them with a sense of self-esteem but blind admiration towards them.

e. He did not update himself, physically and mentally, to meet the trends of those times.

f. He did not go for professional advice or training. He followed his intuition and passion blindly.

g. Others talked badly about him for some reasons. He had bad reputation beyond his knowledge.

h. Others could not feel and understand about his richness and idealism as early as he expected.

Interpretation plays a key role in our lives and professions on how we understand and behave with others. People develop different opinions and impressions about other persons, phenomena, incidents, situations and contexts based on their age, knowledge and analytical abilities. Our value, mostly, depends on how others understand us in a context or situation, despite our best efforts to present what we are really. A thief or criminal may live happily in a society if nobody interpreted about his characteristics negatively. A saint might be prosecuted and imprisoned if many talk about him negatively across places. Our fate is in the interpretations of others. We cannot control how others interpret our character or situation at a given point of time. We are all, directly or indirectly, victims or beneficiaries of interpretations of others, in all ages. Interpretation is a regular process. We do it orally and in written form in various contexts.