INTERVIEW

Interview is a formal procedure and process meant for selecting a few suitable ones for a job or position. One attending an interview expects some features and qualities in the firm, company, organization or a workplace, which one wishes to enter for one’s livelihood or better opportunity than one has now. The employer or the one offering a source of livelihood or career growth to the one being interviewed also expects suitable qualifications, multiple skills and considerable experience from the candidate. It’s mostly a business deal rather than a personal affair. Both think from the perspective of ‘benefit’. Employer thinks, “What can he/she give to me as an employer in the short or long run?” Employee thinks, “What more do I get from this firm, better than similar ones and how can I build up my career through my short or long term association with this enterprise?” Both try to impress the other in an interview. The employer should impress the candidate explaining how he or she can be happy working in their unit. The employee should promote himself or herself substantially to impress the interviewer and get selected for the vacancy. Interview is an interesting act for the one conducting it but a difficult and testing one for those attending it. Asking any question randomly or specifically is easier than being ready with an exact answer or explanation for a question asked from the other end.

Generally an interviewer is a skilled and experienced one in a field of knowledge or work. He/she must be in a state of mind and body whereby he/she can impress the interviewee with intelligent and relevant questions, coupled with imposing personality of high degree of demeanour. Many times an interviewee feels tense and subdued in a place of interview due to the physical appearance, designation and status of the interviewer/s, ambience of the venue, nature and volume of questions posed, unfamiliarity with place and employees working there now and the need of that job in his or her life right now.

Generally interviews are conducted through the following ways:

a. Face-to-face interaction

b. Telephonic conversation

c. Web interface

HR staff of a firm or organization selects candidates for interviews in the following ways:

a. Search through online job portals

b. Print ads in dailies, weeklies or other periodicals

c. Ads on television channels

d. Public and private consultancies

e. Reference through present or old employees

f. Going to educational institutions and training institutes

g. Recommendations through internal and external agents of power and authority

h. Dependents of victims of mishaps in their companies or organizations

i. Commands by courts of law; central, state or local governments

I attended some interviews till now with different employers. I take the idea and practice of interview to select a candidate for a vacancy highly unreliable and ridiculous for the following reasons.

1. The HR folks consider qualifications of a candidate very important to call him/her for an interview. They should have suitable qualifications like B.Sc. M.Sc. M.Com and so on. How can we believe that one with a qualification certainly can handle a set of job responsibilities? I take my example. I did my M.A. English course in the University of Hyderabad. This is a famous university in India now for some reasons. There is no certainty that only highly intelligent and competent students always enter a university. Often worthless idiots may also get admission into prestigious educational institutions like IITs and IIMs also. I am very poor at English literature because I surveyed it nominally during these two academic years at the University of Hyderabad. I did not pursue those subjects before this course nor practiced it much after coming out of this university. Then, they did not teach me English grammar here either. It means I learnt very little from this university expect formal perusal of some books of literature and taking some periodical exams for the sake of marks and certificate. I entered this university out of my interest for English language but not because I had adequate knowledge of English literature. Because the certificate issued by such university has worth in the job market, I would have chosen this university rather than because I liked English language or literature deeply. My intention was to benefit from the fame of the university and certificate from this place rather than learning and improving myself substantially in English language and literature through what I studied and did there for two years. It means I thought as a customer but not as a passionate lover of English. If English was my passion and if I had adequate command of this subject, I would have studied in any university or postgraduate college. I tried to hide my inabilities through getting a certificate from this noted university. When my very intention in pursuing this course was false, how can anybody expect that I learnt a great deal when I was there and that it would benefit any organization that is going to recruit me depending on my fame as a student from a prestigious university? There are some more complicated points of concern as far as certificates are concerned. The richness of marks found on certificate may not match the abilities of its owner.   

a. Student remembers a subject much when he/she is studying it with the purpose of taking the related exams. Even then he/she is studying it for scoring marks and getting certificate but not out of passion for it. Such knowledge, which he/she gains for exams, does not last longer in him/her. In other words, when he/she leaves the campus, he/she forgets almost everything he/she practiced or learnt there.

b. Reservations enable many to enter prestigious educational institutions also without much difficulty. They don’t learn before joining them or after joining them. How can we assess the worth of a candidate of this order, scanning his or her certificate? Reservations are thus a permanent blot on our certificates.

c. In many universities and other educational institutions, there are biased teaching staff, who give more marks to the creatures of their gender, community, language, region, religion and race than others. We can’t identify these loopholes and drawbacks of educational institutions just looking at their certificates.

d. The concerning student might have been sick or unable to do the exam well. He would have gotten fewer marks because of such physical or mental disabilities during that crucial time. He did/could not take that exam again to improve his/her marks. How can we consider him/her poor at a subject just because he got less marks than others, due to circumstances as these.

e. Evaluation of examination papers is generally carried out by subject experts. When a country, like India, is highly corrupt and is with many drawbacks and demerits in terms of its educational system and culture also, how can we believe that a qualified and experienced teacher only evaluated an answer paper of a student? In this scenario, a dull student gets more marks and an intelligent student might get low marks. In India, now, many incompetent teachers are evaluating the answer sheets of students of many educational courses. Thus, marks shown on a certificate do not actually represent his/her actual intelligence or competence in that subject. After leaving that educational institution, he/she might have improved his/her subject knowledge or he/she might have degraded himself/herself from a good state of knowledge and skills. As such, a certificate fails to symbolize the true caliber and skills of a candidate.

f. Certificates can be manipulated in many ways. There are many fake educational institutions across the world, which sell certificates of any course, to anybody, collecting an amount of money from them. How many companies and organizations in India or other countries have ability to trace the truth behind the certificates they come across. They blindly value somebody based on the certificates they see.

g. One may lose one’s certificates in an accident, incident or natural calamity. If he/she is unable to produce his/her original certificates in an interview, he/she may not get a job. We are not valuing individuals, standing before us, with a desperate need to find employment for their survival, but certificates, created somewhere, by somebody. Is it a fair thing to be followed by our employers?   

h. Some study abroad. We don’t know how one studied there and how they gave marks to one. There may be wide difference between what we think to be extraordinary in India and what others think in other nations. Did they focus much on theory or practice? How much importance do they give to communication skills? What are the standards of educational institutions, governments and teaching faculty there? Could they get more marks over there bribing the staff or doing something else?

2. Many HR folks and members of management of an organization accord more value to the work experience of a candidate than other parameters. If he/she states on his/her certificates that he/she worked at so and so companies or organizations for different periods of time, handling a varieties of job responsibilities, they feel impressed. Experience does play a key role in a candidate getting a job. There are some drawbacks and demerits even in valuing a candidate highly or less based on his/her experience.

a. There is no certainty that one with years of experience with different firms and companies would be excellent as a professional in his/her field of job responsibilities. We find many without basic knowledge also about his/her subject or considerable communicative skills in English despite years of experience. I know many high designation employees, in different companies, who cannot write a paragraph also without errors in English/their mother tongue. Their communicative and presentation skills are pathetic.

b. There are gems, who work wonders, coming out from educational institutions, recently. They don’t have experience but think intelligently and work extraordinarily. Most of the companies in India offer nominal salaries and perks to freshers compared to experienced ones. This is, indirectly, humiliating the enthusiastic age and challenging intelligence of a candidate. They don’t feel encouraged to join companies in this bleak scenario. In many organizations, seniors, who have years of experience, cannot compete with juniors, in terms of knowledge and work. Intelligent and hard-working juniors feel insulted and disturbed to work as subordinates with such shallow and worthless superiors. We cannot consider one great just because one has years of experience but this is how managements of companies treat employees in India. We can observe this retrograde culture in public and private firms everywhere.

3. HR folks of firms recruit many candidates based on internal or external references also. If I have a good image in a firm I am working with, if there are some job vacancies, I may encourage my familiar folks to apply for those jobs. They write my name in their job application in the column of reference.

a. I cannot vouch for the character of a candidate I am referring to a company because it may change at any time due to internal or external factors. A company recruiting a candidate based on my reference and expecting me to be answerable if he/she does anything wrong in future is absolutely illogical. I am just a facilitator. I am communicating to him/her just that there is a job vacancy. HR staff should take every possible measure to regulate his/her character while in the campus of their company. They can promote him/her or sack him/her at any time based on his/her merits or demerits as an employee with them. My role, in this scenario, is just that of a facilitator. I bring an employer and an employee closer.

b. Influential local and national politicians, businessmen, members of managements of organizations and some other kinds of folks may also recommend a candidate for a job with a company they know or on which they have a kind of authority directly or indirectly. Often HR staff feel disturbed to recruit an unworthy candidate to a job based on the recommendations of those with authority. On one hand, the management instructs them to select highly qualified and talented candidates only for many key jobs and on the other hand, they recommend worthless candidates to some jobs in their organization. It is not fair. Every organization must establish and follow some standards strictly. Our volatile moods and attitudes should not compel our HR staff to recruit somebody, against our norms and policies. In India, we find this bad culture. On stage, they talk a lot about standards and values but they don’t follow them.

4. The very interview procedure and process looks disgusting to me many times. Those, interviewing a candidate, should check whether he/she has the required skills or not. They may conduct a test to find it out but is it happening simply in many organizations in India now? Interviews turned lengthy and chaotic.

a. I heard that the folks of Google conduct many rounds of interview to finalize a candidate for a position with their organization. I disliked and avoided attending interviews of organizations like this just because of this factor. I have self-respect. They can test my skills as an editor or writer but not as an actor. If they are expecting me to be good at many aspects as an employee, they are actually expecting me to be a hypocrite. I may not know how to walk into an interview room; how to dress myself; how to present myself to the folks of interview and many such other qualities, which recruiting firms expect randomly from many employees. I might not have exposure to such culture. I would not have been trained in those aspects of job interviews, for many reasons, which were beyond my control. Does it mean that I cannot be a good editor or writer in their workplace? I can learn culture fast from others in a company if there is one at all, which applies to all equally at all times, irrespective of designations. It is not a big issue. Imitation is a common human quality. Unfortunately many HR idiots and rogues avoid recruiting gems into their companies just because some candidates don’t act too much before them. A gem does not like to meet an interviewer for a number of days undergoing a series of steps of interview. If organizational and recruitment culture in a nation is making even gems into helpless beggars, who have to attend a series of interview stages, to get a job, then it is the problem with the fundamental culture of that organization or nation. A competent and sensitive interviewer must be able to conduct interview within a day, at the most. I liked to join such firms only. Just because I am not working with Google or Microsoft, you cannot think that I don’t have such competencies. In fact, I am avoiding such companies because I have self-respect as an employee and individual. I don’t like to go to the office of any company even the second day for any stage of interview. One day is all that I can afford. I did it so far. I follow this self-imposed culture even in future. From this perspective, I am greater than Google and Microsoft because I am not yielding to their irrational and illogical norms of interview. I need not get fame being associated with any company in India. I have fame of my own. This is how some think about jobs and companies in India. They don’t go to companies, like shameless beggars, asking for a job. They maintain self-esteem and standards even on their deathbed. If you think that extraordinary folks are working with internationally famous companies across the world, you are wrong. Gems do not act to attract anybody. All those working with prestigious firms internationally are not gems but professionals. They do anything to get and retain their favorite job. They sacrifice their self-respect and individuality in the process of getting a job with a noted company because they have no worth of their own. They want to promote themselves in the job market and familiar society, attaching their names with those famous organizations. I know many of this kind. They show off before ignorant ones. Gems don’t show off. They are simple and humble creatures. HR folks cannot interview gems because they don’t have such capabilities.

b. I believe that 80% of HR staff, who expect standards and values from others, don’t have or follow them at their level in many companies and organizations in India. Many Indian companies are unable to attract gems and retain them because idiots and rogues are there in their HR departments. I saw such worthless blokes in every company I worked with till now. They don’t have command of their HR policies and procedures. They don’t have effective communicative skills. They don’t have sensitivity and goodness as human beings. They don’t have knowledge and skills required to interview a candidate.

Insights   

1. Interview is a kind of gambling. We can never assess the worth of a candidate through interview.

2. Really talented professional never expects a candidate to attend multiple rounds of interview.

3. Ninety percent of HR departments in India are known for dishonesty, corruption and hypocrisy.

4. All Indian companies are functioning here based on corruption, malpractices and violation of laws.

5. In India, nobody is perfect as a person or professional. Companies follow the same culture.

6. In India, talented ones with self-respect cannot get great jobs but idiots with multiple acting skills.

7. Indian recruitment agencies and companies train candidates how to be immoral and illogical.

8. Indian HR departments don’t have humanity and virtues but fake professionalism and show culture.

9. Much of attrition rate in India can be attributed to cruelty and worthlessness of HR departments.

10. Indian companies do not run based on standards but change/violate them whenever needed.

11. Most of the agreements made between companies and employees in India are illegal and immoral.

12. No Indian company ever follows labor laws completely. They violate them. Nobody questions them.

13. Unions are the biggest threat to Indian economy. They work 30% but expect 100% from employers.

14. People near isolated industrial units torture those managements. They demand money very often.

15. Indians are experts in preparing and submitting fake study and experience certificates to others.

16. 95% of employees fear an interview because they don’t know what acting skills the other expects!

17. The managements of Indian companies don’t like gems but shameless, loyal and foolish employees.

18. One cannot work in any Indian company if one wants to follow 100% self-respect as an employee.

19. Indian companies don’t encourage creativity and innovation in employees but blind imitation.

20. 80% of Indian companies want to produce products of high ‘margin’ but not high ‘value’.

21. If one dies in a reputed Indian company, while working, gets lakhs; if outside, almost nothing.

22. Indian companies like fake certificates more than the talent and individuality of a candidate.

23. Indian companies consider years of experience valuable than genius of a fresh candidate.

24. In Indian companies, employee appraisal policies and procedures are volatile and unreliable.

25. Nobody can run a unit of employment in India without offering bribe to somebody somewhere.

26. 90% Indian employees work wonders if employers trust them and offer them more freedom.

27. 80% superiors in Indian companies grow in their careers, presenting worth of others as theirs often.

28. 97% superiors in Indian companies expect their subordinates to change; they never change first.

29. 80% Indians wish to go abroad for a better job; they are not happy with governments in India.

30. 90% Indian employees want promotions and increments every year. They don’t deserve them.

31. 95% of Indian employers don’t have even basic knowledge about labor laws. They run big companies.

32. In India, to get a great job, fast, you must know how to cheat others and impress them artificially.

33. Superiors in Indian companies are scared of those with authority but not those with intelligence.

34. 98% employees in Indian companies are actors. They cannot survive and excel as individuals here.

35. Indians value the salary and status of an employee rather than his intelligence, standards and values.

36. In India we can’t start and run a company if we go by rules on paper. We should know manipulation.

37. 90% of Indian companies like to recruit a distant idiot slowly than an available gem fast.

38. Many crave government jobs in India. Expectations are few and rewards are high there. Sinecures.

39. 90% Indian parents wish their sons and daughters to do jobs for a better image in society.

40. Indian bosses like those, who praise them more than necessary, but not those, who criticize them.

I have been thoroughly fed up with the HR policies and procedures of many companies in India, though I worked with very few of them only till now. I hate reading articles by HR staff or those meant for them because it is not happening at ground level. I hate HR meetings and conferences because they discuss nonsense there and come up with mess. When HR departments learn to treat idiots also kindly, they can contribute to the growth of their organizations. Every employee is an opportunist. Most of them might be beasts also. The standards and values, set and followed in a unit of employment, fairly, towards everybody, must change him/her into a human being and keep them so until they go out formally. HR staff need high degree of patience, self-control, sensitivity, empathy, intelligence and vision to attract the best ones into their firms and retain them for long. Humanity wins the race here but not tactics and gimmicks. In fact, many good employees also turn into bad ones after observing biased HR culture there.

MAKING A CHOICE

Making a choice, among the few or many available to us is difficult in our lives. God provided us with a variety of resources of utility and entities of beauty around us to keep us energetic, inspired and happy. I would give you the list of choices I had once and have now and how I had and have to choose one from them in a context or situation. Many times, we don’t make a choice after careful thought for years but randomly and carelessly. This is why we are all somewhat happy now. The more we think to make a choice, the more we fail to opt for one. I believe that most of our lives are a result of our random choices.

1. I was born in a village named Gollalagunta, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, on 8 September, 1976, sometime around 2:40 pm that day. I was the third son to my parents. I did not choose the place or time of birth. I did not choose my parents. I did not choose my siblings. This birth was imposed on me.

2. I grew up in a mango farm of the Kshatriyas of village Tangedu, which is near village Ramayyapatnam in Visakhapatnam district, along with my parents and brothers. I studied my first and second standards in the primary school at Ramayyapatnam. I walked about two kilometers to reach this school. I did not choose my school. I had to accept what was there. There were no multiple options either.

3. My parents sent me to the house of my maternal grandparents in Gollalagunta for my study from the third standard onwards. I studied at the upper primary school in Gollalagunta from my third to seventh standards. My parents imposed their choice on me here. I obeyed and followed what they instructed me.

4. My uncle K V Rama Raju, who was one of the teachers for me at this school during this time, thought that I could study well if I join the Andhra Pradesh Residential School (APRS) for Boys at Bhupatipalem in East Godavari District. He kept me at his abode in Jaggampeta for about a month and got me prepare for the entrance test into this school. I did not take this entrance exam well. I did not think that I would get a place to study here. I joined the Zilla Parishad High School at village Darlapudi to pursue my eigth standard. Around October 1990, I knew that I got a place to join this school as one of the students that joined this school left soon being unable to study in that remote and isolated area. We call it ‘waiting list’. I entered it. I continued there. I got accustomed to high degree of self-discipline when studying here because every student has to conduct himself or herself systematically while in a residential school, without the help of parents or relatives, away from them. I did not make this choice but my uncle. I accepted his choice and benefitted from it. In childhood, mostly others impose their choices on us. We have to obey and benefit from it. Often, we may miss beauty of our lives, because of their choices for us.

5. After completing my standard 10 from the APRS School at Bhupatipalem, in May 1993, I was sent to the coaching centre named Tadikonda Study Circle in Guntur city for getting coaching to take the entrance test meant for polytechnic course. I was here for about 40 days. I was already poor at mathematics. So, I did not get a good rank in this entrance exam. I did not apply for admission into any Intermediate college soon after taking this entrance test, with the blind belief that I would get a place in some polytechnic college. I lost the academic year 1993-1994 due to my ignorance. Polytechnic was not my choice but that of my father or my uncle. I accepted their choice but could not benefit from it.

6. My teacher uncle K V Rama Raju, after observing my failure to get through the entrance exam for polytechnic, advised me to take an arts course in Intermediate in which I need not struggle with numbers. I liked it. It was my choice to take HEC (History, Economics and Civics) group in Intermediate. I travelled by train between Narsipatnam Road and Elamanchili stations to pursue this course. I got first class marks in it. I benefitted from my choice. I entered a stage of life where I had freedom to choose.

7. My father, being uneducated, did not spend much money for my education at Intermediate level. I did not like his attitude towards me those days because he valued money more than me. I felt disappointed during these two academic years. I believed that I could not study well with the financial assistance of my father. I thought that I should get out of this hell. I was in deep admiration with Lakshmi, the daughter of a fellow, whose house was close to our rented abode, then. I started admiring her from around 1990. It got intensified by 1996. On January 8, 1996, at night, I talked with her father for half an hour and explained him emotionally that I was in love with his daughter and that I wanted to marry her. I did this after knowing that she would get married soon with a boy chosen by her parents. He said that his daughter did not know my name also. I realized that he became a villain. On February 10, 1996, at night, I daringly went to their house again and asked her parents to call their daughter Lakshmi out, so that I could talk with her and know whether she admired/loved me or not. They refused to do it. Her mother rebuked me severely. I decided never to turn my head also towards their house after this incident of humiliation. Lakshmi got married on 20 April, 1996. This severe blow on my psyche also provoked me to join Indian Army with the assistance of my brother Srinivasa Raju (MEG and Centre, Bengaluru, bearing number 15302638^W), who was already with it. I made this choice being compelled by circumstances around me but not exclusively because I liked it. My stint with Indian Army was between December 20, 1996 and 20 April, 1997. I spent most of this time as a garden boy. I got army number 15317443^H around the end of February, 1997. I did not like that rigid and conditioned environment. I left it. It was my choice.

8. Many, including my parents, rebuked me having understood that I left army at a time when many were hopelessly struggling to get a job with the defense services, a safe, reliable and secure job with central government. I joined B.A. course at the government degree college in Elamanchili in July 1997. It was my choice based on my earlier choice. A student of HEC group can take B.A. course only. It does not mean that I could take commerce course either even if a choice was there. I developed aversion for any subject with numbers from 1993 onwards. I passed my BA course with first class marks in 2000.

9. By this time I heard that University of Hyderabad was a great one in Andhra Pradesh and had vague idea to go for the entrance test of this university. My uncle K V Rama Raju enabled me to get that application form in time when I casually went to his abode in Jaggampeta once during this time. I took this entrance test in Andhra University at Visakhapatnam but I had no hope that I would get through it. They conducted this entrance test at 12 centers in India. A Telugu medium student of 15 years’ education, from a rural background, defeating many competent students from other regions, was an ordeal for me. I wondered when I got a letter from them stating that I could join this university by so and so date. My folks, my brother Srinivas in particular, felt very happy about my achievement in this regard. I did not like to pursue this course if my father would fund it. I developed more aversion for his attitude towards me, in financial matters, during my three years as a B.A. student also. My brother Srinivas said that he would spend money for my course and gave about 20,000 rupees to enable me to join this university. Later my father repaid him that money and he bore my expenses as a student there. He spent about 50,000 rupees for me for my education here. I passed M.A. English course with 58% marks in 2002. Pursuing M.A. English course was my choice because I developed passion for English since I was in my sixth standard at Gollalagunta. I developed my English for about 12 years before taking a decision to pursue M.A. English course. So, this choice was made by me believing that I deserve it.

10. I struggled and suffered much from July 2002 to November 2003 because of my effort to go to Alaska for fish packaging job, which I thought, would enable me to earn about two lakh rupees a month. By this time, I realized that money makes many things in human life. To earn more, fast, I chose this option of employment but the consultant cheated me. My father lost about one lakh rupees due to it.

11. I admired about four girls after Lakshmi and wanted to marry them. It was my choice. I failed in these efforts and married in a traditional format. I chose this girl also to marry after discarding many options offered by my father. Being able to choose our life partner, on our own, is luck in countries like India, especially in poor and uneducated families from rural backgrounds.

12. I did jobs with five units of employment till now, with considerable gaps between one job and the other. These were all my choices from a few available to me. I enjoyed doing each of these jobs. No job completely matches our interests and expectations. Compromise is inevitable in this domain.

13. Now I am unable to choose one from many options available to make my life comfortable and happy. So, when choosing one out of helplessness, I miss or lose the remaining ones:   

a. I want to meet many persons I like and see many places I wish to visit.

b. I want to see many films and fairs regularly.

c. I want to meet my friends now and then and enjoy their presence for a while.

d. I want to go to a remote place and live peacefully in a clean and beautiful ambience.

e. I want to spend enough time with my parents and relatives.

f. I want to spend more time with my wife and children.

g. I want to write often and publish books.

h. I want to go to those places where I spent considerably earlier as a student, jobholder or person.

i. I want to go back to those days when I enjoyed my life better than now despite hardships.

j. I want such life where nobody dictates me what I should do but allows me what I like to do always.

k. I want to kill everybody that is torturing others severely, directly or indirectly, often or regularly.

l. I want to know more about God, meeting great saints in India.

m. I want to see India in such a state, where all are living based on virtues and devotion towards God.

n. I want to do exercise regularly and burn excessive fat stored around my abdomen.

o. I want my health to be better than what I have now.

p. I want to sleep peacefully every night without any dream.

q. I wish to look young, energetic and handsome always, so that society may find me interesting.

r. I want such job where there are no restrictions of any kind at all.

s. I want to explore more in India to understand its diversity and feel its beauty.

t. I want that much money with which I can build a good house in my favourite place.

u. I should be able to run any vehicle so that I can buy them and move anywhere at will.

v. I want hygienic and healthy foods everywhere so that I can buy and consume them happily.

w. I want to live honestly and ideally always but I should not face difficulties on this journey.

x. I want state and central governments to establish such rule where all can live happily and comfortably.

y. I want all private and government employees to work based on the ideals of honesty, toil and loyalty.

z. I want all to live with a sense of mutual respect and love but not jealousy, hatred and cruelty.

I am unable to live happily now because I cannot create a world around me which I like the most. There are many choices around me but I cannot choose the best one for me as I cannot afford them. I have many desires but cannot fulfil all of them. I have limitations and restrictions as a civilized human being. When I try to get something, struggling hard, something else attracts me and gets me astray. I should be able to delete unwanted thoughts from my mind but I cannot do it. My subconscious area has a storehouse of haunting memories and sad experiences which often disturb and disappoint me. Others are not happy if I do what I like only. I am compromising a lot to satisfy others, doing what I personally do not like much.

Insights

1. Nobody can make the best choices in life or profession because what looks extraordinary today might turn out to be unwanted and detestable tomorrow due to change in your perception or in others.

2. Thinking too much about anything or struggling restlessly for something or somebody is avoidable. Many things are not in your control. You can imagine a lot but in reality it may never happen.

3. You can never utilize all the available options in your life. When you are with somebody, doing something, you are missing many incidents, experiences and persons. You cannot be everywhere.

4. Many things happen in your life before you reach an age of maturity whereby you can make choices for your satisfaction. Accepting and being happy with what happened is better than worrying about them.

5. We are not living in this world exclusively for ourselves but for others also. As a son, daughter, mother, father, relative, well-wisher, employer, employee …we have to play many roles attentively.

6. There is no happiness and contentment in struggling for what is inaccessible and unaffordable but being balanced and ideal with people, places and circumstances set around us by God with a purpose.

7. More than your intelligence, meticulous planning and perfect execution of something, your destiny configures most of where you should be born, how you should live and where you should die.

8. People and things around you play a destined role in your life. Never expect everything to happen to your advantage or happiness. You are just a particle in a world of unbelievable wonders and secrets.

9. Do not love or hate anybody or anything deeply. Nothing is permanent here. Nobody is completely reliable in this world. Just ensure that you are playing your role sensibly and sensitively.

10. Hardships and pains are inevitable parts of human life. You took this birth to clear those debts and burdens of your previous births only. Your soul has that history. Never try to explore that mystery.

11. Be good and open-minded at your level. Don’t compare your personality and achievements with those of others around you. You are a unique creature of God. Respect and love yourself. Feel it always.

12. Instead of struggling to know about quite mysterious and incredible truths around you, bring comfort and happiness into the lives of creatures around you utilizing what is available and affordable to you.  

13. Life is a mysterious but exciting journey. Nobody knows whom you meet and where you go on this track of wonders. Keep going. It needs much patience on your part. Be ready to face anything on the way.

14. Never expect too much from others. Like you, they have also many problems, tensions and fears in their lives and professions. Practice unconditional love with people and things around you always.

15. God planned for you more than what you can for yourself. Do not plan excessively for you or others. Very few things are in your control. Don’t toil to make impossible possible. It never happens.

16. Understand things from the perspectives of those to whom you want to help. Avoid excessive selfishness or goodness. You have an inevitable role to play. You should live to play that role completely. 

MAGGI NOODLES

I am disturbed reading the news on the issue of low quality Maggi Noodles, for which many states are banning its use for a specific time. I regret it and express my sense of guilt to the management of Nestle India. Just consuming these noodles, Indians do not get diseases or die earlier than expected. It is shame to know that often such shallow things happen in democratically ruined India.

Compared to noodles, majority of Indians consume more harmful products like tobacco and alcohol. Every year millions of Indians are suffering out of many diseases caused by these fatal products and many are dying desperately. The Government of India is getting taxes from the sale of these deadly products and spending that money for the welfare of good people like me in India. This is like collecting money from patients and dead bodies and offering that money to brides and bridegrooms as gifts. What a culture in India? Narendra Modi cannot ban tobacco and alcohol from India because he is a hypocrite. He can allow his regulatory bodies to ban Maggi Noodles in many parts of India because it is a fresh and superficial issue for him and his government. Unless the idiots and rogues and bastards of our regulatory bodies (drug control units of centre and states in particular) do something or the other now and then, to make their presence felt by us, we don’t get fresh news of controversy in our newspapers. I believe that 90% of food and drug inspectors in India must be hanged publicly for their negligence in carrying out their responsibilities honestly. Narendra Modi cannot do it in his lifetime.

Indian hotels are known for uncleanliness. Thousands of hawkers sell foods on pavements.

Nobody checks medical stores frequently. Any idiot can start a medical store and sell rubbish.

You can bribe the traffic police and move away. They are authorized to do anything they like on roads.

Police can torture you like anything anywhere. Nobody can change their attitudes and culture in India.

Government teachers may or may not provide quality education to the students at those schools.

60% of the fast foods and packaged foods we are consuming now in India are harmful to all of us.

There is unlimited corruption in defense services. We are spending billions of rupees for their welfare.

Politicians can talk anything and get into corruption to any extent, in any party, in any state.

Hospitals and nursing homes can throw harmful trash in our streets carelessly.

In India, what you can discuss happily always is “burning issues”. They have been burning since independence. We have no moral values to solve them from their roots. Creating and discussing a fresh issue is our habit as Indians. The issue of Maggi Noodles is not a bigger one compared to the unlimited number of burning issues in India, which we have been facing for decades. If Coca Cola and Pepsi drinks are not harmful, why Maggi Noodles? The other day, they talked a lot about banning Amway products in some regions because it is against the dead and worthless policies of India. I have been using Amway products for long. They are better than hundreds of products made in India.

In India, all are concerned about ‘making money’ but not ‘how to earn that money’. Those running the central and state governments, are the first rate criminals in India. If we hang them first, we can change India. They talk about patriotism and Indian values on stages for impressive speeches but what is happening at ground level. They are running fraudulent businesses; they are encouraging unscrupulous entrepreneurs in every part of India; they are ruining the lives of people of India offering them low quality foods and services. Governments and bureaucracy are the bodies of criminals and sinners in India. In such highly polluted and corrupt state of affairs in India, Maggi is not an issue at all. Indians have been accustomed to deadly products, ineffective and corrupt administration of state and central governments and so many other drawbacks and demerits of culture in India, promoted by our dirty rulers for decades. Indians do not die because of consuming these few noodles. Nestle India is just a helpless victim in this scenario. No Indian politician or minister is expecting the best foods only to be made and sold in India. This is a plain truth. Then why should we blame one company against the other, now and then. In India, anybody can make anything and sell to anybody. Governments want tax income.

Can we ever see the kind of standards of governments in nations like the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Norway? 

I often console myself for being an Indian because criminals and sinners of international standards are ruling us everywhere and ruining our lives every day and night. They are in all political parties.