Business, unlimited

Our ancestors made the caste system based on the occupation. Business community was supposed to earn a living by doing trades and owning shops.

Entry of multilevel marketing has changed all that. Anyone can become a businessperson now. People trying to rope in others into multilevel marketing have become the greatest threat to peaceful living these days. ‘You have been a loyal customer to the shop for long, what has he given you? ,‘they ask. It shows that ‘What is in it for me?’ syndrome has taken firm roots in our minds.

‘This is a good business opportunity. You don’t need infrastructure, no office hours, no great investment when compared to the return you will be getting’

Sounds great. What am I to do to get the returns in five or six digit figures? ‘You just have to spend half an hour everyday. That too, in the initial stages, we will come to help you, till you gain confidence.’

The illusion vanished when they took away thrice that much of time period from my busy schedule.’ You have all the time in the world to spend with your near and dear ones. This NASA scientist, after five years of his profession, realized he wasn’t getting enough time with his wife. Then he joined this venture, and finally he left his job at NASA. He is now totally into this business.’

I was horrified to hear that. ‘What about his professional satisfaction?’ And spending time with family is a mind set. Those who want to do that will find time in spite of their busy schedule.

‘Don’t you like to have all the good things in life? Toiling from morning to evening, how much can you earn? Just by spending half an hour daily, doesn’t this figure look attractive to you?’

I remembered my good old uncle’s advice years ago. He had asked my plans after finishing post graduation. ‘I’ll go abroad and earn a lot of money.’

‘Always remember one thing. Whatever comes too fast, will vanish also in no time. When a tree grows its roots deep down, taking its own time, it can withstand the storms. Take time grow in your profession. Returns will come by themselves.’

But that dictum is outdated for today’s generation, who want all goodies in life at the blink of an eye. When everybody is out there to get rich overnight, why should I be left behind?

‘From where will the money come to me?’ A bit of analysis showed me that the business venture means, when a customer buys the soap solution or any other product, I get my cut. Once the returns start coming, I’ll taste blood and will start netting more and more people in to keep on getting more and more cuts. I will have to forget about my Sundays because that is when I can go and convince my professional friends to get into the ‘business venture’. Because it will be easier to convince one’s friends than a total stranger.

And to make sure they won’t escape from my business talk, I will have to barge in without prior appointments. If I want to avoid that, I can just hand over their addresses. My partners in the business will go and meet them. But would I like to subject them to the torture, for just being my friends?

The calling bell is ringing…. I open to see a close friend, seeing after a long time. My face lights up in joy, when I hear,’ I have come to announce a great business opportunity. The investment is…..’

Oh God! Not again….

Tissue culture

The title has got nothing to do with the laboratory tissue culture, but it concerns the use of toilet tissues. While visiting the Heidelberg castle in Germany, the guide explained that in olden days when toilet paper was not available, poor people used straw to do the work while the elite class used soft ferns.

Coming from a country where we use water to clean after answering the nature’s calls, I was finding reasons why water was not used there. May be in cold season it was difficult, or may be there was water shortage. But what about the habit being continued in the temperature controlled modern apartments, with adequate water supply? It is even more interesting to see NRIs in America taking to this habit.

Being a dentist, I was fascinated to see the importance given to a project work by an American school girl on tooth brushes. She established that simply washing and drying the tooth brushes don’t clean them thoroughly and recommended disinfecting them by other means. I was fascinated to think that for one end of the alimentary canal they are advocating disinfection of tooth brushes, without having any idea how many millions of bacteria may be teeming at the other end, in their undergarments because the cleaning has been done only by a tissue wipe!

When I saw a toddler wincing while being wiped with a toilet tissue and again wrapped up in a diaper (diaper is on 24 hours a day), I really felt sorry for the tiny tot. But then he was being dabbed with all sorts of creams to keep the skin smooth and fragrant. Curiosity got over me to think what all creams ladies may be applying to keep off the smell of blood during their menstrual cycle. Also, I couldn’t help musing; do they use water to clean at least before their most intimate moments, especially before the auxiliary methods?

Finally, we can’t ignore the ecological aspect. Thousands of trees are felled every year to manufacture those tons of toilet papers. The garbage generated is also in gigantic proportions. Usage of water involves neither of these problems.

Newton’s Law

It was the medical jargon behind me that attracted my attention during my wait at the air port. After a while I looked back, to see a man instructing a group. When he finished and went off, I struck a conversation with one of them. Yes, they were a group of medical doctors, being taken for a tour of Singapore and Malaysia. What was interesting was that they were all medical practitioners from different remote villages.

Were they going for some medical conference? No, it was a pleasure trip. How did they all come together? And how come this sudden interest in foreign pleasure trip?

The information I got shook me to the inner core. A drug company arranged free foreign trip for doctors who completed a certain quota of medical prescriptions. In their eagerness to finish the quota, these doctors prescribed the medicines left and right.

If the patient is having an infection, at least two strong antibiotics are prescribed, with a justification that ‘at least one of them will act and bring immediate relief’.

When the patient’s condition is such that he doesn’t require medication, a minimum of two vitamins and a tonic are prescribed, ’to increase the immunity’. Am I justified in complaining when I know the psychology of many a patient? They want immediate relief from any sort of problem. They don’t want to listen to the fact that strong medications have strong side effects and that the body itself is capable of correcting many a disorder, given a little rest and time.

This patient psychology is conducive to the over prescription by doctors. Apart from financing foreign trips, there are many lucrative offers to the doctors who can push the medicines ruthlessly. They arrange for interior decorations of the doctor’s cabin, provide plush sofa sets for the waiting room, and pay for the conferences.

Until recently, doctors were considered no less than Gods by the patients who approached them. My heart grieved over the fact that they have surely fallen down from that pedestal. But then, how can doctors be different from the society? Their behavior can be explained by Newton’s law, ‘Every action has an equal and opposite reaction’.

We may feel angry on hearing about an unnecessary appendicectomy of a five year old kid of an income tax officer, by a junior doctor, just to gain surgical experience. But we may be forced to believe that it is just a manifestation of Newton’s law when the fact is known that this officer had harassed another doctor, by passing unjust orders against him because the officer was in a hurry to finish his work and didn’t study the case properly.

Word Power

The unique feature that is the legacy of man is his ability to communicate through words. Majority of our waking time is spent in using words for communication. But you can bet that very few recognize the tremendous power that a spoken word carries.

In this age of growing technology, even a child knows that when you type a word into the computer, it can perform a variety of functions. But he is totally ignorant that when he utters those quite often heard words these days 'Oh! Shit', what an effect he is creating in the aura around him!

Our culture has given a lot of importance to the way we communicate. We don't believe in calling everybody by name. Importance is given to relationships. When we call 'Beta', 'Papaji', or 'Bhabhiji', those words carry the love, respect and affection associated with them. If you are not convinced of the power of words, just think of the chain of reactions starting in your body when somebody hurls two simple words 'You fool' at you. Just four words from Draupadi could lead to the great Mahabharata war.

When you call a thief a thief, half of his sin is supposed to be transferred to you. But if you call an honest man a thief, you will acquire two times the sin of a thief. The current tendency is to achieve success in life fast. Nobody is willing to spend years of toil. Everything has to be acquired here, and now. In that pursuit, it is very common to reduce competition by hurling baseless accusations at others.

According to our scriptures, abusing others is equivalent to murdering them. Think of the term 'Character assassination'. There is a story that once Arjuna was about to kill Yudhishtira when the latter swore upon Arjuna's bow, which was very sacred to him. Arjuna had vowed that he would kill anybody who did that.

Lord Krishna intervened and told, 'There is no need to spill blood. Hurl abusive words at Yudhishitra . It is equivalent to killing him.' Arjuna did that. Again he took his weapon. To Krishna's question, he answered that since he had committed the crime of killing his elder brother, he had to face the punishment by taking away his own life.

Again Lord Krishna had the solution. He asked Arjuna to do self-praise, which was equivalent to suicide. In this context, if we look around, it is interesting to see how many people are committing murders and suicides each moment. According to our scriptures, for every sin, there is atonement, except one sin, and that is self -praise.

Self -praise has now become second nature to man. When a tree is laden with fruits, its branches droop down. Man is supposed to take hint from this, that when he acquires knowledge, he should become more humble. But usually it is the opposite. We are surrounded by people who project their self-image in a highly blown up manner through their own words.

When one is determined to attain the ultimate goal, the 'moksha', he has to start his journey by controlling his lower senses. Controlling his taste buds and words are the first exercises. A word that comes out of your mouth is like an arrow that is shot. You cannot take it back and it will do its job. First, you learn the control of stopping those words that are detrimental to your progress in life from being uttered. Remember that at times, 'Silence is golden'. Only when you attain this control can you go to the next step of controlling your thoughts.

Falling ill needs struggle

Those who know swimming are aware how easy and effortless it is to float on the water. You need not do anything at all. Just relax the body and lo! you are floating on the water surface. When you stiffen your body and struggle, it is a prelude to drowning. 

Staying healthy is akin to floating. We have to just relax mentally, whatever the situation outside and the body takes care of its health. When there's a cut, immediately the blood is rushed to the area to bring the white blood cells and other cells to heal the wound. If we fill our mind with negative thoughts at this time. the blood flow will be sluggish, the immune system will not work satisfactorily and the wound may not heal.

To become a diabetic or develop a high blood pressure, it requires years of negative thoughts. Yes, we really struggle so much for so many years to develop the chronic diseases. Which means, if we struggle as much or a little less, these diseases can vanish too!! Eat healthy, remain active, and be happy always. Then health and wellness are yours to enjoy!

Destiny believers

A major part of my life has gone in the confusion whether man is a puppet in the hands of destiny or he is in control of his future. Believers of destiny claim that not even our thoughts are in our control. So, are we, the humans also completely programmed like plants and animals?

Keenly observing my own life and the lives of others around me, at last I have reached a conclusion. That as humans, we do have the power of discrimination. At every turn of life, we are given at least two paths to choose from.

Those who are at peace within themselves and are rooted in the self, choose the right path.

When one takes a wrong path and is made to suffer later, it is so much easier to blame the destiny than to own that it was due to a wrong decision making. For particularly those whose actions don't have the back up of thoughtful decisions, blaming the destiny is a very convenient short cut