Tolerance!!!

I am hearing the terms tolerance and intolerance recently; I see people strongly recommending others to be tolerant or bashing someone to be intolerant! Sure, I understand their intent. But, I am wondering if we are trying to solve the right problem. The term tolerance is defined as "the ability to accommodate an opinion or behavior one dislikes or disagrees with". Anyone who is familiar with or anyone who observes  human behaviors can easily understand that more and more we "accommodate" we are only bottling up things and we will explode at some point in time. In spite of this understanding, we seem to promote the culture of being "tolerant"!

Let us look at the "beef eating" issue. If I dislike or disagree with eating beef, I have all the right not to eat beef. That is my personal choice. If I am only tolerant, I will avoid talking about eating beef as a bad thing but in my mind I can still think that eating beef is a sin and all beef eaters are cruel. This thought will express itself at some point in time; may be even out of proportion too. But, if I start thinking that I am not used to eating beef but there are people who enjoy beef and it is their choice. This is not very different from me liking my potato curry and my sister liking potato fry. We are two different individuals with different tastes. That is all. How can one taste be called as better than the other? Why should one "tolerate" the taste of others? If I like potato fry too, I will eat it with her; if not I will let her enjoy it alone. Where is the question of tolerance? As long as she does not force me to eat the fry, it is fine. Of course I can talk to her about my experience with my potato curry and she can talk to me about the fry, as long as we don’t call each other's favorite as "yucky".

Okay, things are not as simple as potato fry. Existence of God, is God a She or a He, what is the form of God, which direction is He in, should humans work to live or live to work, live to eat or eat to live, what kind of clothing one should wear and not wear etc. can turn into  complex "tolerance" questions. How different are these points from the potato fry example? What if my friends have a different belief system? How does it affect me? Why should I "tolerate" their views? Is it not their personal choice?

If I share the same belief, I can pray with them or join their pilgrimage plans; if not I will let them enjoy their own plans. As long as they do not force me to join their pilgrimage, I am fine. Sure, we can talk about all these different view points. Problem comes only when we are not able to talk about it without criticizing. Whether we accept or buy into the other's view point or not does not matter. What matters is, are we even able to listen, consider, entertain a different view.

It tires me when people are more encouraged to "tolerate". Even the "elite" communities that coach others to collaborate get into  either "my way or high way" or "tolerate" mode. I am seriously thinking about the quote of Aristotle who lived more than 2000 years back - "it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it".  Does this mean that, in 2000 years, we have not learnt how to educate people?  What is even more scary is the "educationalists" and the "coaches" being not able to entertain different views!! Are we really progressing / evolving as a civilization? Or as believed by many religions, are we regressing/ devolving?

Okay, it is a gross generalization and exaggeration from my side that we have not made progress as a society!! Sure, we have made reasonable progress in many fronts. But the human behavior seems to be a challenge still. Looks like each person, each family, each team, each business unit or each organization has to go through almost the same learning curve. We are able to "productise" scientific discoveries as tools. We publish "hype cycle" to prepare people to use the tools, develop competence to use the tools / improve the tools. What are we doing with people? Can we "productise" psychological discoveries as tools that people can use?

All civilizations have tried to pass their behavioral and psychological learning  as religious concepts or as poems or as stories. But, that does not seem to be sufficient. People still have to understand the reasoning to a large extent for making any sustained behavioral changes; this takes time and follows the learning curve! For common man to use a scientific discovery, they do not have to understand the scientific theory or any reasoning; they just have to use the tool! For example, I do not have understand how planes work or internet works for me to use them and benefit from them. Can life be simplified like that? Are there any tools to make people more collaborative and considerate rather than "tolerate"?

Women's Day!

Though I personally do not believe in "Fathers' day" "Mothers' day" "Women's day" etc., I feel it is unfair for anyone to stop others from celebrating. It is individual's choice! The reason I do not believe in such days is, I think we should respect and love our father and mother  everyday; there should not be a need for a specific day to remember them. But, if someone feels that they want to celebrate the greatness of their parents it is absolutely fine. I think it is like celebrating birthdays! Though each day is new and a beginning of the next one year, we still celebrate birthdays. Similarly though each day is precious for women (of course for men too), they can celebrate women's day on a specific day! No one else can question it! Any celebration is individual's choice and others do not have a say in that has been my view!!!

There was a heated discussion on "Women's day".  Someone was very upset that there is no men's day. No one is stopping men to celebrate men's day; in fact there is a men's day in November. It is just that it is not as popular. Another person exclaimed why are women so special and how can they have a day dedicated to them! Ha! There is an international day for almost everything under the sun! There are international birds day, migratory birds day, snakes day, turtles day and so on. Why should people be so very upset about women's day in that case, I do not understand!!

The next comment was the most interesting one! This person said, "This women's day etc. is western thinking. In India we worshipped women. India is the only or one of the few countries that had 'Goddesses'. So India always gave equal respect - in fact, more respect to women".  While I agree with his statement about the "Goddesses" part, I have my reservations about equality! Sure, we probably are the only country where there is a female form for every single male form of God. We are the only country which considers God to be a transgender as well. India declares God as formless and genderless explicitly ('ஆணிலன் பெண்ணிலன் அலியுமிலன்' ) at the same time, worships God in all the forms - male, female and transgender!

I am thinking of the Ardhanaree form. Great, we consider a man and a woman as part of single body. Why are we not considering Shiva to be on the right side of Parvathi? Why should we consider  Parvathi to be on the left side of Shiva?   Don’t they mean the same? Okay,  it is very close to the scientific discovery of men having X & Y chromosome but women have XX chromosome; so Shiva only needs Her and She does not need Him. So let us leave that part.

I could not see any evidence of Shiva getting into penance for Parvathi; it is always Parvathi who starts with rigorous penance to be with Shiva - so many temples to represent that - Thiruvanaikkaval, Mylapore, Kanchipuram, Kanyakumari are some examples known to me. There are many more! In an equal / fair society, there would have been at least 50% cases where the reverse happened! The only place where I see a man doing "Tapas" for a woman is Arjuna doing it for Subhadra; that too, his Tapas is not towards her; he does it for her; that is all! Whereas wherever women have done tapas it is towards the man concerned! Is this equality? Is this how it happens? I will be glad if someone can show me examples of other kinds!

Don’t we see examples of men pleading/ pressurizing/ impressing  (even threatening and harassing) women to marry them and women to men in today's society? Which is more? In a society that does not have any restrictions on men and women, it should be around 50-50!

More interestingly, women could only do penance but not express. We know how badly Surpanakai was insulted by Rama and Lakshmana for expressing her love! What right does Rama have to point her to Lakshmana? How can Lakshmana cut her nose off for proposing?

Sure, we had many women poets and yoginis when other civilizations have not even learnt to write. But our great poetess Avvai had to ask God for grey hair! I cant see a man willing to let go of his youth for the need to be "undisturbed"!! While wives of the men "nayanmar" were happy about their husband's devotion to Shiva and were ready to cook their own children for Shiva, Kaaraikkal ammai's husband ran away from her looking at her devotion to Shiva!  Akka Maha Devi was provoked let go of her jewels and clothes  by her husband as a result of her devotion to Shiva! Meera's husband is no exception! Though Vasuki taught a big lesson to Konganar, she is not as popular as him! What do these stories indicate? 

Not only that, even today, there are so many rituals where women are to pray for the longitude of their husband's lives. I do not see any such rituals where men do the same for their wives! Is it a sign of a fair society?

I am not that familiar with other philosophies, mythologies, culture, traditions and history to comment on them! But from the current statistics and the way men treat women in the current times all over the world, I realise that the situation would not have been better! I have not seen a woman who has not said at least once in her life time "I don’t want to be a woman again" irrespective of the country they are from, religion they are from… that is a good indicator of quality of life for women!  Hmm…

More than the past, the current worries me more! I am seriously wondering, why this group of men I met is not even able to consider women's day, while there are days even for turtles!! It is not that they need to agree with or accept or bless women's day; If these men can not even digest women celebrating a day, I am wondering what respect they hold for their counterparts!! Do they understand equality? Do they really understand what it means to intrude into other's personal choice!!

Any intrusion into another person's personal space / choice is a form of violence! Will we ever understand? 

Proposal Vs. Proposal!!

Though I enjoy writing ideas, criticism, thoughts, views etc. as blogs, I never liked writing sales proposals. So, when my mentors and peers told me that research proposals are not like sales proposals, I felt relieved! Ha, little did I know! :-) :-)

Having completed a research proposal after 60+ versions, I thought it is a good idea to note down the differences for the benefit of other newbies, more importantly for my own reference later (I assume, I will have to come up with more such documents in future and most likely, it is going to feel the same every time!! It is better for me to remember)

1. Sales proposal (SP) is to win the competition and Research Proposal (RP) is not to that extent.
2. In case of SP, the problem statement is usually given; at least problem focus area is given in the Request For Proposal (RFP). Here, there is no RFP.
3. SP is about giving "something" to the reader. RP need not be value adding to the reader directly; as long as it is value adding to someone, it is fine. It need not even be application oriented. It could just be for knowledge - and just for the sake of knowledge!
4. In SP, you have to show off and brag about your solution without appearing so.  here, you have to doubt your own solution without appearing so and more importantly should not show off at all :-). In SP, if you show any element of doubt or possible negative outcome in the solution section, you are gone. Of course, you will include all the negative stuff in the risks section to save your back, otherwise, you keep a very low tone on the potential negative outcomes
5. Usage of jargons in SP is encouraged to a reasonable extent - to be good enough to impress and confuse (sometimes we intentionally confuse the customer and complicate simple things :-) ;-)!) but, at the same time, simple enough to convey the meaning and convince the client that you have a solution; in RP, complicated stuff should be simplified as in a good training session (of course not conducted by a consultant)
6. In SP, usage of more "we", "our" and "us" is encouraged. In RP, you can not use "we" and "us".
7. Passive voice sentences are despised in SP. In RP, it is the preferred way of writing!
8. In SP, references are important; but not priority; sometimes, just "nice to have". In RP, references make or break your proposal.
9. For SP, you'd usually have solutions ready and look for supporting material to strengthen our solutions and arguments! Whereas, in RP, you look for all supporting materials - ok, not supporting material - all related material, look for an argument/problem that is valid! Two sentences seem to have just very simple change of words. But they are so very different. In case of RP, you need to keep open mind and be ready to change your problem/solution/both completely after you read a "relevant" and convincing material. In SP, we would look for more "relevant" material and may not change our view!!
10. Reference material could just be Wikipedia in case of SP. That is a no-no in an RP! OMG, I did not know this when I wrote my first draft :-)
11. In RP, it is recommended to use simple sentences with minimal "and". Not many bulleted lists! Paragraphs are more welcome. In SP, bulleted lists add value!
12. A team with cross functional expertise works on SP usually but RP is a single person work! After working in teams and only in teams for so long, working alone is tough!
13. Segmented / incremental review is mandated before an integrated review in corporate world. In academics, that probably is not a normal approach
14. If we get about a week's time to write an SP, we are lucky. So, the amount of boredom you develop towards the topic is less! Duration of the proposal writing seems too large in RP and you have fair chance to feel sort of an aversion towards your own document! Towards the end, I was even wondering, if I will have the interest to pursue the problem and solution stated in the proposal. The boredom was that high :-)
15. SP will be treated as a contract in the absence of an Statement of Work or signed contract. Hence it is very important to state all the assumptions, constraints and risks clearly. RP does not expect that. The problem stated in RP may be shelved and a new space may be taken looks like. I don’t know how it works when comes to proposals written for securing funding - either from government or from private sponsors. I have not experienced it yet.

In spite of being so very careful / mindful of the differences, veterans in RP may find your RP to be more like an SP!! The transition is tough but interesting!!

The journey has just begun!

Shelly peeps in…

Sure… it is not a typo… no… no… it is not poet Shelley! It is the shell collector in me! The sea shore seems to have more shells now! The ones that were hidden under the sand are showing up; if they are not on their own, shell collector digs them up!!

It is interesting to see how human mind plays its games to throw these shells up in the air, make them glitter, flash in multicolors, make them look catchy / resonant with other things. In about 10 minutes of to-do revisit, 20+ shells were thrown into the list. If I was not careful, they would have stayed there and pushed my baskets out of my truck probably!

Here are a few examples… I was pruning my plants this weekend. I realised that my Indian spinach, yam, alocasia (or elephant ear - சேம்பு  ), ginger, turmeric, fenugreek, Bishop's weed (ஓமம்) and coriander have all gone; I am left with just a balcony full of silver vines, a single butterfly pea creeper and a pinwheel jasmine shrub! Of course none of my pots are empty as the silver vine has generously encroached all pots! But I was wondering if I should spend just 30 mins a week and get back to my ginger, fenugreek, coriander!

Too many blog posts / articles started running in my mind - my pongal visit to my hometown, my reflections after watching Goddess Akilandeswari performing puja to Shiva in Tiruvanaikaaval temple, my trip from 31 degree Celsius to 31 degree Fahrenheit, my irritation with the so called "tolerance" & people's urge to classify humans into tags etc..

Not only that, I wanted to buy a few books! Wanted to respond to some "WhatsApp" messages :-). I was thinking of joining music class (vocal)! If that does not work out, can I do it online? And then possibility of a yoga class and was wondering if I can really withstand it now! Why not replace the yoga class with a dance class if that does not work out! The list was on and on and on... This is in spite of a fairly large set of items in my essentials list! Fortunately, within 10 minutes, I realised that my "Shelly" is back and she wants to rule the to-do list like how my silver vine took over the entire balcony in no time!!

Hmm… I was thinking earlier, if at all I end up writing in a self-assumed soubriquet, it will be "தாக்ஷாயிணி"…. Now, I am thinkig if Shelly is the best suitable name :-) Only thing is, people should not expect any similarities between me and "Percy Bysshe Shelley" ;-) :-D

Life is beautiful!

Some days are exceptionally beautiful! Many things fall in place, oh I should say, everything sets into a harmony like a lovely song!!

I was listening to a collection of songs today!! This is a set of songs I have been thinking of listening to fully for about five months now. For various reasons, I could not get to it!! I am so glad that I remembered to play it as my background music today! Though I was only listening to most of the songs, I happened to watch one of the songs - Fly away home by Mary Chapin Carpenter - (it is a youtube collection) and I was so pleasantly surprised "Oh! some one could think exactly like me!". What is even more surprising is, if I had just listened to the song and the lyric, I would have imagined a totally different story line and scenes! I don't know what made me watch it!!! 

As I watched the song, I was reminded of my blog "One more" where I expressed my distress about a fallen tree and the impact on the birds nesting in that tree! I was reminded of my parents who motivated / continue to motivate me to do anything I want to do irrespective of whether it seems feasible or not! Oh! it is a nice feeling! I am sure all of you have experienced this... Realising "someone else is also as sensitive as you are to other beings & they have thought of a solution and the rare support you got was available to someone else too & they are appreciative of that" gives such a satisfaction!! I could not stop smiling for a long time!! I was thinking of the little girl in the song! She was a parent to the geese! She protected them, fed them and taught them to fly high and live!! Hmm... any one who protects, feeds, teaches to fly and live is a parent right, irrespective of their age, gender and the relationship with you!

As I listened, I was reminded of my school that had tall trees behind and then my teacher Mrs. Sundarambal!! And wow, she called me this evening!! She still remembers to check what I am learning new and checked the progress of my research, career and writing :-) How many teachers will remember the students and track their progress even after about twenty years! When she said my smile has not changed in so many years and she sees it when I speak over phone, I could not control laughing merrily! And she joined the laughter happily! Blessing in deed!!

Oh! Life is beautiful!! Some days are more beautiful!!

Estimations

Ladies! I really do not feel like writing a follow up for the "estimation" part ofshopping! But I do not want to disappoint you by not sharing my views on the same!! This is going to be the last article in that series!! "Dressing" is the last factor I would like to consider when I think of women's improvement.

Because I do not want to write another follow up later, let me state my reasons for this stance before we get into the "estimation" part of the article :-) I am sure all of us will agree that for someone to be empowered, they need to be independent. I believe the way a woman dresses has nothing to do with how independent they can think and act. I am taking my role model women as examples for the right side of it! These were the women who could think independently, act on their own will and fight for the cause they believed in but they all wore only or mostly sarees, of course, sarees of their choice!! I also know women on the other side. These were the women who wear western clothing or north Indian clothing most of the time. But their thinking was so out-dated, conditioned by society and easily influenceable! In fact, I know a few of them did not wear sarees because their close family members did not allow(?!?!) them to!! So I do not count this as a factor at all! It is more important for us to make people (both women and men) think independently and stand by what they think as right for sustained empowerment. I really do not care what someone is wearing; it is a negligible factor compared to what they can think and how they act.

Let us get into the "estimation" business! Please note, I am not talking about shopping for groceries or vegetables. In Indian context, the choices in that space are almost fixed and most of us just go by our list. I am mostly referring to clothes and jewels where the choice is more and we have to decide what to buy. The argument put forth was, most of the stores  have fitting room / trial rooms these days so you can have 100% of information needed for estimation. This is where I disagree! Here are my three main points - a) for you to have higher level of data you should try out all the clothes that are there in the store & you should not get tired in the process so as to look the same through-out the trials b) you should have all the accessories & your hair style, glow / confidence on your face etc. should all be the same, the lighting of your environment should be same as the trial room c) your own expertise with dressing.

Can you guarantee the first two? Theoretically speaking, let us assume that you are able to try out all clothes. Can you even attempt the second point including the items that seem to be in your control - like glow of your face or confidence level you radiate on a day? Just a bad argument that morning or a sleepless night can change the whole thing! How will you estimate that? How will you even account for that while estimating?

How about your expertise with dressing? There are a lot of parameters you will have to consider like the colour combination, which colors look good on you in what kind of lighting, what kind of fabric texture is suitable for your body type etc. It also includes things like fitting and style of an attire - where should the shoulder line be, where should the sleeve end for a casual attire, formal attire etc.. You will have to consider the accessories that will go with and if the entire package is suitable for the occasions you are considering. Please note, the parameters will be simpler when you consider South Indian scenario where we have bright sunlight all thru the year and the background looks almost the same throughout the year. If you have to choose clothing for colder countries, where the background is bright for half of the year and pale for the rest of the year, your choices will be influenced by that too!

You may argue that considering all this, the time taken is going to be higher. My point is, knowing all this upfront is going to be very difficult for anyone who is not fashion designer. It is easier to learn on the job :-) Buy a few clothes at a reasonable time, wear it, see how you look and feel in them, change your strategy next time based on your learning. I am suggesting inspect & adapt cycles because it is impossible to learn all these in one go! And you are not going to buy clothes for your lifetime in one round of shopping, anyway!!! So, why waste energy when you can save it for better things!!! Why to go big-bang when you can iterate!!!

To me, the logic that applies in business applies in life and vice versa! If I can inspect and adapt the business strategy, I can do that personally too. In business, if I can plan continuously for shorter duration by spending shorter time, I can do that personally too!! If I allow myself to learn iteratively in business I can allow the same at my personal life too! If I can do capacity based budgeting and be flexible with scope that is aligned with the business vision, I can do that with my clothes too - after all, my vision for clothing is simple - look professional and good! 

What do I do to reduce the time taken to estimate while improving my estimation effectiveness? I go to stores which have a) good sales people with expertise and care for the client for obvious reasons b) good large mirrors and lighting so that I can do the first round of filtering without accessing the fitting rooms c) good comfortable fitting rooms so that I do not get irritated while trying out clothes. I do not shop in malls because personal attention is limited!! I wear the same style of clothes I want to buy that is, if I have to buy sarees or salwar, I go in a saree or salwar respectively; for buying western wear I go in western wear.  This makes the sales people understand what kind of clothes I will like without me explaining it much. Mostly my shopping is done in the mornings when I am fresh and the sales people also are fresh. If not, I go right after lunch when there is no one else in the stores; this is to get exclusive attention. If a clothe does not catch my attention at my first glance at it, I do not even let the sales person open it - it is a waste of time for me and more so for them. Once they understand that you are conscious about their time & effort, and once they get the hang of what you are looking for, it is easy for them to be on your side!! I reduce the time taken to get into this state. If I realise achieving this state is not possible and I am also not able to locate the items that I like at my first glance on my own, I walk out of shopping! It is better to use the time on something more productive. Also there is no point in buying something half heartedly and build unnecessary / unused inventory at home!!

Sure, I too check if the item is affordable or not. But, I reduce the time spent on other aspects of estimation as much as possible. Capacity based budgeting does not depend too much on estimations! Such a business can not afford to spend (rather despises spending) a lot of time estimating!! I too can't / don’t want to spend time estimating!! If you can and if you want to, you are free to do so!!

Bitter follow up.....

For the first time, I am sad to write a follow up article for my previous article!! It is follow up of my article for the mothers not to be!! I was not planning to write any article till mid February as I have quite a number of higher priority deliverables. But then, I got so upset that I had to write this!!

I had to console a sobbing girl on Sunday over phone. This article is dedicated to her and all the other women who are in her state.

To give a context to other readers, my friend I am referring to in this article does not have children and decided not to adopt. She was asked not to play with a couple of kids by their mother as the mother was worried that my friend will try to adopt her child(ren)! The mother was so outright, explained her concern in simple and sharp terms. My friend was stunned by such a reaction! When she spoke to me after a week from this incident, she was still crying,  I could hear her cry sitting so far away, about 10 hours behind her!  I wish I had nine thousand miles' long hands to hug her from here!

I had to go thru the same pain about 7 years ago. Maybe, I didn’t cry for that long but it hurt me like hell. In Kamba Ramayanam there is a line which says "first a spear went thru the chest and came out thru the back and then a ball of fire at high temperature went thru the same passage". I understood the real meaning of this line when this happened. What hurts me  now is, in the past 7 years, technology has improved so much, our lives got simplified so much but the human mind has not improved any better!! Another woman who is 10 years younger than me goes thru the same hurt 7 years later. It is a shame on human kind!! Connected Vehicles, Internet of Things, conferencing and communication tools, In-flight internet - nothing of that sort has any meaning to me from the time I heard this girl crying to me on Sunday morning! If one can not relate with a fellow human being, what is the use of being so very connected with the help of technology!!

My friend had read my earlier article and she was trying to follow my suggestions. She used to discuss her progress with me every now and then. Until early 2014, I was not open enough to discuss this topic very often with others even if they have the same challenge. But since 2014, I have been giving my ears to her once in a while and suggesting her to take up something of interest to her. Like me, she also decided not to adopt a child and was focusing on other ways to contribute back to the society. She also started being happy and played with other kids whenever possible. And now, she has got such a nasty reaction!! When she said, if she had not followed my suggestions, she may not have played with kids, I felt even more responsible for this. She was not looking for a solution from me fortunately, though she needed a shoulder to cry. I decided to be with her till the time she finished crying though it meant me slipping on my other commitments. The call went on for a few hours. I don’t recollect for how long… it felt like for a lifetime though...

I am thinking about what makes people come to such conclusions and reactions. If my friend wanted to adopt, there are several easier, straight forward ways to do that. For the kind of money she has, for the kind of support systems she has, she does not have to impress these kids and lure them into adoption. Though, genetically mammals may be inclined to start a family with and adopt ones who share their genetic make up to increase the possibility of passing on their genes to the next generation, psychologically, it is hard to adopt one of the two known children. There is going to be a comparison in the minds of those who adopt and who gave their children for adoption whether they took or gave away the better one of the two - even if they decide to stay far away from each other!! When there are so many children in the world looking for good parental support, why get into such a difficult situation? Is it not easier and nobler to give support to someone does not have the care than supporting someone who has the care already and is part of another family? If someone is kind enough to adopt in spite of all the challenges it can bring, why would they break an existing family? Wont it be harder to turn the child around towards the new family if the child already knows what it feels like to be with a mother? Given all this, it is logical to adopt younger kids (maybe infants) from a trusted source but not from very close associates. Why was the mother not able to think about it?

What kind of insecurity the mother should have had to come to this kind of conclusion? Any one who is confident of being a good mother, being a caring mother would not have reacted this way, I feel. Only those who are not sure of the love they have, the care they show, the attention they give, the guidance they give, the support they give to their children and the time they spend with their children can get worried assuming their children do not love them enough and may go away from them!!

For almost all children, their own mothers are the most beautiful and most caring person in the world even they are not in realty. How can someone forget that and make such a poor judgment?  Even if someone wants to adopt the child, is there not a better way of saying no? Should it be as cruel as this?  Why was the mother not able to think about any of this? Is this only her insecurity about her own motherhood? Is it exposure? Is it sensitivity towards fellow human beings or the lack of it? How does the rich react to poor even when they are not interested in the money? How much can perceptions ruin human relationships? Why are we not thinking about all this frequently and correcting ourselves?

I am not sure if animals have this problem. Maybe not. Maybe, humans are the worst form of animals on earth! We have been killing animals, destroying forest and killing people from other countries, races, religions, languages etc.. Looks like we don’t even mind killing the minds and hearts of those very close to us for protecting our own egos and for our own insecurities. Are we all really from a culture that knew the meaning of " தீயினாற் சுட்டபுண் உள்ளாறும் ஆறாதே நாவினாற் சுட்ட வடு" about 2000 years back?

Hmmm… I wanted not to express my dissatisfaction in 2016, as part of my Karma Clearing Program! But I can say that the dissatisfaction level is so high that  I feel the bitterness all thru my body and mind!! It is as if, I drank one whole neem tree!