Category: Uncategorized

My concept of freedom


All of us are born free.  We have our own concept of freedom.  This concept evolves as we grow in life.  I am lucky to be born in the world’s largest democracy – India.  I am proud to be an Indian and have enjoyed this freedom throughout my lifetime. My concept of freedom is the ability to choose and do anything of my choice without any restrictions.  The Constitution of India bestows fundamental rights, which are absolute.  We do have reasonable restrictions, which possibly are required to ensure that we do not do anything against the interest of the state.

Let me try to illustrate what freedom means to me and how my beloved country has enabled it to flourish.  I have the freedom to be myself.  I can choose my education, my religion, my place of stay and my way of living.  I can move across the country without any restrictions and express my opinion on any subject without any fear.

In my view, we need to go much beyond this and practise freedom in our daily lives.  Let us start with our family.  Do we give equal opportunities for our children – daughter or son.  They should be able to choose what they want to study and what they want to do in life.  We should not preach freedom of expression around the world and restrict freedom within our own family precincts.

Let us move to the work place.  Do we empower our teams ?  Do my team members practise what their passion is ?  Can they independently give their views on any subject without fear of consequences.  Are they able to listen to their heart and decide independently what is in the best interest of the organisation.

The same is true for society.  All of us have the freedom to participate and express ourselves on any subject.  We can agree or disagree with the views of the government.  We can influence the way the governments decides through our elected representatives and media(including social media). The media is independent and can play a very important role in influencing public opinion. One important thing to remember is that we should never cross the line.  We have a duty along with the freedom, which we enjoy.  Sometimes as individuals and even as media we tend to misuse this freedom.  In my view as citizens we have a duty to ensure that neither individuals nor institutions misuse this freedom.  Just as we have the choice to elect or reject a elected representative to the state or the centre, we have the duty to ignore and castigate individuals or organisations, which work against the interest of the state.

Today I am proud to be an Indian.  I am grateful to this great nation for giving me this “Joy of freedom”.  India may not be the most developed nation in term of physical wealth but it is one of the most developed in terms of emotional and spiritual well being.  We need to respect it, preserve it and nurture it so that our future generations are gifted with a happier nation than we have inherited.

One of my German colleagues shared a quote, which said – “In everything in life, we need to start with enthuisiasm and end with discipline”.  There cannot be a better way to celebrate India’s freedom.  Let us create more enthuisiasm in everything we do but let us not forget the discipline, which has to go with enthuisiasm to make India the greatest and happiest nation in the world.

Jai Hind.

S Ramesh Shankar

Emotional Disability

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What is disability ?

Not being able to do something due to some reason may be defined as “Disability” in my books. Many a time we restrict disabilities to physical ones. In today’s complex world, most of the disabilities are mental or emotional. Physical disability could be due to genetic reasons or due to accidents and so can mental disability be. In today’s complex world, with all the technologies at our command people find it easier to deal with physical disability but find it more challenging to deal with mental or emotional disabilities.

As parents, teachers and managers we find it difficult to identify and deal with these disabilities. Let us start at home. As parents, we do not recognise the stress and strain our kids undergo today and their limited ability to deal with the same. Many a time, we deal with such issues only when it manifests itself in the form of a physical or mental disease.

Similarly, our teachers are finding it difficult to deal with the emotional needs of their students. Most of the time teachers are not able to spot the emotional trauma of students due to the competitive landscape of the academic world today. By the time, it is spotted, it could be too late.

The workplace is no different. The manager has to deal with employees of multiple hues. Although there is more technology to enable relationships and networking at the work place, we find that technology is not able to deal with conflicts and emotional stress. Thus managers, who fail to sense emotional discomfort amongst their team members are not able to provide the necessary support.

All this means that as parents, teachers and managers, we have an additional responsibility today. We have to be better listeners and proactive in dealing with our kids, students and team members. We should be able to sense any emotional strain in our wards much before it manifests itself as a disease and provide the necessary emotional support so that the younger generation can cope with this better.

Today, many people in the world feel lonely in spite of hundreds of friends on social media. We have a duty to bridge the gap between the virtual affection bestowed by friends and well wishers and the real needs of love and care of our new generation.

S Ramesh Shankar

360 degrees learning every day

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I sometimes wonder as to why we do not learn from everyone around us and everything around us every day. Are you wondering what I am referring to ?

Let me start with my family. I have great opportunities to learn from all my family members. Let me share my opportunities and how I have benefited from it. My wife is a meticulous planner. She makes a list for everything she wants to do including buying vegetables or fruits or pending work on any occasion. I have not been that meticulous. Is it not an opportunity to learn planning in a simple way. Now let me move to my son. He lives life full size. A guy who never worries about tomorrow while he is enjoying today. How I wish I could learn from him ? Another quality to adore is his ability to make everyone around him happy when he is around. So enough to learn from him. Let me move to my daughter. She is an avid reader and writer. I have seen her start and finish a book even within an hour. I could learn the art of reading and writing from her. Although I am trying to write nowadays but never have been an avid book reader like her. Then my son in law. He keeps the home spick and span. He never loses an opportunity to keep his environs neat and clean. This is something I am not good at too. My office drawers could always be better organised. Last but not the least my grand son. He is a born artist. When he puts his pencil on paper, it ends in a beautiful art. I wish I was half as creative as he is.

Now let me look at the maid. She works for almost twelve hours every day and still has a beautiful smile when you meet her on the pathway. How many of us will be willing to smile at others after working twelve hours a day, day after day. If I look at my security guard. He is full of energy – day or night by being helpful to everyone around.

If we move to the work place. My boss has the ability to speak and convince anyone. He is eloquent in his communication. My office assistant continues to pursue courses one after the other even today after working for more than ten years. Her quest for learning is unending. One of my peers is a living example of how to treat others. He is all the time motivating everyone around him. If you meet him in the morning, your day is made and he energises everyone with his positive attitude to life.

Let me look at the things around me in the room. The fan teaches me to keep moving in life. The light teaches me to be bright and chirpy always. The Window teaches me to listen as the monsoon wind gushes through. The doors teach me to keep open my mind whenever I am stagnating. The walls teach me to be strong and firm in my beliefs.

With all these opportunities all around me, why do I stop learning ? Why do I need to attend a training programme to learn ?

Let’s start learning, unlearning and re-learning  from everyone and everything around us ?

S Ramesh Shankar