Not a devil's workshop

DEVIL'S WORKSHOP?

http://rainysingh.blogspot.com/2011/12/not-devils-workshop.html

My office overlooks a school. This location provides me ample opportunity to observe children in an environment, which to me appears to need much change.  Children are happy, no matter what we adults impose on them. Their energy, mischief and zest, is infectious and never fails to perk me up.

Feelings of despair envelope me on the other hand when I observe how we invest in our future. The kid’s backs are stooped as they carry their overweight school bags. There are no sports or play area to speak off and the children try to run about in the small courtyard and on the semi covered rooftop for a brief while before they dragged inside to memorize something more. 

I sometimes chat with some of the kids as they wait for their ride.  I learn that most of them are not going back home but to some tuitions / classes and even more study. Children naturally want to play, but sadly their wants or needs are not a consideration for most educationists, parents, or the government.

Most kids get home a little too late in the evening and then they spend time in front of a television set or some video games before they are marched off to sleep much later in the night than they should.

Our current schooling system was born from the needs of industrialization a few hundred years ago.  Further pushed by priests and governments to keep their flock timid and busy at all times children were managed by the motto  'An empty mind is a devil's workshop'. Nothing could be more sad or further from the truth.

Industrialization as undertaken so far is mostly based on maximum exploitation of resources. This approach demands that the majority of people and employees should have facts and not thoughts. They must possess a compliant spirit to take orders and not independence and of course having fun at work or during learning is deemed dangerous. This approach deadens the mind rather than enlightening it. 

As a result many children do not get a moment free, and this suits parents and teachers just fine. Many parents and teachers are anyway absorbed in their own genuine or imaginary issues and struggles.    

I spent almost my entire childhood in a boarding school, and my youth living in college hostels.  The institutions were set in quiet places and free of many of today's distractions.  I had encountered my share of fantastic teachers and petty tyrants. The curriculum was not killing because we did not have so much drivel. Sports were encouraged along with extra curricular activities that helped build character and develop the personality.

One thing many of my friends now look back with incredibility is the amount of time we had on our hands, to do, really nothing.  These were times for fantasizing, and to spend in wonder. The space, and time afforded us the luxury to daydream, to study ourselves and the world around us as we experienced it and the world we wanted to create.

What differentiates humans from lower species is our overdeveloped mind. Our current social and education system clutters the mind, stifling our thoughts and not allowing the mind to breathe. When the mind is overfilled with facts and figures even temporarily, it knocks off large chunks of creativity. 

The end result of this education-lifestyle combination is the output of generations of a well informed, non creative, mentally and physically weak people.

When you live for more than half a century it can be advantageous  to be able to look back and study cause and effects of various actions and inactions. I classify my associates and classmates into four categories;

1.       First the sloggers, they always worked hard and they still slog at their careers and in  their lives.  Un-lived they are often overworked and overstressed. They believe they are avoiding the devil's workshop.

2.      Bums, these folks never did anything then and decades later still pretty much do nothing very useful even today.

3.      Negative achievers who day dreamt and fantasized about the future. Driven by negative influences at home and from their choice of friends and associates they went on to notoriety and often burnt out. 

4.      Positive achievers who continue to achieve success. These folks are often not only generating wealth but also do interesting things. They lead useful and generally more fulfilling lives. Contributing to society many of these people daydreamed away but were guided by a good value system and worked hard applying both mind and spirit. Most of them participated in sport and extra curricular activities

Let's give our kids space and a good value system and just watch them create an interesting, healthy, happy, caring and successful world. 

Pablo Picasso the famous artist said;   "Every child is born an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up" 

A wise man once said; "If you do not build castles in the air, you build them nowhere". 

Interesting thoughts on this subject can also be found at the following two blogs;

·      http://sureshg.wordpress.com/2006/08/18/what-is-meditation/

·      http://odyssey2self-sumiran.blogspot.com/2009/06/empty-mind-is-it-devils-workshop.html

Burn Out

Photo by Sanjay Kothari.    www.sanjaykothari.com      

Burnout

Complaining has become a national pastime. Though pessimism makes people appear intelligent and concerned, no complainer ever solved any problem.

People foolishly think, that merely by wringing their hands and clicking on 'likes' on social media their problems will somehow magically get solved.

People who can do anything usually do something. It seems that those who cannot do anything, usually complain. Actually, most people can actually do something, rarely try,  because they suffer from something called 'Burnout'.

What is burnout?
First reported by researchers in 1974 to describe long term unresolvable stress. Simply put 'Burnout' is the feeling of helplessness and the realisation that it is futile to even try to effect any change. 

Though there are many reasons, modern social expectations and work pressure seems to be the main culprit for burnout. Burnout produces cynical, bad tempered people who suffer from physical and emotional exhaustion. Burnt-out individuals display 80% of the same symptoms as people suffering clinical depression.

Modernity has mostly produced a depersonalised humanity, a society of organisations, which are directly or indirectly connected to an obscenely gigantic government. 
No individual is free to say, do or pursue what he or she wants without being challenged or obstructed by some organisation, usually a government department or organisation. Most organisations being bureaucratic in nature, over time rot and become dysfunctional. Therefore they tend to be unresponsive and significantly detached from the needs of the people they employ or are paid to serve, they become obstructive.
  

Its important to remember that in any conflict between a good individual and a bad system, the bad system always wins. This is because the faceless organisation has the resources power and time to frustrate and exhaust the individual. 


A cruel but powerful illustration of burnout can be observed in an experiment carried out by scientists on rats in a laboratory. 

In this experiment rats were placed in two different cages. 
Both cages were wired so that disturbing electricity could flow through the floor of the cage. However in first cage there existed a red lever, which, when bumped against would cause the electrical current to cease flowing. In the second cage there were no options to stop the electrical current flow by the rats.

When activated the first group of mice very quickly learnt to stop the current by bumping against the lever. They neutralised the threat having learnt how to respond. 

In the second group the mice went into a frenzy whenever the current was passed and after some time they merely lay down to await their death..

Now the group of mice were interchanged between the cages. The same current was passed. The mice that learnt of the red lever kept on trying to find solutions. Eventually this group of mice tore open the bottom of the aluminium cage and chewed and short circuited the wires and shut off the flow of the deadly current. They had developed an attitude to find solutions and survive.


 The second group even though having an option to stop the current simply lay down and waited for death rather than looking for solutions. Solutions that were there glaringly right in front of them. They were experiencing burnout.



This is why a small chain can tether a large elephant , because as a calf the baby elephant is conditioned to believe that fighting the chain is useless and the creature should stay put when the chain is fastened around its foot. Its burnout in childhood.  


The human animal is not much different and this is why organised religions take so much interest in the education of the young. Mass education often burns out children before they can even flower.

Have you noticed that many organisations phase out people after a particular age in spite of them being knowledgeable and experienced. Why? Because the system has burnt them out.
They are unable to cope with change and adapt.


Burnout results in people being defeated by indifference, incompetence etc. This could help explain why citizens are unmoved by harmful things like pollution, crime, corruption, violence and unresponsive organisations and governments etc. Once burnt-out people get emasculated and become docile and passive. 

This is why revolutions and changes are almost always initiated by young people that have not yet burnt-out. They do not know what they cannot do, so they often do the seemingly impossible or inconceivable.


Even for the not so young, there is hope, for humans are very resilient. 'The Yellow Vest Protest' revolution currently consuming France shows that, given enough provocation, passion can often be reignited even in Burnt-Out people. 

_________________

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I thought they were poor.

6th December 1993. It was my noble Father in law Major Mohinder Singh ji's 7th death anniversary. 

Mohini, my gentle hearted wife wanted to do something thoughtful as a tribute to her father. We agreed that it would be nice to provide warm shawls to the poor. So we bought a 100 woolen shawls and distributed some to the cook, maid chauffeur and the watchmen and some underprivileged people in the immediate neighbourhood. 

The problem with the Sikh people is they are a hardworking and therefore a prosperous community.  We therefore had no clue where we would find poor people in Pune so we decided to drive around at night and find homeless people and gift them the remaining 85 shawls. Better still we would take our young sons Mohit (10) and Pavit (8) to accompany us to learn about charity.

We were amazed that we could not find any homeless person. Damn! You can't find beggars when you want them. After about 20 min of cruising around in the cold we eventually saw a man sitting cross legged under a tree wearing only a loin cloth.

Mohini asked the boys to gift the shawls with their own hands. So the boys eagerly grabbed one shawl and ran up to him and said "Namaste! it is very cold, we would like you to have this shawl to keep you warm." The boys were shocked when the man snatched the shawl and flung it in the other direction. He scowled at the boys and they fled back to the car.

We drove towards the railway station, there would certainly be some poor people there. After about half an hour, we finally spotted a man sitting on the pavement with two medium sized plastic shopping bags. He appeared lost in thought. Our sons cautiously walked up to him and handed him a shawl.

He was taken aback. He returned the shawl saying, "I don't need this shawl." The boys pressed him to keep it saying that "Don't worry you don't have to pay for it. It's a gift and it will keep you warm during these cold winter nights."

He replied in a strange tone, "I am already struggling to cope with so many possessions" and he pointed to the two plastic bags. "Please take your shawl back as I have no place to keep it. Thank you for your kindness but I am quite comfortable."

Confused and dejected the boys returned back to the car. They refused to proceed with the charity effort that night.

Mohit said "Really strange, we thought these guys were poor, but they behave like they are very wealthy,  mom do you think they are crazy? He is content with his meagre possessions and no roof over his head." He asked "Dad, mom, how can that be possible?"

We had no answer as we drove back home silently, each of us lost in our thoughts, mulling over what had just transpired. It has been 22 years since that incident but none of us speaks about charity in the same arrogant patronising manner anymore. Much, much later we finally came to realise the meaning of that evening.

• The rich are not those who have much but those that have stopped desiring more.
• By accepting the donation the recipient defines the donor.                                                        

The next day we handed the remaining shawls to the Gurudwara* for distribution to the needy.

 __________________________________

A Gurudwara - is a place of congregation for Sikhs to hold religious discourses. They also feed the needy.

Can your children inspire you?

It was eleven years ago, I turned 43. It was my birthday but it was not a happy one. I was depressed and thinking of ways to end my life.

Our family owned organisation was in dire straits. We were in the midst of a terrible economic recession. I was struggling to maintain my sanity and preserve the outstanding image that we had painstakingly built up. There was no money left in the bank and creditors were hounding us. I regretted so many things, the huge debt we had accumulated to fund our aggressive growth to triple our capacity. The craze to be a global leader in our industry by 2010 etc.

To make matters worse our family structure had developed deep and irreparable fissures on the issues relating to how best to resolve the crisis. Completely polarised into different sub groups our world was crashing around us.

Normally happy and optimistic, I felt I was at the nadir of my life.
Of course when you head an organisation you can't just take off. Everyone aspires to get to the top and that is not a bad thing if you enjoy your work. At such times the responsibility that you shoulder is a thousand fold greater than the privileges you enjoy. So there I sat with my head in my hands on the dining table while my food remained untouched.

Then in walked my two sons from their tuitions. They greeted me, wished me happy birthday and gave me birthday cards that they had prepared. The cards were very amateurish, but the words were precious beyond any description.

Pavit wrote;
"All my friends say, that when they were little and didn't know any better, they all thought their fathers were Supermen, but as they grew up they realised that their dad were not Supermen but just men".
"I too, when I was little, thought my dad was a Superman, but now that I have turned 16 and am better informed, I still believe that my dad is a Superman. Happy Birthday".

I hugged my sons and wept. I realised that while we were teaching our children all about life, they were teaching us what life is all about.

I then recalled my wise Uncle’s words “Worries and regret never solve anything, they do not rob tomorrow of its sorrow, they merely sap today of its strength”.

This seemingly insignificant birthday card from my sons, was a powerful inspiration. An inspiration that motivates me even today.