The Indians Abroad

Overseas Living: NRIs & India abroad

Posts Tagged conscience

Thanksgiving – More than Family, Food and a Prayer!

Nov 26

Posted by admin in Consciousness & Awareness, Culture & Society, Non-Resident Indian, NRI, Trivial Stuff | No Comments

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving300x225

Today, on 4th Thursday of every November, America is celebrating Thanksgiving Day. The schools are closed for better part of this week; most of the businesses close Thursday though Sunday. Everybody is in a festive mood.

The American Thanksgiving holiday traces its origins back to 1621 when newly arrived Pilgrims from England held a harvest feast after a successful crop growing season. For more on the history of the holiday, you can take a look at Wikipedia or search online…. :)

So, it is a harvest festival. Over the years, however, it has become a ‘Turkey Day’ – every feast for every family gathering is supposed to include baked or roasted turkey. Cooking a 20 pound turkey is an adventure in itself. There are live help-lines where you can call toll-free from your kitchen for help, if cooking is not going the way you expected; the nice ladies on the other end of the phone are always full of tips and tricks to help you out. This – ‘the turkey tip line’ – is one of the businesses they cannot outsource to India or China, at least not yet! :)

Thanksgiving is the time to thank, as can tell by the name itself – duh! It is time to thank God, family and friends. It is time to thank God for all the good things and good karma bestowed on you. It is time to thank friends and family for their support, for their love, and for standing with you throughout the year. So no doubt, there is lots of feasting, lost of family gatherings and yes, some praying involved.

Regardless where you live, where you come from, or which culture you belong to, the festivals have a similar theme all around the globe. The three main components of most of the festivals are family, eating and praying – may be in varying degrees.

However, perhaps the most fun thing about Thanksgiving is shopping!!

The day after the Thanksgiving, often called Black Friday, is the busiest shopping day of the year; the start of Christmas shopping season. Some of the best deals and bargains are offered on this day, the stores open at 5AM or sooner, and if you want to find a decent parking spot, you better get their long before…..A mob scene at its best! :) Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Someone has to say it!

Sep 4

Posted by admin in Consciousness & Awareness, Culture & Society, Trivial Stuff | 3 Comments

Find the ‘helping’ voice within, that often goes unheard

“There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.” ~ Sophocles

Remember a time when someone needed help and you passed by?
Recall an incident where something felt wrong and thought you should do something and yet, you could not find the courage?
Or, may be it was none of your business, but did you feel bad or guilty walking away?…

In our daily lives, what do we do when we find something wrong, when someone is acting against what we believe is right or moral or ethical?
More often, the answer is ‘nothing’.
We let so many things slide by, it is amazing!
We are often telling our family and friends as to what we believe in, we have our opinions and we are not shy about voicing them. However, the same voice is lost somewhere when we step out of our social or family circle. The opinions get suppressed when we are out of our comfort zone. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Stand up for child rights!

Jul 30

Posted by admin in Consciousness & Awareness, India, Non-Resident Indian | 1 Comment

This is a guest post from Susan Varghese -DGM of Global Operations at Child Rights and You (CRY)

cry1_60

Children are always the most vulnerable victims of any crisis, be it economic, political, social or environmental, as they do not live in isolation – they belong to families, communities and society at large.
The reality of India today is that millions of children continue to have their very survival threatened on a daily basis- by malnutrition, illiteracy, child labour, preventable diseases, abuse and exploitation illustrated by statistics like:
 - One in every six girl children does not survive to see her 12th birthday due to discrimination and neglect
 - 50% of children, aged 6-14 years are not in school
 - 2 million Indian babies die before they celebrate their first birthday
 - Statistics reveal that India has 16.57 million child labourers.

And it is because of this reality that Child Rights and You (CRY) exists today – to be the voice of children, especially Indian.
CRY – Child Rights and You, India’s leading child rights advocate believes that children are citizens in their own right, the future of their countries and the world, entitled to the full spectrum of human rights. We hence work towards restoring rights to underprivileged children, especially in India. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , ,

Need more ugly stories!

Jul 17

Posted by admin in Culture & Society, India, politics | 2 Comments

Finding ways to expose corruption and power abuse in India

Indian politics is often considered synonym for corruption and misuse of power. Most of the politicians in India consider themselves to be beyond and above any law of the land.
A recent incident involving a congress MP Jagannatham slapping a bank manager in broad daylight was luckily captured on a video camera. The recorded footage has been repeatedly played all over the internet and is heavily reported by the media. The publicity of all this made the congress high command to look into the incident seriously, forcing the MP to tender an unconditional apology. The police is also investigating the case.
If there is anything positive in this ugly story, is the story itself – the power of the internet and media coverage to expose the behavior of a politician. Unfortunately, there are many more daily incidents like this all over India that go unreported. The reason for so many untold ugly stories is quite simple. There is no camera to capture them, or no brave witness to narrate them. The daily corruption and power abuse is in full swing mainly because of the lack of exposure of the wrongdoers, and the fear of retaliation against those who dare to report them.
While there are some brave souls who have made it their mission to clean up India’s future by exposing these incidents, an average person is hesitant to do much about it. For the fear of retaliation, an average family man or woman does not want to take the risk of whistleblowing under normal circumstances.
The life goes on, with corruption and power-abuse hidden in the plain sight. Nobody wants to touch it, no one wants to talk about it.
Oscar Wilde said, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
So, the best alternate could be to use a mask, meaning report this unethical behaviors anonymously. It is a today’s need of India to find a mask for an average person, so he or she can tell the truth about corruption and power abuse without any fear. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Karma Concept

May 15

Posted by admin in Consciousness & Awareness, Culture & Society, India, Karma, personal development, Religion | 5 Comments

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” ~ Unknown

‘As you sow, so shall you reap.’
‘The present is nothing but a result of our own past actions.’
‘Our present and future is affected by the cause and effects of our past.’
All this is karma, the reflection or effects of our own doings from the past. Over time, we are expected to be punished or negated for the bad deeds, and rewarded for the good ones. The concept of Karma is the basis of world equilibrium, a way of balancing the universe. The inequalities are related to the constructive or destructive actions of human beings.
As we all know, a person’s true identity is not based on his words but his actions. In very basic terms, someone with good intentions and clear conscious living a noble life is expected to have good karma. Any incident that adversely affects our life is blamed on bad karma – the result of destructive or ‘bad’ deeds from the past.
Of course, this is simplification, but our karma can be directly related to our conscience.A person with clear conscience always thinks twice before doing something hurtful or bad. He/she often sticks to a positive outlook and prefers ‘right’ actions, instead of the ‘wrong’ ones. The conscience providesw us the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. The karma eventually rewards him/her for all the beneficent or ‘right’ actions. On the contrary, someone without a conscience would be more inclined to be selfish and sinful, less thoughtful while taking advantage of a situation with no regard for others’ welfare. Those actions eventually catch up with us, and the karma is bound to punish sooner or later for ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ deeds. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,