Skirt in the Issue

Skirts!! A fashion revelation in the true sense of the word. Now, i hope i carry both the genders with me on this opinion.

Lets explore wat it tells you about the female wearing it

1) skirts tending to ghaghra or skirts tending till calf muscles: The most abused use of the sexy garment, by and large. Now, what wil one conclude when shes wearin one..She is a Prude!!! Maybe...She is submissive ...still Maybe... or better still...she hasn't been to the parlor recently..very probable. she has ugly legs..unfortunately this also has a maybe tag. Now, all in all a lots of maybe's. Now the question is with a bunch of maybe's wat can we conclude..Maybe..(Yes Maybe Again!!)..Nothing!!.

Now dont get dissappointed .... Lets do some emprirical analysis. Which femlaes have u seen them wearin and wen...well..if i think back...primarily and by and large...they fall into two sets which mite overlap...Fat legged woman or Old-Fashioned Prudes. Are we interested in Both...normally not..definetely not the latter. Nobody likes them..no girl..no guy......now comin to woman with fat legs...they can swing either ways on our judgement...a lot of "It Depends..U see". So overall..this category one should not be categorized too fast...and one shud take time to evaluate and should observe other visual and personality clues to add to our basic understanding and then come to a conclusion.

2) Thigh: Now, this woman means Business...( Remeber we are speakin by and large cases) ...she is going to b more direct...so either flirtin will be very easy or very difficult. She by no means is a middle path follower...she can eat u in bed..or shrug at the very mention. These woman are more feminist than not..but like to yield to an intelligent man.

Oh Crap!! I gtg..will complete this one..shortly...!!!

Rock On PPL

A Man's Curse

Its strange for me to choose this topic, but recent events have forced me to believe that most men are cursed, very few ...i mean really few probably a one out of a 1000 are spared by it.

I mean why is it assumed that every man approaches a woman for only one reason..i mean its ridiculus for most men and women to think that there is just one connection to be made.

There are men and women alike who are brought up in very cosmo surroundings, where the distinction is hardly made between the two sexes in day to day life. They just see a complete set of friends to have some men as well as some women. Afterall, its this diversity which helps an individual grow in totality. Both genders are hardly distinguished, a diner with a girl as is seen similar to a dinner with a guy and no questions of what happened later are asked. The physical pleasure is hardly ever seen as important, there is plenty to grab and nobody cares a shit about it. Freindships are what people see in relationships and that is the only motive for an action towards anybody...male or female.

Obviosuly there are some from the opposite gender that will atract you but your urge to be anythign sexual comes only in two circumstances. First, when both of you have got to know each other well, very well indeed and you and the other person are sure of what you want to do. Secondly, when both of you dunno each other but accept for a one night stand or a fling or just a 15 min ..u know what. But either is driven by a mutual consent, afterall havin fun is the reason for living .some people might call it being content and happy ...but i prefer to cal it fun.

Thats how it works in the civilized world where i come from. But i guess its not the same with everyone, and definitely not at all places.

In these places and of those people i talk about now are the sorts who can just attach one motive for any gesture, any touch, any hand of acquintance or frienship. How can I or any person with any sense do everything with the opposite gender with one motive...I mean how can one??? The norms of these people and society are so bloody different, it can twist any level headed guy who might be acting without any motive. I feel these people and palces havent developed the maturity of seeing people as people, rather they jump so fast to clasify them in either of the two gender as if fuckin my genitals are the only organ which define me.

I hate those people who feel any act directed towards them is an act directed at one thing, how freakin self obsessed. Cant it bloody just be a sweet geture or just a random gesture without any motive or anything...but i guess i wont understand them..n they wont understand me.

And more than females, the motives are attached to male. A female can get away with it but a man hardly ever..guys believe it so easily as if they know there is a evil lurkin in them n they feel its common to men, girls take clue fast coz they love to discard men and feel more important as if they were desired...This is a mans curse...And india is prob the worst place ..the curse seems to be in full action...i partly belive its bcoz most of us are sex starved and r taught sex is a taboo..wen its not...its just another act..but watver that aitn my point today...the point is a MANS CURSE....i hate the curse to inflicted upon me by people who couldnt matter less in their opinion but could make it worse for me in thier judgement.


it feels useless to write this bloody blog, thought theres a lot many more points i would like to touch upon, but i stop here. Coz it makes no fuckin difference to the people who will read it..or prob no one ever will. What makes me stop is either of these two reasons, which one i dunno...

Rock On!! and please be open minded..

One Stop Shop

Hi,

I am writing after long, partly work and partly my hectic social life kept me away from my blog. (I love to pretend i am doing something in life..hahaha)

Anyways, all of us have been hearing this huge buzz about retail, one-stop shop, everything under one roof and the jazz.A particualr shoppers stop wants to be a one stop for our dressing up needs, a pantaloon which also wants to do that, a big bazaar wanting to be one stop shop for all home needs and then home furnsihing stores catering to everyhting to do with your house.

And thats not the end, industry experts call it the beggining, I aint listening..but guess who is..

Today morning i read this article in my favorite newspaper supplement delhi times, that Delhi Governement is soon gonna set up the next one stop shop - all your bills(electricity, water, telephone) can be paid while you can get your ration card or election card maid or you can bother booking an appointment at the nearest governement hospital (Appoitnments @ Govt. Hospital??? does such a thing exist) or pay yout IT bills or any other taxes you owe the governemnt. I guess they provided all services except probably the judiciary or may be that will follow soon. All this by 2007 and that too 1500 outlets (Are the racing with subiksha on who can open more outlets?? My bet is soon a paanwalla is gonna go modern retailing, and will beat all of them hollow...Bingo!!).

Well, I am not here to give you facts and figures or tell you what the government is doing or where to put your money, but asking a simple question do we want a one stop shop for everyhting???

I mean with my all due respect to this nice concept, i storngly feel we are stretching it. Imagine, do you just want to go to one stop to shop from a nail polish to the Rs.10,000 watch?? Do you like picking all your clothes at one shop, isnt the fun in discovering new shops, new outlets, different styles, differents lables and prices.

Are we moving back to be the typical middleclass housewife who used to visit superbazaar once every month to buy her grocery, and stock it for a month. Dont we deserve better than that??

After all the 8%+ GDP groth, the rise in incomes and avenues to spend it are we looking at one stop shops for everything?? Do i want to buy a 2000 Rs shirt from the same store which i want to buy a cheap discouneted shirt at Rs.500. Are we gonna feel more premium about wearing the Rs.500 shirt now or less premium about wearing the Rs.2000 shirt ??

Please, dont get me wrong, i am not against one stop shops or modern retial. But there is an undercurrent, theres is a rationality which the current market economics is trying to defy.

At a point of time, people said they buy shirt from shopper stop and used to feel that they are the premium segment, I used to. Now suddenly, I don't - most eople around me dont. Shopper stop is like this huge discount store, where i am not gonna get the range in any one brand, no exclusivity and has less of a premuim tag attached to it. Would i really wanna buy a 2500 shirt from there, when two racks down the shirt os for Rs.599???

It is a known fact that we need choices, and we need choices to shop too. We dont want 6 huge retial giants, we want a 1000 different outlets serving the niche giving me my kinda product, helping me diffrentiate myself.

Indian consumers are gonna skip one step in their evolution as amodern day developed country consumer, and my question is to all the marketers that is that one step the one stop shop for everything???

For any laymen raeading this, just answer to yourself and please do so, answer whether you want to buy all your needs from one place, whether you want to eat different cousines all at one place, do you wanna buy the cheap and the expensive at one place, dont i want choices, dotn i wanna discover new shops, dotn i wanna???

In all this i pay ode to delhi governement as i feel the have got it right.

we dont wanna discover new bill payment sozes do we??, we dont like paying our bills, do we?? we dotn wanna travel for a ration card or election, do we?? Lets leave the appointments at the governemnts hospitals out of the disccussion as i am sure they dotn knwo what they are talking about.

But overall, providing one sotp solutions for such boring mundane things that one needs to do to survive do need a one stop shop as nobody likes doing them. Similarly, for Vegetable and grocery shopping, nobody likes it..so one stop saves time, energy and the blah...But not everything is boring, mundane and things we dont want to do....So think before you open your next retail shop...or think of buying from one...

But yes, let this be a one stop shop for discussion on life, philosphy, management and relationships. Hahahahaha

The last flicker before the candle goes out

Today another one goes out..i feel i have grown old today, as i did not feel the usual sting i used to when one of them went out. Today, I just sighed!!! Today it was just a small halt of my mind, as if raising its hat for the smallest fraction of a second to salute the one gone by, and then it was back to the usual poetry of daily life.

The candle i am referring to is a human being and the light was the talent, the zeal, the passion, the determination to devote endless hours to the pursuit of creation...... Its unusual, I am young (21), and i have already seen so many lights extinguish that i seem to have come to terms with it. No longer an effort to put my hand and burn it to stop one from going out. I myself wonder why????

Anyways ...n moving on..

Some go out with a flicker and some dont!! Its rare to see talent in this sea of second-raters, i long for seeing people who wanna make a difference , who have potential and want to use it. The tsunami of second-raters and their love for status quo sweeps them over, blowing them out one by one.

Its on days like these that you remember a book called Atlas Shrugged and a lady called Ayn Rand.

Rest in Peace!!! May the world not run out of them, may two be born for every one of them is merely a hope. I do hope, but dont know if i use the word in a positive or a negative sense. Alas, its evening again and something dull bout the sky, the usual stillness has set in, typical of most evenings, I m eagerly waiting for the night ...donno why...maybe just hoping that the darkness of night will provide some shelter..some activity.....i m waiting.... for what..not quite sure...i love nights...

Just wondering that is this the truth of society? is this what they call the secrets of adult hood? the stepping stone to maturity...is this the shameful reality that they hide from a kid. For how long will we survive the the burning out of candles, what if all of them burn out? On whose shoulders will they rest the burden of their hope,WHO will move them forward from one civilization era to another, who will make time count.

Why does not anyone speak out..why do not we hear a voice when the talent is stamped upon..all we see and only sometimes so is a flicker..a flicker before the burn out.!!!

I can go on writing about it..knowing well that you would have stopped reading long back...anyways i will stop here....just one last memorable quote

"A cause has been defeated today ..the effect lost forever....I am holding ..n shall all my life..thats the purpose of my living."

VALUE OF A BRAND

Why acquisitions in 1980’s took place at a value 25-40% higher than Net Tangible Assets?

1980’s saw a peculiar trend of companies being valued at a much higher a price than the value of net tangible assets. In 1981, net tangible assets represented 82% of the total value of acquisitions and this number had declined to 56% by 1988. Thus, there was an increasing role being played by the intangibles not captured by the balance sheets. These intangibles were clubbed together as “goodwill” and contained a host of factors like brand value, patents, customer loyalty, employee knowledge etc. A substantial part of this was attributed or can be attributed to the BRAND VALUE. The trend led to emergence of a new financial valuation; Brand Valuation. And over the last two decades the subject has been extensively researched, models refined and several new models proposed and today, almost all big companies include this figure in their annual reports. Through this article we track the emergence of brand valuation, explain the fundamentals behind the models existing today and end with an example of brand valuation in a 21^st century company.

Brand Valuation: The History

The knowledge that a brand can be leveraged to generate revenues for a company always existed and companies often used an arbitrary mechanism to compute the future value or the strategic advantage that acquiring a brand would garner. But it was only in the late 1980’s that a series of brand acquisitions exposed the hidden value in highly branded companies and brought brand valuation to the fore. Some of these acquisitions included Nestlé buying Rowntree, United Biscuits buying and later selling Keebler, Grand Metropolitan buying Pillsbury and Danone buying Nabisco's European businesses. All these acquisitions were at high multiple price tags. Though these acquisitions gave strength to the argument in favor of Brand Valuation and also led to some research work and some modal formulation, it was only in 1988 that a figure appeared on a company’s balance sheet under the title brand value. In 1988, Rank Hovis McDougal (RHM) faced a hostile takeover bid and to counter the bid it incorporated brand value in its balance sheet. This was the first instance of the figure entering the balance sheet and soon many companies followed suit and today almost all companies incorporate these figures. Today, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is on the verge of including brand valuation as a standard accounting practice.

Brand Valuations: The Methods

Over the past two decades several methods have been proposed but they can be broadly classified into three categories: The Financial Approach, The Marketing Approach and The Economics Approach.

The Finance Approach: The finance approach can further be categorized into three categories: Cost Based Approach, Comparables Approach and Premium Price Approach.

The Cost Based Approach primarily deals with valuing the brand in-terms of historical cost incurred on the brand or in some cases the replacement costs. These costs are typically advertising costs, promotional costs, marketing costs and communication costs etc. This process is not very popular as many studies have established that there is no co-relation between such expenditures and brand value. The effect of advertising, promotion and marketing cannot be captured by costs as various factors like targeting the right segment, positioning, stirring emotions, building aspirations etc go into building a brand image and hence brand value. For the above mentioned reasons this process is no longer used by firms.

The Comparables Approach is used normally as check mechanism. The approach primarily deals with valuing comparable brands to arrive at a value for your brand. But the whole motive behind building a brand is differentiation and hence comparison is not a very good method. But it is still used by some firms as a check mechanism on values obtained by other methods.

The Premium Price Approach is the most popular financial approach and the value is calculated as the net present value (NPV) of future price premiums that a branded product would command over an unbranded or generic equivalent. The approach is criticized on two accounts, one being that it does not take into account future increase in demand that a brand might be able to stimulate and second that it ignores the premium of other marketing mix elements like distribution channel etc.

The Marketing Approach: The models under this category are generally referred to as brand-equity models. They do not do any financial analysis but instead they measure the consumer’s attitude and behavior towards the brand. The measure these perceptions and attitudes of consumer and translate and relate them to consumers preference and purchasing behavior. This approach measures a large number of perceptive (aided recall, unaided recall etc.) and behavioral aspects (market share, relative price etc). These approaches are criticized as they completely ignore the financial aspects and despite high valuation from such methods, the company might still make a loss on that brand.

The Economics Approach: The most popular and most widely used method. Used in more than 4000 brand valuations today and combines both the marketing approach and the financial approach to brand valuation. It covers the marketing aspect of brands by calculating ability of a brand to generate demand, the ability to cause re-purchase, and the customer loyalty. It captures the financial by calculating he NPV of future expected earnings and the discount rate used is an indicative of risk associated with these future earnings. Given below is a simple algorithm used to calculate brand value through this method.

Step1: Segment the market in homogenous and non-overlapping segments

Step 2: Forecast revenues and earnings from intangibles generated by the brand for each of the distinct segments

Step 3: Identify various drivers of demand in each segment, and then establish the extent that the brand will affect these drivers.

Step 4: Determine the competitive strengths and weakness of a brand relative to other players and also assess the riskiness of the business environment. This helps us calculate the discount rate to be used for calculating NPV

Step 5: Calculate now the NPV of cash flows associated with this brand in each segment and discount it with the discounting rate in each segment. We then sum the NPV of different segment to arrive at the Brand Value.

Infosys: The Indian Brand

Infosys realizes that brand is an essential component of goodwill of a company and its Annual Report for 2006 cites the example of Coca-Cola whose brand value is 64% of its market capitalization. Infosys adopts a similar model as used by Coca-Cola to value its brand. The model is based on economics approach as described above and is known as brand-earning-multiple model and has several variants. The one used by Infosys is generic brand-earning-multiple model*.

We will just briefly overview the methodology used to arrive at the final figure for Brand Value of Infosys.

The first step involves all brand related earnings that a company foresees in the future. This is done by first calculating the total cash flows a company foresees in the future and then subtracting from them all non-brand cash flows. The result is then discounted to arrive at a NPV of these brand-earnings. The next stage involves restating previous year brand-profits and adjusting them for present value. We then take a weighted average of these figures and arrive at a Weighted Average of Profits. We then provide for remuneration of capital used for non-branding purposes. This figure is finally adjusted for tax to arrive at the Brand Value.

BE A BILLIONAIRE

DO YOU HAVE A BILLION-AIR(E) IN YOU

This particular entry is a book review: MUST READ, thats y its on my blog...

Think Like a Billionaire

Author: Donald Trump with Meredith McIver

Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York, 2004. Pages: 286

Price: Rs.265 or Us $ 7.99

The book like all other Donald Trump books is a classic and touches upon several aspects of success, money and life. The book’s title is pretty much a one line summary of what to expect inside. He indeed tells you how he thinks, acts and lives in his characteristic crisp and proud manner. Don’t mistake this book for just another management book teaching you to be successful, it doesn’t. He just tells you how to think, act and live like billionaires by quoting examples from his life, and by giving a sneak peek into his own life. Donald Trump is no management “Guru” but is a real life billionaire and therefore you wont find direct lessons on time management, managing teams, or managing customers or any management theories or jargons, but instead he tells you about how to handle people, how to strike deals, how to rely on intuition, how to give in your best, how to negotiate, how to love your dreams and more importantly how to live your dreams. Sounds good huh!!!! It is.

The book gives you an in depth knowledge about real estate, money and how to invest in financial markets, and how to make a better impact as you go about doing your daily activities. But as I mentioned he is not a specialist or management guru and therefore doesn’t go in too deep with any topic but gives an overview and mentions certain basics do’s and don’ts. Overall this book is a must read for those who want to live their dream, be a billionaire or a millionaire, or those who want to play golf with him someday.

The book starts with an introduction and there-on the book is divided into five parts.

The introduction primarily tells you how billionaires think and then goes further to give you top ten ways of thinking like a billionaire. At times he does sound extreme with his philosophies but then he lives those value and has made billions of dollar doing so, so I won’t pass judgments on them but would surely advice to filter his advices to suit you and your ways of doing things but whatever you do make sure you learn because he is speaking from experience and a very vast one at that. For example he proudly states in the very second page “I believe in God. If God ever wanted an apartment in Trump Tower, I would offer my best luxury suit at a very special price”. This statement might sound offending to many but it clearly exhibits that he respects other people’s belief in God but would never lose his values – value of making profit and striking a good deal, ALWAYS. So though Trump is crude and to the point in putting his thoughts across and doesn’t put literary sugarcoating on his writing, as readers we should be careful when we react to his lines, either in awe or in defense, and just try and learn from him. The top ten ways of thinking like a billionaire as given by Trump is an excellently compiled and written list and he substantiates it by quoting examples of other billionaires.

Book gets even better in as he starts with his first part of the book- REAL ESTATE, as he is the biggest guy in the real estate market and is the best in the business. This part is not only a must for those who want to make a living of real estate and property but for almost anyone who plans to buy/sell a house presently or in the future. He further divides the 46 pages into 17 small chapters of 2 or 3 pages making it very simple and understandable to even a laymen like me. He covers a myriad of topics within real estate from the importance of location, to hiring a contractor, to renovation, interior designing, landscaping, to renting an apartment, to how to read real estate ads, how to sell a house, to how to select and make offices. But anybody looking for a very thorough insight into the real estate markets and functioning of property markets would be disappointed as he just gives basic guidelines and guiding principles and doesn’t delve deep into the functioning of the real estate markets. Probably he could have gone more into the details as people would have loved to hear it from the man himself and moreover since that is his core competency. This part has few pages of photographs of himself, his apartment and his beautiful fiancé Melania, and his family. All this makes the reader feel closer to Trump and relate to him and also have a look at his family and his house and I may add that both of them look rather impressive.

The second part deals with something all of us love-MONEY. This part covers the typical aspects of handling money like how to invest, balance risk, plan for retirement, invest in bonds etc.. Again he gives the basic things to keep in mind while handling our own money but not enough information if you want to learn about investing. Frankly, I am a little disappointed with his treatment of this part as he states things one can find in any book on investing, finance or money management. But I must add what you won’t find in any other book is the effortless simplicity with which he teaches you the basics through a number of very small chapters. Another good thing about this part is the fact that the end leads you to the next part which is the best part of the book in my opinion.

The third part is the most interesting and a must read for everyone, it is titled-THE BUSINESS OF LIFE. The first paragraph of this part gives a very accurate indication of the underlying emphasis of all the chapters in this part. He writes “You are your own storefront, your own manager, your own brand, so don’t screw it up by making bad decisions in life”. He further talks about the fact that there is no distinction between Personal and work business and in fact they are both a part of you and should be handled carefully and in the best manner possible. The 52 pages in this part are divided into 21 chapters. It’s remarkable how he is managed to cover almost every aspect of life in just 52 pages and in a very precise, crisp and a simple manner. The first chapter talks about loving your job and Trump gives a few simple but highly useful tips to do so. He then dedicates the next chapter on promoting oneself and gives the simplest way to promote oneself. It is so simple that after reading this 1 page you might curse yourself of not having thought of it yourself. He further dedicates chapters to handling meetings with people and organizing your workplace. His next chapter is another common sense lesson which we seem to ignore- the importance of grooming and dressing for the occasion. He then moves onto topics like romance and its importance in every aspect of your life. Trump moves on to discuss many more issues in our daily lives and teaches us very simply how to make every activity more important, productive and fun. He talk about everything from impressing people to marriage, to friends, to loyalties, to the best brands to places, to getting better service, to etiquettes, to vacationing and the list goes on. It’s rather comprehensive.

By this time, he already impresses you by the way he takes pride in everything he does, the people he associates with to the food he eats. He throughout the books talks good things about people he works with and gives their examples, endorses product he uses and takes immense pride in telling the reader about his various brilliant decisions. So half way through the book, you know the author lives every value he preaches and has made billions doing so which makes you trust everything he writes or at least treat everything he writes with respect. He further makes it more illustrative through pictures and cartoons of himself, another brilliant method to make the reader feel closer and connect with him. The only drawback is that sometimes he makes you feel that as if he is trying to sell you everything associated with him, probably he can keep this in mind while writing his next book which I sincerely hope that he does as his books make a brilliant read.

Part 4 makes an interesting read because it is about how Trump lives his life and it’s aptly titled – SLICES OF THE BILLIONAIRE’S LIFE. It’s a brilliant part 4 as he exemplifies as he takes us through his life what all he has mentioned in the book so far. He starts by taking matters that are close to him like Columbia University and the mistakes they made, the mess UNITED NATIONS have become in the recent past, the Statue of Liberty, People magazine, Beauty Pageants- Miss USA, Miss Universe, Miss world - that he owns, to the famous Mar-a-Lago diet. Confused!!! Never heard of this diet before, Understandable, Trump calls it the billionaire’s diet. So you should know about it because your chances of being one increase after reading this book. He also takes about his appearance on Saturday Night Live. And then comes the most gripping 40 pages of the book- A week in Trumps life. He gives a very detailed account of each day of an entire week in his life. The day is broken into 15 minutes slots to half an hour slots and each slot has a detailed account of what he was doing those 15 minutes. It is like living with a billionaire for an entire week. And it is as cool as it sounds and perhaps cooler.

The 5^th and the final part of this brilliant book is about his Reality TV show- The Apprentice. This part clearly tells us how much he likes his show and also how surprised he is at his own success as a Reality TV show host. He takes us through the success of the first series of the show and talks about the making of the second series. He talks in length of the 18 new contestants and also gives us details of the first four shows of the yet unreleased second series of the show. Unless you are a die hard apprentice fan, this part is quite a drag and he goes overboard with his obsession with his new show assuming everyone would love reading 40 pages about this show. But it is not as bad is I am making it sound, it gives you a good insight on how the show functions and how Trump manages to shoot and manage his multi-billion dollar empire at the same time, which indeed is incredible. So this part is not a complete waste but surely far less relevant than the previous 4 parts.

Overall an excellent book and as New York Times put it “truly astonishing achievement”. The book brilliantly covers a myriad of topics without getting lost in the abstract. Substantiating most things with examples and use of simple language makes the book very reader friendly. Also the use of his personal photographs makes for an amazing visual support and makes the audience connect better with Trump. The book completely justifies the title and is an amazing learning experience.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone who has dreamt of being rich, successful and

Famous. And if you don’t want to be all of the above, still read it cause you might want to after this book because Trump shows us how much fun it is to be all of that. So if you have a dream, read it to know how to get there and if u don’t have one, still read it to get one.

Other books by the same author:

• Trump: The art of Deal
• Trump: Surviving at the Top
• Trump: The art of comeback
• The America we deserve
• Trump: How to get Rich

RELIGEON-BEST BULLSHIT OSCAR

RELIGION:

THE BIGGEST BULLSHIT STORY TOLD TO MANKIND

The reason I chose this topic for my blog because I feel it is high time we break away from the shackles of something as stupid as religion. We have already seen in various instances that how religion is a cause for a wide range of problems ranging from terrorism, to feticide, to riots, to moral policing, to reservation, to many others. BUT, the biggest problem is a more psychological one, i.e. people start believing in right and wrong, they start talking about abstract things like faith and belief, they start thinking that their destiny is controlled by someone else, they stop reasoning, and above all religion has led to the death of individualism. I strongly believe that if we can do away with religion we will have a better and a more successful society with healthier minds.

In the following lines, I am putting forth my arguments on why religion makes no sense at all and how the very concept of “God” is illogical.

ORIGIN OF RELIGION

Let us go back in history and see how God came into being, God came into being because of the FEAR of the unknown that the early man had. He did not understand the natural forces of rain, sun, water, lightening and feared them and therefore started worshipping them in the hope that praying to them would prevent him/her from natural calamities. Are we still an early man?? Do we still don’t understand them?? Does it make any sense that an earthquake or a landslide or a flood can be averted by folding hands and uttering some verses?? Well, rationality will say “NO” to all these questions.

FEAR led to the start of the religion and then mediocrity and inability of people to fight the battle of life alone, led to GOD becoming even stronger as the people wished to have a kind of an elder brother who would stand by them in their difficulties and will work to make them happy. In other words GOD and RELIGION are the name given by humans to their fear, inabilities and mediocrity.

“Religion is based...mainly on fear...fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand” - Bertrand Russell

Ever wondered why so many religions to preach us the same thing. Well being an economics graduate I might want to believe that they didn’t want a monopoly in the “Fear Capitalization” market and therefore made sure there was perfect competition. How considerate!!! Well, the reason why so many religions exist is because some smart@#$% realized that he can capitalize on fear and gutlessness of people to rule them and due to no patent laws, his brilliant idea was soon stolen by many others and now all of them are trying hard to propagate fear, irrationality, and faith to rule people.

“When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray". We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”- Anonymous

So many people believe in religion, try and ask them why?? And the probable answers would be “I have faith in him” or “he has always helped me” or “I feel better when I pray to him” and the best one being “Sshh!! Don’t say such things, God will punish you”.

My argument to all of them is that there is no proof of existence of God. There is so no need or use of a god, and if you are weak enough to need someone to help you through life, well I doubt whether you deserve to live in the first place. If the belief in God were natural, there would be no need to teach it. Children would possess it as well as adults, the layman as the priest, the heathen as much as the missionary. We don't have to teach the general elements of human nature--the

five senses, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. They are universal; so would religion be if it was natural, but it is not.

RELIGEON vs SCIENCE

Religion has always tried to block the path of the scientific progress. The reasons being simple, if science explains the unknowns then nobody would fear the unknown and their power would be gone. Also, in the past religious places were the providers of education and therefore any new development would make their teachings invalid and thus will lead to people questioning their knowledge and superiority. An excerpt from The Philosophy of Atheism, by Joseph Lewis - Atheism has given to the human race the intellectual monarchs of the world. When the great Darwin discovered the law of the origins of species, he was called an Atheist because he disproved the special creation of Man. When the Chemist went into his laboratory and discovered the indestructibility of matter, he was called an Atheist because he proved the impossibility of a Creator.

"It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

- Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871), Introduction

Galileo is a case in example where he was put to trial because he was able to prove that sun is the centre of solar system and not the earth, which was in contradiction to what religion taught. In fact, during Galileo’s trail Cardinal Bellarmine said that Galileo’s theory is as erroneous as claiming that Jesus was not born out of a virgin. Galileo was not the only one; there were many pioneers of science who had to face the brunt of religion.

RELIGION and INDIVIDUAL

When we are young, do we differentiate between our friends, neighbors, classmates on the basis of religion or caste ( which is a product of religion)? NO, we do not. When we are young, do we think that if we do not worship God, something bad will happen to us? NO, we do not. As kids, do we know the societal rules of right and wrong? NO, we do not. But, as we grow up these rules, this faith and these differentiations are forced upon us by society, by parents, by teachers, by education.

A pre-determined set of rules, rights and wrongs interferes with the individuals development, it restricts his/her free flow of thoughts, it stops him from making the effort to form his own opinions, it prevents him from reaching his individual potential, it weakens his questioning power, weakens his resolve and more than anything else it makes him afraid, confused and lose touch with his contradictions, the ones that every human being should seek to sort out to succeed and progress.

"The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge”-Frank Zappa

Faith is irrationality. Faith is not trust. Faith is blind and irrational. Faith is belief in something without any supporting evidence. Trust is belief in something based on evidence or a proven history.

"If you think your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument rather than by persecution, and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if your belief is based upon faith, you will realize that argument is useless, and will therefore resort to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting or distorting the minds of the young in what is called 'education.'" - Bertrand Russell

"Truth does not demand belief. Scientists do not join hands every Sunday singing, "Yes, gravity is real! I will have faith! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down, down. Amen!" If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about it." [ex-preacher Dan Barker]

God is also the reason of various differences that human beings have created for themselves, be it caste, religion, or various other intra-religion divisions. These divisions lead to groupism, terrorism, hatred, pain, riots etc. Also many social evil also find their root cause in religion, for e.g. sati.

I would like to conclude by saying that religion is a product of, and also the propagator of, ignorance, fear, irrationality and therefore hampers with the development of an individual.

It is high time we shun religion and move ahead. Let us break away from this stupid groupism and let us denounce it. Let the downfall of religion mark the beginning of a new era where an individual is not seen as a component of society whose function is to serve society but a system wherein individuals are more important than the society and the society aids the individuals growth. It is time we follow the path of some people who managed to leave god and religion for lesser mortals – Ayn rand, Howard Hughes, Donald Trump,Thomas Alva Edison, Noam Chomsky, Isaac Asimov, Mark Twain, Sir Richard Burton, Buddha, Jawaharlal Nehru, Larry ellison, Linus Pauling, Sir John Gielgud, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and the list goes on.

DONT SAVE THE WORLD

REDISTRIBUTION ON WEALTH

It is strange that as you look around and listen to, read and watch media, all you hear are reports on how to help the poor nations and how development is happening at their cost. All of us must have come across at least one article about how 50% of the worlds population own 5% of the income and 5% own 50% of the income.

They would talk in all glory about redistribution of wealth?? have u ever wondered whose wealth....the rich of course rt!!! But if it belongs to the rich, what rt does society have on this wealth, its his after all..he worked hard for it...he slogged his #$% off, he worked when u slept, he sacrificed the Sunday mornings and the little pleasures of day to day life..to earn..to become wealthy..the rich....

But, of course how can i forget!!!! he earned it at their expense, they don't have money because he took it away..what a selfish pig..himself has five course meals but these poor hard working souls are left with no meals..what a heartless soul..isn't he....but the poor man has been taught by his god to forgive..and he shall...and all he seeks in return is not as much wealth ..but just a part..some redistribution...just a quarter of his wealth for his benefit and other unfortunate ones!!

Our esteemed economists have got it all wrong..even I am an economist by education and i daresay that like economists always do..i too disagree with other economists..the developmental economists...

I disagree with any notion which talks about earning at others expense...a few rare cases earn without deserving..most deserve it..

Confused????? .....

Lets look at the language...wealth by definition is created. We always say "he created wealth"..."he build an empire"..creation of a company...the very way of saying should give us an hint that wealth or money is not mass or energy that the overall amount in the universe needs to be constant. Wealth is ever growing and a function of peoples ability and their skill. Thus, wealth is not a constant amount and therefore if one gains, the others have to lose. All can gain and all can lose at any point of time.

So the rich never stole it away from the poor..he worked hard when the poor slept, he created wealth while the poor did not. The rich created wealth through hard work, sweat, determination, a fighting spirit and by acquiring information and knowledge.

the rich was alert to changing markets, to new needs and he catered to it...he spent time and effort in getting information, making plans...he slogged while the poor laughed at him...thinking he is mad to work so hard and not enjoy....but the rich did...the poor said don't run fast..the rich did...poor thought things were impossible..rich proved him wrong....THE RICH THUS CREATED WEALTH WHICH NEVER EXISTED AND WOULD NEVER HAVE IF LEFT TO THE POOR.

Then they became poor and rich....and when they did..it was bad...there was a divide...there were haves and have nots...

Then we spoke out redistribution...of what...for what reason...redistribution of a wealth that poor couldn't have created..or is it an apology for working hard and creating something...

Lets imagine..just imagine..if the rich never worked hard..n doesn't create wealth...lets imagine the top 5% didn't create 50% of wealth. Lets represent each % by one unit. So the top 5% don't create 50 units of wealth but just 0.5 units going by the proportion of 50% poor people creating or earning 5 units of wealth. So, now the world has 50.5 units of wealth and not 100 units of wealth. So the income available for distribution itself is almost 50% of earlier wealth...if we have lesser wealth...its common logic that we can sustain probably much lesser of our 6.6billion people than we could with 100 units of wealth.

So lot of people die..now will u blame the rich for not working?? and not earning for these poor souls whose existence is a function of how much wealth 5% create and so that they pay taxes, and in creation process employ millions and provide them food, shelter and clothing. But if they don't create...governments will not have taxes to build anything for the "poor" who didnt do anything all his life and never will..there will be no social security...and 100's millions others will lose their jobs...economies would collapse..the bottom of the pyramid will vanish overnight as the worlds income is halved and nothing is left to redistribute...

If we keep talking about redistribution..the top 5% capable of making money will not do so..as they might lose their incentive..world will come to a standstill...let them earn freely...without accusing them..coz the day they stop...it will be Armageddon....

i hope u got the hint...stop fucking talkin about it redistribution as if its your right...stop begging in the name of some morals and values which benefits the lazy, the non-worker, the non-worthy!!!!

Obviously people would argue on equal opportunity ....that shall be taken in my next blog..titled opportunity..

watch out this space for update of this one!!

MEDiOCRiTY

MEDiOCRiTY

A rather often heard word in the adult world, and mind you its not used in bad context either, not most of the times. Its accepted and agreed upon, after all what would striving hard get you than some selfish gains. It shocks me, how its normal limiting to a standard. Are we born with an understanding to accept it or is it another phenomenon which springs up when people become matured. I wonder...and wonder....

But go to a school-a junior school and talk about mediocrity or averagers and I bet you will get the worst stare of your life, as if you have spoken something so ridiculous..in fact it is!! A child doesn't understand or appreciate mediocrity, he understands achieving or losing. There are haves and have nots, not necessarily in the economical sense. It can be academic, sports, extra-curricular or just being the prankster, but children only appreciate the best and laugh on those who lost. Wondering what happens to mediocrity.....It is IGNORED, it is INCONSEQUENTIAL. It stands ALONE, unnoticed and no collectivism and groupism whose strength will make them counted. Therefore, a child just understands the simple black and white and is oblivious to the grey, wondering why we make such a big deal about it, as the individuals in the future will compete only with individuals worthy of competition. And definitely the mediocre will not be worthy, he will never count. Losers are still taken notice, because they tried, they had lost because they had the guts to compete. Their guts will always make them counted. Anyways, lets move back to the unnoticed, after all it feels bad to be ignored so much.

While losers are laughed upon, our mediocre is ignored. mediocres feel bad..very bad..and quite obviously so. And the problem starts, coz slowly but very surely these mediocres get together, join hands but are still unnoticed and ages passes by.

Achievers are individuals and they keep rising, striding ahead..head held high and ambitions to conquer the world. The walk ahead alone, unaided. But they are being followed, by a group of mediocres who ave joined hands and are sneeking on the path laid by the individual, still unworthy of finding their own path. But none of them would ever admit that they cant stand alone. They are very self respecting, they swear by morals and values, they respect the group and are the ones who would most often talk about getting respect and paying it (as if we owe them) and rarely about earning it. They would never accept that they are not good enough. NEVER. and saying anything about such things is just not done..ONE IS NOT SUPPOSED to Do it. Its mostly an unsaid rule, i say mostly becuase its never said directly. Its rather beautiful to admire the art with which these rules have been transmitted w/o any communication, how it just dawns upon a young mind when he gives up and understands that he aint good enough. They unite, march...march ahead in unison and proudly and with a silent hope to come at par with the individual.

Alas, they realize that they cant..they still cant and that a group of mediocres will be at their best mdiocres. And they can never defeat or even keep pace with the achiever, the INDIVIDUAL.

Its disappointing!!! Very Disappointing. The group goes silent, how do they admit that there collective forces failed too. But they were a group and he was 1, they had the numbers and he just had his strength, ONLY HIS.

So someones shouts out that the INDIVIDUAL is arrogant. And soon you hear many voices saying "why cant he wait for us", "why cant he pay heed to the group and stop", "how dare the 1 go ahead of the group (he always was my son!!!), "he moves too fast", "he is insensitive", "selfish..eccentric" and then the best and the final blow "He rose ahead at our expense" and "he is immoral, disrespectful, uncaring....Inhuman"....Arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Phew, these people put every societal barrier, every morality and leave no attempt to make the individual feel apologetic, guilty and unworthy of his success. And then they shout (silently and to themselves..little ashamed..for a while) "HAIL COLLECTIVISM".."HAIL MEDIOCRITY" and "MEDIOCRITY IS INVINCIBLE AND NORMAL"...(bloody collectivists..second handers)

The individual is breaking, barrier by barrier. He is not competing with another individual that he thought he might, he is competing with collectivists..he doesnt understand all that...He is shocked. They make him feel pathetic about his success, they make the giver to the society..the pathlayer feel like as if his every bread is snatched from their mouth...he starts feeling guilty...he feels pathetic about himself...without knowing why...or understanding...

The individual dies...he matures and accepts and incorporates the group..helps them ..works for their benefit..unhappy ...broken forever...he is soon left behind as he looses his usefulness and the group rises to conquer the next Individual..and they conquer.

The individuals dont lose coz they couldnt fight the numbers but because they were unprepared..they were looking for individuals to compete..and were clueless bout the threat from collectivists. we never told them who their enemy in the future is going to be..the shock of reality becomes too hard and changes ppl ..deters them from their initial path..to a path of mediocrity and the group keeps growin..and rising...

My ADVICE: PREPARE YOUR CHILDREN, PREPARE THE YOUTH, MEDIOCRITY SHOULD BE EXPLAINED ...THE DEVIL SHOULD BE BROUGHT OUT MUCH SOONER

An Individual
Rish