Reality Check, Waging some 'Real' and 'Illusionary' Battles

 

            If I am a bit truthful to myself, these days reality is hitting me hard. There are three things which can occur to a person based on his situation: 1. Reality 2. Illusion 3. Delusion. If I were to define these for me, Reality is the product of circumstances surrounding a person which dictate a situation he is in. Illusion is the false reality which propels a person to think otherwise of what is truly his situation. Delusion is also similar but it is a thin veil which masks a person and shows a false positive.

           One can live in illusory delusion and spread cheer amid gloom or otherwise but you need to get to the bottom of the reality and make a hard check on the surrounding circumstances. This is the dark reality which is haunting me and giving me trying, testing times. I can as well tell ‘all is well’ and make a delusionary mess but it serves no good. It sometimes occurs that I am in such a wretched state with no way out. I know the mental trauma I goes through at times and a feeling of regret that my work yields all but ill effects. There is a flood of devastation caused to others and to my own self as well.

            This might be the karma which taps on my forehead in recurse. I am leading a war within myself. If this is the reality let us make a three pronged strategy to deal with it.1. Identify 2. Invade 3. Intoxicate. This is to acknowledge and identify the nightmare exists, invade it and destroy. This is the reality and let us target it. Let us target this dark web of bitter reality and usher in a ray of hope. Let us lift this illusory delusion and fight the dark truth head on. Let us target this inauspiciousness, wretchedness and a sombre state of affairs and usher in a bright sunshine. Let us wage a war with the devilish reality, turn tables and bring along a beautiful tomorrow.

           While I am working along with the dissipative state of mind on the back of harsh reality and serious gravity of situation, the battle is there to be won against the surrounding circumstances. Another battle I am waging with my work is the battle on poverty. I am fighting the poverty in my own little way with the limited tools in my possession.

            Let us end poverty once and for all in the country. Let us pull everyone one by one into the realm of inclusivity. Let us wage a multipronged battle against this devil from several sides involving Government, NGOs, private entities etc. to defeat poverty. East should meet west, rich should meet poor and exclusion should meet inclusion. It is my life’s work including the work in my company, work in government school, work in India and this work should exhaust to completion in my lifetime, giving rise to a rich and new India. The abundant untouched work in India needs to be exhausted sooner and faster.

            After decades of work since independence, this should be the final step in the journey. I was bred by a company which fundamentally and deeply believes in wealth creation and bringing its fortune to the impoverished citizens through a working process of pulling the people to better grounds of inclusivity. I was a product of this process who has been uplifted and I am working myself for many more to be uplifted. When you work within a part of the company waging a shared battle, bringing personal and professional goals to one and when everything is at its right place, it creates an impact.

            This is precisely the work which is required to fill the huge vacuum in the country. I am also working with a great NGO, for years, to create a model of helping poor reach higher steps. Thus I am waging this multi-faceted battle through multiple directions and the culmination should be a huge battle kurukshetra to defeat poverty in the country. When a poor guy takes flight on a rich flight, it produces a beautiful rainbow.

            The starting point of this battle is the public schools. The public schools should be the breeding grounds for the poor to create empowered, uplifted and inclusive future citizens. The work should start at the child level to create this change. The public education infrastructure is very poorly catered to in the country. Most of the schools in even big cities are overly crowded with less teachers and minimal infrastructure. This landscape should be targeted and a robust mechanism to build infrastructure in sync with the future ambitions of the poor students should be in place. The future ought to be and should be inclusive, great; the places should also be no lesser than this vision.

            We are in a situation that when the landscape of the public education changes, the launch pads to fly higher will change and half the battle is won. The learning levels of children in public schools in developing countries are abysmally low. The education should be extremely relevant and should help them to scale up the ladder. The public schools should be qualitatively and quantitatively much better and top most importance should be given to revamp these places to fight against poverty.

            Just to take my case, I am a below middle class guy who studied in a private school - which is relevant of the times, and helped me catapult to higher social strata. If I studied in a public school, I would have languished in the bottom itself. This is my case from where I think about the schools as the important instrument in determining the future of the student.

            At present, most of the teachers does a name-sake job with very little outcome at stake. The teachers in a public school should be accountable to the management, the management should be accountable to the Government and the Government should be answerable to its citizens. This is the chain which helps in reducing poverty levels. Their existence and operations should be at-par or superior to the private schools in the country. If the government can make this visible change, it is well worth of our every single tax rupee.

            Coming out, as a statistic, the highest share of poverty exists in BJP-ruled states in the country – Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It is plainly disappointing to still see that 52% of people in Bihar are below poverty line, 42% in Jharkhand, 38% in Uttar Pradesh, 37% in Madhya Pradesh. With scores of people languishing at below poverty line in these states and others, it is high time the multi-dimensional war is waged at these places to defeat the devil. A great fact is with Kerala, which has just 0.7% of people who are poor. The secret to others is, if you want to become rich, visit Kerala and take a flight from there to land among decimal share of poor people.

            While we are waging these ‘real’ battles, an ‘illusionary’ battle is being waged by Russia over Ukraine causing nothing but devastation and loss of life. Battles ,for me, are real when they defeat real world problems. Else, they are masked veils of delusion with violence as the only outcome. Russia is a great friend of India and to see a friend lose shape and tread a violent path is very painful. The Gandhian ideals of Non-violence and truth are very much relevant to these times and Russia must immediately cease military operations over Ukraine. Everything should be settled at the table and the army should not become dying pawns of government policies. Wage the real battles to spread friendship, peace and love over enmity, hatred and invasion. As a close ally of India, Russia should immediately relinquish its taken path and India should play a bigger role in forging peace between Russia and Ukraine for the greater good of the world.