The Magic Word : PLEASE

The Magic Word: Please

If I tell you to share this article as soon as you read it, will you be doing so?

On a daily basis we all are asked, told or requested to do so many things?

How many of them do you actually do? How often do you ask, tell or request others to do tasks whether for you or for themselves?

If you were to do an analysis on the actions taken based on what has been asked, told or requested you will realize that whenever you politely request or have been politely requested the chances of getting the task done is much higher.

So what is the magic word? It is nothing but a simple "Please".

Please do this. Can you please do that? .Please help me. Can I have it, please? Please ensure its done. Please this, please that...

How many of us use it as often it is supposed to be used?

Imagine your parents requesting you :

Please do not watch TV. Please clean up your room. Please do not party late into the night. Please do not be naughty. Please tell the truth.

Imagine your teachers requesting you:

Please do your homework. Please do not copy in the exams. Please study daily. Please sit quietly in class.

Imagine your boss requesting you:

Please complete this task today. Please reply to my email immediately. Please go home as soon as you finish your work. Or even, please come to work on this weekend.

Imagine your spouse requesting you:

Please come home early. Please do the dishes. Please iron my clothes. Please cook dinner tonight.

So does it make a difference? Does it make motivate you to do something which otherwise you would not take initiative to do? So let us try to use this as much as we can and see how much difference it makes to us and the people around us.

So please forgive me for asking you to share my article in the beginning without saying the magic word.

Now can I PLEASE ask you to share my article? Thank you.

7 Simple Reasons to support JanLokPal movement

Here are 7 simple reasons to support the JanLokPal movement :

1. Corruption: Do it for the cause itself. Are you not fed up of going to government offices ending up paying bribes to the officials to carry out their own job responsibilities? The very reason there has been a tremendous support for this movement is that every Indian can easily identify such incidents in their lives . This Bill will ensure more accountability for all politicians and civil servants. This could also lead to better customer service at government offices! Imagine better customer service at government offices. It could finally happen !!!

2. Gandhigiri: Loved the movie Lage Raho Munnaibhai? Excellent movie, excellent performances and thanks to that, Gandhigiri was something we loved watching but many felt it was not practical in today's world. Think again!! Anna Hazare is making it happen. Such a mass movement in the most peaceful way and the masterstrokes by Anna against the government just proved that after all Gandhigiri is practical even today.

3. Democracy: Are you proud that we are the largest democracy in the world? But now you found out that it is so difficult to implement what majority of the citizens want. This movement has made us realise that our system of coalition political parties needs to be restructured in a way that there is more clarity at the time of voting. A coalition should not be formed just for the sake of majority with unjustified demands and corrupt politicians demanding important positions. From now on each coalition government will ensure that its more important to have non-corrupt members than just bringing in someone for the numbers. Yes, quality matters more than quantity. We should also know much before who probably will be our ministers when we cast our vote. Our system should be similar to the one in US. Just two political parties and the personality of the leading candidates should be a major factor in making a voting decision.

4. Prime Minister: This cause has definitely made us realize again the basic competencies we require in our PM. When our PM took charge, we were proud that such a clean, educated and respected person was taking up the top position. But his silence and reactions to various incidents, terrorist attacks, scams and now even the peaceful protests has made us conclude that for a country like India and for all its internal and external problems we need someone who is tough, makes quick and smart decisions and moreover does it without taking permission from anyone. We hope that this cause has made sure that our next PM (who is sitting somewhere watching all this) is making notes, thinking how he would have reacted in a similar situation, taking leadership classes and moreover deciding who should be in his speech writing team.

5. BlackMoney: All the trillions of Indian money stashed in Swiss Banks can be accounted and brought back only if we have a strong JanLok Pal bill. The impact on our economy is going to be huge. It can bring down the prices of all the essential commodities. Eradication of poverty no longer seems impossible. ‘India’ and ‘Super Power’ can be synonyms.

6. Learning: Support the movement for the learning you get. Did you ever know what Section 144 was used for? Did you know your fundamental rights and duties? Did you know in detail how a law is drafted and passed in the parliament? Just switch on any news channel and this movement has given us enough information that would have otherwise bored you during your civics classes. Thank you media for the publicity because these are the times that you actually make a difference in our lives .

7. Make History: Loved to read about Independence struggles or hated to learn the dates for your history exams. Well this movement is going to be a part of history. On the very first day it has been rightly called as the Second Struggle for Independence by Anna Hazare himself. We hear reguarly about strikes and bandhs for price hikes and protests by opposition for the sake of troubling the ruling party (and of course the common man). When the opposition parties usually organise such rallies or protests, the public are lured in with money and food ( sometimes liquor too). But here everyone has joined Dil Se – from rich to poor, from professionals to housewives, from elders to kids. They feel for the cause and have made it a point not to lose this opportunity and be a part of history.

If you are not sure whether to support Anna Hazare or not, don’t. Support the cause at least. Support Jan Lokpal bill. Your children will be proud of you and the changes your support has brought about.

Jai Hind

-SB-

IPL: Instant Power Loss !!!

Twitter twitter little star,

From celebs to fans the connect you are,

On the internet ranked so high

Like a whistleblower in the sky.

There are two important lessons (and maybe more) to learn from the IPL controversy.

Firstly, do not let success get into your head. Lalit Modi always felt that he was above everything else as far as the IPL was concerned. In his wildest dreams he would have never imagined that his tweets about the Kochi franchise would have cost him his job!

Secondly, think before you tweet. Shashi Tharoor had already learnt this the hard way much before the IPL. But in this episode he was at the non-tweeting end (yes, just like being at the non-striker's end)!

From day one of IPL1 Lalit Modi has been the centre of attention and he made sure he continued to do so. And now, towards the end of IPL3, he still is the centre of attention but for the very wrong reasons. Modi was flying high wherever there was a mention of his league. During IPL2 and the bidding of the new teams, he showed off as if the financial crisis was a joke for him. It indeed was with bidding prices soaring higher than any sixers hit by Yusuf Pathan. Nothing could have beaten his IPL when the whole world was still battling out the crisis. He seemed to be like a magician making money in the worst situation possible. 

When he had said that IPL3 will be bigger and better than IPL2 we had never imagined the impact it would make this year.This tournament is turning out to be one of the most competitive not just for the teams but also for all those involved in it as to who has more money and power. Both on and off the field. Both legally and illegally.

In India every citizen is obsessed with one of the three: Cricket, Bollywood and Politics. And the majority is obsessed with at least two of the above. The unimaginable success of the IPL is due to the right mixing of all three. A formula Modi can claim is his creation. And where there is power, money and glamour there is bound to be scandals.

We all have a vision of India being a superpower. We have enjoyed success in fields ranging from space research to information technology. But the IPL marked something different. And full marks to Modi for what he has made out of the IPL. The unprecedented success of the IPL with international cricketers being paid by Indians just was a stepping stone for India to be a superpower.

We should be thankful to Kochi. It was years back in Kochi that the first match fixing bubble burst when Delhi Police in collaboration with Kerala Police had tracked mobile calls of Hansie Cronje leading to the unbelievable news of the dirty world of match fixing. And now with the introduction of the Kochi franchise it has again opened up a new chapter in the history of the game. Maybe the government should announce free holiday packages for all government officials to tourist centric Kochi so that the magical city might expose more scandals in future !! No wonder its aptly called God’s Own Country!!

And yes, a very big thank-you to twitter. Not just for bringing us close to all our favourite celebs, but also for exposing one of the world's biggest sporting scandal.

So for all those who worshipped Lalit Modi as a role model, kindly remember: Do not let success get into your head. And please, think before you tweet.

TRUE LIES

There seems to be a lot of debate in the airing of the program "Sacch Ka Saamna" on Star Plus. The first celebrity episode had its share of controversies with statements made by Vinod Kambli doing the rounds even before it was aired. This definitely gave a boost to the TRPs of the show and I am sure the TRPs would have gone even much more higher if the Kambli episode was renamed as "SACHIN KA SAAMNA".

For those who havent seen the show: "Sacch Ka Saamna" is the Indian version of the popular reality show "The Moment of Truth" where contestants have to tell the truth based on questions on their lives. The questions become increasingly personal and embarrassing in nature as the prize money increases. The truth factor is decided by a polygraph lie detector test done prior to the actual show.

Whenever somebody in India remakes a television program or an English movie, the makers boast that changes from the original were made to suit the Indian audiences, their sensitivity, their culture .. etc etc.

But the makers of "Sacch Ka Saamna" wanted to do something 'different' by sticking to the Western version as it is.

The host of the show Rajeev Khandelwal himself admitted that he would not prefer to be a contestant on the show. Well that sounds OK. We should not expect Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan answering questions on KBC. Should we?

Its really surprising that even when results of lie detector tests are not admissible in a court of law it has generated so much of positive response on a game show.

A search on Google shall reveal sites that tell you ways to cheat a lie detector test. So even if somebody actually wins on this show, do we assume that he/she was telling the truth all the time?

Food for thought !!!!

Let the show and the controversies go on .....

-SB

TO B OR NOT TO B?

--The phrase "to be, or not to be" comes from William Shakespeare's Hamlet (written about 1600), act three, scene one. It is one of the most famous quotations in world literature and the best-known of this particular play--

Thats the first thing that came to my my mind when I decided to write my first blog. To B or not to B: To Blog or Not to Blog?

There is a great Chinese proverb : A wise man makes his own decisions; an ignorant man follows the public opinion. I think I am still transiting from the ignorant level towards some level that is in between the ignorant and the wise. So I guess its OK for the time being in following what others are doing : blogging.

Letting your thoughts out on a portion of the internet, playing around with the settings and layout on your webpage, and even maybe some day profiting out of it.... looks like theres more than what meets the eye with blogging... Better Late Than Never !!


Well lets see.. Lets C .. To C or Not to C ??



(Happy Birthday to me and my blog) - SB