Wednesday 22 July 2009

Racism




Since the attack on Indian students in Australia, there have been huge uproar from Indians and Australia
has been accused of being a racist country. Is it really fair to accuse Australia for few attacks on
Indian students when few Indians have not been treating many foreigners properly? Ask any African living
in India and each will tell you at least one instance when they felt the brunt of racism.Can't we think of few reasons which might lead our Indian students into these kind of abuse, to mention some like working late nights, indulging in anti social activities (yes!you heard right) like drug trafficking, unethical behiour on personal front like flirting, deceit and adultery.The other reasons might also be ignorance of proper native mannerisms as we Indians are more prone towards loud speaking and ignoring about the premises when we hold mobile, yes, ofcourse this could also lead us into trouble espically when we are travelling in public transport.
I have seen Indians use the most derogatory terms on other "ethnic" communities, but they seem to be mesmerized by white people because of their colur and foreign ethnicity. We Indian communities address each other’s community with terms such as; Gujarati is called as gujjus, South Indians are all called as Madrasis, irrespective of their state and language and most of the people form northern part of Indians still assume Madras as a state , Punjabis are called as gottas and the list goes on….

I go to some "Indian Outlets & restaurants" in Sydney all the time and literally run by Indians and I am totally surprised by the utter change in behavior. I am Indian and don’t get treated the same way and an Aussie in that store would.

As people staying in Bombay think anybody outside of Bombay or from down south is not worth anything......that same thing goes along when it comes to racism.....people in India still give too much importance to the color of skin.....

I once worked for a Tamil Company, where the first question someone asked me on my first day of orientation was whether I was a Tamilian and that to be a Brahmin or not.

Some of the behaviours that include are as follows:

1. preferential treatment to Westerners over Indians

2. Treating other Indians like dirt based on his/her profession, caste, religion, region, language

3. In the Indian corporate world there is rampant favoritism / unequal treatment of employees based on province, language, caste


We see many ads in Indian matrimonial columns asking for a "fair skinned" beautiful girl..No one says they dont care about the color of skin and care about character.

Indians! there is nothing wrong with being an Indian.Behavioural trait always should be according to the situation and adaptive nature towards the ambience . Be proud of who you are. If you are not fair or complex issues, that is ok too. You will never be a different person.

Wednesday 8 July 2009


I choose Lalita Sahasranama archana (and chanting) as a regular practice for relief from the perils in life and for spiritual progress, as She is fully aware of the unparalleled greatness of this hymn, which is full of the power of mantras and is capable of fulfilling all desires. Especially during Navaratrulu, I chant the sahsranamam and do pooja with sadopachara, I mean with 16 upacharas. Among the many hymns, mantras and devotional songs available, this Sahasranama is specially suitable for worship in the morning and produces quick results.

Sri Lalitha Devi fulfills all desires of her Devotees. Her compassion and care will be with them at all times and in all situations. The Shakti (power) of Sri Lalitha Devi is best described by the words "haribrahmendra sevitaa" in the above Sloka. She is worshipped by all Gods including Vishnu, Brahma and Indra. Sri Lalitha Devi is also known as "vaageeramaa sevitaa", meaning she is served by Goddesses Saraswati and Lakshmi. Goddesses Saraswati and Lakshmi fan Sri Lalitha Devi with the Divine Fans (vinjaamara) at all times.

Lalita sahasranama is a hymn that describes the 1000 names of Devi or Lalita and praises God as the Divine Mother or God's Shakti or Power. A sahasrananam is a litany of one thousand names of God or Goddess. sahasra is one thousand and nama is name. There is at least one such sahasranama for each deity in Hinduism. Lalita Sahasranama is a hymn described in the Brahmanda Purana and is one of the most sacred stotras in Hinduism. It was recited as a result of conversation between Hayagriva, a minor avatara of Vishnu and the great sage Agastya.

Lalita sahasranama is famous for the internal organization of its text and the rhythmic sound vibrations it can produce. The aim of the Vedas and other scriptural texts is to inspire the love of God and dispassion in human beings and to raise them step by step to the realisation of the Self. The object of the phalashruti -- the description of the benefits accruing from a certain form of worship -- is to strengthen the sense of devotion in people and to make them qualified for higher forms of sadhana, by pointing out the way to remove the hardships of life and to gain prosperity. The main items in the phalashruti on Lalita Sahasranama given in the Brahmanda Purana are summarised below.

I adore Goddess Lalitha Devi and I am an ardent devotee of her. For devotees of Divine Mother Lalitambika, there is no hymn greater than Sri Lalita Sahasranama. Those who chant this most sacred hymn containing the thousand names of Sri Lalita Devi are assured of liberation. The radiance attained from chanting this stotram during Navaratri cannot be described in words. It must be experienced firsthand.

It is extremely auspicious to chant or at least listen to this stotram during Navaratri. When puja to a Sri Chakra is done using the Namavali form of Sri Lalita Sahasranama, unimaginably powerful cosmic vibrations will surround the worshipper, bringing every kind of blessing.

శ్రీ సూక్తం

Significance of srisuktham

Whenever I read sahsranamam of any goddess, I try to chant srisuktham. I don't know why, I feel without reciting it my pooja is incomplete. My lalitha sahsranamam pooja also consists of srisuktham as prefix. Even while listening to srisuktham at temples, I feel like my body is drenched in the pond of nectar. This feeling also gives me immense power. Ihave strong inclination to read the suktha without the help of any resources. Truly, to some extent I have achieved success by remembering few verses of the suktha.

The Sri Suktam is the essence of the Vedas, and that it contains all the important information about Divne Mother. The essential message of the Sri Suktam is that Mother's true form is the beautiful, cosmic golden light of divine consciousness that shines in the hearts of all creatures


The supreme appears in the form of Vishnu to uphold and protect the world. The operation is done through the power of Vishnu for which the terminology is Lakshmi. She is the Brahman revealed in its mother aspect as creatrix and nourisher of the three worlds. Her description appears in the Shi Sukta, where she has been lauded in golden words and in glorious terms...Just as there is no difference between Power-Holder (Vishnu) and Power (Lakshmi)...She is the presiding deity of all divine manifestation.

For the adoration of Lakshmi, there is no hymn equal to the Sri Sukta...The letters, syllables and words in the fifteen verses of Sri Sukta, collectively form the sound body of Lakshmi, the presiding deity of this Hymn. As it has come to us from the consciousness state of the Rishi (seer), the substance is Chit, the creative energy in Vaikhari or gross from of sound.

The universe is conceived and born of sound. Light is nothing but a sound of a particular frequency. All that we see in this worlds in solid, liquid, or gaseous state has emanated from sound. Even our mind is the crystal of sound. Nama (name) is sound from which rupa (form) has come. To cut it short, Sri Sukta is a Siddha Mantra and is a radiant mass of energy. By proper Sadhana, the jiva can raise itself to a divine status. But to attain this, it is very vital that the meaning of the Mantras are correctly understood, intoned and also remembered at the time of recitation.

Thursday 2 July 2009

Global Market


China versus Indian Exports

One thing that always came to my mind is why is the export market of India is not up to the range of the China. Especially after migrating, I see most of the products ranging from safety pin to furniture are all made in China. I don’t say India doesn’t have export structure. But it is very limited. Few products really boast of our quality even in this so called Chinese market. But after coming to Australia, I count that Indian export market structure is very limited.

Recently, I was working on my coursework, researching on several economic issues. The main aspect that came to my mind is the standards of market products in this country and global wide especially in European dwelled countries.

What holds back India is the main question?

The key to answering this question is the poor response of large-scale labour-intensive manufacturing including assembly and processing activities in India.

Large-scale labour-intensive manufacturing activities have been virtually absent from India. Apparel factories employing thousands of workers under a single roof found in China are non-existent in India.

The explanation for the poor performance of large-scale labour-intensive manufacturing is, in turn, to be found in the domestic policy regime—both past and present. Until the late 80s, large Indian firms were confined to a positive list of capital-intensive sectors. Even in these sectors, their size was limited through licensing based on the perceived size of the domestic market by the authorities. The same applied to foreign companies.

As long as this reservation was in force, high-quality labour-intensive manufactures that could compete on the world markets had no chance of emerging in vast volumes. The bulk of the small-scale enterprises operated in the protected domestic market.

Most labour-intensive products including toys, footwear, sports goods and apparel have now been off the reservation list for some years.

The most important factor that still holds back large firms from entering these products is a set of labour laws in India. Under these laws, it is virtually impossible for a firm with 100 or more employees to fire the workers even in the face of bankruptcy. It is equally difficult for the firms to reassign the workers from one task to another. These provisions impose very low worker productivity or a high real cost of labour. Large-scale capital-intensive sectors such as automobiles, where labour costs are a tiny proportion of the total costs, can profitably operate in such an environment. But the same is not true of large-scale labour-intensive sectors labour. Few foreign manufacturers are willing to enter India outside of a small subset of capital- and skilled-labour intensive sectors.

Two additional factors have held back the labour-intensive manufacturing in India: costly power and poor transport infrastructure. Not only do firms pay a much higher price for power in India than elsewhere in the world, they also face much greater uncertainty of supply. Likewise, despite considerable improvement, the transportation network in India remains unreliable and inefficient. The time taken to clear the goods entering and existing the ports and to move the goods between ports and manufacturing sites, which is so critical for assembly and processing activities, is much higher and more variable in India than in the competing countries such as China.

Child Issues

In other words….

Aneesh, who is born and growing in Australia, is bilingual. I think there are two main factors in successfully raising a multilingual or bilingual child; consistency and perseverance. The thought of bilingual topic stood before me because of the child is developing speech delay. Most of the community services say it may because of multi or bilingual background.

For me, my strategy for raising multilingual children at tender stage would be to converse with him in one language. It doesn’t necessarily be your mother tongue. It could be English too. The main emphasis should be language perfection. Teaching small phrases would also do a great job as they can grasp some of the broken sentences and at least they would know what to convey. Whatever input we put in this progress should be ‘are they clearly able to convey what they want’.

Constant interaction in the minority language exposes children to a wide range of vocabulary and grammatical structures relating to everyday life.

My three year old is still learning both languages, but moves easily between the two. When I am tired I can get sloppy and use an English word if that’s easier. But I know that if I expect my child to learn, I have to put in the effort.