Sunday, April 17, 2011

Shall changes in the Constitution to be made to give Sachin Bharat Ratna

Today , one of the discussions is going around us that whether Sachin shall get Bharat Ratna Award or not. So why shall I be left behind. So I decided to give my views as well . To begin with I would like to produce a list of all 41 award winners.
List of all Bharat Ratna awardees so far:
1.    Late Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi in 2008 : Karnataka
2.    Kumari Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar in 2001 : Maharashtra
3.    Late Ustad Bismillah Khan in 2001 for contribution in the field of Arts : Uttar Pradesh
4.    Prof. Amartya Sen in1999 for Literature & Education : United Kingdom
5.    Lokpriya Gopinath (posth.) Bordoloi in1999, for Public Affairs : Assam
6.    Loknayak Jayprakash (Posth.) Narayan in 1999 for Public Affairs: Bihar
7.    Pandit Ravi Shankar in 1999 for his contribution in the field of Arts : United States
8.    Shri Chidambaram Subramaniam in 1998 for Public Affairs : Tamil Nadu
9.    Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi in 1998 for her contribution in the field of Arts : Tamil Nadu
10.    Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 1997 for his contribution in the field of Science and Engineering : Delhi
11.    Smt. Aruna Asaf (Posth.) Ali in 1997 for her contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Delhi
12.    Shri Gulzari Lal Nanda in 1997 for his contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Gujarat
13.    Shri JRD Tata in 1992 for his contribution in the field of Trade & Industry : Maharashtra
14.    Shri Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in 1992 for his contribution in Public Affairs : West Bengal
15.    Shri Satyajit Ray in 1992 for his contribution in the field of Arts : West Bengal
16.    Shri Morarji Ranchhodji Desai in 1991 for his contribution in Public Affairs : Gujarat
17.    Shri Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 for his contribution in Public Affairs : Delhi
18.    Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in 1991 for his contribution in Public Affairs : Gujarat
19.    Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedakr in 1990 for his contribution in Public Affairs : Maharashtra
20.    Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela in 1990 for his contribution in Public Affairs : South Africa
21.    Shri Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran in 1988 for contribution in Public Affairs : Tamil Nadu
22.    Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in 1987 for contribution in the field of Social Work : Pakistan
23.    Shri Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 1983 for contribution in the field of Social Work : Maharashtra
24.    Mother Teresa in 1980 for contribution in the field of Social Work : West Bengal
25.    Shri Kumaraswamy Kamraj in 1976 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Tamil Nadu
26.    Shri V.V. Giri in 1975 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Orissa
27.    Smt. Indira Gandhi in 1971 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh
28.    Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh
29.    Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane in 1963 for contribution in the field of Social Work : Maharashtra
30.    Dr. Zakir Hussain in 1963 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Andhra Pradesh
31.    Dr. Rajendra Prasad in 1962 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Bihar
32.    Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy in 1961 for contribution in the Field of Public Affairs: West Bengal
33.    Shri Purushottam Tandon in 1961 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh
34.    Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve in 1958 for contribution in the field of Social Work : Maharashtra
35.    Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant in 1957 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh
36.    Dr. Bhagwan Das in 1955 for contribution in Literature & Education : Uttar Pradesh
37.    Shri Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955 for contribution in the field of Public Affairs : Uttar Pradesh
38.    Dr. M. Vishweshwariah in 1955 for contribution in the field of Civil Service : Karnataka
39.    Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari in 1954 for contribution in Public Affairs : Tamil Nadu
40.    Dr. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in 1954 in Science & Engineering: Tamil Nadu
41.    Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan in 1954 for contribution in Public Affairs : Tamil Nadu.
Before giving any thoughts , I will like to say that the only thing that shall be kept in mind before giving the award of this much reputation.
    Has he/she done so much for the country that the person deserves the award .
After thoroughly looking at the list , the first thought that came in my mind is that there are many names on the list (at least 50%) who I personally feel is less deserving than Sachin.(No harm feelings for anybody). One of my friends said “What has sachin done so special , he plays cricket for money, you stop giving him money , he will stop playing cricket .”
Well said , my friend but in that case why Lata Mangeshkar has been given an award ,what has she done so great for the country except singing some great songs that still echoes in our ear like some of Sachin great innings lies visible to us. As far as what Sachin has done so great , everyone knows . It will be waste of time to discuss on that how he makes every Indian forget the differences of rich-poor, religious differences and just give them the chance to celebrate the Indian  Victory, etc, etc , …
So , the other problem that is being created is that the  Constitution does not permit it.Acoording to it “Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian honour, given for exceptional service towards advancement of Art, Literature and Science, and in recognition of Public Service of the highest order.”
In it there is no mention of sports. So even if a person is a legend in sports but if he belongs to India , he is not eligible to receive the highest civilian honour. What the fuck !! Just because the persons who framed the Constitution at that point of time does not thought of sports , does it mean that  it will not appear again in  future. As far as I know , this clause is not under the clauses that cannot be modified at any cost . Every year so many changes are being made to the constitution , what problem can this change create ??  I do not think any. Even the public will welcome it .
To be honest , till now I have got no plausible reason why Sachin Tendulkar shall not be given this honor . If anybody has , do tell , I will love to listen to his viewpoint…

Friday, March 25, 2011

Time utilization

This is the area where most of us fails. Everyone must have heard or uttered the phrases  like "I am short of time" , "24 hours in a day is not enough for me ", blah blah .., Is it actually true,  ? My brother always use to say "Ankit, Always Remember that a busiest person has the most time". I have always wondered that what he means by this statement but after a close look at his life I have understood what message he tries to convey to me. He is a person who is acheiving new milestones every now and then in his career and yet his life is not devoted to work only, he is an excellent badminton player , a very adventurous person at heart who has done all kinds of adventure sports , watches lot of movies, etc.Many a times, I become jealous of him, from where in the hell he gets time for everything. 
God provides us with enough time that if we utilize it in a proper manner then we will never fall short of time.The problem is not of  less time , but the problem lies in time management. Don't believe me , then look at the following :

Here are the calculations for a typical week:

Total available hours 24 hours X 7 days = 168 hours
Minus Average sleep 7 hours X 7 days = 49 hours
Total waking hours = 119 hours
Average time at office or study@IIT 8 hours X 6 days = 48 hours(maximum)
Average time commuting 2 hours X 6 days = 12 hours
Total work time = 60 hours
Total work time as % of waking hours 50% approximately
Free time available after accounting for work time and sleep time = 59 hours.
(calculations are not mine , it is copied from a website).

Are these 59 hours not enough to do all kinds of work. In my view, it is.Thus, time availibility shall never be an issue. Issue is that how we utilizes the time. What we do in these hours impact our life. My leadership guru Robin Sharma wrote "I agree you are busy, so are the ants, its more important what you are busy about."A research at Harvard University proves that "What we are in life is only due to 20% of our activities". I looked at my life , and I concluded for me, even 20% is too much. What I am is mainly due to studies , and I have not devoted not more than 10% of my entire life on studies. So , where would I have been if I would have devoted 20% of my life on studies (?..... only God knows).

In many case , the heart of the problem lies in procastination.It is one of the most dangerous  habits of life and a very common one too. We all devote too much time on things that do not matter to us all for various reasons. For e.g. Nowadays , I am devoting a lot of time on my project , but  am I really interested in that, No, not at all.In future , I do not have any plan to go into technical field, I know this, but still I am devoting my time in it. I have to agree that I am a fearful person. Why is Bill Gates so great ? It is not only due to his great brain, but the greater reason is that He is mentally so strong that he decided to quit school, (A person having such great mental strength is bound to acheive new heights of  success). He knows what he wants to do in life and devoted time towards it instead of wasting it in activities that do not matter to him at all. Imagine that if everyone of us can display this kind of courage and time utilization then what will be the face of World after 20-30 years. No one can even dream. It is very important that "We shall not schedule our priorities but instead schedule our priorities."

The day I have properly utilized my time , I have a goody goody feeling in my heart and feels satisfactory before going to bed. I am sure that must be the case with many of You. So , ask your heart that what you want to do in life and manage your time accordingly , from this moment only.