I have a good friend who used to to tell me this sentence, “All are guilty until proven innocent”. I took his comment on the lighter side.

But, now during election time, I had an interesting debate with my friend about political parties and their qualities. My friend was putting the entire blame on Politicians for corruption in the country. I was unable to accept that. I told him that almost everyone is corrupt in this world. Politicians are no exceptions. He didn’t agree to my statement. I gave some examples to prove my statement:

1. A petty shop owner who has his shop on the road bribes the police to run his business. Here you may say that “Police is corrupt”.
2. A house owner bribes the “Property Evaluator” to reduce the “Property tax” for his house. Here you may say that “Property Evaluator” is corrupt.
3. A Driving License aspirant bribes RTO officer to get his driving license. Here you may say “RTO officer” is corrupt.
4. A motorist bribes Traffic Police when he violates a traffic signal. Here you may say “Traffic Police” is corrupt.
5. A person who has a “wait-listed” train ticket bribes the TTE to get a confirmed ticket. Here you may say “TTE” is corrupt.

All examples above show that a “Government Official” is corrupt.

Let’s take examples where a “Government Official” is not involved.

6. A software company owner or a Home User uses “Pirated Windows Operating System” / other “Pirated software” for his PC.
7. Many software professionals who earn very good salary downloads “Illegal copies of Music and Movies” from Internet.
8. A college student illegally takes photocopy of an expensive book to save money.
9. A reputed software company illegally sends it’s employees to foreign countries on “Business Visa” to work since “work permit” is not available for them.
10. People buy gold ornaments from jewelery shops without proper receipt/bill to reduce cost by not paying tax to the Government.

In the last 5 examples none of the Government Officials are involved. It is common people who are involved are “corrupt”.

Even after giving these examples, my friend was not willing to accept the statement “almost everyone is corrupt”. The reason, I believe, is, I missed few more words. I should have told him “almost everyone is corrupt in their mind”. If you are honest, you will understand what I mean.

When I was in my School, I used to admire at the movies in which rich people have a library in their homes. I used to dream of building one such library in my home.

Now, even after starting my own venture (HomePlanGuru.com) I’m not interested in a library room. Because my wireless laptop with Internet connection itself acts as a Library for me. Many websites like Wikipedia help me get the information what I want and when I want. I never imagined that my “Dream to build a Library Room” will become obsolete.

I don’t know what will replace the “Internet Library” in future. Do you know?

While I was in my school, I never understood the term “Mixed Economy” even though I was supposed to write about it in the exams. Several years after those exams, I’m slowly understanding the term and it’s impact in Indian Economy.

Last week I was surprised to hear from a hardware shop owner(who is just 25 years old) about how agriculture plays an important role in Indian economy and how India is able to sustain this “Global Economic Slow Down”. Even though this hardware shop owner didn’t go to college after his school, his knowledge about economy, shares, it’s impact, it’s trend, etc really amazed me. Sitting in a shop – Monday through Sunday for about 12 hours a day, he is able to analyze the reasons behind India’s economic strength and validate with articles from various news papers and magazines.

Last weekend I visited a remote city to attend a family function. While traveling back by train, I explained my 5 year old son about the paddy fields, factories, agriculture, etc to kill his boredom. During that time I realized the vast area India has and how it can play a major role in growing the country’s economy.

Since I’m from IT background, even if you think that I’ve a biased opinion, I would like to tell my view point. I feel that Information Technology (IT) is not properly used in India. If IT is used properly, Agriculture and all other related fields can grow drastically and can really help Indian Economy grow better. If you ask me what can be done using IT, I can prepare a huge report and give it to you.

Since I believe that you or for that matter anyone will not read the report, I don’t spend my time & energy in preparing that report. This is what many Indians are doing now during recession (i.e. not preparing the report, but preparing reasons for not preparing).

We all must have one similar feeling irrespective of our profession. It is: “I’m intelligent”. It is true that almost all humans are “Intelligent”.

Many of us fail to understand one thing which makes us sad many times. It is “everyone has some limitation”. This limitation could be because of personal reasons, family reasons, official reasons and so on.

Many “Intelligent” people who don’t understand their “limitation” feel sad when their counterpart/peers move up the ladder in a company or in life.

Suppose a kid has a passion to RUN. Assume that he wins all the medals in his school, college, etc. His natural passion will be to be in Olympics. But to be in Olympics, he has to get trained in a different way. The probability to even participate in that even will be almost zero. But he should not feel bad about it, but accept it. Because there are several factors that influence this kid to even get selected for a Olympic game.
The factors could be like his personal strength, training, opportunity, influence, publicity, other person’s ability, family, personal problem, family problem, political system and so on.

The above sentences should not discourage anyone in moving further in life. It is meant to just make them understand that there are several factors that influence your position in the “world” (which may be your limitation).

The only thing you can do is, set “yourself” as a benchmark instead of setting some unknown “great” person and try to increase your own benchmark every day.

One day, your own benchmark may increase to a level which will be above this unknown “great” person. If this is done, “sadness” won’t be there and only joy will remain in the mind.

Good luck (to understand this article)!!

A “petty shop” owner who invests, say, Rs.10,000/- for his shop will expect a return of at least Rs.1,000/- per month.

In India, at least 10 lakh people vote to elect a Member of Parliament (MP). Assume that each electoral candidate spends on an average Rs.10/- per vote during election time, he/she would have invested at least Rs.1 crore for his/her constituency (in reality, it is between Rs.10 Crores & Rs.20Crores).

Where did the candidate get this Rs.1 Crore from? Why does he/she spend such a huge amount during election? How will he/she get that money back?

Do you think that by becoming an MP one can earn Rs.1 Crore in 5 years through legal means? Impossible. When a petty shop owner wants to earn at least Rs.60,000 in 5 years for initial Rs.10,000 investment, what do you think the elected MP will do after investing at least Rs. 1 Crore for the election? He/she has to get at least 6 Crores in 5 years. How will he/she get this amount? Yes, you got it right – only by getting bribe. Hence corruption is inevitable in India. Do you have a different view point?