Kanan Jaswal's Thoughts for the Days of September 2021

01 Sep:     The edifice of true friendship is built on the foundation of common values and interests.

02 Sep:     Excellent habits are the means through which we can make excellence a habit.

03 Sep:     By forgiving someone, we make sure that they will no longer be able to hold sway over our thoughts.

04 Sep:     Democracy in India means that for making the government concede your whatever demands, you can block highways connecting the national capital to state capitals for nine months and counting, you can uproot railway tracks and ransack depots, destroy public and private property, and attack police stations and try to kill police men and women in the full glare of TV cameras. Yet, we are supposed to be proud of this dysfunctional and chaotic democracy!

05 Sep:     Giving up something pleasurable for our future well-being is not a sacrifice but a very productive and rewarding investment.

06 Sep:     A government which is perceived as indecisive and weak is bound to fail even if it has the best plans for the country's development.

07 Sep:     Even the most non-violent and peaceful religion in the world, Jainism, which has 'Live and let live' as its motto, permits violence in self-defence. And sometimes the situation demands that self-defence be aggressive and offensive.

08 Sep:     You prefer the company of your superiors, what if your superiors too have the same preference?

09 Sep:     India's is a highly competitive society and the competition is among many caste-based groups, each of them claiming itself to be the most backward. Nowhere else in the world, you will find this competitive backwardness.

10 Sep:     Powerful forces, both within and without the country, are doing their utmost to divide Hindus because without that they will never be able to realise their long-standing ambition to divide India again.

11 Sep:     Most of us are not lucky by birth but there is no bar on creating our own luck.

12 Sep:     The common perception that the rich have to be dishonest is not correct. In fact, honesty or the lack of it has nothing to do with the amount of money one could be having.

13 Sep:     Start taking pride in your work and watch the graph of its quality going up and up.

14 Sep:     Society progresses when every generation stands on the shoulders of the previous.

15 Sep:     You must be doing something right if you find people trying to disparage your work.

16 Sep:     Whoever said "Small is beautiful", obviously, did not say it for small minds.

17 Sep:     When we are neck deep in trouble, the belief that this too shall pass definitely helps but what helps much more than that is our striving to make this pass.

18 Sep:     No one has the time and other resources to judge each and every individual, that is why all this profiling and generalisation.

19 Sep:     If terrorists are overwhelmingly from one particular community, that community can not absolve itself of its responsibility, and, in many cases, even its culpability.

20 Sep:     Were I to choose between mental acuity and mental balance, I would always go for the latter.

21 Sep:     Life loses its charm when there is no longer a hope; on the other hand, not having expectations, particularly from others, helps our spiritual growth.

22 Sep:     Because of your honesty and uprightness, you sometimes come in the cross hairs of the dishonest and corrupt. Not finding support from the authorities, don't feel bad if you have to fight with those rogues in legal but not strictly ethical ways.

23 Sep:     The challenge before us Indians is to recreate our glorious past using the best of modern science and technology.

24 Sep:     Sometimes, to avoid disappointment later, we become pessimistic about the outcome of our efforts while making them or even before that. But with such a mindset, we can not be working in the real sense for our success.

25 Sep:     Our acts have consequences and this we have to remind to ourselves over and over again.

26 Sep:     Have genuine concern for others and show it to them. More often than not, they will warm up to you and become friendly.     

27 Sep:     Have the Western countries, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, all democracies, developed themselves taking the 'Reservation' route? The answer is a resounding 'NO', but so what? India will continue to take that route regardless.

28 Sep:     For learning from the past, we don't have to live in it.

29 Sep:     Even half an hour of brisk walk amidst greenery in the morning peps you up for the rest of the day.

30 Sep:     Enthusiasm and initiative can more than make up for the lack of physical strength.