Substance over Style!

The man who once famously is said to have said, that ‘Indian actresses are like chicken. They can be laid anytime’ is at it once more. Imran Khan, former Pakistan fast bowler and politician says that, the cricket match fixing nexus operates out of Mumbai possibly implying how innocent cricketers from Pakistan are lured into a den of vice and dishonesty. The spot betting saga, which has landed Pakistan’s cricket into a sinking vortex, is the point of discussion.Imran goes on to say, that the malice exists across the cricketing world, further confusing the issue.
Mohammed Aamer, the sixteen year prodigy from across the border is cited to have strayed from the straight and narrow, due to his inexperience, lack of education and direction from more senior colleagues in the Pakistan cricket team. While tragic, this is an argument law enforcers are not going to buy.
Evidently there is a deep rot in the Pakistani system, which needs to be addressed by them and the cancer cannot be wished away by attributing their ills on an India, that till not long ago was considered to be staid and boring. If the Khan would have his way, he would attribute the floods and the ‘Talibanization’ of Pakistan to Indian complicity.
Attributing your ills on an external source is a wonderful short term trick, to keep you going, but in the long run leads one up the garden path. You want to hit solid gold, not be a flash in the pan. Substance always scores over style, is my call! As for the Khan, maybe he could take an inward peek….

The Guru!

A few years ago I had a boss, who was an ardent 'chela' of Swami Nityananda. My boss was, to say the least, a painful man. Obese and suffering from hyper tension he would erupt for all the wrong reasons. It made me wonder, how the Guru would be if the chela behaved like a bandicoot.............

Nityananda stayed on my radar screen,as a passing interest, as I frequently passed his, sprawling estate,at Bidadi, on my way to Mysore & back..................till yesterday, when all hell broke loose. Apparently, the "Guru" was caught ( on camera ) in a rather delicate and 'compromising' position, with an actress ( as yet unidentified )and has since gone into hiding, after vigorously protesting his innocence and godliness.

If true, then we have one more God Man biting the dust.............................I have no love lost for self styled God Men, but what surprises me is the following that these gents have amongst the hoi polli! Why do we head for these folk, in droves, place them on a pedestal & when we find that they are just as human as us, mere mortals, our anger is unbridled ?

My take is as follows:

1. Indian's are very high on the Uncertainty Avoidance Index, which means that anything, which is not certain is anathema to us. This results in us making a beeline to astrologers, Guru's, palmists & so on to secure our future and make it more secure!
2.We are very strong on External attribution................Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behavior. Attribution theory assumes that people try to determine why people do what they do. A person seeking to understand why another person did something may attribute one or more causes to that behavior.
According to Heider a person can make two attributions 1) internal attribution, the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character or personality. 2) external attribution, the inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in. Blaming other people and avoiding personal recrimination are very real self-serving attributions. We will also make attributions to defend what we perceive as attacks. We will point to injustice in an unfair world. We will even tend to blame victims (of us and of others) for their fate as we seek to distance ourselves from thoughts of suffering the same plight.Since external attribution is external and situational and so cannot be controlled, we need divine assistance, in this area.
3. A lot of Indian's have an external locus of control ( http://capnagaraj.blogspot.com/2009/11/yesterday-young-lady-boxer-from.html)


Does education make a difference ? Please do let me know what you feel! As for me, I'm heading into a short round of meditation!