IS HAPPINESS THE KEY OF GROWTH ????

I was just thinking that what topic I should choose to write my next blog. While struggling with my own thoughts just decided to cover something different from my previous blogs.

So I decided to right something on Human Happiness Index. Now let me tell you what exactly Human happiness index is, it also known as happy planet index.

As we know the economic growth of any country is greatly depend on the rate of their GDP (Gross domestic product) but today scene is completely changed. Now not only GDP but also the HPI of a country depicts the economic growth of any country.

In an age of uncertainty, society globally needs a new compass to set it on a path of real progress. The Happy Planet Index (HPI) provides that compass by measuring what truly matters to us – our well-being in terms of long, happy and meaningful lives – and what matters to the planet – our rate of resource consumption. The HPI is an inventive measure that shows the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered around the world. It is the first ever index to combine environmental impact with well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which country by country, people live long and happy lives.

The Index doesn’t reveal the ‘happiest’ country in the world. It shows the relative efficiency with which nations convert the planet’s natural resources into long and happy lives for their citizens. The nations that top the Index aren’t the happiest places in the world, but the nations that score well show that achieving, long, happy lives without over-stretching the planet’s resources is possible.

The HPI shows that around the world, high levels of resource consumption do not reliably produce high levels of well-being, and that it is possible to produce high well-being without excessive consumption of the Earth’s resources. It also reveals that there are different routes to achieving comparable levels of well-being. The model followed by the West can provide widespread longevity and variable life satisfaction, but it does so only at a vast and ultimately counter-productive cost in terms of resource consumption.

HPI 2.0 has been calculated with new improved data sets for 143 countries, covering 99 per cent of the world’s population. Scores range from 0 to 100 – with high scores only achievable by meeting all three targets embodied in the index – high life expectancy, high life satisfaction, and a low ecological footprint.

The results turn our idea of progress on its head. Whilst the HPI confirms that the countries where people enjoy the happiest and healthiest lives are mostly richer developed countries, it shows the unsustainable ecological price we pay. It also reveals some notable exceptions – less wealthy countries, with significantly smaller ecological footprints per head, having high levels of life expectancy and life satisfaction. In other words, it shows that a good life is possible without costing the Earth.

INDEX SHOWING HPI RATING

Rank	Country	HPI
1	Costa Rica	76.1
2	Dominican Republic	71.8
3	Jamaica	70.1
4	Guatemala	68.4
5	Vietnam	66.5
35	India	53.0
143	Zimbabwe	16.6

Now the question is that are we wisely using our resources. Are we wise enough in proper consumption of the resources available? Our we really happy enough because we are standing on 35^th position in the index and the countries like Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Vietnam, Colombia are far ahead from us in the index. The result of this index was much unexpected and we are not holding very good position in HPI.

So we should make some sincere efforts for the economic growth of our country so as to achieve good HPI rating.

YELLOW JOURNALISM” The negative side of media

We all know what is journalism .The fundamental aim of journalism is reporting news and to make people aware and to keep them well informed about their surroundings and real world. But there are always two sides of a coin or we can say everything holds something good or bad. So the second side of journalism is “YELLOW JOURNALISM”
Now let me tell you what is yellow journalism is all about. Yellow journalism is the negative side of journalism. Journalism that exploits, distorts, or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers. In a more simple language we can say yellow journalism is nothing but creating hype or making masala news to attract readers and viewers in order to increase the TRP and to get more publicity.

Sometimes yellow journalism has a very bad impact. We can see yellow journalism through various examples. We all know about the incident of terrorism attack on Taj hotel, Mumbai on 27 November 2008.what media was doing in this case media was continuously covering the whole incident and showing that news which should not be disclosed, just to increase their TRP ratings but because of this news our secret news is being transferred to the terrorist sitting at Pakistan and resulted in heavy loss of our police man and army people because due to the continue telecast of the news even terrorist were able to trace our soldiers. Although media was supposed to reveal only that news which is essential and beneficial for common people and not the news which can create more panic among common public. But media was reveling every news live on channels regarding our rescue operations, regarding strategies our soldiers adopting and about every movement and plan of our government which should not be opened or disclose. This is nothing but termed as yellow journalism.

We daily open television to watch news which is essential for our growth and development but now a day we often see media is more interested in the news related to the celebrities, their affairs and their break ups. Different news channels show about their personal life many times continuously in a day instead of showing news which is more beneficial than anybodies personal life. Media creates hype of a small issue and modify and mould that issue in order to make it more masala kind. Now the new victim of media is Sanya Mirza and Shoiab Malik’s wedding. I am not saying showing the news related to their personal life is bad but putting spice in that is absolutely unethical at the part of media.
Let us see with another example in 2006, a kid named Prince fell into a bore well which was two-and-a-half feet in diameter. He was rescued after over two days of efforts, which were telecast live on almost all television channels continuously for 48 hours neglecting all important news but it was not important to show such a news on a continuous basis this is nothing but yellow journalism. This is just some examples but reality is that we see yellow journalism in daily news in some or the other way.
So In last I would like to say yellow journalism is basically a bad practice which misguide common people and waste their precious time too. Media has is social responsibility but media is ignoring its duty towards society just to make their channel best and to gain maximum TRP ratings but this is not good. Some newspapers, magazines, internet sites, and even television news channels may present information with a spin on the facts to support their own views or to increase their number of readers or viewers. Shocking headlines still sell more papers than regular ones do.
The best way to avoid the effect of yellow journalism is to check facts with several sources, and don't get all of your news from one place. Consider where the news is coming from, and any biases the source may have. By getting news from more than one venue, it is possible to see yellow journalism for what it is, and keep an open, and unbiased, mind when searching for the facts.

Will our efforts really work to protect our Tigers ????

I am writing this blog because being an responsible citizen of our country its my duty to make people aware and stimulate them to take some initiatives to save our Indians tigers which are about to disappear in near future

Now, you all must be thinking what new and innovative I am doing? And exactly the same question is there in my mind as well that what new and different I m doing by writing this blog.

Many people’s are doing the same they are writing blogs, joining different related Communities on different social networking sites like orkut and facebook.

Many companies are also coming forward and taking initiative to create awareness among people so that we will able to safe our Indian tigers somehow as they are present in very few number now we are left with just 1411 tigers in India.

Undoubtedly it’s a good cause to create awareness among people so that we can jointly do something in this regard but I m in perplexity will it really work ??? Will we able to save our tigers by writing blogs and joining communities????

Truth is that once after joining community we hardly use it and we busy people hardly read blogs .we are spending lot of time and money just for creating awareness and that too among those people who are already being sensible enough to understand the importance of our national animal. The percentage of people using social networking sites and bloggers are sensible and literate enough to understand their duties towards their country and environment. The most people among them are already aware of this thing.

So by doing this type of activities are we really saving our tigers? Or it needs some other kind of efforts?? Yes according to me inspite of wasting so much money and time in advertising and doing this kind of activities we should utilize that money in taking more opt conservative methods to save our tigers. I think it will work more rather than creating awareness only because it’s a high time now, we are left with a very few tigers so inspite of creating awareness only its time to take some major actions.

Because I am scared that it wont happen that we keep our self busy in creating awareness only and left with no tigers. We are not having enough time to be engaged our self in just making people aware about this.

What we will do with that “awareness” if we will not be having our national animal left.

So it’s time to think and time to wake up.

ARE WE MISSING SOMETHING ???????

This is my second blog and the topic I am covering in this blog is not very unique and different yet so important and untouched which can really drive all of us to think that are we missing something in our life due our busy life schedule and due so many lined up at commitments to fulfill. If we sit and think on the same I am sure that it will left all of us with a same question that how many small but so important things we missed just because we are so busy in the race of life. Really we always miss small- small happiest moments in our life just because we all are running for huge pleasures to come in future but for that happy future we missed lot of things in our present and once we miss something in our present it never comes back again.

So let me tell you how this thought came to my mind I was reading a very interesting article before some day and it really shaked my inner soal completely and I actually started thinking that what things I already missed till now? And I want all of you to read that article as well.

“A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.

Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the top musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people.

The outlines were: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”

Isn’t it interesting one? Really it’s very funny to think on the same but it holds the reality a hard core reality of life. It was just a slight example but if we think deeply on this it can left us with a big question mark that what we missed and what all we can miss in future too. All of us must have got many such opportunities which we should not miss but we did and you know what the real pain is? The pain is that we have not even realized that what we actually fail to notice.

WORKPLACE SPIRITUALITY IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR

At present time we are turning out to be more professional more materialistic and more competitive. Now a day we are living in pure materialistic world, where we are neglecting the real essence of our culture. We are forgetting the meaning of respect, love, commitment, loyalty, affection, honesty and many more which are the base of our cultural heritage.

In desire of being successful we all have become the part of a race, race for getting all pleasures in life, getting all comforts as so on.

But the question arises are we really happy? Are we really satisfied? Do we have everything we are running for?

May be no, so to achieve all this thing in real manner is possible? Yes why not it is possible only by bringing spirituality in our life.

We always confuse spirituality with being religious. We think that those who are religious are spiritual. Here we are wrong.

Being spiritual is nothing to do which religiousness. Spirituality doesn't mean to sit at temple for hour’s n hours.In my view being spiritual means having respect for others , being spiritual means love and enjoy what you are doing ,  giving space to others , being spiritual means clarity of thoughts , being spiritual means understanding others..  

Spirituality will not only affect  are daily life but have a recommendable affect on our workplace as well.if we are having respect for our organization , if we are enjoying what we are doing , if we have emotions  to understand others at our workplace  , if have respect for our job . It shows that we are spiritual towards our workplace.  It will not only give us satisfaction but also increase our commitment level towards organization, and that’s why a organization requires, a true professional  who is responsible and have a commitment towards his work and this commitment will only come from the spiritual felling we have for our work place.

For and example if somebody ask about the organization in which we are working we come up with so many complaints about the organization. It doesn’t mean that the organization is poor. It shows that we are not at all committed towards it so how this commitment will come. it will come by bringing spirituality at our workplace and it will also enhance our job performance.

 As a student also if we enjoys the work we are doing by having an ample commitment toward it will going to be beneficial for us, it will make us happy and boost our confidence.

This is not just a hypothetical thought of mine but many researches have been done on this subject in past years. Some of the major contributions s area are Giacalone and Jurkievicz (2003), Lewis et al. (2000), Mitroff et al. (1999),   Salopek (2004), Schuller (1996), McGuire (2000),  Mitroff & Denton and many more and all this researches shows that that workplace spirituality programs not only lead to beneficial personal outcomes such as increased joy, peace, serenity, job satisfaction, and commitment, but that they also deliver improved productivity and reduce absenteeism and turnover.  Employees who work for organizations become less fearful, more ethical, and more committed if they are spiritual. This shows that spirituality could be the ultimate competitive advantage for any organization and, there is mounting evidence 

that a more humane workplace is more productive, flexible and creative.

"We have a world that is searching for answers, that is searching for a way back to spirituality."

That’s how I defined spirituality. And if we want to be really happy, if we want to get utmost satisfaction than we all should give the place to spirituality in our life.