To be Frank

"To be frank I want to tell you that you were at mistake".

"I accept that. But what do you mean by 'to be frank'?"

"See I am telling you that you are at mistake. I should tell you that I am being frank and open to you."

"But why do you need to specify that? when you say a truth, it implies you are frank"

"Yes, but it is always better to tell, otherwise you might feel bad and might doubt my intentions"

"Let me understand it. You mean to say that if you tell me a plain simple unpleasant truth, I might feel bad because it might hurt me. Now, to dilute that bad feeling, you want to clarify that you are being frank and your intentions are good. But what I feel is that if you are telling me something in good faith with good intentions,which is not so pleasant to hear, I will know that you are being frank and honest. You need not say that. And, if something is not said with good faith and intention, then the sentence has lost its value and so your telling that you are frank, does not help. So first thing - your telling that you are being frank, does not add any value. Now second point. What is meant by being frank? When you are frank, it means that you express your views honestly without any hesitation and IRRESPECTIVE OF THE TYPE OF REACTION YOU WILL GET FOR IT. Now, you say 'to be frank', so that the other person does not feel bad. It is not that you are concerned about feelings of other person. Rather, you do not want him to get any negative impression about yourself and your intentions. This is your preparation to secure not-so-unpleasant reaction from the other person. So do you think that you have been frank enough with the person? If you had been, you would not have been bothered about negative reaction, you would not have thought about how to make my sentence sound better, you would not have added an explanation of being frank. SO WHEN YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE BEING FRANK, YOU ARE ACTUALLY NOT."

Where are we going

They say world still has lot of developing countries. They also boast about countries which are developed. They feel sad about remaining countries which are underdeveloped ones. How do you cross the border to become developed? They have a quick answer. High GDP growth, high per capita income.

What is GDP growth? GDP is the sum of value of all products and services added or provided by a country during the year. If in a year, production is more than the previous year, you have a GDP growth. You need to keep raising this growth. So, every year you need to produce more than the previous year to achieve the higher GDP growth and to bring yourself into the league of developed nations if not in developing nations.

Does it mean that a country with steady population, with reasonable production to satisfy needs of its people needs to increase its production year by year, even if it is satisfied with the present status. Or does it mean that a country like China or India, where the population is growing like anything, there is any ways requirement to produce more and more, and so development is not a choice but compulsion. Or does it mean that a country should produce more irrespective of the purpose for which production is required.

We need an answer - whether production is our goal or we are producing for some objective. Producing for the sake of it is only a blind rush to reach nowhere. It is like chasing something undefined and unidentified. If we are producing for an objective, then what is it?

Let us go into the history of production. Why at all we started production? Lets go back to the initial phases of human civilisation. He was alone and was doing all his work himself. That time he was eating, dressing and surviving. Then he started to feel that things can be done in a better way. So he invented tools and the better ways to live life. He let his creativity come out to the fullest. He did things for his own satisfaction. Production was not a goal but only a channel for his creativity to come out.

Then he outsourced things. So potter become specialised and so the farmer and the cook. They could have more time for their own areas of interest. They need not do things which they were not interested in and which other could do better. So the whole exercise started with an objective to create a channel for creativity and to make every body's life easy. It was intended to help everybody to attain their own goals in better way.

And now, after a long journey of civilization, where do we find ourselves? Are we far ahead in the direction, where our ancestors started. Or have we got drowned in the activity, as we lost track of our ultimate aim? How many of us are following our dreams? How many of us don't think of coming out of this rat race one day? How many are content with life? Irony is that today also man is striving to fulfil his basic needs. It is so unfortunate that after thousands of years after the kick start of development, we are still struggling. And it is not just the struggle for food and shelter. It is struggle to find an outlet for the creative pursuit within us. It is struggle to recognise the voice that keep calling us for the higher goal. It is the struggle of moving nowhere with a superficial goal.

Today's man is struggling much more to earn his living than a nomadic of past. He carries very high tension all times. He is unhappy as he is not able to get what he wants (He does not know what he really wants). There are frustration levels. Reason is very simple. If you run for something of which you cannot see an end, you will just be running blindly, without knowing your destination. You will not know which path to follow, when to stop, when to relax, when to hurry up (not rush). You will be always be rushing as you would always be afraid that you wont have much time left to reach there, so better to be fast.

Today we are all just following this blind cycle, without knowing in which direction, if at all, it is taking us. We all go to work, eat, have some fun, sleep. That is how we are spending each day of our life. Then we take big mundane steps also. We study, get jobs, get married, have children, get them married and start the same cycle again.

But for what? Is there any purpose of all this drama. Or it is just a routine set up for us to follow. We in our childhood had so many dreams. We built so many castles. And as we grew this society put end to them one by one. It said you cannot be happy without sacrifice. It said you have to strive hard to succeed in this world. It said there is tough competition everywhere.

Is it all true, and above all, is it worth a concern. Actually speaking all these useless thoughts come to men only when his purpose is not clear. Every human being has a basic nature of rising up, to act in best manner, reach a goal which his heart calls for. His inner urge keeps getting suppressed with the traditions, pity thinking and demotivating messages. He is not able to follow his inner urge and then this urge tries to find ways to come out. This is demonstrated in different ways. It can be constructive as well as destructive. But the urge comes out.

Give man a definite goal and he will achieve it even if it is highly difficult. Ask him to go 'somewhere' without clear cut objective and he will exhaust and frustrate himself without achieving anything. He will be moving round and round. He will do something and come back. He will try to satisfy his urge by doing all things he can find around, but will always be thirsty. Then he will find interest in getting more money, more fame. He will be attracted to sex. He will drink, smoke and will explore all possible ways.

Only thing that he will not do is to stop for a while, sit and go within, where the real answer lies. A simple question to self can solve all his quests. If he follows what his heart says, then he will not have to struggle for a moment. At the same time he will achieve all other things as bonus. But the biggest thing he will achieve will be the inner contentment, a feel of rising higher, an inner peace, a sense of achievement, a sense of being elated, a joy of being free from all barriers, joy of freedom, as well as being disciplined; strength of inner control as well as lightness.

All this is possible only when we discover our true purpose and take actions towards that direction.

Now lets just put the same phenomena to the concept of development. Is our definition or direction of development well defined or we are just rushing somewhere. Is it the real objective that we want to achieve?

Isn't it that we would be happier producing a bit less but we live a peaceful life? Is it not better to work for making people happy rather than making them crave for more facilities? Is it not better to define our own vision and mission first than we do it for a company? Is it not better to keep people's happiness as the first goal rather than maximising (any goals, limits???) wealth?Lets ask these questions to ourselves.

Lets define our own goals clearly. Individual goals will then merge into society goals, into national goals and into the universal goals. Then whatever we shall do, it will be in synergy, in a unified direction. It will have a purpose. It will have a destination. It will not be a blind race or rush. It will be smooth, confident and joyful ride to a better world. Then each step of human race will be towards real growth. There will be growth in happiness, in peace, in harmony, in creativity, in arts, needless to say in wealth, resources and quality of life.

That is the way to live life, that is the way to develop. LET US GROW, LET US RISE, LET US DEVELOP.