CASHLESS INDIA

The Central government’s decision to demonetize the notes of rs500 and rs1000  is being hailed by most of us and is being widely glorified as a “master stroke” and “surgical strike” on black money. It is being publicised as a panacea to end all the evil of the culture of Black Money and the industry of Fake Currency and the gullible citizens tend to be believing this.
Is it really that easy to flush out all the “black Money” in one go?.

Gone are the days when ‘Black Money’ consisted of undeclared wealth in the form of piles of cash hidden under pillowcases, mattresses or safe of Almirah or beneath the ground. Today, none or little portion of this Black Money finds itself in cash. Idle cash does not fetch profit so it is circulated. In the  present developed financial ecosystem, most ‘Black Money’ is stashed away in domestic or foreign Bank Accounts, or are invested in Gold, share market or are used in buying stocks or assets or invested in real estate or some kind of business. Even Government agrees to this fact and Tax data reflects this.

Income-tax probes from April 1 to October 31 this financial year, black-money holders accepted having stashed Rs 7,700 crore worth of ill-gotten assets. The cash component was merely Rs 408 crore or 5%. The remaining was invested in business, stocks, real estate and benami bank accounts, the data show. Financial year 2015-16 saw the highest black-money detection in the period, of which 6% was cash.The actual proportion of cash would be even lower as the tax department’s classification of seizures considers currency and ornaments as one unit.(Source: Hindustan Times).

The small fishes will be disturbed to an extent and forced to find some innovative ways and jugaad for this temporary inconvenience. Nevertheless, The big sharks have little to worry as they hardly keep illegitimate wealth as cash.

Black Money: a vicious cycle

It is important to understand that Black money is an outcome of corrupt black practices and the money thus generated feeds other practices which in turn generates more black money.Thus, the real evil that has been jeopardising the economy is the whole set of black activities which are either entirely illegal,such as smuggling, or drug-running or the undeclared activities mixed with declared legal activities. If actually 100 tonnes of minerals are extracted but only 80 tonnes are declared to be extracted, in order to reduce tax payment, then we have a case of “black money” being generated.If $100 of goods are exported but only $80 are declared, and the remainder $20 are kept abroad in Swiss Banks, then we have a case of “black money” being generated.

Unearthing “black money” lies therefore in tracking down and checking these 'black activities' and this requires honest and systematic monitoring and investigation and patient and efficient tax administration and Data collection. Attacking the holdings and stockpiles of stashed cash is like giving a painkiller for temporary relief.

Aftermath of this decision
Demonetisation is not a strategy that the present government has thought out of the box.In the past, It has been implemented in many countries including India but with limited success. Morarji Desai government had demonetized 1000, 5000 and 10000 rupee notes from the midnight of January 16, 1978.But this had caused no hardships for the ordinary people, since most of them had hardly ever seen such a note, let alone possess one.The hardships that this decision has been causing to the public is being ignored by the government. The worst hit by demonetisation are people belonging to the low income groups ,farmers, daily wage-earners, labourers, domestic workers — who entirely depend on petty cash and who, unlike us, don’t have a digital wallet or a debit or credit card.

Given that more than half of the population don't even have bank accounts,what about the low-class people who do not have a bank account or people who do not have an Identity-proof. How would they exchange their hard-earned money?

90% transactions take place in this country offline. All the transactions of small and medium enterprises are done in cash. Will the government compensate for the huge loss these business are suffering?

If the government is of the view that terminating the currency of larger denomination makes it hard to stockpile wealth, how can it justify the introduction of rs2000 notes. Given that. Rs 1 crore in Rs 1,000 notes, if stashed evenly, occupies one sq ft and weighs 13 kg, notes of Rs 2000 will make the task of hoarding wealth easier.

What about middle-income people who have been saving each month a chunk of their taxed salaries for marriage, admission or medical purpose? In spite of their saved cash being legal, they would have tough time legitimising it  and answering tax authorities when depositing their saved cash in their accounts . 

This demonetisation decision would certainly serve a s blow to the fake currency system and to a little extent, turn the accumulated unaccounted cash into piles of worthless paper but it is like a temporary medicine which does not hit the root cause of the menace. Offendors would soon find ways of Counterfeiting Rs2000 notes and corrupt practices that generate black money will still rot the economy  An artificial shortage of new currency notes will give a boost to counterfeiting.Even if we assume that the demonetisation strategy would have some long-term benefits, it is sure that  these would be outweighed by the inconvenience ,disruption and hardships it has been causing to the public in general.

A HEART'S PLEA

A heart cries out, deep is its pain

Beseeching help but all in vain

Penalised for being against the grain

Dismantles each day, with pieces hard to regain

Impaled by indelible betrayals

and tired of unjust trials

Brooding what was its offence

Maybe it was adhering to the conscience

Maybe it was being too clingy

Nevertheless,the efforts never were mingy

Maybe being naive was the fault

or trusting You caused all the assault

It implored but You tantalised

Truth loses is what it now cognised

Deeply entrenched faith got a blow

When You gave it wounds in a row

Myriads of prayers and prostrations

Perhaps were only delusions

It still loves You to the hilt

Confiding in You is its only guilt

Hitherto, it is trying to connect the dots

Though impossible is it to clear the blots

A heart cries out, deep is its pain

Rudderless and confused,has gone inane

If You could listen

Dearest Almighty,

Since the inception of mankind, People have been worshiping you with intense ardour. They praise you day and night, amain observe all strenuous rituals and practices just for approval of their prayers. Some are enthralled , others fawn on you , while the rest being credulous are just swayed away by the rhetoric of the self-acclaimed 'agents' of their religion. Nevertheless, You are the fulcrum of the lives of your creation. You are the last and only hope of most. Since time immemorial your stories and hearsays have been propagating which convinces us how just, merciful and powerful you have been. Though obfuscated, the meticulous patterns and intricate perfection of the nature and your creations reflect a supreme wisdom and the concept of your existence seems plausible. In your pursuit, people have been swinging from Asceticism to Mysticism to even exorcism. Famished souls like me, with an insatiable appetite for truth, keep pondering over your existence and whereabouts, only to be perplexed and mystified. All approaches to find you lands one in a labyrinth.

The world you gave us to dwell , is full of chaos and predicament. Injustice, sufferings, hatred, bloodshed are incessant and ubiquitous. Minorities are being persecuted. Unabated Genocide and pogroms are a common scene. Violence has become the only way of conflict resolution. Millions die of hunger and poverty while some have so much to waste. Innocents suffer and perpetrators prosper. Truth perishes and falsehood triumphs. In a nutshell, the concept of Peace and tranquility now seem far-fetched and utopian.

In such a bleak situation, You are the only one we cling to, but to our sheer disappointment ,sometimes you hold the justice in abeyance while most of the time you don't deliver it at all. Please don't be apathetic and indifferent to your own creations. If everything is at your beck and call( which most of us do believe is), what is it that prevents You from mending the chaos and sufferings that envelops our world ? Is justice and harmony not under your ambit or are you just being indifferent and stoic? Is despondence and pain of Your creations a mundane affair for You? Why are You being impervious to the call of your own creation? I hope we have not been fooling ourselves by having a strong faith and conviction in Your existence, perfection, wisdom, power and above all, justice.

With my hopes obliterated; heart confounded; hands clasped; eyes wet; i sincerely implore you, "Please change the status quo."

Your response is imperative.

Profound love and admiration,

Your Creation.

THEY TOO FEEL

When the butcher goes to catch a lamb to slaughter it , does the lamb readily offer itself? No, Never. It tries all possible ways to escape death, though all in vain.

Animals want to live. They love Life and fear death and above all, they feel mental and physical pain no less than we humans. They feel joy, affection, and pleasure, as well as fear, grief, and pain. Like us, they form deep friendships and emotional bonds and like us they seek to preserve their lives and, like us, they will fight and plead for their lives till their last breath. Like us, they also have an individual and social life.

-When we love our pet dogs and cats, why don't we extend this compassion to other animals as well? Farm animals also feel pain and emotional stress the same as humans, and certainly as much as your domesticated pets do.

It is imperative that we should abstain from non-veg items. The basis of temperance could be logical, personal health-concern, environmental. Or better it could be visceral, ethical or spiritual.

WORLD HUNGER:

1. LAND: Meat production is actually taking food out of people's mouths. A large percentage of land is used to grow crops in order to feed the livestock industry .This land could have been used for agriculture to feed human population. Forest are cleared for Cattle ranches.Twenty-six percent of the Planet’s ice-free land is used for livestock grazing and 33 percent of croplands are used for livestock feed production. Livestock contribute to seven percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions through enteric fermentation and manure.

2. WATER : Raising animals for food requires up to 10 times more water than growing crops for direct consumption. Already limited freshwater supplies are diverted to animals for their hydration, sanitation, and the cultivation of the forage used to feed them. a cow will drink up to 90 liters of water every single day. Grain-fed livestock consumes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food they produce. It takes 100 litres of water to produce 1 kg of potato; 4000 litres for 1 kg of rice and 15000 litres for 1 kg of Beef. Not to mention the Oil guzzled in the production process of meat and its transport.By eating a vegan diet, National Geographic says an individual saves an average of 600 gallons of water.50 percent of the grain trades around the world is used for animal feeds or biofuels. Some 38 percent of the world's grain crop is now fed to animals, as well as large quantities of soybeans. There are three times as many domestic animals on this planet as there are human beings.It takes twenty-one pounds of protein fed to a calf to produce a single pound of animal protein for humans. The output to input ratio is so less.

HEALTH:

one of the single most significant causes of heart disease is dietary cholesterol. Our bodies make all the cholesterol we need, so consuming animal products contributes excessive levels. (There is no cholesterol in plant foods). Animal products are also loaded with saturated fats, which, unlike unsaturated fats, cause the liver to produce more cholesterol. Scientific research shows that saturated fat and cholesterol clog arteries. X-rays show that giving  up meat and dairy and adopting a low fat plant and starch based diet can re-open those arteries. Fortunately, for most people, preventing coronary heart disease is as simple as eliminating animal products, eating a healthy plant-based diet, exercising, and avoiding cigarette smoking. But beyond prevention, a plant-based diet is the only treatment that has been scientifically proven to reverse heart disease.

ENVIRONMENT:

According to the 2006 United Nations report Livestock's Long Shadow, "the livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." The livestock sector is probably the largest source of water pollution (due to animal wastes, fertilizers, and pesticides), contributing to eutrophication, human health problems, and the emergence of antibiotic resistance. It accounts also for over 8% of global human water use. It is by far the biggest cause of land use, as it accounts for 30% of the global land surface. It is probably the leading player in biodiversity loss, as it causes deforestation, land degradation, pollution, climate change, overfishing, and invasions by alien species. Livestock is also responsible for 20% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main cause of the current climate change. This is due to feed production, enteric fermentation from ruminants, manure storage and processing, and transportation of animal products.

Some 60 billion land animals and another approximate 60 billion to 1 trillion marine animals are slaughtered each year globally. It is a pity that billions of innocent lives are dependent just on food Choice made by humans. If we can live healthy lives without harming anyone, without inflicting pain, why wouldn’t we? Is our craving for taste and tongue pleasure more important than a being's life? 

NDE AND OBE: Are they just hallucinations?

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are profound spiritual or mystical experiences that many people report as they approach or start to cross the threshold of death. The contents and after-effects of NDEs suggest that they are more than just hallucinations. The contents do not appear to be influenced by past religious beliefs, but do have a profound effect on religious or spiritual beliefs after the experience. Near-death experiencers (NDErs) also report a consistent positive change in attitude toward the transition from life to death. There is still no accepted scientific cause for NDEs. Each near-death experience is unique, but as a group NDEs display common features.

 Intense emotions: commonly of profound peace, well-being, love; others marked by fear, horror, loss

A perception of seeing one's body from above (called an out-of-body experience, or OBE), sometimes watching medical resuscitation efforts or moving instantaneously to other places

Rapid movement through darkness, often toward an indescribable light

A sense of being "somewhere else," in a landscape that may seem like a spiritual realm or world

Incredibly rapid, sharp thinking and observations

Encounter with deceased loved ones, possibly sacred figures  or unrecognized beings, with whom communication is mind-to-mind; these figures may seem consoling, loving, or terrifying

A life review, reliving actions and feeling their emotional impact on others

In some cases, a flood of knowledge about life and the nature of the universe.

If one examines the medical literature in the last two decades, the most common theories for the occurrence of NDEs have involved either a hallucination brought about by physiological changes during the dying process, or a psychological stress reaction to the perceived threat of death. For many years these two theories have formed the basis of possible scientific explanations. Many brain mediators have been proposed to account for the experiences, although none has yet been shown to be responsible for the phenomenon. These include release of endorphins; the body's own morphine-like substance, lack of brain oxygen, increased carbon dioxide, various drugs and in particular those that can cause hallucinations such as ketamine and temporal lobe seizures. The argument in favour of a psychological explanation has been based largely on observations made from retrospective cases indicating that near death experiences may sometimes occur in those who were not yet physically close to death at the time of the experience - such as in those occurring just before an accident.

Cardiac arrest patients are a subgroup of people who come closest to death. In such a situation an individual initially develops two out of three criteria (the absence of spontaneous breathing and heartbeat) of clinical death. Shortly afterwards (within seconds) these are followed by the third, which occurs due to the loss of activity of the areas of the brain responsible for sustaining life (brainstem) and thought processes (cerebral cortex). Brain monitoring using EEG in animals and humans has also demonstrated that the brain ceases to function at that time. During a cardiac arrest, the blood pressure drops almost immediately to unrecordable levels and at the same time, due to a lack of blood flow, the brain stops functioning as seen by flat brain waves (isoelectric line) on the monitor within around 10 seconds. This then remains the case throughout the time when the heart is given 'electric shock' therapy or when drugs such as adrenaline are given until the heartbeat is finally restored and the patient is resuscitated. Due to the lack of brain function in these circumstances, therefore, one would not expect there to be any lucid, well-structured thought processes, with reasoning and memory formation, which are characteristic of NDEs. Nevertheless, and contrary to what we would expect scientifically, studies have shown that 'near death experiences' do occur in such situations. This therefore raises a question of how such lucid and well-structured thought processes, together with such clear and vivid memories, occur in individuals who have little or no brain function. In other words, it would appear that the mind is seen to continue in a clinical setting in which there is little or no brain function. In particular, there have been reports of people being able to 'see' details from the events that occurred during their cardiac arrest, such as their dentures being removed.

In a study of 344 patients who survived cardiac arrest , all the reported elements of a Near-Death Experience (NDE) like an out-of-body perception, meeting with deceased relatives or a life review were experienced during a transient functional loss of the cortex and of the brainstem, with a flat line EEG. During their cardiac arrest people can have veridical perceptions from a position outside and above their lifeless body. NDE-ers have the feeling that they have apparently taken off their body like an old coat and to their surprise they appear to have retained their own identity with the possibility of perception, emotions, and a very clear consciousness. This out-of-body experience (OBE) is scientifically important because doctors, nurses, and relatives can verify the reported perceptions, and they can also corroborate the precise moment the NDE with OBE occurred during the period of CPR. This proves that an OBE cannot be a hallucination, because this means experiencing a perception that has no basis in “reality”, like in psychosis, neither it can be a delusion, which is an incorrect assessment of a correct perception, nor an illusion, which means a misleading image. Moreover, one needs a functioning brain for experiencing hallucinations, delusions or illusions. Additionally, even people blind from birth have reported veridical perceptions during NDE and OBE. Based on several NDE-studies it seems inevitable to conclude that veridical perception is possible independently of brain function.

Science, until very recently, has not taken seriously the huge amount of material gathered over the past hundred or so years by institutions devoted to recording non-ordinary experiences (near-death experiences) as well as communications to the living from the 'dead.' Nor has it accepted as worthy of scientific attention the experience of visionaries and mystics of all cultures and time that has testified to the existence of that other dimension of reality and the possibility of a direct relationship with it.

Enigmatic Electrons

The Quantum world is very different from the classical world. We all know that Quantum mechanics works well in practice, providing a highly precise means of interpreting the behaviour of subatomic particles, something that classical physics — the physics deduced by Sir Isaac Newton and others, fails to do so. Initially electrons were believed to be particles. But then there was evidence that they behaved like waves in phenomena such as electron diffraction. And so there was a growing confusion about the nature of subatomic particles. Were they wave like or particle like? And this confusion did not get resolved until the mid '20s when the laws of quantum mechanics were discovered, which actually showed that atomic particles are neither waves nor particles. They behave in their own strange quantum mechanical way.

But the Quantum Physics is really hard to comprehend and it has some of its own mysteries. A good example of this is the behaviour of electrons in the Double-slit Experiment. 

When macroscale objects such as bullets are shot at a barrier with two slits, with a wall behind the slits, the objects travel straight through the slits and hit the wall in one particular area. But when electrons(or light consisting of photons) are fired instead of macroscale objects, they do not hit the wall at one particular area , but hit the wall at a number of different points at the same time with different strength causing an interference pattern of many lines. The really amazing part is that unlike sound waves or water waves, the interference pattern is still produced when electrons are fired one at a time. Because the interference pattern remains even when the electrons are shot one at a time, the experiment seems to suggest that each electron somehow travels through both slits at the same time and interferes with itself. Mind-boggling? Yet true!

The second unusual part of the Double-slit experiment is that the electrons stop creating an interference pattern when scientists set up a detector near one of the slits to determine which slit(s) an electron is passing through. Under these circumstances, the electrons simply create two straight lines, the same as classical particles, as if they know everything that is going around.

Scientists ran the same experiment with polarising filters in front of each of the two slits. Any photon going one way would become "labelled" with left-handed circular polarization, while any photon going through the other slit is labelled with right-handed circular polarization. In this version of the experiment, it is possible in principle to tell which slit any particular photon arriving at the second screen went through. Surprising enough, the interference pattern vanishes -- even though nobody ever actually looks to see which photon went through which slit.

Now came a new trick -- the eraser. A third polarising filter was placed between the two slits and the second screen, to scramble up (or erase) the information about which photon went through which hole. Now, once again, it is impossible to tell which path any particular photon arriving at the second screen took through the experiment. Now, the interference pattern reappears.

The strange thing is that interference depends on "single photons" going through both slits "at once", but undetected. So how does a single photon arriving at the first screen know how it ought to behave in order to match the presence or absence of the erasing filter on the other side of the slits?

So how  does the electron come to know that it is being detected? There was a substantial chance that the electron was detected at this particular point. So now we would say to ourselves, if the electron went through slit 1, how could it possibly matter to it whether slit 2 was open or not? And if it did not matter to it, how could it be that the probability of detection of that electron went down from a substantial value to being very close to zero?

I rummaged the internet about the reason for such behaviour of electrons, I found certain theories explaining this but full of paradox and internal contradictions. In reality it has been baffling physicists and is still inexplicable.

Nobel Prize winner Physicist Richard Feynman also said, "i can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, ‘But how can it possibly be like that?’ because you will go down the drain into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that." (The Character of Physical Law, BBC Publications, 1965).

“If we want to describe what happens in an atomic event, we have to realize that the word “happens” can only apply to the observation, not to the state of affairs between two observations.”

Heisenberg

TRANSCEND BEYOND YOUR GENDER

 The Present world mostly consists of hedonistic generations grown on the lines of consumerism. The 'Body' has become dominant and people are competing with each other to come closer and closer to the market-induced definition of "Beauty" whose transient nature is often forgotten. Directly or Indirectly, Knowingly or unknowingly, we are spending most time on our Gender identification, neglecting our mental and spiritual capabilities. We flaunt our distinguishing manly or womanly assets and be presentable to the opposite sex and to the world. We accentuate our bodily attributes whichever we feel suffices to be called "beautiful" by the worldly eyes and has potential to gain admiration.

In this berserk race, we have forgotten that we are human beings first, we are a spiritual body foremost and not a physical one. Body is just a temporary physical manifestation and abode of the soul. It is just an outer cover for identification.We all bleed the same.God made us different in terms of colour, height or other physical attribute so that we could be recognised among each other and God imparted Gender Division just for continuation of species and natural division of labour, not to get obsessed with it. There are only certain moments in our life when our gender roles and identification become necessary. You do not have to wear your sex on your sleeves all the time. The small physiological difference was necessary to efficiently run the cycle of life. But we have made this difference so wide, just in our minds. Our cultures have become such that there is excessive polarization of femininity and masculinity both in terms of physical attributes and internal traits. These are promoted as extreme, limited and rigid stereotypes rather than all-encompassing aspects of human potential. If you identify yourself with few distinguishing body parts, you perceive everything that way, you look everything around by that attitude and in turn you get treated that way. In reality, masculinity and femininity are interrelated aspects of one thing in continuum.

Break the shackles of gender-obsession if you want to be 'free'. Your Gender and sexuality is needed only when there are specific natural gender roles. Rest of the time, you are neither a man nor a woman, you are a soul, you are an energy. Physical body is not the ultimate boundary, Death is not the ultimate end. There is something beyond the physiological life process that is keeping you alive. To grow beyond the physical, you first need to grow beyond the gender.