Maids in India

While our governments has numerous plans for making millionaires into billionaires, the silent contributors for our post liberalization economic growth are deliberately ignored and marginalised. Maids in India are one of them. A maid is a female person who works within the employer's household. They perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to housekeeping, including cleaning and household maintenance. Other responsibilities may include cooking, laundry and ironing, shopping for food and other household errands. Such work has always needed to be done and is physically much harder.

• Domestic workers come from vulnerable communities and backward areas. The majority are poor, illiterate, unskilled and do not understand the urban labour market. Their work is undervalued, underpaid and poorly regulated. 
• Lack of decent wages, work conditions and defined work time, violence, abuse, sexual harassment at workplace, lack of welfare measures and lack of skill development avenues resulting in stagnation are major issues that they face.
• Post Independence, the Government passed more than 40 Labour Legislations. These legislations have benefited only the workers of the organized sector, when in actual fact 93% of labour fall into the unorganized sector.
• It is one thing to migrate to a city seeking glamour, an exciting life, and better opportunities. It is something else to be forced out of own village by economic hardship. Distress migration puts the migrant, who is often illiterate, at the mercy of human traffickers. These young girls are vulnerable to exploitation every step of the way.
• Many of the domestic workers in Delhi are from the most backward regions and communities, and tribals, from Jharkhand. 
• All persons in the age group from 5 to 17 years are defined as child labour. Child labour robs minors of the opportunity to enjoy their childhood, go to school, and have a decent shot at success. It condemns them to a life of limited opportunities. 
• Fundamental rights of children must be protected and that they are accorded the opportunity to go after their dreams and aspirations. Child labour is a symbol of a society that has lost its way. The innocence of a child should never be taken away for the purpose of making the lives of adults easier. It is both unfair and morally unacceptable.
• The first thing servanting does is dehumanise us as well as servants. Servanting is slavery by another name.
• Those of us who keep servants grow up being accustomed to rules that are barbaric. Almost all are familiar with rules and practice of domestic servanting. These rules have become normalised and acceptable.
• Many maids are live-in domestics. They sleep in the kitchen or small rooms, such as a box room, usually on floor.
• Many maids in India are child labour.
• Maids have to eat the left overs at the end and also use the used clothes.
• Maids generally have to work 24 * 7 * 365 with no rest days or holidays or any benefits.
• Maids are permanently trapped in menial jobs with meagre earnings, for life.
• Maids may lose their job at the slightest irritation they may cause to the house-lady.
• Maids shall have to bear the tantrums of house lady and other members of the house as well without grumbling all the times.
• While many maids are treated well by their employers, abuse, mental, physical or sexual, of these women is not uncommon. 
• Maids may have to stand scrutiny for any missing valuables misplaced, lost or stolen by family members.
• The only positive contribution of maid system is that it helps them escape from extreme poverty and hunger.
• The maids in India are largely overworked, underpaid and abused.

In cities, numbers of female workers aged 15-59 went up 70% from around 14.7 million in 2001 to over 25 million in 2011. Between 1991 and 2001 there was a 120% increase in the numbers of domestic help. More people are prosperous, so even when women in affluent households stay home, those homes can still afford and want to hire domestic help. The silent contribution of maids in India for the nation's economic prosperity is neither acknowledged nor recognized.

So long as maids continue to work as domestic help,
that country remains a backward country.

On one hand we fight for our democratic and individual rights on other hand we treat our housemaid, personal driver, gardener and security guard etc like slaves reflecting our hypocrisy and bourgeois mentality. This reminds me of Ambedkar telling constitution assembly in 1946 "Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic”. Equality in India is a distant mirage. Until then might is right. It is the duty every social group to fight for their legitimate rights and negotiate for right remuneration. Failing which they stand exploited and under paid.

Criss Jami's quotations

 

1. To say that one waits a lifetime for his soulmate to come around is a paradox. People eventually get sick of waiting, take a chance on someone, and by the art of commitment become soulmates, which takes a lifetime to perfect.
2. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.
3. Question like a child, reason like an adult, and write like a sage.
4. Always seek justice, but love only mercy. 
5. To love justice and hate mercy is but a doorway to more injustice.
6. To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength.
7. The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.
8. Never hide things from hardcore thinkers. They get more aggravated, more provoked by confusion than the most painful truths.
9. Telling an introvert to go to a party is like telling a saint to go to Hell.
10. Man is not, by nature, deserving of all that he wants. 
11. The only thing more frustrating than slanderers is those foolish enough to listen to them.
12. When you're the only sane person, you look like the only insane person.
13. If you build the guts to do something, anything, then you better save enough to face the consequences.
14. Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane.
15. Being the odd one out may have its temporary disadvantages, but has its permanent advantages.
16. When a man is penalized for honesty he learns to lie.
17. A lonely day is God's way of saying that he wants to spend some quality time with you.
18. There are two circumstances that lead to arrogance: one is when you're wrong and you can't face it; the other is when you're right and nobody else can face it.
19. Popular culture is a place where pity is called compassion, flattery is called love, propaganda is called knowledge, tension is called peace, gossip is called news, and auto-tune is called singing.
20. Good work is giving to the poor and the helpless.
21. Everyone has their own ways of expression.
22. Find a purpose to serve, not a lifestyle to live.
23. Those who care criticize where necessary. Those who envy criticize the moment they think that they have found a weak spot.
24. In an extroverted society, the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that an introvert is often unconsciously deemed guilty until proven innocent.
25. Everyone has a sense of humor. If you don't laugh at jokes, you probably laugh at opinions.
26. As long as you're honest and you articulate what you believe to be true, somebody somewhere will become your enemy whether you like it or not.
27. When I look at a person, I see a person - not a rank, not a class, not a title.
28. It's not at all hard to understand a person; it's only hard to listen without bias.
29. Intelligent people are the ones who don't even need or want to look 'intelligent' anymore.
30. Monetary income is the perfect deceiver of a man's true worth.
31. A rumor is a social cancer: it is difficult to contain and it rots the brains of the masses. The real danger is that so many people find rumors enjoyable. 
32. An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate.
33. Fear of judgment is the mark of guilt and the burden of insecurity.
34. Simply minding one's own business is more offensive than being intrusive. 
35. There's nothing more contagious than the laughter of young children; it doesn't even have to matter what they're laughing about.
36. Friends ask you questions; enemies question you.
37. Don't change your mind just because people are offended; change your mind if you're wrong.
38. Create with the heart; build with the mind.
39. When a woman leaves a man she is strong and independent, but when a man leaves a woman he is a pig and a jerk.
40. If ever you feel like an animal among men, be a lion.
41. I would rather be an artist than a leader. Ironically, a leader has to follow the rules.
42. In a world of passive individualists nothing seems worth anything simply because nobody stands for anything. That world has no convictions, no victories, no unions, no heroism, no absolutes, no heartbeat. That world has rigor mortis.
43. The first ingredient to being wrong is to claim that you are right. 
44. A fear of weakness only strengthens weakness.
45. Safety is indeed stability, but it is not progression.
46. Absurdity is the ecstasy of intellectualism.
47. An encouraged person will eventually get his drive from encouragement; he becomes more dependent. A person that never really receives encouragement learns to move out of spite; he becomes more independent.
48. In the land where excellence is commended, not envied, where weakness is aided, not mocked, there is no question as to how its inhabitants are all superhuman.
49. Feel what it's like to truly starve, and I guarantee that you'll forever think twice before wasting food.
50. Confidence turns into pride only when you are in denial of your mistakes.
51. Never rebel for the sake of rebelling, but always rebel for the sake of truth.
52. Everything is permissible except a sharp opinion.
53. Soar with wit. Conquer with dignity. Handle with care.
54. Women rescue men just as much as, if not more than, men rescue women.
55. The pressure of adversity is the most powerful sustainer of accountability. 
56. In the age of technology there is constant access to vast amounts of information. It is not so much what goes on in the world, it is the confusion of how to think, feel, digest, and react to what goes on.
57. In the fashion industry, everything goes retro except the prices.
58. With too much pride a man cannot learn a thing. 
59. If you're waiting until you feel talented enough to make it, you'll never make it.
60. Whenever we want to combat our enemies, we must start by understanding them rather than exaggerating their motives.
61. The role of genius is not to complicate the simple, but to simplify the complicated.
62. Creativity is the highest form of intelligence.
63. I never feel unsafe except for when the majority is on my side.
64. An exceedingly confident student would make a terrible student. Why would he take school seriously when he feels that he can outwit his teachers?
65. Deceit for personal gain is one of history's most recurring crimes. 
66. Sometimes it takes a lowly, title-less man to humble the world. Kings, rulers, CEOs, judges, doctors, pastors, they are already expected to be greater and wiser.
67. The narcissist reconstructs his own law of gravity which states that all things and all creatures must adhere to his personal satisfaction.
68. In a relationship the more you learn about the other person, the more you continue to desire them. 
69. If you're capable of despising your own behavior, you might just love yourself.
70. For a man, his own family or clan is superior to all others.
71. A rebel adult seems like a savior, whereas a rebel child seems like a little devil.
72. Tension, in the long run, is a more dangerous force than any feud known to man.
73. If I were to vote, I would intentionally vote for the goofiest candidate. It is my theory that when the people can outwit the leader, the more respected their voices will be.
74. A child's relentless inquiry reminds us that we don't know as much as we think we know.
75. A man who teaches one truth and nothing else is more righteous than a man who teaches a million truths and one lie.
76. Cleverness isn't always true nor is the truth always clever.
77. Love remains debatable in an opinionated world.
78. God cannot be impressed by mere talents or by mortal achievements. 
79. Humility is ultimately a human being's true greatness.
80. The internet is where some people go to show their true intelligence; others, their hidden stupidity.
81. Everything at some point has been declared the root of all evil.
82. Trustful people are the pure at heart, as they are moved by the zeal of their own trustworthiness.
83. It is a noble responsibility to not back down when you know that you know that you are right.
84. People don't care about being duped as long as they're happy.
85. Justice is pure, but vengeance brings more ruin.
86. It's easy to make a mess when you're not the one who has to clean it up.
87. God judges men from the inside out; men judge men from the outside in.
88. It is God's will to stand for the weak and question the strong.
89. I pity the man who praises God only when things go his way.
90. There are two kinds of fighters. Those who fight because they hate, and those who fight because they love.
91. Whether you try too hard to fit in or you try too hard to stand out, it is of equal consequence: you exhaust your significance.
92. Who you are in public is a test of your conviction; who you are in private, integrity.
93. If you've done things you aren't proud of means you have a conscience.
94. An insincere critic of a sincere person never wins.
95. Honesty is the best policy, silence is the second best policy.
96. No matter how kind you are, always expect a few imbeciles.
97. Controversy is a last resort for the talentless.
98. Good friends will allow you to be as innocent and free as a child when in private, and as wise and mature as an adult when in public.
99. Tradition requires a wealth of discipline in order to be adhered to.
100. The vanity of intelligence is that the intelligent man is often more committed to 'one-upping' his opponent than being truthful. There is no wisdom in it.
101. The most judgmental people are those who complain most.
102. Be willing to give, but only when you aren't expecting anything in return.
103. Be careful not to appear obsessively intellectual. When intelligence fills up, it overflows a parody.
104. Misguided good men are more dangerous than honest bad men because the mob will always, stubbornly back them without question.
105. It is a healthy approach not to expect persons to turn out precisely how you would have wished.
106. If you assume that the new is always to be better than the old, because it's new, chances are you've never known anything valuable.
107. Law without reason is criminal.
108. Discernment is the son of good judgment and the father of self-control. 
109. Knowing the truth is so minuscule compared to having the nerve to say it and even more to live it.
110. Intelligent people are slow to criticize, but the genuine are slow to fret about being criticized.
111. To be afraid of anything other than God himself is like an insult to God.
112. All individuals have moral deficiencies.
113. I'm not offended until you think I'm offended.
114. Let your confidence reflect your contentedness.
115. Man was designed in which he must eat in order to give him a solid reason to go to work everyday. This helps to keep him out of trouble. 
116. The unteachable man is sentenced to being taught only by experience. 
117. Maturity is defined by the strength of one's character.
118. The only way for perfect peace by man is absolute control of all wrongs.
119. Unlike wealth, there is an infinite value in legacy.
120. Pride loves being wrong, even when proven wrong, decides to go on being wrong.
121. Instead of laughing at one another, we should laugh with one another as we all dumb down what we don't understand.
122. The more we love God, the more unpleasant sin becomes.
123. A wise man's goal shouldn't be to say something profound, but to say something useful.
124. With no positivity, there is no hope; with no negativity, there is no improvement.
125. Unsettling are the days in which everyone is an expert.
126. People are equally insecure. They just show it or hide it differently.
127. An assumption is the joke; truth the punchline.
128. No man in this life should ever have to bear the burden of perfection.
129. Only the man who thinks himself a fool is as wise as he thinks.
130. No one is so good that they cannot get any better; no one knows so much that they can know no more.
131. A professional can spot an amateur or a lack of practice or experience a mile away. He is familiar with the common mistakes. He can clearly distinguish the difference between honest critics and mere fools who criticize that which they know nothing.
132. I would be intellectually dishonest to deny the existence of God even for a second.
133. If you don't like the solution, change the problem.
134. I treat my thoughts like an old person treats their valuables: I cannot for the life of me proceed to throwing them out.
135. Great philosophers become immortal as they make undeniable impacts on culture.
136. Everything seems funnier when you're trying to show respect.
137. It is the faith rather than the credentials that really takes you places.
138. The hardest thing for a sane person to do is not care what anyone thinks, hence our glorification of insanity.
139. The height of cleverness is in one's ability to be very clever without seeming clever at all.
140. Envy is a sign of insecurity.
141. You can never make someone like something they don't like, but you can always help them to better understand it.
142. It is not so much freedom of speech but the right to truth that great men protect.
143. Truth is in fact simple, simplicity is still relative.
144. If one should criticize, a meaningful explanation should accompany.
145. A thief is one who insists on sharing his victimhood.
146. There is something wrong if the mother never gets angry; it is safe to say that that is the unloving mother.
147. A poor man who worships the idea of being rich is more vulnerable to its evils than a rich man who has a heart to use it all for the Lord.
148. Where everyone wants to be a leader, it makes one a follower to want to be a leader, and a leader to know what to follow.
149. I suspect that 'Kindness and Cruelty' and 'Mercy and Justice' all have secret affairs, as though they rendezvous only within certain sophisticated souls: those who hate being offensive, but love telling the truth.
150. Even the richest of brands are robbed by poor character.
151. There are two kinds of artists, essentially: those who want to make something popular, and those who want to make something dignified. There is still a rare hybrid case in which one's work becomes both popular and dignified.
152. The hardest chore to do, and to do right, is to think. The common man would choose labor as a distraction from his own thoughts because that level of stress he most absolutely abhors.
153. To esteem what makes you holy over what makes you happy is the greatest dare.
154. I'm always talking to God about whether or not he exists - that's how I know I'm a theist.
155. Trying to be offensive for the sole purpose of being offensive should always deem one the least offensive of offenders.
156. No man voluntarily expresses his opinion without some intent to make a difference, and even if he does, he shouldn't.
157. Extreme right-wingers are known for giving God a bad name; extreme left-wingers are known for giving God a weak name. God is both and neither.
158. Religion, like science, is only noteworthy when it emphasizes a matter of what is true.
159. All things remarkable are surprisingly simple; albeit difficult to find.
160. To be extremely happy but extremely intelligent is a task of being optimistic without being cheesy.
161. Our enemies are quite good for relentlessly keeping us sharp and on our toes. 
162. The philosophers use their enemies to challenge their arguments so that they can know the weak points in their own reasoning and how to argue for and strengthen their position. 
163. People are shallow and ignorant until they go out and see the world.
164. It's fallacious reasoning for the atheist to hate all religion due to men who manipulate religion to fit their own agendas.
165. A theology that has nothing more to offer than what the world already offers, then that theology is impractical and useless.
166. In a society where dirt sells it could be that 100 good deeds happened that day which went unsung.
167. Christianity is at its purest is a philosophy about Jesus Christ, and at its dirtiest is a philosophy about requirements and law.
168. No man who is really ignorant is ever aware that he is ignorant. There can be no true ignorance without a claim of intelligence or consciousness, or superiority or enlightenment.
169. If your doctrine changed for the better yet your character changed for the worse, you changed for the worse.
170. When people bicker they exaggerate passion into a legalistic belief and prosperity into a lukewarm belief.
171. Everything good comes from God, and everything bad comes from man. Everything seemingly good but ultimately bad comes from man, and everything seemingly bad but ultimately good comes from God.
172. Nothing frustrates people more than a cocky guy who's still winning.
173. It seems the silent, humble servant is secretly wiser and more discerning than the haughty master through dutiful surrender he serve and carry out petty orders in loyal acquiescence.
174. It seems God is in the business of teaching winners how to lose and losers how to win.
175. Angels are good not because they see bad as bad, but also because they see bad as corny.
176. Dreams and freedom are the same. In order for them to be, they come with a price.
177. Many things are really so simple we can't see them under our big noses.
178. Man's rebellion against God has always been because he would rather fall in pride than rise in humility.
179. Some people think that simply being nice and not harming others is morality; others think that following rules and tithing are morality.
180. A good work ethic is not so much a concern for hard work but rather one for responsibility. 
181. Many men and women have used work or hustle or selfish ambition as an escape from real responsibility, an escape from purpose. 
182. The best of fiction doesn't tell the truth; it tales the truth.
183. Everybody knows basically what is right and what is wrong. Everybody knows better than to hate others. Most people teach against it, and yet we still see it on the daily. It is because the problem was humans not loving righteousness enough.
184. The denial of truth does not harm the Truth; it only harms that which denies the Truth.
185. The petty man wants to use God for himself; the ambitious man wants God to use him for God.
186. To swear day and night by media slander will make one a bigger victim than the slandered.
187. It seems people don't have the same answers, but in their hearts, they do have the same questions.
188. Unprovoked hostility is displaced self-defense: 'I must stop him before he stops me'.
189. Wisdom without God brings bitterness; with God it brings compassion.
190. Honesty is not the same as truth. A lunatic is the one least concerned of what I think of him, the mark of an honest man. I can always depend on him to be completely honest in what he thinks and feels, about anything, no matter the consequences laid before him, however with no course of rationale, I cannot necessarily take his word for even the well-being of him in his own reality.
191. The creativity of an individual is his ability to tell the truth. It is the fool who creates only his own lies, and the bore who simply repeats what he is told.
192. Every new generation believes its own period to be absolutely superior intellectually - greater than all past cultures yet equal among its modern cultures.
193. The confident man truly sure of himself, is not he who esteems himself higher than others, but he who is sure enough that he can bear to esteem others higher than himself.
194. The survival of poor opinions can make a thinker feel as though he is failing humanity.
195. Divine Law is based solely on love and freedom; whereas secular law, pressure and imitation.
196. The man who sins but wants to purify it is no more a sinner than the man who doesn't sin but wants to sin.
197. There are no keys to success - only tools.
198. Men promise freedom while establishing laws; God promises laws while establishing freedom.
199. Mankind, in all his lusts, punishes himself. The gods have to do very little.
200. False humility is quite like the worst of both worlds: both that of Meekness and that of Conceit.
201. Fashion is simply a guideline for style-less people to appear stylish.
202. Life is about discovering things worth dying for.
203. Because you're always learning, the chief lesson remains: you still know nothing.
204. No villain ever saw himself a villain: he only saw himself a hero; and this goes just as no hero ever saw himself a hero: he simply did what he had to do. No true hero initially sets out with intentions of being deemed a hero.
205. Lean not on your own understanding.
206. Competition works best in sports, but humans get addicted to stuff.
207. The way of the consumerist culture is to spend so much energy chasing happiness that it has none left to be happy.
208. The pride of man hopes to blame God for the evils of the world, and to praise himself for the good.
209. Frequent risk-takers have had their fair shares of failures and successes, hence, being confident in reaching their goals, they will usually seem insensitive to whether or not they look foolish or cool to other people.
210. Pride corrupts truth. 
211. When pride is undeniably found out of an evil, it saves face by doubling down.
212. Today's zealots are mostly those pretending to be anti-religious.
213. The fans are always more radical than that which they are fans.
214. Wherever there is abuse there is also corruption. Politics, philosophy, theology, science, industry, any field with the potential to affect the well-being of others can be destroyed by abuse and saved by good will.
215. Elections have the power to turn once seemingly normal people into certified loonies.
216. The foundation of morality on the human sentiments of what is acceptable behavior versus repulsive behavior has always made morals susceptible to change. Much of what was repulsive 100 years ago is normal today.
217. To claim that one can never live a positive life with a negative mind is a very negative claim to make!
218. When you have a wit of your own, it's a pleasure to credit other people for theirs.
219. Some people don't like the new way simply because they never got a chance to master the old way.
220. The hype cheapens the hyped, as right things are then made wrong by exaggeration.
221. The most important part of discernment is pinpointing the forces to be reckoned with, both the constructive and destructive.
222. To fear man's judgment more than God's judgment is to fear man more than God.
223. 'God helps those who help themselves' is common sense,
     'God helps those who cannot help themselves' is sound theology, and
     'God helps all the living', a simple ideation.
224. One is not made self-centered because he is foolish, but one is made foolish because he is self-centered.
225. The poorly sophisticated, lacking in good arguments, we are then prone to being well-versed in insults.
226. Any coward can be a peacekeeper!
227. A boy would need no help in deciding which girls he thinks are pretty.
228. While there may be various tips, pointers, ingredients, and strategies to success, there is no one formula that always guarantees it other than to keep learning from failure itself.
229. Trends are about as fickle as the direction of the wind; as are the legacies of those who flow with them.
230. Reason begets honesty and honesty begets confidence; so there is a sort of grand authority in the stances of those who know why they are standing.
231. Goodness is sparked by a caution for the sake of what is good, not a fear of what is bad.
232. The hope is indeed that some will experience and believe.
233. Science is knowledge meeting humility meeting curiosity. Atheism is often but knowledge meeting arrogance. Religion is infamously a weight under the one wing; then under the other is atheism.
234. It is a harsh reality that some of the most important and respectable jobs which deserve high salaries might be better off with low salaries. A politician, or a minister, or a teacher is sure to be working sincerely and selflessly for the good of the people when through and through there is little monetary reward guaranteed. This is how the charlatans are weeded out of the field.

Talaq bill urgent, Appointing Lokpal is not. Why?

Economic Times | Jan 5, 2018 | Page 2

Every political leader is faced with a temptation to override institutional procedures in the garb of speed and efficiency. Leaders with a political majority even have the ability to fulfill those temptations. But succumbing to such temptations will be a betrayal of the sacrifices made by our freedom fighters and founding fathers in establishing the sovereign republic of India ... Manmohan Singh

The self declared lone crusader against corruption and black money, a friend of super rich Gujarati industrialists, Mr.Modi, doesn't appoint Lok Pal and Lok Ahyuktas, even after "the eminently workable piece of legislation" is passed  by Parliament 4 years ago and Supreme Court questioning the delay but finds Talaq bill urgent citing Supreme Court's ruling. Needless to say Talaq bill was badly drafted without seeking inputs from anyone, ahead of 2019 general elections. Is India a democracy or an authoritarian regime? Without winning confidence of minorities (nearly 19% of population) Modi government will never be able claim it as a legitimate democratic government.

Aadhaar data insecure

  

The Tribune dated Jan 4, 2018

Read the source article

Aadhaar data and its insecurity and absence of robust privacy protection laws, linking Aadhaar to all bank accounts etc can become catastrophe. Government has no right to expose citizens and their money to risks of losing.

Aadhaar linking should be restricted only to Government welfare schemes & subsidies and at the worst to mobile phones. Nothing more than that. Individual financial data must never be accessible to unauthorized entities under any circumstances.

Even though UIDAI assures Aadhaar data is fully safe, it is not really safe as glitches exist and not fool proof. Robust privacy laws must restrict individual data and unbridled access to database. Especially banks and financial institutional data accessing by unauthorized parties must be eliminated. Any financial loss arising out of unauthorised accessing of data must be borne by UIDAI/GoI/Bank only and customer must not be subjected to any loss or inconvenience.

Hypocrisy in India

Hypocrisy is the behavior of people who do things that they tell other people not to do; behavior that does not agree with what someone claims to believe or feel. In India Hypocrisy seems to be flying everywhere. Hypocrisy is so deeply ingrained in our society and in our individual psyches that it is perceived as the way of life. We all believe in something, say something else, do something else and expect something else from others.

• We all hold liberal opinions when it comes to our personal selves but in the collective whole as a society we try and stick to our traditional values and beliefs.
• We all tend to make judgments as per our personal convenience. People are not affected by anything happening around them until it is personally effects them.
• We all do what the society expects and will expect the same behavior from others too. 
• The marriage system in our country is the biggest example of hypocrisy. We say we are a secular nation where there should not be discrimination on the basis on caste. When it comes to making matrimonial alliances, we all look for partners in the same caste. 
• Daughters are given freedom to educate themselves and make a career. Parents will look for a house for the girl where she gets to work and the in-laws have an open mind and are liberal. When it comes to their own house, they want daughter in-laws who should be homely, should know how to cook and look after the house; she should not work or do a job. This is the epitome of hypocritical thinking in our country. 
• When it comes to marriages the groom’s side is always demanding with a smile on their face. It’s not dowry but their expectations and pride as being the groom’s side never seem to reach an end. Even the bride’s side they need to show off in the society how much they are spending and how much they are giving the groom and their daughter. It is all about satisfying the society and maintaining their status in the society. 
• If it is a widower the society will sympathize with him and feel that he has the right to have a second wife. If the same happen in case of a widow they will talk about her and say she is morally wrong and she is not respecting husband's death.
• In messages and jokes everyone talks about sex and takes it lightly. We all want to believe that we have become modern and western in our thoughts. But when it comes to personal situations like own house and children, then they are expected not to talk openly about it.  
• We belong to a society where families expect their daughters to never have boy friends but then they force their daughters to sleep with a stranger and give him all the love and care just when he becomes a husband. 
• Most people have been physically involved with someone or the other and some have even had pre marital sex but if talked about in open it is demeaned and disgraced. 
• We are so judgmental about everyone’s behavior. It would be better if we just “live and let live” and mind our own business instead of peeping into other’s lives to point fingers at them. 
• In India girls’ dressing is held responsible for them being victim to rapes and harassment. If it was the revealing clothes that caused rapes then women all across the world should be getting raped. 
• Every man in his house preaches the so-called “decent” dress code whereas in the outside world the same man seeks pleasures from girls dressed in revealing clothes and finds such dressing “sexy”. These men won’t deny that they love the item songs in cinema where girls dress in short and revealing clothes. There, men love such clothes and appreciate it. 
• India should broaden its thinking and outlook. If one holds an opinion against something then they must stand by it, instead of changing their view as per the convenience in the situation. There are many other grounds on which hypocrisy is practiced in this country.
• We all say we love children whether boy or girl. All parents will say they are like-minded towards both boy child and girl child. Yet in their hearts of hearts they wish to have a boy child to carry forward their lineage. There are also people who bluntly say that they want boy child and such people engage in murdering the girl child and sometimes the mother too. 
• Large section of the society will claim to be non-vegetarians. But when it comes to Tuesdays or “navratras”, they turn vegetarian. The same rule follows for drinking alcohol too. This main cause of the hypocrisy is that we are seeking to attain the modern standards of the west while still clinging on the traditional values of our past. 

In our country we give more importance to what others think and what the society demands than valuing ourselves. If we need to grow as a nation we need to lose this hypocrisy and stick to our views. We need to take a stand: whether we want to cling to the past traditions or want to move past conservative thoughts and beliefs.                            

Hypocrites spend most of their time pointing out the flaws in others, 

and the rest of the time trying to flaunt their perfection ... Charles F. Glassman

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The above list neither exhaustive nor conclusive. Lying, cheating, corruption, nepotism, and so on the list is endless. In India, hypocrisy omnipresent. It is more prevalent in upper classes. While discussing or negotiating or bargaining etc, one has to be extremely careful in identifying the truth, correlate with body-language prior to making decisions. Any error would result in wrong decisions, loss of money and many consequences. Politics and businesses are the worst inflicted by hypocrisy.

Advertising

• Advertising is a means of communication with the users of a product or service. Advertisements are messages paid for by those who send them and are intended to inform or influence people who receive them to buy their products or services.
• Advertising is attempting to influence the buying behavior of customers or clients by providing a persuasive selling message about products and/or services.
• Politics is what happens when two or more human beings interact. Every organisation is political, and everything it does involves politics. Advertising itself is an intensely political activity. 
• The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to: (1) Convince customers that they will get good service at this company and (2) Convince employees to give customers good service. More and more businesses are abandoning this maxim because it leads to bad customer service.
• Advertising encourages more consumers to buy products and services. As the demand for products and services goes up because of advertising, more people are needed to manufacture, supply, ship and test those products and services. Thus, more jobs are created.
• Advertising positively impacts society because it helps maintain mass communications media, i.e. newspapers, radio, magazines, and television making them much less expensive for the public.
• Advertising aims to present a product in the best light and the dramatization usually crosses the line into falsely representing a product.
• Political advertising is vast and multifaceted. Conventional wisdom holds that political advertising in general  and negative advertising in particular  is harmful to democracy.
• Advertising plays an essential role in the production of consumerist demand by inventing false “needs” and by stimulating the formation of compulsive consumption habits, totally violating the conditions for maintenance of planetary ecological equilibrium.
• Children do not have the ability to identify advertisements as marketing messages until they are in their teens. This means that marketing messages can be perceived as truths and those messages can stay with them until they become adults.
  In a study, the effects of branding were looked at and 3 to 5 year olds were given two portions of identical foods. One portion was given in McDonald’s wrappers. When asked to point out which foods tasted better, the children said that the ones with the McDonald’s wrappers were better.
• Advertisement leads to branding and branded products are not only expensive but also taxed more although they seem to be more clean, less adulterated and higher quality.
• An average child is exposed to over 40,000 commercials through TV every year. Children are spending more time watching TV than they are in school, meaning that they are viewing more advertisements.
• Consumption of fast foods has increased among children due to the advertisements. The rising popularity of fast foods and snacks has led to an increase of obesity, heart problems, diabetes and other serious health issues among children. Young and healthy-looking models are used, hiding the fact that these foods are some of the unhealthiest in the world.
• Many advertisements these days use beautiful young women to attract buyers. This will no doubt have a seriously negative effect on how children think. From chocolates to clothing, almost every ad seen is sexual in nature. Children then think that they need to look that way to be accepted.

The customer is always right until she or he chooses not to buy.

In today's intensely competitive world of consumerism most advertisements are eye catching with slogans. In colorful advertisements, untruths are glorified and truths appear in small print. Children should be protected from the ill effects of advertisements. Consumer awareness is important for understanding and evaluating the product will meet their requirements or not. Buy only what you really need. While in doubt, don'y buy - especially if it involves credit card loans or bank personal loans. 

Economic growth will destroy everything

• Everyone wants everything. How is that going to work? 
• Economic growth promises that the poor can live like the rich and the rich can live like the oligarchs.The promise of private luxury for everyone cannot be met: neither the physical nor the ecological space exists.
• The planet that sustains us is already bursting through the physical limits. Climate breakdown, soil loss, the collapse of habitats and species, the sea of plastic etc all are driven by rising consumption. 
• Growth must go on: this is everywhere the political imperative.
• Simple Lifers who seek to resist growth & its impact will be silenced, especially by the media. 
• Thirty years ago, it was ridiculous to buy bottled water, where tap water is clean and abundant. Today, we use a million plastic bottles a minute, worldwide.
• Green consumerism is not a solution for planetary survival. There is no significant difference between the ecological footprints of people who care about their impacts and people who don’t.
• Those who identify themselves as conscious consumers use more energy and carbon than those who do not.
• Environmental awareness is higher among wealthy people. The richer we are, the bigger is our ecological footprint, regardless of our good intentions. The green consumers mainly focus on behaviors that have relatively small benefits.
• People who recycle meticulously, save their plastic bags, carefully measure the water in their kettles, then take their holidays abroad that cancels their environmental savings 100-fold. 
• People who have gone green in no way enable them to overlook their greater impacts.
• None of these means that we should not try to reduce our impacts, but we should be aware of the limits of the exercise. Our behaviour within the system cannot change the outcomes of the system. It is the system that needs to change.
• World’s richest 1% produce around 175 times as much carbon as the poorest 10%. 
• If everyone aspires for higher incomes, how the earth will support its impacts.
• As growth outpaces efficiency, the total use of resources keeps rising. Efficiency with its physical limits, decoupling from the use of essential resources is impossible.
• A global growth rate of 3% means that the size of the world economy doubles every 24 years. This is why environmental crises are accelerating at such a rate. Yet the plan is to ensure that it doubles in perpetuity. 
• Perpetual growth is unsustainable on a planet that is not growing.
• Poorest 60% of the world’s people receive only 5% of the additional income generated by rising GDP. A $111 of growth is required for every $1 reduction in poverty. On current trends, it would take 200 years to ensure that everyone receives $5 a day. By this point, average per capita income will have reached $1m a year, and the economy will be 175 times bigger than it is today. This is not a formula for poverty relief. It is a formula for the destruction of everything and everyone.
• Those who see an indefinite rise in consumption as normal and necessary, are beserkers, destroying the prosperity of future generations.
• Green consumerism, material decoupling, sustainable growth are all illusions, designed to justify an economic model that is driving us to catastrophe. The current system, based on private luxury and public squalor, will eventually impoverish us all.
• We need a different system that establish the parameters by which we judge its health. We need to build a world in which growth is unnecessary, a world of private sufficiency and public luxury. And we must do it before catastrophe forces our hand.

The rising rate of homelessness in places like San Diego
is one of the signs of growing poverty in the United States.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem 

brings us face to face with another problem ... Martin Luther King, Jr.

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The only benefit of the rapid economic growth is millions of people are lifted from impacts of extreme poverty. The rest of the benefits are illusory. In the late last century, unfettered capitalism in the United States led to rapid economic expansion. This was characterized by widening class disparities and profound economic insecurity among the poor. Today, forty million Americans live in poverty, nearly half in deep poverty who live on less than $2 per day per person and don’t have access to basic human services such as sanitation, shelter, education and health care.