Are you really an Indian?

Let me tell you a story which will make you aware of the current situation in India.

      An American visited India and went back to America after few months. He met his Indian friend who asked him, How did you find my country? The American said it is a great country with solid ancient history and immensely rich with natural resources. The Indian friend then asked, how did you find Indians? to that the American replied that "Indians? Who Indians? I didn't find or meet a single Indian there in India". The surprised Indian friend asked the American guy, "What nonsense? Who else could you meet in India then?" to this the American  guy replied that,
In Kashmir, I met a Kashmiri...
In Punjab, I met a Punjabi...
In Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, I met a Bihari, Marathi, Marwadi, Bengali, Tamilian and Malayali.

Then I met,

• A Hindu,
• A Muslim,
• A Christian,
• A Jain,
• A Buddhist,
• A Sikh

and many more. But not a single Indian did I meet.

      The reason behind me sharing this story with you all is because this is the current situation in India. When someone asks you "Who are you?", the only reply we get is that, You're Punjabi / Maharashtrian / Hindu / Muslim / Jain or many more such answers. But you are forgetting who you really are, we all are Indians and we should be proud to say that also.

      Some of you maybe thinking that what change will it bring by just saying that or believing that we are Indian. But it can bring a lot of change which you might not have thought about. If you say you're hindu or muslim then you're representing that caste, if you say you're Maharashtrian or Punjabi then you're representing that State. But if you say you're an Indian, then you are representing India as a whole to the whole world. And what change will it bring? The change will be immense. If you believe that you're an Indian then you will not think of a particular caste or particular region or state, but instead you will think about the country as a whole.

      Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqulla Khan, Chandra Sekhar Azad and many such more great people had never ever thought about their caste or region when they did something. They believe that they are Indians and fought for the freedom of the country which you all are enjoying today, and yet so many of you regret saying that you're an Indian. This is really a disappointing fact which comes to light when we interact with the people in India.

      If you could change your mindset and work towards the benefit of others then not only our country but the whole world will change. A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step. You have the power to change the world and no one can even steal this power from you. It is you who can do something to change the future and bring about a better tomorrow. And Most importantly, rather than blaming the society to bring the change or blaming the government to bring the change is lame. We should change our way of thinking towards each other and help each other. In this world, where there are many selfish people who are working for their own self interest, if some people started bringing some change and started helping each other out, then you can imagine how our country and how the world will be. Then it will not be about someone or someplace, but it will be about everyone and everyplace in the world. What will be the difference between animals and humans? If we all as human beings, forget what is Humanity and start working for our own selfish interest as many of us are doing now.

Change yourself and not your profile picture on social networking sites. Then the nation will change automatically.

I'm Proud to be an Indian and my only request to you all is,

The Power of Storytelling

      If I told you that there was a guy named "John Montagu" who loved to play cards and he was so much into it that at the time of eating also he used to play cards with one hand and eat with the other. This was one of the problems that he used to face because he can't eat properly with only one hand. So he came up with an idea to eat meat putting it in between slices of toast, which would allow him to finally eat and play cards at the same time. Eating his newly invented "sandwich", the name for 2 slices of bread with meat in between, became one of the most popular meal inventions in the western world.

      John Montagu was a British politician and aristocrat in 1748. You will notice that you will never likely forget the story of who invented the sandwich ever again. Or, you are very less likely to forget it and if it would have been in bullet form or presented in other information based forms then you are likely to forget it faster. That's the power of storytelling. For over 27,000 years, since the first cave painting were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods.

      Here is the science around storytelling and how we can use to make our decisions better.

How our brains become more active when we tell stories:

      We all enjoy a good story whether it is a novel, book, movie or simply anything one of our friends is explaining to us that they've experienced. Why do we feel so much engaged when we hear the narrative about events?

      In fact if we see it is quite simple. If we listen to a powerpoint presentation with boring bullet points in it, there are certain parts of the brain which gets activated and that is Broca's area and Wernicke's area, which is used for language processing. It just connect words with meaning and that's it, nothing else.

      When we are told stories though, things drastically changes found researchers in Spain. They found out that not only does the language processing area of the brain gets activated, but also the other areas of the brain which would have been activated if you had actually experienced the events which are told to you. A story can put your whole brain to work. And yet, it gets better. When we tell stories to others that have really helped us shape our way of thinking and way of life, we can have that same effect on them too. The brains of the person telling a story and the person listening to it can actually synchronize, says Uri Hasson from Princeton:

“When the woman spoke English, the volunteers understood her story, and their brains synchronized.  When she had activity in her insula, an emotional brain region, the listeners did too.  When her frontal cortex lit up, so did theirs. By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts and emotions into the listeners’ brains.”

      Anything you have experienced, you can get others to experience the same. Or at least, get their brain areas that you've activated that way, active too. Why does all that happen? The simple answer to this is: We all are wired that way. A story, if broken down into the simplest form is a connection of cause and effect. And this is exactly how we think.

      Storytelling is one of the most powerful techniques that we as humans have to communicate and motivate. And lastly, I would finish this post with a quote and here it is,