Personality and economic background

Generally you can notice two types of people with regard to their attitude to money. There are people who are very generous and people who are very stingy or miserly. It is a very interesting phenomenon worth studying. You can find these two categories of people both in the affluent families and poverty ridden families. You can even call it the 'problems of plenty and problems of scanty'.

Some people, who are born and brought up in the poorest conditions, and who have faced and suffered all kinds of adversities in life, becoming very generous personalities later in their life when their fortunes look up. Mostly, they have a feeling that others should not have to face the difficulties they themselves experienced. You can take the examples many well known philanthropists who keep on helping others even though their own desires are not completely fulfulled. They find gratification in helping others and most often they are obsessed with this feeling throughout their life. I need not have to name anybody here because, you find such people everywhere around you doing their yeoman service in their own unique way. Some may come to limelight while others may not. What I am concerned about is their attitude.

You also see persons who are extremely stingy and miserly when they become rich and affluent later in the life. Mostly, it appears they have nourished a sense of insecurity all through their childhood. The result of that insecurity is so intense in them that they feel threatened as if they will be thrown back into that unhappy past; and in order to save themselves from that painful past, they do not want to part with their wealth. Their greed can reach the level of insatiation sometimes. They keep on adding to their wealth by all possible means. But this nouveau riche exhibit the qualities where their childhood haunts them. You can observe them being either lonely, wily, hypocratic, suspicious or insecure deep in the core of their personality.

The same phenomenon can be observed in the people born with the silver spoon in their mouth.. You have generous, empathetic and kind souls who give away everything they have, again for the sense of that gratification. You might have heard stories of many such people who later become paupers out of their own virtues. You can see equally stingy people who would not part with even one penny even though they can afford the moon. They are utterly miserly. George Orwell has written a beautiful essay on one such miserly man he came across. It is an extreme case of psychological perversity. But these people do not enjoy the life themselves nor allow others.

My question is, what do you attribute such personalities to? Is it a psychological phenomenon or genetic phenomenon?

Small things

Sometimes I keep on brooding over small but strange ideas. There may be so many others thinking on similar lines too. Here in India we, namely; leaders, politicians, intellecuals, business men, administrators etc. keep on dreaming and making tall claims that India is emerging as a strong and developed nation. We make India Shine. True, when we hear that or read about that we feel proud of our nation.

But, on the other hand it also makes me to introspect how true are our claims? The fruits of developed have not completely percolated down to the rural area. May be in terms of mobile communication it could be true. How about infrastructure facilities like good roads, good schools and good health facilities? We have a clear divide between Bharat and India despite the tall claims. I would like to testify my statement by illustrating one small example. Let us take a look at our National Highways, forget about the other small roads. You hardly find any decent rest room or decent hygenic food joint adjacent to the highways. I am not talking about the inconvenience faced by passengers travelling in their own vehicles - they can afford to go into the hotels in the cities nearby. Think of the ordinary passengers - specially women passengers - travelling by road transport services. Think of the humiliation they suffer through these ordeals. Or take the ordinary bogies in the train where there is no water, no cleanliness, no doors working properly.

This may sound like a very small thing. But is it not a part of a civilised and a developed society? When we can afford to spend crores of rupees on so many populist measures, can't we spend, a part of that at least, on these small things in the public interest? I strongly urge our netaas to pay heed to the common man's necessities and work out a national programme to address such small issues.

Learning Hindi language through music

Presently I am heading a project called Pathways in the Sahyadri Science College. The objective of the project is to identify bright students from the socially and economically deprived sections and train them to enhance their confidence level through life skills, soft skills and computer skills. The success rate is very encouraging. One of the innovative methods I am trying out to teach them Hindi language is through film songs. The students in this part of the state do not know any other language other than Kannada. English is taught as part of the curriculum but Hindi remains isolated. In order to address this problem, I am taking up a few celebrated good old film music and play them. The students are encouraged to follow the lyric and understand them word by word. On the one hand they learn new words and on the other they have learnt to enjoy music and literature. The students also get additional information about the music directors, singers, lyricists, year of production etc. The internet provides a lot of information. Sometimes we ask the students to browse the net for additional information. We have taken up songs on themes like devotion, patriotism, philosophy, happiness and sadness etc. Some of the songs have become a part of their cultural programme presentation too. It is a wonderful experiment.