Neck Pain – RSI, The Repetitive stress injury, What your Doctors do not tell you.

Neck Pain – RSI, The Repetitive stress injury, What your Doctors do not tell you.

            I am a Radiologist by profession which involves working on computers all the time. Whether I report X rays, CT or MRI scan everything is over a monitor. Since all the computers are same with a keypad and mouse it does not differ from anybody who works continuously on computers.  I also do Ultrasound scans, where I have to hold a probe which I rub over patient’s body which is manual work with lot of pressure over hand and shoulders.   I will be bending my neck and extending my arms to do this job repetitively whole day, which I am doing for the past 13 years. And now I am paying for it.       

            Around three years back I developed severe neck pain, which I neglected initially and went on working, as there was nobody to do my work.  Over time when it got really bad I went for physiotherapy and it did not subside, I continued with physiotherapy like traction, TENS and some more with an advise of exercises. I exercised regularly, some time very hard, but my neck was getting worse. Working was difficult but I continued. When I used to wake up in the morning I just could not move my neck. It took me couple of hours to get to acceptable pain. Washing face was difficult as I could not turn or bend my head. I used to get shooting pain over my upper back. Both arms used to have needles and pins with severe pain in the fingers.

            Then my friend suggested me a new therapy which involved some ayurvedic oil and manipulation. I tried and within  a few days I knew this was nonsense and took off. Then another friend put me on to another Ayurvedic therapy, in ten days I took off again. Swimming was the next suggestion from the person who had gotten rid of his neck pain and there I was swimming paying nine thousand bucks. I swam for six months, neck pain did not go, except that I learnt the better style of swimming. By this time I was trying everything suggested by every tom dick and harry. My neck never got better and along with neck pain I had shoulder pain now.

        Finally I accepted I have a problem and took an X ray and found a bad cervical spine. Next was MRI scan of my cervical spine which showed multiple disc and vertebral degenerations.  Finally after months of denial I had to accept that I had problems. I consulted some surgeons who were ready to operate but could not guarantee pain less post-operative state. Again I was lost. I was living with this pain and still working. One day I mentioned this to my friend in his party. He is a Radiologist and a former colleague of mine told me that he had the same problem and how he just escaped surgery. This happened when his colleague told him not to have surgery as she also had just escaped from carpal tunnel syndrome surgery, accidentally finding out the solution.  Finally I had the diagnosis, RSI - Repetitive stress injury.

He told me so many things at that time, the problem was by then I was drinking with him, I just did not take that seriously as it was unheard in medical circle. I moved on and was back to work.

My neck pain was getting more and more nagging and painful. Every act was painful and there was pain continuously all the time. Every second there was pain and mind was only occupied with this pain.  Overtime my life was changing. After a couple of drinks, pain was not perceived and started getting dependent on a drink. It was simpler to drink and forget. It was  getting so common and I was drinking whenever possible at cost of fights and neglect at home. 

            I was doing aggressive isometric exercises, one day I really felt a sudden pain in my left neck while exercising and I thought I tore a muscle. It was so painful and there was nothing I could do. There was nobody I could tell, either a sympathetic ear or a doctor who could solve. At the same time my life was going crazy with lot of personal and professional problems. This stress  was adding on to my problems. Mentally I was unstable along with neck pain and I could not sleep.  I could get sleep only at 3 or 4 AM minimum when I was sober. I still had to wake up to be at work by 9 AM, which I did as I was always very punctual in life.  By now things were getting ugly; I was drinking and smoking more.  Finally one day I decided I have to do something for this. I called my friend and asked him about this. He told me enough of holding on to your job, forget it, your damn neck is more important, get out of your job and solve it.

Finally I took an appointment with a Doctor in Bangalore in his centre called Recoup. I took off for a week which I never did in life and I had a new diagnosis. Thoracic outlet syndrome and I was put on myotherapy. I did this for a week and I had to come back to Mysore.  Just before leaving the physiotherapists told me about their senior opening a clinic in Mysore. I got his number. Doctor asked whether I had any other problems for which I told him about my burning feet for more than a year.

            I had this burning feet for so long and I did not know what it was. I consulted all the specialties, including endocrinologist, dermatologist and Psychiatrist. They put me on so many vitamins and minerals which I promptly consumed. It never left me; I could not see any connection between my neck pain and burning feet at that time. 

            I was back to work; my pain had reduced mildly with reduced stiffness. They had advised me at least one month of therapy which I could not do.  I found this therapist in my place and started on twice a day myotherapy. The problem was chronic and complicated.  By now I knew about this problem and referred him many patients who also referred him some more.  I did this therapy for almost two years, yet my neck pain did not resolve. He was frustrated about my pain more than me. It is little irritating if your patient keeps coming back to you for years.  My problem was bigger, he was always reading new and I was also reading, but we still could not solve me.

            I started Yoga which went on well for some time and I got a little better but the pain was there. Six months of yoga with stopping smoking for six months. One day I burnt my leg in my bike and I never went back to yoga. By now personally I had so many problems. Now it was pouring problems as if there was nobody else. I had problems everywhere. I had problem with everything, because neck pain is such an irritant every moment of life, everything turns in to a problem. Pain used to get better after  treatment only to reappear with work.

        By now I had bought exercise ball, multigym, dumbbells, theraband and many others. I bought a powerball for around 3.5k which had life time warranty. It broke down after three months.  I was doing all kinds of exercises. I was exercising everywhere all the time. With all this I got fitter and slimmer. Looking at me nobody could believe internally how I go through. Life was living hell. Finally I went to one quack to break my neck; which he did not succeed.  My neck pain increased after his manipulation. I had to use neck collar to work. I have six of them.

        By now I had changed in life. My life perception had changed. I started viewing life in a different perspective. I had lost interest in life. The happiness of life was not there, nothing brought me joy. Only thing I was doing was drink and smoke. I did not want to mingle with people as I could not listen to anybody. I could not talk to people standing. I could only talk after getting drunk. Talking over the phone was difficult, within 20 seconds I used to get irritated. Over time people stopped calling me. Within 2 minutes of sitting on a computer I used to get severe pain.

        I am writing this to educate many of you about the real problem which can come to anybody. I thought of writing this when I read an article How I overcame RSI written by James  http://www.howiovercamersi.co.uk/

The problem of overuse syndrome has caused loss of so many jobs of people around the world. Medical professionals are unaware of this. In medicine these problems usually go to neurologists, neurosurgeons and orthopedicians. If these guys do not solve, you may end up with psychiatrists. Most of the pain in back and neck are caused by muscles. We have all specialties in medicine, except muscles. Nobody has understood the physiology of muscles. We also have never read or heard something called trigger point which happens in muscles.

There are few people who have researched about this. RSI cannot be solved by anybody other than the people who know about this. If you have RSI and it is not solved anybody within six months by people around you, that means they cannot at all.  

        RSI is simple. The muscles which are put to continuous use in one posture get tired. Over time they get in to spasm and develop a trigger point. If you continue working with this, other muscles start to work and get tired earlier and develop a trigger point. Over time without releasing trigger point if you continue working secondary trigger points develop as other muscles are affected due to altered posture and biomechanics.  If you continue working it only gets worse, and most of the muscles are connected across the head, neck, upper back and shoulder. They contract and compress causing degenerative changes. Finally discs start to degenerate or burst out. If seen by a surgeon you may end up with discectomy and may not be relieved of pain later except the pain caused by the disc itself.

       

If you are working with computers, over time your muscles of the shoulder get tired and weaken. Continuing work may cause other muscles to come in to action and over time neck muscles also come in to action. Along with this constant bending towards the monitor will add to the problem. There are so many muscles around neck, upper back and shoulder which all play in cycle of events.

Only way to treat this RSI is, first accept you have problem. And take this seriously as the medical professionals do not know about this at present. Read about it extensively. Everything is online. You need to find the people who know about this to treat this. If nobody is solving, you may have to think of trying all your best to treat yourself. There are so many people who have overcome and written about it. Google them and read. You have to read it seriously. And learn all the things he talks about and practice. Then you have to read about strengthening each muscle properly. 

The Trigger therapy workbook by Claire Davies, is an excellent self treatment guide. You have to buy this.



Along with that you have to buy a theracane or body back buddy to treat yourself. 

        I have not overcome RSI as yet. I have more to talk about this. I can't go on as you will get bored. I went through hell; I have educated hundreds of people and got them treated by directing to right place.  If you are developing this, run to the professionals who know about this. If you are in denial or neglect can ruin you.  I am just trying to help those who need help. I am in the process. Read my next blog

( Updating now in July 2019, I am planning on starting a practice to solve RSI
I can help those of you who have not been solved. 
I will help how to solve and guide. 
You will have to visit me.  )




PS: All the pictures are copied from the Google search and are used for illustrations only.
Do share with others by clicking on facebook icon. 

The great Indian gold standard

The Great Indian gold standard

          Gold is the most sought after metal in the world which has been in demand for hundreds of years all over the world. Nations and communities have fought wars for the same. Over years there is less demand of Gold in the developed country than the developing country. Gold has been used for monetary exchange and nation’s wealth. 

          India is the highest consumer and importer of gold. Almost double the amount of gold consumed by China which stands second.

Indians have highest amount of gold in the house. Indians value everything in gold and you can see this obnoxious amount of gold used by the Indian brides.  How does this metal give so much pleasure more than anything else?  How do they feel wearing this and does it make a person happy? Gold by itself doesn’t give anything. It is the after effects when somebody wears it.

         

          Jewelry has been an essential part of women beautification since ages in all cultures of the human race. The basic idea was to beautify a woman and it could have been anything from a flower to pearls. Over years they have found variety of items to be worn as jewelry all over the world. However Gold has been the long lasting metal to maintain its Gold standard as the ultimate winner. Now it is a precious metal with its own status and a standard. Women beautification is the ultimate to win the heart of the opposite sex which is same as the animal kingdom. All the enhancements and artificial works on women’s body have the same benefit.

Over years as the human population evolved, matured ones got over the age old theories and style of attraction changed. The pseudo attraction by jewelry is replaced by standard of living, life style and dressing. The developed world has gotten over the desire for gold as their lifestyle has changed and importance of a person is not by the artificial jewelry. Now it is minimalist, where lesser is more attractive, whether it is jewelry or anything else on the body including clothes. 
 

Indians are crazy after gold and wear so much gold; I wonder how they do not have neck pain. Because of the demand gold prices are shooting up and every corner has a jeweler. Because of the appreciation of price, gold is bought as an investment. Gold comes in use for difficult times for loan and can be sold for an appreciative price. Every poor man wants to have gold also. In turn they are concentrating on buying gold more than the life style they are supposed to enhance. In turn they have problems marrying or marital problems with dowry attached to it.

          Most of the educated do not wear so much gold, except the few neo rich ones or the orthodox. If you look at the poor and rich you will see more jewels worn by the poor. 4 to 5 ear rings in each are worn by the poorer class than the educated middle class. We do have exception in all. We use gold to show our status. We assume more gold you wear higher your value. I mean they are trying to elevate their standard which they are really lacking by wearing gold and expecting others to give their status which are they looking for. This happens with the neo rich like the ones who have sold their land for city expansion or industry and real estate men. They wear thick dog chains all over their body and rings in all the fingers. What these people are communicating to the rest of the world is that they are rich and they have to be accepted by the elite. Whereas world has its own standards. People tend to choose standards by different measure. People still can’t figure out how to attain that standard to be accepted by others and they use the only way out that is dump gold on their body.

          Most of the Indian women spend so much time in choosing jewelry, nobody appreciate them, as the jewellery is covered most of the time. Only time they get the happiness is when they show it off to other women in some corner. Most of the gold is always locked up. The amount of time spent by the jeweler in bringing out that shape is not appreciated at all. Most of the women’s gold has not been seen by their husbands and many are disinterested in appreciating them. Men’s interests are different. They do get attracted by gold, unless he is looking for wealth. 

          Time has come to discourage gold in public by the government. Gold is causing lot of problems to the poor. People who cannot afford but still have to buy for the society and ending up getting cheated by the ever hungry cheating jewelers. They are the ones who are benefited looting with making and breaking charges . Gold has to be taxed in such way that it loses its gold standard. And we have to educate the masses or else this is going to cause lot of problems to the people in the future.

PS: All the photos are for illustrations only, and they have been taken from google search.

Please comment and share by clicking on Facebook icon. 

The price of an Indian

THE PRICE OF AN INDIAN

There was an accident few years back, near Gulbarga in Karnataka state. A state run bus ran in to a lake early in the morning while people slept. Around fifty of them died except the driver. Apparently the conductor was driving, while the driver slept. May be he lost control or slept while driving. When bus was fished out and pictures were aired all over. It was so obvious that so many people were trying to escape but could not as the bus was built like a cage.

Indian buses are notorious to have a small windows with iron rails running across the whole length. To make sure people do not put their heads out and climb through the windows, which the Indians are well known for. The buses in the developed world have very large glass windows, so that in case of an emergency they can break the glass to escape. Here in India, windows are such that no body should escape in times of emergency. Indian buses do not have any standards in terms of road worthiness and safety. Our buses do not deserve fitness certificate right from the day they are manufactured. Some body makes a bus chassis and some company covers the chassis with a box to make it look like a bus, throwing few chairs within. No engineering brain is needed.

          Finally nothing happened about that incident, over time everybody forgot. If it was of international standard, most of the passengers could have survived by just breaking the glass and swimming to safety. Imagine dying helplessly struggling in crowded bus when you are drowning, it is worse than dying in a blast. No media raised this issue. Because the media is filled with the same incompetent people who have no concern for the country or humanity, as long as they have story where there is money. They are so concerned about an actress getting pregnant; they will predict the weight of the baby, with color and possible name eight months prior to the birth of the baby.

          There was a bus accident near Coorg, a night bus rammed in to a parked truck packed with logs. Some of the logs came out of the back of the bus on the impact, so many lost lives. Again another bus rammed in to a tractor carrying logs killing some more. The lorry or the tractor should have been displaying reflectors on the back. But they did not and it is always impossible to see these things as they do not reflect light. It is the same with pedestrians, who try to cross the road in the night thinking that the drivers can see them, since he has big lights. What they do not realize is that drivers cannot see them many times as they do not reflect light. In spite these accidents happening regularly no body has made it mandatory for vehicles to have reflectors. 

Everything in this country is a disaster waiting to happen. We have so many bus, train and boat tragedies so often that we do not care.  The number of accidents in India where innocents die are the highest in the world. No media is fighting this war. Media is busy threatening to expose and making money or having useless debates where the experts never get to talk and only the bullies get the airtime. 

          While on visit to a bird sanctuary near Mysore, I saw a boat ride with around 8 to 10 people with no life jackets. There were crocodiles in the river and the boatman goes very close to crocodiles to show them around. If one person panics, it is the end of the journey for the entire crowd.  Even the people are not concerned about this. What about the incident where a family was swept away near Indore which was filmed and posted on the face book. Every day we see so many young guys dying drowning in rivers and falls. Testosterone, alcohol and booming economy is a deadly cocktail for disasters which is killing them on the roads and rivers.

These unnecessary losses of lives are due to failure of the system and irresponsible behaviour of the people. People are really worse than animals in terms of their own safety. Wherever you see Indians you find total disregard for safety of others and themselves. Everybody assumes bad things happen to others. And will not realize until it hits them. Indians on the road with vehicles are menace to the society. Most of them have not gone to a driving school, and every one has his own rule of driving. These are just the tip of the iceberg of the value an Indian has in India. Who will bell the cat?  

Buy Three get six free

Buy three get six free.   

          A common commercial and we all rush in. Are they really throwing away so many free? They are in business right, then how can they give so many free for buying a few? We always bought when there was a need. Now we are buying everything possible since there is an offer or otherwise. All the companies are overproducing and are selling their waste and garbage as offers.

         

World is facing over consumerism. People are buying everything without reason and hardly know the needs. We have a problem of obesity in the world for a simple reason of overeating. In American food industry, the sizes have been increasing over years. Everything is served in big sizes; an ordinary burger has increased in size at least by two to three times in couple of decades. People are overeating as the companies lure them with offers. They just want money and more money at any cost. The idea is best margin and higher profit by spending less.

          Everything in the world is growth, every body wants higher growth. A steel maker wants to increase his capacity, a car maker wants to make more cars and everybody wants to increase their production. We assume we will be prosperous by this growth. Produce more to earn more. The future superpower China is ahead in economic growth since it has enormous exports. China is the only country which produces everything imagined in the world in every possible shape and sizes. Whether it is a toy or any appliance sold on the foot paths everywhere is made in china. Most of these are cheap in terms of quality and price. Since it is cheap you buy, before you know, it is broken and pieces are all over your house and end up as garbage. These are sold for few rupees and even if few million buy they have earned few millions. The raw materials for the same would be in few tonne, which end up as garbage serving no purpose to mankind.  

India is next in line producing these cheap mimics. They are contributing a lot of junk in to the world. Yes we need production for humanity but not cheap stuff, which ends up as garbage in few days. Everybody wants to be in business as it makes faster money. So many hungry corporates are leading millions of others in to business. We have millions on the footpath across the country selling piece of trash. They are non productive and their actions are only a burden on the environment. 

          World is building and enormous amount of cement, sand and steel are used. How long will these raw materials last? There is a limit to the resources. World’s greed is using up every possible resources like metals, stones, sand and everything. Finally we may be left with earth with moon surface. Most of the producers are making cheap products which do not last and end up as garbage and cannot be recycled.

          How many of us know how to use water. Billions of litres of water is wasted in the country by the poorly built low quality leaking taps. These low quality taps are flooded in the market and have used up lot of resources and are a strain on the country and planet. Lot of water is wasted even in farming without proper practice. And farming itself is causing lot of problems to the earth. Rivers are drying up. The rivers which used to flow in full are filled with dirty sewage water and hardly move.

Massive scale of agriculture is altering the normal ecosystem. We need enormous amount of food, for huge population we are bringing on to earth. What about the food we waste, how many of us are conscious about the wastage of food. Forget overcooking or over ordering in a hotel. If you have seen a hostel mess you will know, how people waste food. They are greedy; they take more than they can chew and end up throwing food. Just imagine all around the world food being thrown in a day from different situations. 

Marriages in India are the worst offenders. They use up lot of resources for nothing. The amount of food wasted in marriages is  enormous; they just take everything on the menu when they cannot eat any. In turn they throw and waste.  I feel a day’s wastage of food around the world can feed the people with no food around the world. If only we learn to live with moderation and have little common sense world can change. 

Indiscriminate usage of resources is hurting the ecosystem. We are not bothered about it. Earth is going to be there, even after we have left, but with a desert. PS: All the pictures are copied from Google search, for illustrations only.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO CIVILISATION

In a movie I saw long back, there is a British engineer who is overseeing the road work being done, asks the Indian contractor as to where that road leads to. He tells him a name of a village for which the engineer says “No, it leads to civilization”.

So where does a road lead to? Yes it leads to another village, town or a city. A road leads to another state and country. And in turn it leads two different people or communities, in turn leads to many people and communities and cultures. There is exchange of goods, gestures, cultures and everything what two people can do.

A road builds an easy access to remote places to educate them. A road leads to humanity, love and breaks barriers. So we now are convinced little what the British engineer told. 

So In India looking at our roads, we can come to a conclusion that we are not civilized enough. Basically the topic is limited to India only. There are many countries in the world with beautiful roads with no civilization.

This is a country which builds rockets and puts satellites in to orbit and is one of the six countries in the world to do it. Builds intercontinental missiles and competes with the developed world in healthcare. Has the third largest railway line in the world. It makes highest number of movies in the world. But one thing this country cannot have is a decent road. Where are the roads in this country?

We have never really built roads with a plan. Few may be. The majority were widened walking paths. Over time they have been widened to the extent needed to use for bullock carts and later vehicles. So we have all kinds of winding so called roads, which are dangerous and unmotorable. 

The world builds road, but we lay them. All we have to do is put some tar and run a road roller and we have a beautiful road on the first day and two days later it’s gone. Yes it is corruption and so on. Ultimately it is the problem of the people; it is they who need roads. It is the people who destroy the roads. Everybody wants a beautiful road in front their house. But they don’t want any vehicles running across. Moment the vehicles start, they want a road hump in front of their house. Half the road is occupied by the residents on either side, by making a garden or fencing the area. There is always something crossing across the road in front of all the houses. Every house has something to take under the road and they dig across. Never filling it completely and all we have is a tunnel in the road for every house. 
 

People do not want roads with vehicles running across in front of their houses, so they create so many problems to the traffic. Then we make a bye pass road or a ring road and take the road away from them to the outskirts. Suddenly the real estate picks up next to the bye pass or ring road and everybody wants to have a place there. And again the same problem arises. We will have shops, road barriers and humps. A new town or village comes next to the bye pass or ring road and again another bottle neck, traffic comes to a halt.

         We have the highest number of road accidents in the world. The main reason is the state of our roads. Roads are not visible, there are no signs. roads are filled with millions of pot holes and are uneven, no markings, no side rails in curves and basically no plan for building a road. It is just a paved path. Suddenly you get curves in the roads which are invisible. Invariably sudden invisible curves will always be next to a lake and we find unsuspecting drivers, driving in to the lakes. After many people driving in to lakes killing millions by drowning, there is an outcry and the treatment will be to put road humps which are invisible and cause more accidents. 

Then we have poor quality transport. Do you know the Indian buses are not really built as a bus? For so many decades the buses are built in this country on a lorry chassis. These chassis are bought and given to body builders across the country, who are master copiers, who copy the body building and build a body over the lorry chassis and make it in to a bus. I do not believe they have any concern about the safety of the commuters or they have any technology at all. These buses and Lorries we produce cannot carry their own weight on a hill. They really are a nuisance. They obstruct traffic and cannot carry the weight they have been loaded. This is the kind of quality our so called market leaders are pouring us. The first bus to arrive in reality was when Volvo came in to Indian market. Of course, now the new Indian multinationals are trying to compete with the real multinationals. Only thing they have achieved is some cheap cosmetic alteration. 

Our road behavior is one of the most unbelievable adventures. Nobody has any common sense when they use the road. No rules and no concern for the traffic or people. Everybody wants to be ahead and honk to show their presence. Half the traffic problems could have been solved if only the traffic police did their job. Traffic police are busy only catching the guys without helmet and finding fault with unnecessary things for few rupees. If only they were enforcing the rules many would have followed rules. I always wonder,why the traffic cops are not bothered about the people who break rules and are more concerned with riders without helmet. What is your bloody problem, if that guy is riding without a helmet, that will only break his own head. The helmet by itself is not going to save others anyway.

 People do not know how to use the road; everybody is a hero on the road, whether it is the pedestrian, cycle, scooter, car and other vehicles users. 

Finally, it comes to international standard roads which will lead to some civilization for our country. It is foolishness to keep on harping we have the best culture, only problem is corruption, if we can get rid of it, we are on our way to heaven and all. Honestly, it is really foolish to wish that we can get rid of corruption in this country. Corruption cannot wished away from this country by law and punishment. We need to build a generation with values, that takes time, and who will implement that first. So we are back to square one. May be we can wish like I wish, if only all those people who believe in their God and visit their places of worship and pray are honest is good enough for our country. Then we can be a country to reckon, a superpower and leader of the world. Wishful thinking is good sometimes. At the same time world peace also. Here it has to be the opposite, remove the god we have world peace.   

 Back to roads, if only all the roads were of that international standard ( plain simple planned roads) and connecting all the villages and cities. There would less migration to cities. There will be even distribution and people would be happy to be away from cities and live in small towns and villages as the approach to the city is easier. And doctor would easily go to villages to practice, when they can drive back to their city easily. More development will percolate in to villages as again the approach is easy. There will be exchange of ideas and fewer burdens on the society to cater to the cities. There will be less demand for personal vehicles and public transport will pick up and many people will use them. Good roads can have less accidents, less road rage, cleaner country, less emission, less costs in turns of repair and spare parts. Good roads save man power and costs to the society in terms of resources.
If greatest invention in the world is wheel, the next best should be the road. Imagine the world without wheel, then you know the value of the wheel with no road.  


PS: All the pictures are copied from Google search and used for illustration purposes only.

Fair & Politics

Fair & Politics

Fair & lovely has been popular for so many years, now they have Fair & handsome for men. I do not know how far it works to whiten the faces of countless people who have been using since years. We have many products claiming to whiten faces and they challenge you also. If only it had worked we would have had millions of our dark and wheatish Indians competing with the white people by now and claim we are white.

Why are we so mad about being fair? Every kid which is born is assessed by the mother and the whole clan about the colour. If the baby is little less fair or wheatish, it is branded as dark. If it is dark, again whole clan will be talking about it, many of them will be very happy with their hidden jealousy of parents. Others will be happy saying the parents deserved, again jealous of parents.

We discriminate darker people, specially women. The moment you meet a person, colour is taken as the criteria to judge before having spoken and judged. Is there some amount of caste involved in this? I believe so. If you take your friend who is dark, the way he will be treated by your family members can speak a lot about it. It happens with the person who is dark himself. Is white a better colour for people? Dark people are considered inferior. The native Africans considered darker people more beautiful, jet black was the best. I came across this in Roots novel by Alex Haley.
 

Which is the better colour for people, black or white? Why is white popular? If you were born as black and if no white people had invaded your continent and would you have wished to be white? If only the colour was interchanged among the black and white rest remaining same, what would have been the trend? The Europeans being black and invaded the rest of the world and things were like now. Only the colour being changed and rest being constant, I bet the trend would’ve been that black would be the in thing. Rest of the fairer people would be running for tan. Tanning companies would’ve made a kill. Fair would have been discriminated. Jet black would’ve been handsome and beautiful.

Let me tell why white people are famous. White people did it first. They conquered the world, got more civilized first; became the developed world first, got inventions first and they went ahead in life and could rule the world. They may have taken from others but they did it first. Many may argue that India was more civilized before the west centuries before. What can we do, we were beaten back to Stone Age by millions of invaders, and still we have not recovered. The way things are going we may or may not be driven again.

FTV a fashion TV we all have seen. Lot of African descent girls are seen walking the ramp and you all know Naomi Campbell. Why have we not seen dark skinned girls on Indian fashion ramp or in movies? I remember when this was asked to an Indian photographer, he replied that they were not photogenic. This is what colour bias is. Colour bias or discrimination is more with girls than boys. Have you seen south movies? Most of the heroes are dark and heroines are very fair. There is discrimination from the other side also. If you happen to be in a territory of darker people they discriminate the fair. In spite of them being dark, they want the women to be fair. Southern movies will tell all.

In Hollywood Indians love Halle Berry or Thandie Newton, they would love to marry them. If you ask them to marry the same complexion Indian girl they would not do it. But nobody in India of that complexion can come in to bollywood or southwoods. Though south is where darker people live. Halle and Thandie are beautiful for their achievement and the class which is desirable to men. If they were just college girls in India then they would have had to cough up a lot to get married. So the beauty is not in colour.

Now you got some idea about this. You would’ve seen a lot of African descent students in India. How do you find them? Do you discriminate them as much as you do with the Indians? May be, may be not. Most of the African descent students we see come from underdeveloped countries like Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia and others. When you look at them you really wonder whether their country is really underdeveloped. The attitude, the dressing style and how they carry themselves make you wonder. They look beautiful irrespective of facial features and colour. Many still argue they are from higher society in their country. I agree, then compare with ours. Many Indian men dream of these women. But if it is an Indian of the same colour they are least interested. Those women are darker than Indian women and they are from underdeveloped country but they are very desirable for Indian men. Same darker Indian girls are not.

Moment the girl is born, most of the parents are depressed. On top of it, if she is dark, it is like a curse by the God. There is a flash among the parents, Oh, my god how to get her married ?. Same day they start saving money for the final ritual of getting rid of her by marriage as she is a burden. That is why we see even the educated parents marring their girls before eighteen years.

Right from childhood, girl is cursed for being dark. She is not let to be herself. Parents dictate how to lead a life which is their parents view. Dressing, attitude, views cannot be individualistic. She is constantly reminded of her darkness and the amount of money they have to spend for her wedding and dowry. She can’t go with friends; she is part of the suspicion. So she overeats and becomes fat. She dresses shabbily and doesn’t look pretty. All these factors give her a bad attitude. And she tried to use jewels to compensate.

Her self confidence and self esteem is broken. She is made to believe that only thing for her is her marriage and going away.

What about the ones who are treated well and who study and do well. This issue is almost same with little difference, so lets generally go about it.

Finally, we need a solution. I think it is very simple. First accept the colour complexion. Work on other things. Beauty is not in colour, but it is in the attitude of a person. Let me give an example. There is a very fair and gorgeous girl in college. If a guy goes out with her for dinner and finds her that, she does not smell good, has bad mouth odour and talks non sense continuously. Then you have a darker girl, who is dressed well, with a nice hair, smells good, smiles well, carries with a style, you enjoy her company. Who do you think will be sought after? I think the latter.

What we need to learn is accept the dark colour. It is just the skin colour. It is not her attitude, behavior or life which is black. Give her same love as others, treasure her, give freedom and confidence. Self respect and self pride is important. Dressing well, hygiene, manners make a person beautiful. The higher way of life needs an attitude of accepting global standards of living, leaving the repeated lecture of culture which is medieval some times. Superstitions, stupidity, hearsay are the ones keeping people in views of bygone era.

Finally I would say you can be what you want irrespective of what colour you are. All it needs is what view or perspective you have on life and how you want to go about it. Your behavior, dressing, how you carry yourself, your care for personal hygiene, how physically fit and your language and your style can build you and give enough respect irrespective of your colour.

PS: The pictures are copied from the Google search and used for illustrations only.
Please do comment and share by clicking on Facebook icon at the end of the blog.  

Corporate Casteism

“Be Indian Buy Indian” popular slogan of yesteryear was contradictory. We always fancied imported objects. Even now in spite of products from around the world, we are suspicious of multinational's products made in India. We feel some of them sell lower quality product than their original, in some cases it is. Indian companies are yet to catch up in terms of their quality.

When a Volvo chief was interviewed by an auto magazine years back, about the service centers for their new trucks, as Indian trucks could be serviced every five kilometers. He told them, that Volvo did not need service centers every five kilometers. A case of how obsessed we are of service centers more than the product. We expect them to break down before we have bought them. We have poor management and manpower producing cheap products.

In Indian setup employers assume the employees are of lower standard, not productive enough and useless. Employees think the employer is amassing wealth by their efforts without any benefit,  so do not have any loyalty and are inefficient. Employers have not done enough to alleviate their lifestyle for which they are not proud to be part of the establishment and have least interest in work.

In daily life we come across many people arrogant and nasty. They neither care for you and nor respect you. We find millions like this. We dread to interact with our own Indian, a shopkeeper, an auto driver, a clerk in any place; a nurse in an hospital and list goes on. Everybody is irritated and arrogant. 

The basic problem for inefficiency and bad attitude boils down to how they feel about themselves. Most of them are not happy with themselves; either because of the job or the way they lead their lives. A person with a positive attitude in his life will have better attitude in his work and quality is better. The standard of living, his views and priorities in life also have an impact on the quality of work.

The management has never invested in improving the standard of living of employees or their attitude. They expect higher quality with training related to the work and without improving the personal status of the individual. Monotonous work, mood swings, family conditions, individual confidence which affect the work are not at all taken in to consideration. Bonus is nothing but an extra pocket money used to enjoy while it lasts. Other than that is there no improvement in the personality or the standard of living.

Taxi drivers abroad as I have seen in TV 'just for laughs gags', are dressed so well and behave so well in spite of the fun being on them. They are so helpful and take the humour without getting angry. How about our humour, people just attack if the fun is on them. Our taxi drivers live a different life. There are so many things why our people are like this.  One thing I will point out is that they are dressed in khaki. Most hideous dress descended from colonial times. We have dress code for everything, invariably it is khaki, in the name of discipline. Lower their status, most lowly their dress including the colour. Everything considered lowly are provided khaki. Drivers, cleaners, housekeeping and many more. Some times they may be brown, dirty gray and ugly. Because it is considered as a dirty job.

Indian corporate management have their brains from their grandparents which is from 1800s. So they insist on the customs and dress code like their good old great culture, which they do not even know. 

The employees are not given anything worthwhile in their work place, no proper seating, toilets, and eating-place. Whatever is provided is of a lower quality. Whenever they do give something, the same people (employees) may bring them to a lower standard by their attitude and actions. Simply put they are treated like lower class and are expected to have an attitude and behavior of higher class.

Most come from lower strata of the society and do not have an access to newer lifestyles  Ignorant about life and confused view of life with many kids in the family, they are least interested in improving their lifestyle  as it needs an effort and cost. You cannot expect them to have balanced moods and dedication to  work. They want to finish work without any trouble for the paycheck at month end. They care less whether their quality is good or not. Their worries, view and attitude are not at all taken into consideration. That is restricted for the educated. So that is what you get from them in the form of shoddy work and careless attitude.

Casteism is not about the caste per se. It is the hierarchy.

Advantaged taking advantage of the disadvantaged to make sure they do not take advantage to get to the advantaged.

This newer trend can be called Corporate Casteism.

Finally the solution for better quality of work of the employees lies in not just training them the work they do but aggressively bringing their standard up in the society. They should be treated better and should be made to feel better in life to get a decent job done. Monetary benefits may only give an opportunity to get into irrational way of life. If only the way to life and better living is taught to them, they will have better view of life and their attitude will change for good. 

If you want quality work from a person, first and foremost he should have his own quality. When a person is least interested in himself, his environment and family, what can he give in terms of quality work? People in our country have different attitudes, different culture, millions of superstitions and some weird unbelievable beliefs. They have to change these perceptions before they get in this new world order. How do you achieve this? We need to educate them. I would always prefer to start from toilet training, which I have talked in my previous write up. Next is to concentrate on personal grooming. There should be clean toilets with shower. Where the employees wash in the campus itself. You should provide hairstylists, the dress code should be liberal and quality of the dress should be good. Lower class should be encouraged  You can think of providing Gym, get together with family and film shows with meaningful values. The list goes on.

Next you have to address the family. The family has to be involved for upbringing the standard. These are the few things I can mention. If only we understood these issues, then only we can appreciate the value of them. They can change their attitude; there will not be hierarchy and better work atmosphere and better quality of life and better work.

Many of the Indian corporates have not contributed anything to the society  They think paying the employees and tax fulfills their obligation to the society  But I feel these are the people who should be working to change the society  and it does not cost much. It may be less than 20% of their annual advertising costs.

PS: All the pictures are copied from Google search for illustration purposes only.