Divine Comedy

Defying logic or intuition that low socioeconomic status is associated with worse population health and higher death rates everywhere in the world is Epidemiologic Paradox (also known as Hispanic Paradox, or Latino Paradox).

In Indian context Kerala has better life expectancy (around 72 years) when compared to Maharashtra (around 67 years). Literacy in Kerala is 91% as against Maharashtra 77%. The per capita income of Maharashtra (INR 17K) is higher than of Kerala (INR 12K).

So the question which comes to my mind is what factors define Socioeconomic status. I tried to refresh my academic economics and goggled. The parameters for defining the socio economic status are

- Income
- Education
- Occupation
- Wealth

These measures may help determine socio economic state, but many other factors play key role in real assessment

- Income Parity
- Inequality in distribution of Wealth
- Migrant population in states
- Medical facilities
- Money Transfers from Indian workers employed outside the country
- Number of public and private schools and colleges
- Food habits (presence of Mc donalds, KFCs, Burger Kings, Starbucks)
- Number of Scams in the state (Adarsh, Palmolein, SNC-Lavalin)
- Black Money distribution

End of day it is survival of the fittest…

In simplicity, when you strongly like someone or something you are passionate and you know you are obsessed when you are constantly pre-occupied with this someone or something. When you end up doing anything and everything for this someone or something you are insane.

It's been a long weekend, thanks to Chinese New Year. Wish you all Gong Xi Fa Cai (A Happy Chinese New Year). I have been watching movies all weekend, I like to watch movies of Morgan Freeman. The movie named 'The Maiden Heist' made me think how passion can lead to obsession and obsession to insanity. In the movie Roger, Charles and George fall in love with a particular piece of art, which has been under their care for decades. When the curators decide to move the pieces of art away, to what extent it takes these obsessed individuals is what the movie is about.

I am getting obsessed with holidays... haha

Recently I watched the movie 3 Idiots.  I think it should be renamed as 3 Fools
1st Fool suffers from identity crisis
2nd Fool lack of self confidence
3rd Fool lack of determination

While the director and producer claim that they have applied there own intellect, Chetan Bhagat, an Indian Novelist, says that the idea and concept has been taken from his work of fiction '5 point something'.  I would like to ask Chetan, if he has given due credit to Abraham Harold Maslow, an amercian psychologist. Surely we recollect Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Physiological Needs
Safety Needs
Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
Needs for Esteem
Needs for Self-Actualization

In the movie isnt Amir Khan trying to achieve the highest level of need 'the need for self actualisation'. 

Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move well in direction of self-actualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by society. hindrances. He recommends ways education can switch from its usual person-stunting tactics to person-growing approaches. Maslow states that educators should respond to the potential an individual has for growing into a self-actualizing person of his/her own kind.

I read some intersting points related to this, on Honolulu Community College's website and thought I did share the same

Ten points that educators should address are listed:

1. We should teach people to be authentic, to be aware of their inner selves and to hear their inner-feeling voices.
2. We should teach people to transcend their cultural conditioning and become world citizens.
3. We should help people discover their vocation in life, their calling, fate or destiny. This is especially focused on finding the right career and the right mate.
4. We should teach people that life is precious, that there is joy to be experienced in life, and if people are open to seeing the good and joyous in all kinds of situations, it makes life worth living.
5. We must accept the person as he or she is and help the person learn their inner nature. From real knowledge of aptitudes and limitations we can know what to build upon, what potentials are really there.
6. We must see that the person's basic needs are satisfied. This includes safety, belongingness, and esteem needs.
7. We should refreshen consciousness, teaching the person to appreciate beauty and the other good things in nature and in living.
8. We should teach people that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad. It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas.
9. We should teach people to transcend the trifling problems and grapple with the serious problems in life. These include the problems of injustice, of pain, suffering, and death.
10. We must teach people to be good choosers. They must be given practice in making good choices.

There has been something which has been puzzling me over the period of past few months.  I have been touring for last few months collecting some business requirements for new system to be put in place.  I am intrigued by the way users tend to perceive a process to be when a new system is put to play.  But what puzzles me the most is questions in my mind that should the system drive a process or should the process drive a system.   The answer is surely not as simple as one may think, so I got on to the web to understand and distinguish between system and process.

While business process has a simple definition, activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product for customers, the definition of system is not easy.  System could be described as technology to deliver desired process.  So I guess the process need to undergo a change with the implementation fo new system and that’s how it has been.  But people’s acceptance to change in process is not easy and requires considerable effort on change management.

Finally I guess both have to go hand in hand, but then you always have a process irrespective of the system, not the other way round.   

Last weekend I watched The Final Destination, the movie revolves around a young man’s premonition of a deadly race-car crash which helps saves the lives of his peers, then Death sets out to collect those who evaded their end. The coincidence is that at the same time I have also been reading Sogyal Rinpoche’s, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

Most interesting lines from this Great Book are

“Remember the example of an old cow,
She’s content to sleep in a barn.
You have to eat, sleep and shit –
That’s unavoidable –
Beyond this is none of your business.”

While the deadly race car can qualify for “Premonition”, Eventual Death cannot qualify for one. A premonition is an impression, often perceived as a warning, of a future event. It bears similarities to the concept of second sight in that it frequently comes in the form of a paranormal vision or as a vivid dream. Death is certain it’s only that the element of when is unknown. The Book is one of the most insightful book into lifelessness and its consequences… it leaves you with a content free mind directed towards achievement when with life.