Taming the Juvenile

Consequences of committing a crime……

The price one has to pays should be the deterrent

Virender Kapoor

Educationist and an author

Nirbhay rape case has suddenly brought juvenile crime into the lime light. The problem is rampant across the country and the situation is grim. Sensitize the youth, lower the juvenile age, change people’s mindset, harsher punishment, teach morals at schools, change the law are some of the proposed solutions doing the rounds. Many of these may not be impossible but most are very difficult to implement .Types of heinous crimes being committed by teen agers today is very sickening and points to a much deeper malaise. These are unusual times and we need to consider some unusual solutions   to set things right. 

In the last couple of decades the social fabric of our country has completely changed. Sudden brand invasion and availability of consumer durables has hit us like never before. Youngsters need money to satisfy these artificially created needs. They are prepared to go to any length and even stoop down to any level as long as their desires are met.  TV serials which portray these real life cases send a chill up your spine.

The other angle is, that  very often crime is committed for trivial reasons; mainly based on revenge, insult, rage, greed, money, a broken heart or worst, a murder after rape or may be just for the heck of it. Young India appears to be on a short fuse and it couldn’t care less.

Large part of this ‘instant crime’ gets its motivation from cinema and TV which often show crime – both virtual and real-in the most detailed manner. In the present context bomb blasts, road rage, brutal murders, rape, kidnappings seems to have become part of our life. A few decades back people were not exposed to brutality in such large dozes. There was therefore a sense of innocence in people who were sensitive to crime. There was a fear of the god and most importantly there was a fear of the law. Committing a crime and probably getting away with it seems to be easy and an in thing today.

This process of ‘crime on display’ somehow does not convey the after affects of crime from the view point of a criminal. It fails to convey a criminal’s life after committing a serious crime and what he has to go through when the system catches up with him. Life in jails- especially in India- is pretty tough.  People cannot imagine it. The young adults relate only to the thrill part of the crime while they are oblivion to the consequences of committing a crime. There is therefore no credible deterrence against crime in people’s mind.

To bring back the fear of the law which acts as a deterrent against committing seemingly easy crime is the need of the hour. The best place to start is college and senior school students, which is our future society. As a part of corporate social responsibility, projects are undertaken by educational institutions to plant trees, teach in rural areas or slums, visit hospitals and old age homes. All these visits are a form of experiential learning to sensitize the students to the reality.

On similar lines we   could start ‘Shram Daan’ or ‘ Kaar Seva’ in and around jails where students can plant trees, clean up the jail area,  and even volunteer to teach inmates.  Here the purpose is slightly different. A glimpse of a prison cell is enough to realize what a jail sentence could mean. There is limited accommodation and very ordinary food available to the in mates .They have to sleep on blankets, and have to bear the brunt of heat and mosquitoes. Prisoners have to follow a routine and wear a uniform- it literally snatches away your freedom. On top of that life is very lonely. Visits from friends and relatives are few and far between and it is difficult to imagine a life of isolation- day on day for several years. Criminals who commit brutal crimes land up in a prison with a sentence of RI or Rigorous Imprisonment. This means hard manual labor which could also be humiliating. They must be made to realize that life in jails is not all jail house rock. If you cannot instill fear of the god or good morals, then let them at least have the fear of the law.

One Indian film actor who played the role of Shaheed Bhagat Singh in his interview said “Sitting in the cell where convicts who have to be hanged are kept sends a chill up your spine. It is a very scary feeling even though you are only acting”.

This would have two benefits. First, the jails will get some volunteers to boost the available manpower.  Second and more importantly it will act as a deterrent against crime. Most of the cities have jails and this would not be difficult to implement at individual schools or college level.

Anti-smoking and anti-tobacco disclaimers shown before every film just do that- they show you the after effects of smoking and are created to create fear of falling prey to deadly disease. This government initiative, along with statutory warnings printed on products has really helped in bringing the consumption of tobacco down.

There is a lot at stake and we can’t afford to fail any more in case of crime. If  this has worked for tobacco, it should work against crime. The price one has to pays should be the deterrent.

Taming the Juvenile

Consequences of committing a crime……

The price one has to pays should be the deterrent

Virender Kapoor

Educationist and an author

Nirbhay rape case has suddenly brought juvenile crime into the lime light. The problem is rampant across the country and the situation is grim. Sensitize the youth, lower the juvenile age, change people’s mindset, harsher punishment, teach morals at schools, change the law are some of the proposed solutions doing the rounds. Many of these may not be impossible but most are very difficult to implement .Types of heinous crimes being committed by teen agers today is very sickening and points to a much deeper malaise. These are unusual times and we need to consider some unusual solutions   to set things right. 

In the last couple of decades the social fabric of our country has completely changed. Sudden brand invasion and availability of consumer durables has hit us like never before. Youngsters need money to satisfy these artificially created needs. They are prepared to go to any length and even stoop down to any level as long as their desires are met.  TV serials which portray these real life cases send a chill up your spine.

The other angle is, that  very often crime is committed for trivial reasons; mainly based on revenge, insult, rage, greed, money, a broken heart or worst, a murder after rape or may be just for the heck of it. Young India appears to be on a short fuse and it couldn’t care less.

Large part of this ‘instant crime’ gets its motivation from cinema and TV which often show crime – both virtual and real-in the most detailed manner. In the present context bomb blasts, road rage, brutal murders, rape, kidnappings seems to have become part of our life. A few decades back people were not exposed to brutality in such large dozes. There was therefore a sense of innocence in people who were sensitive to crime. There was a fear of the god and most importantly there was a fear of the law. Committing a crime and probably getting away with it seems to be easy and an in thing today.

This process of ‘crime on display’ somehow does not convey the after affects of crime from the view point of a criminal. It fails to convey a criminal’s life after committing a serious crime and what he has to go through when the system catches up with him. Life in jails- especially in India- is pretty tough.  People cannot imagine it. The young adults relate only to the thrill part of the crime while they are oblivion to the consequences of committing a crime. There is therefore no credible deterrence against crime in people’s mind.

To bring back the fear of the law which acts as a deterrent against committing seemingly easy crime is the need of the hour. The best place to start is college and senior school students, which is our future society. As a part of corporate social responsibility, projects are undertaken by educational institutions to plant trees, teach in rural areas or slums, visit hospitals and old age homes. All these visits are a form of experiential learning to sensitize the students to the reality.

On similar lines we   could start ‘Shram Daan’ or ‘ Kaar Seva’ in and around jails where students can plant trees, clean up the jail area,  and even volunteer to teach inmates.  Here the purpose is slightly different. A glimpse of a prison cell is enough to realize what a jail sentence could mean. There is limited accommodation and very ordinary food available to the in mates .They have to sleep on blankets, and have to bear the brunt of heat and mosquitoes. Prisoners have to follow a routine and wear a uniform- it literally snatches away your freedom. On top of that life is very lonely. Visits from friends and relatives are few and far between and it is difficult to imagine a life of isolation- day on day for several years. Criminals who commit brutal crimes land up in a prison with a sentence of RI or Rigorous Imprisonment. This means hard manual labor which could also be humiliating. They must be made to realize that life in jails is not all jail house rock. If you cannot instill fear of the god or good morals, then let them at least have the fear of the law.

One Indian film actor who played the role of Shaheed Bhagat Singh in his interview said “Sitting in the cell where convicts who have to be hanged are kept sends a chill up your spine. It is a very scary feeling even though you are only acting”.

This would have two benefits. First, the jails will get some volunteers to boost the available manpower.  Second and more importantly it will act as a deterrent against crime. Most of the cities have jails and this would not be difficult to implement at individual schools or college level.

Anti-smoking and anti-tobacco disclaimers shown before every film just do that- they show you the after effects of smoking and are created to create fear of falling prey to deadly disease. This government initiative, along with statutory warnings printed on products has really helped in bringing the consumption of tobacco down.

There is a lot at stake and we can’t afford to fail any more in case of crime. If  this has worked for tobacco, it should work against crime. The price one has to pays should be the deterrent.

Now we Love Cats....

We all love dogs and can be called " true dog lovers".. Dogs are so friendly so loving, so very loyal and add that love factor to any home.
We hated cats as they are CATS! Really could never understand why we never liked cats.
Possible reasons... The don't look love creatures... they have scary eyes? may be one does not feel comfortable holding them or petting them. They don't sit in your lap.They look creepy.. give you the  creeps.. not friendly at all..
I dont like making them sit next to me... they dont have innocent look... and so on.

One day all this changed. While sitting in our garden i saw a small little grey and white creature coming out of no where and just walked around us. " Hey what is this?" looks like a squirrel... thick bushy tail! As i called her she jumped and sat in my lap. Absolute beauty... innocent face .... big whiskers .. lovely coat and innocent eyes.... love oozing out.

And that was love at first sight. And then on wards this cat was here to stay. We named her " Frisky" as she was always moving around when not in the lap. She had no problems sitting with us on our bed and no one even once wanted her out.She would sit for hours together, cuddled up and sleeping in your lap.
Frisky responds like a dog.responds to her name..
We wanted to be safe and wanted her to be safe... so took to a vet for innoculation.... imagine the vet fell in love with frisky..
As he gave her a shot we thought friskey would make some noise.... no... she was so sweet... never uttered a word.. oops a shriek.
As the doc lifted her to examine... he said " He is a boy"  ,... you need not worry about his freedom..
Thank god for small mercies..
Frisky is with us.

Dare to Bare

It was good to see a debate on one of the channels regarding women being targeted and linking it to the kind of dresses/ revealing clothes women wear,should not wear or why not wear and who are you to tell us what to wear..... bla bla blah blahh blahhhh.

Pooja Bedi the champion of this cause was properly dressed for the occasion - no offence meant- was all in form to bash every other guy/ girl on the panel and the audience left right and centre to prove ' Its my way or its highway'.
 Why should girls dress up in a particular way or so called decent way was the major bone of contention. We are a liberated lot, why should some one tell us how much to wear, wear or not to wear was the chorus..
We are a modern society, cant we dress up in scanty clothes and feel safe? very good question..Even if I wear low oh very low oh very very low jeans ... you look the other side you dumb rascal, arn't you from a civilized society..?Dont you have a mother or a sister at home.... but maam the dumb bastard replies... my mother doesn't wear such jeans!

The state and the law and order machinery was in the firing line and the question was.. " What ever we wear, isn't the state responsible to protect us?"..very good question but a little silly too.

Why should a girl feel unsafe walking alone  in the dark at 2 in the night ? Cant state protect her? Is this not the responsibility of the state? Ms Bedi shouts!!

Yes yes yes is the chorus. Very intelligent question but very silly. I will tell u how some one says...from the audience. Guys and gals from civil rights and women protective organisations shout ..." down with this government down with this Male chauvenist society!! We are now advanced and a modern society,,, down with these pigs who want to look at you, your silky legs and 

The basic questions that come to any innocent mind are " Why women like to wear less clothes? If they are revealing then whom are they revealing for? I am sure when you reveal you want some one to see you and  notice you. Otherwise whats the point.
If you are exposing your legs then sure you are not expecting a cat on the street to watch you or crow sitting on a tree watching you wearing a revealing top.you are doing this to attract attention of some one some where, otherwise why on a cold evening , you wear almost nothing at the cost of falling sick!! If you are not doing this to 'show' and doing this for your happiness alone.. you could have done that by wearing all this and staying at home, all day admiring yourself in the mirror.

SO whats the funda??
Ms Bedi says " Oh you mean to say we should not wear expensive jewellery and go out in the evening? And the government should not be responsible for our sfety and our jewellery.. how silly.....Hai Hai Hai hai...What a silly point- not from cricket you dumb- from real life Gurgaon.

By That token Ms Bedi you should not lock the front door of your house! The state is to protect you.! Why do you keep all your expensive stuff and jewels and cash in the locker.. keep it at home and state should protect it.

One girl in the audience asks... >" Kya Ashleel Kapde pahenna hi Modernism or progress Hai? Is wearing scanty clothes a criterion for being progressive"......
Very quickly the camera moves from this petite girl and shows the lamenting women... Hai hai.... hai hai..

camera bhi Sharma Gaya,....

           A brief on briefs

Large organizations have peculiar ways of functioning. This differs greatly between government, quasi-government and private corporations-each one having its own work culture, working ethos and above all, working jargon. The pleasure of using and listening to this jargon could be immense. If management jargon of today is a derivative of the American culture, the bureaucratic lingo is more traditional and orthodox in its approach like the British. Today a happy mix exists.

For example, consider training. The Americans brought the much talked about concept of human resource development through seminars, workshops and short training programmes. The British usually called such programmes as courses. The time for conducting training is getting shorter by the day. At the same time, a higher concentrated dose of training is being sought to be administered to the subject. Short capsule courses are now quite popular and intravenous courses-where subjects can be trained overnight-are well on the cards. The courses run within the organization are dubbed organizational intra-courses, and those run with the participation from other organizations are run as organizational inter-courses. Pill courses could be planned (Pun intended).

Every action must start on a noting sheet so that every one up the channel can take note of the action or the inaction. This exercise must be gone through for every possible requirement. It could be the purchase of a paper weight, or the convening of a board meeting.  This method, started by the British, is still the accepted norms because it lends itself to collective blame, inaction and responsibility-in that order.

Collectivism leads to the feedback syndrome where everybody in the chain likes to be kept updated on ‘whatever’ is going on. Whereas high and mighty MNCs, and the corporate world have adapted to such hi-tech tools as E-mail, some still like to use the good old briefs-a legacy of the Raj. Briefs are so important that nobody can do without them. So much of the paper work, detailed analysis, supporting data, all must eventually be made into a brief, so that it can be used.

Most bosses like to use their early morning briefs so that they can show off in front of their bosses. Special briefs are made for the VIPs and some people in their exuberance call them VIP briefs. Confidential briefs usually contain ‘Ander Ki Baat’. To save time, the top brass like to use short briefs, which are obviously made of good material-bond paper, please. Briefs prepared using A4 size material are called A-Fore briefs. The middle managers use longer briefs. The staff usually has to struggle with longer briefs (Bermuda Briefs) to cut them to smaller-sized briefs. Unfortunately, briefs have to be made in different sizes as the size of the brief changes with the level of the user, and is usually inversely proportional to the level of the person using it.

Surprisingly, bigger the person, smaller the brief. There is always a need for making a brief which can be used by everyone. This would mean making only one brief that can fit everyone’s requirements, and can be shared by all. A free-sized brief! Designers of such briefs are suitably rewarded. These designer briefs are now becoming popular.

Talking of rewards? Secretaries have lost their jobs due to poor quality of briefs. Board-room wars have been lost because of wrong briefs. My boss once refused to attend a board meeting because he                  said he didn’t have his brief and he would not be able to face the board without one. In fact he lost his shirt, because I lost his brief.

When the old meets new, something spectacular happens. Computer-aided briefs are the order of the day. Colour printers are now easily available and bosses now prefer coloured briefs. If a brief is not made in time for the boss, or the boss loses his brief, the whole organization can throw a fit! First thing in the morning, instead of asking for the first sight dak, the bosses usually ask their staff, where is my brief? and usually has to be told that his briefs are still in his secretary’s drawers!

YOUR EMOTIONAL BIO RHYTHM-EBR

Author Speak…….

Going through the pages of  my  book  Heart Over matter your mantra for success, you would have realized as to how very complex we human beings are. Our behavior, basic characteristics and our abilities to deal with the world and our environment differ from person to person. These abilities and temperament for each of us is very complex. That is why we also call this complex human behavior as an individual’s nature. This implies that these noncognitive aspects of our character are to some extent given to us by nature. That is why there are some who are very cool headed and some of us fly the handle and lose temper at the drop of a hat. These human instinct and basic qualities like will power, strength of character etc make a deep impact on each of us and to a large extent dictates as to how we interpret the world .Each one of us therefore has a unique Emotional Bio Rhythm-the way our emotions and characteristics shape our life-which is the key to improving our individual performance.

Emotional Intelligence –as described in the first few chapters –is a mix of an individual’s nature, characteristics, traits and attitude. On EI plain we all possess certain strengths as well as weaknesses; most of us have more strengths than weaknesses. To improve upon these weaknesses are like “Emotional Optimisation”.

To optimize, one must first be able to understand and realize what one possesses-what the nature has bestowed upon us. People are born under twelve zodiac signs. These sunsigns are as per English calculator. People born under a particular sunsign possess certain peculiar traits. These can be analysed and mapped on to the abilities that fall under the domain of Emotional Intelligence.

In Heart Over Matter,I have expanded the scope of EI by looking into and integrating EI with aspects like our likes and dislikes, relation between heart and head ,our basic emotional structure,passion,determination,motivation ,drive ,commitment,integrity,principles ,mind set and even values.

In a way I have covered the entire domain of human competence which can be labeled as “Ones character and Personality”. Within our character and personality map all these qualities are loosely coupled and loosely defined. It is not possible to quantify these traits and represent them as numbers. We call it Emotional Quotient but it would be very difficult to assign a number to ones EQ-at best it would be some sort of an approximation of a very subjective analysis.

Sunsigns define the character and personalities for people born under different sunsigns. Here also the characteristics are loosely defined and loosely structured. It is more of a narrative rather than a grading system. I feel one needs to leave it at that .If these can give us a gross feel about our basic character, we can take that as a start point for moving towards optimizing our abilities.

Surprisingly these characteristics pretty well match up with things like our sense of humour,delayed gratification,perseverance,optimism,patience,trusting others,impulsive nature, caring  for  others and so forth.

Sunsigns divides the earth’s 6.5 billion population into 12 distinct Zodiac signs. These are considered the twelve basic personality types. People in these groups get their characteristics or personality traits from whatever sign that the sun was passing through at the time of their birth. Since these sunsigns go across a time zone there is an imaginary boundary line between two signs. This imaginary line is called a ‘Cusp’. For simple understanding, people born close to these boundaries tend to have characteristics of both the signs.

As you read your Bio Rhythm as per your sunsign, you will realize that many of the characteristics match with your character almost hundred percent. Some of these match to some extent and you would say “Hm…this could be possible” and some don’t match at all and you say “Oh no! This is not me”. But if you take the sum total you will find a number of traits that match yours. Even if it is 80% profile match it becomes a useful tool.First, you can be conscious about your strengths and weaknesses and second you can make an effort to bring about a change in yourself. Third you can understand your personality and avoid those situations, jobs and people which do not go along with your personality.

For example if you are the one who cannot work under pressure and tension as per your Emotional Bio Rhythm then you must avoid taking jobs that have an environment or expectation which will have you under pressure.

Your “Self profiling” and Emotional Bio Rhythm put together can give you a fair idea as to how to deal with life, which direction to move into and what type of area of work to choose that goes along well with you.

Therefore you work on two plains together, emotional optimization and optimizing your life according to your temperament. Read on…..from my book