An open letter to a suicidal friend

I read the following article in HT Brunch today and found it worth sharing...

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To me, my problems are the worst in the world. Here's why I'll still not call it quits

Dear M, Relax, I'm not going to write about who you are and what you wrote in your e-mail to me. In fact, I'm not even going to talk about your life or about the problems that are making you feel like ending it. I'll talk about my life, if that's fine with you. When I got your mail, I wrote back that you're seeking advice from the wrong person.

This column deals with day-today stresses, by looking at the lighter side of life. And in this hay time for Babas, much as I would love to grab this opportunity to turn into a spiritual guru, I am neither qualified nor capable of advising someone on serious matters involving life and death.

But while I hope you benefit from my suggestion to seek immediate help from a professional counsellor, I still thought of letting you know that you aren't alone.

I, and surely many of those reading this right now, would have, at some point in life, got so fed up of problems that we'd thrown up our hands in the air and said things like `what's the use of such a life?' Some of us have had troubled childhood or super-stressed student life with unrealistic expectations. Some have witnessed domestic abuse to the extent that Karan Johar's `happy family' movies seem like mean, teaser, fairy tales. Some want to die because they are not getting married... some because they have got married. And some are in real bad physical pain...

and so on. But still we are all here, crowding out the earth and adding to the population explosion. Here's the thing. I don't know about your problems... to me, my problems seem like the worst. And still I won't end my life. Here's why you shouldn't, either.

1. No matter how bad my problems are, I could still look around and always find someone who envies me. I know the mission suicide gang doesn't agree with this. But it's true, nonetheless. Compare bad marks with having no opportunity to study, or parents who fight, with having no parents at all... or not being able to marry the girl of your choice with someone who is banging his head on the wall because he did... (all girlfriends turn into monster wives! Now, I'm dead). If you are further deep in pits, just think of someone in an impoverished, faraway village who'll happily agree to be in your shoes, just to be able to have food. Suddenly, your mother-inlaw saying bitchy things about you doesn't seem like a good enough to reason to die, isn't it? 
2. No matter how unwanted I may feel at times, someone somewhere will surely be at a loss if I die. Even if it is the 10-year-old on the traffic signal, whose name I don't know, but he knows that everyday he's able to sell me packs of pencils I don't even need by just smiling and saying `please'. Unknowingly, each one of us is a part of someone else's life. It's an interconnected chain... and therefore it can't be our arbitrary decision to willy-nilly snap a link. We are not allowed to be that selfish. 
3. And finally, no matter how strong my resolve may be to end-it-all, what's the rush? I don't want to go without knowing what God may have in store for my future. And these astrologers are bad, they just don't tell me. So, I won't go. Maybe by some stroke of magic, my misery is anyway destined to end a month from now. Maybe I'm destined to be the next superstar (okay, fine. It was just an example, you don't have to shake your head that vigorously). How can we be in such hurry to opt for the unknown without waiting a little bit more to see what unfolds here? And who knows, maybe life's even harder up there, and you may find yourself in some remote corner of hell with no food... or facebook. It's irreversible, silly, put those sleeping pills aside. They anyway cause indigestion.

M my friend, don't think I'm making light of your situation. I can only try to imagine what you are going through. And I'm sure it's very, very tough. But, my only point is that we're all living through our respective hells in life, and we've kinda got used to it. I'm not sure if it'll be a good idea to try and trade it for yet another unknown hell. It may just be worse. Just wait it out, things have to get better. Suicide is not the last resort....it's just not an option... at all.

Sonal Kalra is firm that after the deeply spiritual write-up above, she's set to give serious competition to Baba Ramdev. If only she could go hungry. Mail your calmness tricks to sonal.kalra@hindustantimes.com. Follow Sonal Kalra on twitter at twitter.com/sonalkalra

Neuromarketing

Off lately, Neuromarketing is attracting more and more interest from marketers as a way of getting at the unconscious processes that lie behind consumers’ attitudes, feelings and behavior. A study was recently launched at the University of Oxford to study how Neuromarketing is changing market research and what this means for society. The study will also look into the possible implications for society and politics if consumers are seen to be less personally responsible for their decisions.

What does this mean?

It is one thing to see which parts of the brain become active in response to a stimulus. It is another to interpret what this means or what you can do with it.

According to neuroscientists, there are 3 main parts to the brain, each functioning as a brain unto itself. These "three brains" - nestled inside one another -- are as follows.

• The "Human" ("New," or outer-most) Brain: Most evolved part of the brain known as the cortex. Responsible for logic, learning, language, conscious thoughts and our personalities.
• The "Mammalian" (Middle) Brain: Also known as the limbic system. Deals with our emotions, moods, memory and hormones.
• The "Reptilian" (Old) Brain: Also known as the R Complex controls our basic survival functions, such as hunger, breathing, flight-or-fight reactions and staying out of harm's way.

While neuromarketing is still a young field with many unanswered questions, one finding is clear:

The reptilian, or "old," brain drives your customers' buying decisions

Various studies have used:

• Verbal report (e.g. scene recognition, brand preference)
• Behavior e.g. purchase vs non purchase (Ambler, Knutson)
• Different segment reactions (e.g. Democrats vs Republican brains are said to react differently to political advertisements)

But mostly the focus has been on correlation with so called ‘known centers’ such as: reward centre, self referencing centre, face recognition centre, liking centre, anticipation centre etc.

As a result, neuromarketing studies have increasingly pointed to various ‘known centers’ in the brain. Yet knowledge about these so called ‘known centers’ is often sketchy and the claims about their function are often reasoned speculation rather than known fact.

Trouble in paradise

The problem is that keeping up with the neuroscience literature is like trying to drink from a fire-hose. As the noted neurobiologist Steven Rose said: “The world-wide effort being poured into the neurosciences is producing an indigestible mass of facts at all levels.”

It is becoming extraordinarily difficult for full time neuroscientists to keep up - let alone businesses. Let’s face it… marketing is not interested in science or complexity. The truth is that marketing clients want ‘KIS’ not complexity. They want simplicity - an easy to understand, single number solution that says ‘this ad (or pack, or scene) ... is good/bad ….and says whether it will work or won’t work. Rather than try to drink from that fire-hose, there is a temptation for marketing to oversimplify and over-claim.

Threat

So as this bandwagon called neuromarketing picks up speed, some of the same threats that killed off previous technologies are re-emerging. A key one is over-claiming. It is an unfortunate fact that the sale of ‘smoke & mirrors’ often outsells substance. At least in the short term.

Bias towards over claiming exists in the media as well as in the marketing of consulting services to clients. The media love sensationalist stories that can carry a headline like "'Buy centre of the brain found“. As a result, journalistic reporting is prone to outstrip the scientific substance.

Conclusion

Neuromaketing is expected to open up a whole new world of understanding of the mind. As it develops, neuroscience will deliver increasingly powerful, marketing insights.

Its immediate application to general marketing requires businesses to tread carefully and disentangle the scientific substance from the promotional hype. Businesses prepared to exercise this caution and engage with it now have an opportunity for early-mover advantage before its application of neuromarketing gets constrained by regulation.

In the longer term, neuromarketing will be far more socially welcome for applications that focus on products and causes with a clear social benefit - applications like road safety messages and persuading people to give up smoking or to resist over-eating. Developing and testing strategies that are designed to cure rather than create social pathologies is hard to argue with. Used in this type of application, neuromarketing will be refined to public applause, rather than public alarm.

Compiled from various sources:

• http://www.sutherlandsurvey.com/Column_pages/Neuromarketing_whats_it_all_about.htm
• http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/neuromarketing.htm
• http://www.research-live.com/news/study-to-look-at-the-uses-and-impact-of-neuromarketing/4005133.article

Images courtesy: francisanderson.files.wordpress.com, socialhallucinations.com

Appreciation....it counts!!!

Received this as an e-mail forward sometime back and would like to share with you all!

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One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company.

He passed the first interview; the director did the last interview, made the last decision. He discovered from the CV that the youth's academic result was excellent all the way, from secondary school until the postgraduate research, not a year did he not score.

The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarship in school?"  and the youth answered, "None."

The director asked, "Was it your father who paid your school fees?" The youth answered, "My father passed away when I was one year old, it is my mother who paid my school fees. "

The director asked, " Where did your mother work?"

The youth answered, "My mother worked as a clothes washer." The director requested the youth to show his hands, and the youth showed the director a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.

The director asked, " Did you ever help your mother wash the clothes?"

The youth answered, "Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books, furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than I can."

The director said, "I have a request; when you go back today, go and help to clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning."

The youth felt that as the chances of landing the job were high, when he went home, he happily wanted to clean his mother's hands. His mother felt strange, happy but mixed with fear, she showed her hands to the youth.

The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly, his tears dropped down as he did that. It was the first time he found his mother's hands so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises on her hands. Some bruises incited pains so strong that made his mother's body shiver when cleaned with water. This was the first time the youth realized and experienced that it was this pair of hands that washed clothes every day to earn him the school fees.

The bruises on the mother's hands was the price that the mother paid for his graduation and academic excellence and probably his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother's hands, the youth quietly cleaned all the remaining clothes for his mother. That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office. The director noticed the tear in the youth's eye, and asked:

"Can you tell me what you have done and learned yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered, "I cleaned my mother's hands, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes." The director asked, "Please tell me your feelings."

The youth said :

Number 1, I knew what was appreciation; without my mother, there would not a successful me today.

Number 2, I knew how to work together with my mother, then only I could realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done.

Number 3, I knew the importance and value of family relationships.

The director said, "This is what I am asking; I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the suffering of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life to be my manager. You are hired."

Later on, this young person worked very hard and received the respect of his subordinates; every employee worked diligently and in a team, so that the company's results improved tremendously.

A child who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted develops "entitlement mentality" and always put himself first. He is ignorant of his parents' efforts.

When he starts work, he assumes every one must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he can never know the sufferings of his employees and always blame others.

This kind of person can have good results, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel a sense of achievement, he will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parent, did we love the kid or destroy the kid?

You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plate and bowl together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow grey, same as the mother of that young person.

The most important thing is that your kid must learn how to appreciate the efforts and experience the difficulties and learn the ability to work with others to get things done.

Things you should not do while dating a girl!

I came across this very interesting post here. So I am sharing it. The credit goes to the original author.

Let’s go Dutch: I know you do not have money, you are broke, you are yet to return the money to your friend, that he loaned you for Valentine’s day date, the bike is borrowed and petrol is pooled in by friends, there is no money in all the plastic cards that you have in your wallet, the jeans you are wearing is suffocating you, because the friend that you borrowed it from is few stones lighter than you, chances are very likely that, you may bump into your roomiee in a market and get a thrashing for wearing his shoes. With all the respect to your insolvency, you cannot avoid the dates, the mounting bills and the gifts. Dare to refuse, for a Friday movie release, a gift on occasions like, meeting anniversary, dating anniversary, handholding anniversary, kissing anniversary, first fight anniversary, and leave alone all the days, rose day, hug day and so on, you will face verbal slaughter with utmost insensitivity, leading to death due to shame. I know you want to catch some breath, I know you are almost to die due to the mounting debt, but never use the Golden words “Let’s Go Dutch”, the moment you utter these magical world, she will ditch you in all likelihood, and the worst is, you could be denounced as a looser in the girl’s community.

My moustache is better than yours: I know you are dying to compare, I know you are suffering from we-men-are-better-than-women syndrome the male chauvinist inside you is dying to establish itself as superior creature over the lesser mortals. I know you see them, you know they are there, I know you have a Sam Disilva or Sherlock Holmes, inside you but some things in life remain better, when unsaid. So please, for heaven’s sake, never ever compare like “My moustache is better than yours”. If at all you have the urge to say that, and you are ready to sacrifice the relationship, have the necessary safety equipment handy, e.g. helmet, a real fast bike or car, ambulance on quick dial of your mobile etc. But do not do these adventurous tricks, unless it is done under the supervision of a trained professional.

Don’t try to be superman: Ok... Let me clear the issue on the outset itself, I do not mean to dissuade you from wearing your underwear over your pant, you can and you must if you feel you have a clean pair of undies, and the color red is not faded enough. But what I mean by superman is, do not be on the move to get her things done, that too with efficiency. Damn, for a few praises, you may risk yourself for eternal slavery. I know, you can do all the domestic chores with utmost speed and accuracy, but you don’t have to tell her, if ever you do, you would end up doing the same all through your life. Getting her veggies, bank work, doing her clothes, buying groceries, fixing her laptop, dusting, and cleaning, is what you will be used for.

Never speak a lot: For most of the guys, the first date often ends up being the last date. Reason is the century old desire to flaunt your sense of humor. Little do you realize that, in the process of charming the lady with your humor, you end up saying things that can cause severe damage to your future. Most guys end up revealing the deep dark secrets on the first date itself, their crushes, how they wet their bed till the age of 12, their red undies, silly jokes, their Date financier, and their friends etc. Man.! if you tell her all these things, wouldn’t see just elope with your Date financier. Avoid, speaking a lot, rather, let her speak, at least if provoked, you can say, I love to hear you speak. It will surely get you a few extra brownie points.

Others: There are more ways to screw up your chances than getting it better. So stay guarded, vigilant and alert. Contrary to the popular perception, do not try being yourself, girl’s like faking it, and guys are too weird to be themselves. Some of the mistake that guys do is being genuinely natural and decently generous. For example, never gift her Ultra Clearasil, I know she has pimples; even Paris Hilton has one, so what. Never write down your date expenses on a secret diary in front of her. Never introduce her with your friends who are better than you, which is all of them. Never look for the price of a particular dish in the restaurant even if it reads as “Thymus gland of calf”. If you do not have enough money to cover the bill, you may ask for flexi pay. That is how many dishes to wash for per hundred rupee of outstanding bill. For this reason avoid going to places with self service, and pre paid options. Never buy her a top larger than, Medium size and Jeans with a waist size of more than 30 inches. If it doesn’t fit, (which will not, in most of the cases), convince her that it will fit her maybe from tomorrow, when she starts doing yoga. Never stop her from bitching any girl, if you do even if out of humanity, you will be termed as a sympathizer and making an act that could be considered as treason. Never stop her from praising about a guy, you may be blamed for your insecurity. Never encourage her for cooking, because if you do, you will be the first victim irrespective of whether you eat it or not.

This is just the tip of the Iceberg. There are zillions ways of getting screwed, I have mentioned here a few. Stay guarded.

Images Courtesy: unitedwaytriangle.org, skyrock.net, tinypic.com, atschool.eduweb.co.uk, dailymail.co.uk, miconian.com

Random comic strips that interested me!

Of lately, there have been a lot of comic strips that interested me a lot.... below is a collection of some of them.... Will post more soon!

 

PS: The credits lie with the original creators... 

People you are likely to meet in an elevator!

Originally sourced from here and here and altered as per my whims and fancies!

The average software engineer works on the 3rd floor. Yes, like 87% of all facts in the world, this one is made up too. When the average software engineer goes to work every morning and comes back every evening, he experiences a life of ups and downs. In other words, he takes the elevator.

This elevator is a wonderful invention, really. It takes you up and then down, all on the click of a button. When buildings rise, elevators become paramount. Imagine climbing a seven storey building. Ok, dont. You get the point. Well, this elevator ride leads itself to some wonderful insight into life.

I work on the sixth floor, incidentally, the highest one in my building. I have had the chance to observe people on the elevator and have been absolutely fascinated by the results. Here, I chronicle some of my findings:

The Liftman: This particular species acts as the lift operator in the absence of a real lift operator. Since a lot of companies do not have a designated lift operator, he is THE ONE. He is the one who closely guards the control panel of the mother-ship and takes implicit charge of the buttons on the panel. He herds his flock into the lift, looks around expectantly to see if anyone stuck in the crowd has missed pressing the button they need to and does the needful. He also is in charge of the fan switch. He puts the fan on if he deems fit to and if the lift-man is environmentally conscious, he does what is best for the Earth. He figures that people can go without the comforts of a fan for a couple of minutes and hence does not turn it on. In case of the unlikely event of a break-down, the lift-man takes moral responsibility and tenders his resignation to the board of directors. These are very rare and are generally confined to one per elevator.

The Wall Hugger: This species is a remnant of the Chipko movement. He has a single-point agenda in his mind when he enters the elevator is to "SEIZE THE WALL". The wall of choice is generally the back wall but in case of unavailability, he settles for the sides. His modus operandi involves search for a space that is close to the walls of the elevator. He darts in,pushes people off along the way, gets his place, and then apologizes for the inconvenience caused. One reason could also be that they are purely too lazy to stand without support for the 2 minute elevator ride. This class of the species do not mind not getting the wall but given a choice, would want to lean against it. 

The One-floorer: This species has a very peculiar body structure. All their bones are lazy bones. They can’t be arsed to climb up one flight of stairs. They must, and I repeat, must use the elevator. They prefer to wait in the lobby for a whole 5 minutes for the elevator to come even if they have to go down by one floor. Clearly, time is not of essence for these folks. Not only does it lead to a lot of uneasiness and general irritation among the co-passengers, it also creates a topic of discussion after the aforementioned person leaves. 

The button pusher: Short as they are of time, they feel that somehow by repeatedly pushing the buttons, they would be able to convince the binary logic of the processing unit of the elevator of their urgency to board and deboard the elevator. heaven forbid if they have to wait an extra second in or waiting for the  elevator. Often, the buttons that most incur their wrath are the ‘close door’ and 'Lift call' buttons. Somehow, he feels that one simple press of the button does not do the trick and hence carries on pressing the button until the door actually closes. Satisfied with his handiwork, he looks at the elevator condescendingly and smirks. The frequency of the button presses varies with his mood. The unit generally employed to measure his level of irritation is Presses Per Second or PPS. The PPS levels range from 2 (mildly irritated) to 274 (extremely agitated, possibly homicidal). 

The phone folk: These are the technology-savvy lot. The moment they get into an elevator, an invisible switch flips in their head and out pops the phone. Now, this phone could be the most basic of phones, say a Nokia 1100 or an extremely high-end-12 megapixel-HD touch screen-2GHZ dual core processor-1GB RAM one. Whatever the phone may be, the purpose it serves is the same. In the hands of the phone folk in an elevator, a cell phone is nothing much more than a glorified clock. Research shows that more than 90% of the time, the singular usage of the phone on the elevator is to look at the time. The other 10% is to wipe the phone clean. Never mind that it was resting peacefully in the pocket where there was no dust that gathered. It must be given a wipe-down. This is the law of the elevator for these folk.

Research also points out that more than 90% of the phone folk who whip out their phones to look at the time wear a watch. Turning the wrist to point toward your face is deemed to be more tiring and effort-taking than reaching into the pocket, turning on the phone, unlocking it and then looking at the time. These phone folk are also affected by peer pressure. They see a person wielding a phone and in their minds, they are possessed. ‘Thou shalt look at your phone’, dictates the dictum.

A sub-species of the phone folk are the Blackberry boys. These are the “official” folk who, somehow, must take out their blackberry from their hip holster and wield it. They must do it. They just must. For the sake of mankind. They will get no new email or message. Yet, for posterity sake, they must clutch the berry. They will re-read mails, they will delete mails, they may even mark mails as unread but they will do something. There is a sense of outcast-ness, really, in the blackberry boys. They consider themselves superior to the other phone-folk, simply because they possess the berry. In turn, the other folk ostracize them and tend to flock and socialize amongst themselves before interacting with the berry boys. The feature that sets all phone folk out (berries or no berries) from the rest of the elevator people is their utter ridiculousness. After all, more often than not, there is no network coverage in the elevator, rendering their main weapon, the phone useless for the purpose that its name suggests. 

The courtesy people and the last minuters:  The courtesy people and the last minuters form a deadly duo. One that can be quite annoying and more importantly, disastrous, if you are looking at getting to work on time. The first half of this duo, the courtesy people are those wonderful, good-hearted human beings who are very very nice. They are, in fact, so nice that they end up pissing you off. They get into the elevator, look to see if the button of the floor they want to go to is pressed, if it is not, presses it but unlike the other elevator folk does not return to his base station. No. Not these folk. They take the role of the good Samaritan to a whole new level. He positions himself so that he gets a clear view of the lobby outside the door and waits, all the while making sure that he is within touching distance of the ‘open door’ button. He waits. And waits. And waits until the door begins to close. It is at this point in time that he springs into action. His senses get heightened and his spidey-sense kicks in. He looks to see if someone is trying to reach the elevator just as the door closes. If he senses that there is indeed some such person, he displays wonderfully quick reactions and makes sure that he presses the button and opens the door for the late-comer. In extreme cases, they put life and limb on the line by hurling themselves or their their body parts (usually their arms) at the closing door and ensuring that it doesn’t close.

The other half of the deadly duo: The last minuter. This person is just like that guy in the disaster movie who is the last man off the sinking ship or the last to escape a burning building, who almost makes it but inevitably ends up dying. Unlike that chap in the movie, however, this guy has a secret weapon to avoid death. His partner in crime: The courtesy guy. The last minuter has this super-power: to be just on time. Well, in actual fact, he is late for the elevator but somehow, the courtesy guy makes sure that the last minuter is on time. In elevator parlance, the time of reference is the time the elevator door starts to close but for this dynamic duo, the time of reference is the time that they can no longer see that last sliver of light as the elevator door completely closes. Chances are that, when the pair of them operate in tandem, you are going to have to spend a few extra moments in the elevator.

The Look-downers: This peculiar species are great admirers of Sir Isaac Newton. They worship gravity. As soon as they get into the elevator, they take a quick look to see if the button for their floor is pressed (if it is not, they do the needful), take up their station in the elevator and then perform the only item in their single point agenda : Look down. It’s not like they are shy; some of them genuinely are but then they are only acting in accordance with the gravity balancing theory. The gravity balancing theory is the theory by which the look-downers maintain the gravity-balance of the elevator. On the upward going elevator, looking down balances the entire anti-gravity act of going up. Whereas, on the downward traveling elevator, the act of looking down merely augments the gravitational effect of Earth and keeps the Gods happy. Well, this is the belief of the look downers anyway. These folk are easily the least controversial and most often ignored of all the species.

Yet another variant of this species are the poor folks who end up feeling so awkward in the elevator that all they can do is stare at the numbers on display, pass by till their destination arrives.

Well, there you have it; a few of the elevator folk that you’re likely to encounter in the life of ups and downs. So the next time you’re in an elevator, look out for these species and yes, Bon Voyage!!!

Money has no value unless you spend it !!!

This is a crazy world!

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also, Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billions. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger.

But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan , China and even India.

Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars.

India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan 's stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result:

The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US - Its The Americans who spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US!

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China , or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US.

The same is the case with India . We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India.

Why the world is after US?

The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US . So US imports more than what it exports year after year.

The result:

The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money.

It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier.

Who is America 's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the

strength of Japan , has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson?

That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend.

Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US , told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve. This is one of the reason for MNC's coming down to India , seeing the consumer spending.

'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.'

But before you follow this Neo Economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend !!!

Images Courtesy: taxdollars.ocregister, http://blogs.rediff.com/kingoflife/

The article originally posted by Ashok Sehgal (Original source unknown) and sourced from here.