When there is power imbalance…..

Dr. Gurpur was talking in a seminar dated 10 December 2019. Dr. Shashikala Gurpur is Dean of faculty of law at Symbiosis International (Deemed University). She is also an ethics committee member of ethics committee of Symbiosis. In her talk she made a statement. The statement was - “When there is power imbalance, the truth goes for a toss!” It is a topic of multiple books and articles and blog posts.

How great a person she is and what great work she is doing and in which context this sentence was used, all these questions needs separate blog posts, but I will restrict this post related to this one thought.  

We should try to understand how power imbalance affects the search of truth and then what can be done to avoid the negative effect of power imbalance. Before that we will need to understand what, a power imbalance is. We will try to see the corollary of this sentence too.

Power imbalance as I understand in this context is when one is at powerful position and another person is at receiving end. One may say that power is needed for search of truth itself. It is true too partially. But there is no objection being taken at power itself, but it is about power imbalance.

I was watching Upanishad Ganga some days back on DD National and the beginning of that serial there is following shloka from Ishavasya Upanishad.

हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम्‌।

तत् त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये ॥

Its meaning is as follows. “The face of Truth is covered with a brilliant golden lid; that do thou remove, O Fosterer, for the law of the Truth, for sight.” (Reference - https://upanishads.org.in/upanishads/1/15)

I found lot of similarity between what Gurpur madam said and this Shloka from Ishavasya Upanishad.

The gold represents power. To see the truth, one must remove the lid of gold!

It can mean many things. It means that gold (power) and truth live very near to each other. But power clouds our understanding of truth to such an extent that it almost becomes a barrier to know the truth.

After listening that sentence that day, I got answer to a very important question in my life. The answer is in the corollary of the principle which is stated above.  If we consider the sentence of  “When there is a power imbalance, the truth goes for a toss” as a law (of nature), we can say the corollary of this law as “One will not get to see the truth who indulges in excessive power and allows the power imbalance in the situation.” This is answer to the question in my mind which was there, but I was not able to articulate it properly till I got this answer.

The question was – “What punishment is there available in nature for those who indulge in excessive power and power imbalance?” The answer is – “He will not get to see the truth!”

This understanding is very much satisfying.

The relation between a doctor and a patient changes when some medical research is going on. Both of them are at equal level when research is going on. Otherwise in a normal relation, the patient is at receiving end and the doctor is having decision making authority. Maybe this happens because in research, the aim is to find the truth.

Mahatma Gandhi has said that a lie is the biggest injustice and when there is injustice, there is anger and the anger leads to violence. So, removing power imbalance is a way of nonviolence or in other sense a way to reach truth. Hence nonviolence and reaching truth is the same thing in my opinion.

The above discussion has triggered some more questions in my mind to which I am finding answers. They are as follows.

·       How to deal when there will be power imbalance present and its visible clearly. How to diagnose power imbalance and what is the treatment?

·       Under the name of what power imbalance is created? Like freedom is taken away in the name of help, by showing which (logical and apparently ethical) reason power imbalance is created?

Prof. Richard Dawkins has very beautifully shown the relation between science and politics. He said “Science is about finding the truth. Truth is power and politics is all about power.”

But in my opinion, researchers / scientists cannot blame politicians entirely if truth goes for a toss. It is researchers who should remain away from excessive power if they want to search the truth. Prasoon Joshi explains that in India politicians do not trouble people if people will not trouble them. He says that people think that they can use politicians, so they go close to them to use politicians and cry foul when they are used by politicians.

I want to thank Gurpur madam for creating this chain of though in my mind by her one sentence. I am very happy to find a similar verse from Ishavasya Upanishad.

Thanks for reading.

- Dr. Abhijeet Safai

Encouraging material

I felt that I must collect encouraging material in these difficult times and keep at one place so that I can share it with others. I am sharing the links of encouraging material below. Please let me know if you liked it in the comments section.

1. This is a dialogue between Prasoon Joshi and Vivek Agnihotri. Wonderful insights about creativity - Poetry and new wold - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUV368AnpH0&t=1929s
2. This is an article by Prasoon Joshi about creativity - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/the-corona-crisis-is-alarming-its-also-a-much-needed-wakeup-call-that-will-arouse-our-creativity/
3. This is Instagram live of Sandeep Khare with Spruha Joshi - https://www.instagram.com/p/CAVEdF4H5-v/

My publication regarding HPLP study

Dear All, Greetings! I am very happy to share that one of my research has got published. It is a data collected in 2015 regarding HPLP - Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile at Symbiosis International (Deemed University) in fresher students during induction. It is the largest dataset (sample size 4253) in the world regarding HPLP scale in my humble opinion. Without active support of my parents, it was not possible to achieve this success and justice to this research in form of publication. Hence I dedicate this publication to my parents, Mr. Ashok and Mrs. Sunita Safai. Below I am sharing the link to the abstract of the publication. Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14635240.2020.1726202 Thanking you, Yours sincerely, Dr. Abhijeet Safai

चलो पहाड़ी की चोटी पर

चलो पहाड़ी की चोटी पर

चट्टानों से बात करे।
उस पत्थर से निकले पानी
कुछ ऐसा आघात करे।धृ।

उंचाई से डर काहे का
हमसे उंचा कौन यहाँ।
खाई का भय हमे नहीं है
हमसे गहरा कौन यहाँ।
भिडजाए कठिनाई से
अवरोधों से दो हाथ करे।1।

जल प्रताप हम पर्वत छेदे
इतना पानी मारा है।
महावृक्ष है हमने पर्वत
जटिल जड़ों से चीरा है।
पर्वत इतना बड़ा नहीं
हम क्षमताओं पे मात करे।2।

समर्थ होना हमने तो
इन चट्टानों से सीखा है।
अब तक उंचे आसमान को
नजर उठाए देखा है।
चलो पहाड़ी की चोटी पर
बराबरी से बात करें।3।

- Nikhilesh Bagade, Nirman

We are responding too quickly

Someone responds to something on Facebook or WhatsApp and we rush to correct it! We feel that urge to go there and tell them what is our position with more clarity. We feel like opposing wrong thoughts. I edit Wikipedia so when there is something wrong I see which is wrong in my eyes, I rush to correct it. Why?

Is our response really needed? Is the other person at least thankful to us for correcting him or he is considering it some kind of debate and wants to show us down in public? If we doubt his intentions, why to debate in the first place? Why to waste our energy? There are two reasons for not responding. First is if the person has bad intentions, whatever you may say, he will keep opposing you and second is who has said that I am right all the times? Also have I taken a contract to keep on improving people? Do I get money for it? When whole world is running behind money, why should I keep wasting energy in trying to correct the people when they even don't have curtsy to thank or thank in mind at least?

If what I am trying to convey is science and laws of nature, the other person will have to understand it one day. I am trying to speed up his development but what if he refuses to budge. The best way would be to document it only once that I was trying to help but the help was refused. Trying to help beyond that is a madness. 

This social media and internet is somewhere responsible for the anxiety we feel. Hence limiting its use is one of the best solutions to get mental peace at least when we are stressed too much. The benefit of social media and internet is that we can communicate with anyone very easily but the downside is that anyone can communicate and then control us also very easily. Many a times we are also not aware who is controlling us and why and we give our freedom willingly in the hands of other people. 

Skulls and Roses

First of all thank you Vijay Ambolkar for sharing his Amazon Prime Video's account details with me so that I could see this show by Raghu and Rajiv. I am following Raghu since long and after watching art created by him, one feels a strange kind of confidence and nice feeling about themselves. It's difficult to express. I have always felt confident after seeing each episode of Roadies. 

Reading his autobiography is an empowering experience. What a person can do with his talent and hard work is visible in that autobiography. I am highly inspired by this greatly talented person. 

I just love the tasks he creates. I can see exact replica of real life situations in the tasks and the politics in the shows and also the learning one gains during his shows is real and useful in life while living day to day life. 

Everyone wants to be a hero of his life and Raghu brings out this hero in you. There are many things which he might not share directly about the show and one has to find out these connections. That is also a great creativity of his where one has to apply their own talent to find out the talent in his show. In short he is amazing!

Little hypoglycemia is okay for me!

This can become a controversial post but I do not want this to become one. Hence clarifying some points in the beginning. I am using a medical term here and I am fully aware of it. This post is not for people who are not mentally of physically ready to face the consequences of hypoglycemia. I mean hypoglycemia can be a serious condition and people can faint and might need immediate medical attention.

The title should be read as (While reducing weight) little hypoglycemia is okay for me! This post should be read in continuation of the previous post where I am sharing my thoughts / experiences while reducing weight. But for those who have not read my previous post, I would like to share in brief what it is all about. I am trying to reduce weight and documenting my thoughts during this process. I am doing it for me. I am in the correct mindset of weight reduction now and I do not remain so all the times. These posts are a reminder to me if I forget what my thoughts were when I was in the right mindset for weight reduction. But why not to let others benefit from my thoughts if they can be is the thought behind writing these posts. 

After following Dr. Jagannath Dixit for long time on YouTube, I found that his inspiration is Dr. Shreekant Jichkar so I found about him and found some of his talks. He has explained very well that unless there will be some hypoglycemia, glucagon cannot be released and this glucagon is natural fat burning hormone! So hypoglycemia means we are in the process of burning fat. 

Hypoglycemia makes you feel a little dizzy and weak. One also feels little irritation at the level of mind and I feel that I am easily provocated with little stimulus. Its also difficult to concentrate for sometime and I find difficulty in sleeping if I have not eaten anything. 

The list can be increased and there are other symptoms as well. But what I want to point out here is that I am ready to face all these things because I know that I am reducing weight and little discomfort is okay. How much discomfort is little and how much of it is too much is very subjective. It is not easy to define.

I feel happy now a days when there is little hypoglycemia. Because I am aware that now glucagon has started its function. Its visible to me on weighing scale as well. 

I would request readers to not to misunderstand me. I am nowhere saying that one has to do these experiments on their own by reading this blog. I am also not saying that consultation of nutritionist and physicians is not needed. It is very well needed and it must be taken whenever needed. 

I am just documenting my experiences / thoughts when I am in a very positive state of mind. Because I do not remain always in this positive state of mind. I lose control many times and then I eat whatever I want and whatever quantity I want but after eating I say again to myself - "I will try again to win this temptation to overeat." Yes, let me confess that I overeat. In fact many of us do overeat and overeating has become a culture now.  But it is injurious to health and at least when it is injurious I mean when it has gone to proportions when it is injurious, then at least we should stop or should try to control overeating. 

The consequences of obesity are so much dreadful that I am happy to have little hypoglycemia now!