Was Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor of India, the most evil human being in history?

No story of the Mughal Dynasty can be completed without talking about the cruelty of Aurangzeb. Mughal rule was established in India by Timurid prince Babur in 1526. Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi in the first battle of Panipat in 1526. He invaded India when the Lodi dynasty was ruling Delhi and surrounding areas and defeated Ibrahim Lodi to capture Delhi. This was one of the earliest battles where gunpowder firearms and field artillery were used. “Gunpowder,” as it came to be known, is a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulfur, and charcoal. Together, when these materials get mixed they will burn rapidly and explode as a propellant. Chinese monks discovered the technology in the 9th century CE. However, it took a few more centuries to perfect the formula and the proportion. Cutting the long story short. Mughals had a great technical advantage in the battle against the Indian rulers. Aurangzeb took the Mughal Empire to its largest size. And he resorted to all possible cruelty to achieve this.

The Mughals ruled India for roughly about 250 years. Akbar and Aurangzeb together ruled for about 100 years. Both ruled about 49 years each to be specific. So both occupy a large chapter when we look at Indian history by the sheer length of ther tenure. Cruel? Yes, they were like any major medieval-period ruler. Aurangzeb in particular was no exception. Rather he was on the extreme side. That’s why n the beginning of my answer I mentioned that Babur was from the Timurid clan. According to modern scholars, Timur’s campaigns caused the death of an estimated 17 million people, which was roughly 5% of the world’s population at the time. In that sense, his army was a killing machine. In his lifetime, Timur conquered more than anyone else except for Alexander the Great.

Aurangzeb possibly wanted to follow his ancestors' DNA spreading the Mughal Empire. During the large part of Akbar’s rule, the Mughal Empire covered only about 30% of India. Shahjahan It expanded it to about 50%. Aurangzeb took the Mughal Empire to its zenith and controlled about 80% of India. Though this was for a very brief period (less than a decade). His cruelty or killing spree was in consonance with expanding Mughal rule.

However, he is evaluated more in the backdrop of the religion Hindu-Muslim. Go back to the emperor Ashoka period. Alone in the Kalinga war, the casualty figure was around 200000–250000. And this was without any firearms or weapons of mass destruction. The Maurya Empire also reached its zenith during Ashoka’s rule only. You see this killing business has a direct connection with the expansion of empire and consolidation of power. Banvir killed the innocent son of Dhatri Panna and the elder brother of Rana Uday Singh to make sure holding power. Ajat Shatru imprisoned his father for the empire. Ashoka gave up his killing spree and his empire fell immediately after his death. Most Indian kings failed despite being great warriors for not being ruthless killing machines

In the medieval period possibly killing was the only way to sustenance for a kingdom or empire. Governance and administration were largely dependent on killing and public displays of brutality. This continued throughout the 2nd World War. Unfortunately, it's continuing even today. Look at the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. Muslim rulers never followed any honor codes like Chivalry or Bushido or our very own Rajput honor code.

However, when we evaluate the Mughal rule in India inclusive of that of Aurangzeb, we can not ignore the economic prosperity of India under Mughal rule. Especially when we know that India had almost a quarter share of world GDP under the Mughal rule. Not that the Mughal rule created the robust economic base of India. India was an economic superpower since the 1st century AD and continued to be so till the beginning of the 18th century. Aurangzeb despite all his not so conducive image managed to hold the economic stability and progress for half a century. Aurangzeb was reasonably successful in providing good administration and a conducive atmosphere for the economy to prosper. He didn’t let the economy of the vast nation go down even though he was constantly fighting wars. This could be some silver lining in his reign.

One more thing people need to take note that India stopped bleeding financially after the Mughals came to power. Before the Mughals, all the invaders came to loot India. However, the Mughals settled down here. Not only did looting out of India stop but internal development also started. Whereas earlier every time somebody invaded India a trail of devastation was left behind. Definitely, casualties occurred in the internal wars. Yes, we had casualties before that even when we were constantly fighting wars with external enemies in addition to internal wars.

However, I do not have readymade data to compare whether the pre-Mughal or Mughal period was better in terms of casualties. Though the constant wars fought by Aurangzeb had a disastrous effect on the Mugla empire. In his desire to expand the Mughal empire, Aurangzeb went too far to exhaust his resources and manpower. The result was that the Mughal empire started collapsing after his death.

Matthew White estimates that about 2.5 million of Aurangzeb's army were killed during the Mughal–Maratha Wars (100,000 annually during a quarter-century), while 2 million civilians in war-torn lands died due to drought, plague, and famine. This campaign also had a ruinous effect on Mughal Treasury, and Emperor's absence led to a severe decline in Governance in Northern India. Marathas started expanding northwards shortly after the death of Aurangzeb, defeated the Mughals in Delhi and Bhopal, and extended their empire up to Peshawar by 1758.

After Aurangzeb's death his son, Bahadur Shah I, repealed the religious policies of his father and attempted to reform the administration. However, he could rule only for five years. After he died in 1712, the Mughal dynasty began to sink. I said violence, cruelty inflicting atrocities, and killing had a big role to play in the medieval ruling. Meanwhile, the Indian economy started losing its shine as India shrunk into political instability. Marathas were great warriors but they never had the ingredients to build a great empire.

Any way coming back to your question - Was Aurangzeb the most evil human being in history? I don’t think so. When we evaluate a ruler we have to look at the macro picture taking into consideration all angles. And I definitely don’t find him the most evil human being in history. He was cruel & ruthless - definitely yes. But that alone wouldn’t be enough to be the most evil human being in history. The search for the most evil human being in history would be a long one. And I am possibly not qualified to do that. I know too little.

Who was the English teacher of Shashi Tharoor?

 I do not have any knowledge about who all were Tharoor’s teachers. There could have been multiple teachers who have contributed to his intellectual growth as well as to make his command of English stronger. His teachers could have been any of those common teachers randomly teaching a batch of 30–40 students in a class and multiple such classes in a day for over 30 years or so. However, we know nothing of those other students taught by the same teacher or the teacher himself. A lot depends on the student himself, and his hunger for learning and knowledge.

I wouldn’t say that the institution and the teachers do not matter, but you have to get that one student who has an insatiable hunger. Possibly Tharoor himself would be able to throw light on who shaped him up in his early years. There must have been someone who influenced his young mind. On my personal account, I give entire credit to my father and my school English teacher of 9th & 10th class for whatever a few lines I am being able to write today. I have studied in a vernacular medium school, so their contributions have been immense.

The Tharoor we know now must have been transformed over the years because of his long years of exposure to the diplomatic world and politics. Apart from his treasure of vocabulary and command over English, what makes him unique is his thought process. The kind of language he uses is the outcome of his critical thinking ability. Even if you find someone with a vocabulary as strong as that of Tharoor, possibly he or she wouldn’t be speaking in a similar manner.

Sometime back I wrote that vocabulary is like raw chicken. What an individual master chef will cook would depend on his specialization, what he likes as well as what the customers order. Also, it may depend on which country or contaminant he is serving. So you have different tastes with different Chefs even when they cook the same dish.

Tharoor is an accomplished writer, having authored 23 bestselling works of fiction and non-fiction. In addition, he has written hundreds of article columns in internationally acclaimed journals and publications. He was a contributing editor for Newsweek International for a period of two years. Tharoor started writing at the age of 6 and his first story was published in a journal when he was 10 years old. Tharoor was formerly the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and he ran for the post of The Secretary-General in 2006. The US didn’t want a strong candidate like Tharoor and he was vetoed. Tharoor withdrew his candidature and ended his career in the UN even though he was invited by Baan Ki-Moon to continue his service as Under-Secretary-General.

Tharoor is a combo of being an accomplished writer, a career diplomat of the highest degree, and a politician. So possibly this is what gives his communication an invincible twist. This along with his extraordinary command over the language makes him speak in a manner that mostly goes beyond our comprehension. He doesn’t need to put any effort into speaking like that, because he thinks at that level. Possibly on the contrary, he has to put effort to scale it down to match our level of understanding.

My husband and I are at a verge of divorce, but I love him. What should I do to save this marriage?

These days more relationships are going towards divorce. Every relationship survives on a unique bond and connection. Most of the time relationship fails because of a lack of communication and poor communication. Relationships wither when we take things for granted and do not invest in them. We need to invest in our relations like we water plants every day. There would be many stimulus points in every relation, we need to identify them and keep them activated. There would be toxicity in every relation like our body also produces some amount of toxicity every day. we need to channelize them and give them a way out. Our body has an excellent mechanism to throw out waste and toxicity. However, unfortunately in a relationship, we hold on to the toxicity. We never let go of the negativity and relationships suffer.

Holding back attitude could be one of the major reasons for divorce. This holding-back attitude could be one-way or could be two-way also. The problem is that most of the time we are not aware of it, so corrective actions are not taken. Rather we enjoy the pain inside for self-pity or pity from others. We keep on complaining that he or she doesn’t understand me. Have we ever expressed it the right way what we want or need? No, our ego comes in between. We give strong hints, weak hints, short hints, show our anger, etc but we do not express ourselves. 

Lack of proper communication could be one of the strongest reasons for breakup and divorce. For most men love after marriage changes. He becomes more responsible, and more focused on his job and business so that he can provide the best for his family. Plus with seniority in the official position, the workload and responsibility also go up. So husbands are not able to give time earlier even if they wish. But the wife thinks just the opposite - that is not giving me time, possibly he has lost interest in me, possibly he loves someone else, etc. Since the communication levels have already gone down these things never get clarified. If both spouses are working then the communication level goes further down. So it's very important to take breaks from the regular schedule and enjoy time together.

It would not be possible to do counseling without knowing the details. However, one good thing is that you still love your husband. This is a good side that you are still committed to and still value this relationship. The point is that you still love him means he must be having some good points that score over the tussle points and over his negativity. This is what I call net-negative or net-positive in any relation. In your case, it's still a net-positive relation at least from your side. So there is some hope left out, which can be worked upon even though you have drifted away. so long a relationship is net-positive there is hope to stop going towards divorce and save the marriage.

To save a marriage or make a relationship survive so that we do not proceed towards divorce, there have to be mutual efforts from both sides. However, as a consultant, I work from the side of our control first. This means we need to work on things that are in our control since we can not act on things under the control of the other side. But rest assured there are ways and means to address issues of another side as well as sitting on this side of the table. However, we would first focus on things in our control. We will address our actions and reactions first

When I speak about saving a marriage from divorce, the above pictorial representation is very important to understand the nuance of how a relationship works. The above represents our respective domains and codomains in our relationship. The domain is the area that is exclusively in our control or our action area. Codomain is the common area of operation. The problem or clash occurs when we step into the domain of the other side which could lead to clash points. And if we go on having more clash points, things could aggravate and lead to a divorce situation. We need to work on our domain and control/regulate our reaction in the codomain area. Consider your domain as A and your husband’s domain as B, AUB is the common area of interaction. On good days when the relationship is at its best the common area becomes bigger or the largest. However, when relation starts souring, this common area starts shrinking and the domains start distancing from each other as if there is nothing common between the couple like in the picture below.

Possibly your situation could be like in the above picture. There is no common area, rather you have already distanced yourself from each other. If it is not addressed immediately it could lead to the divorce point. Now somebody needs to push the two circles closer or even overlap each other. Your common friends and close relatives and children if any, can do this. You can take the help of a consultant or counselor as well.

If you two are still living in the same house, then you are living in close proximity even though emotionally distanced. And if you are really serious about saving this relationship you could do the following things…

1. Though I hate manipulative people, but at times we all need to be a little bit manipulative. And to save a marriage or to avoid a divorce, we shouldn't mind being a little bit manipulative. Purpose and intentions matter. And in love and war, everything is fair. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t suggest anything wrong to be done. Even being a little overt is also a form of manipulation. I call it applying makeup, it enhances your beauty. Just being good or just loving is not enough, at times you need to project it. We need to display our love, affection, and concern. We need to show our appreciation. Holding hands, sitting together, and going on small-small dates are very important. Even going to the vegetable market could be considered as a small date - have a cup of coffee or ice cream together.
2. Seek the help of family and friends, particularly people who are dear to him. Build up and improve your relations with those people
3. Seek the help of a professional consultant or counselor.
4. If do not want divorce then you have to digest your ego. Women are generally far stronger in handling emotions. Men though act tough, but most are vulnerable inside. The problem is that men are poor at expressing their emotions. They hide their emotions with arrogance, while actually, they may be breaking from the inside. Women are the powerhouse of strength, relationships survive because of them. So understand the reason behind your husband’s actions and words.
5. Men also seek love, affection, attention, and appreciation. Recount what brought you closer and what is pushing you apart. If possible avoid those clash points and arguments. If you are on talking terms then find some genuine reason to appreciate or compliment him. Small-small things matter - like cooking or ordering his favourite dishes, wearing the dress he has been gifted on some special occasion. This acts as an indication that you are still the old self, care for him. These works like saying “I love you”
6. Act very normally, and behave very cordially in the presence of a third person, common friend, inlaws, or parents. He would also be forced to behave normally. This will help take off some heat at least you would be on talking terms.
7. Don’t push for divorce from your side, or sign the document in the hit of the moment. If he is pressing for divorce don’t give in. Bargaining time is very important. You can always tell that things are not so easy for a woman. Remember one-sided divorce is very difficult in India, especially if it is moved by the husband. If divorce has to happen, it should happen on your terms and conditions. This is what I call being manipulative. If there is no hope left for saving the marriage then there is no point in having sympathy for him and setting him free from the hook so easily for somebody else. Of course in the process, you will also not be free.

At one point in time, I used to frequent family court regularly though not for the wrong reason. I had the privilege to observe the proceedings sitting in the court. The judges are always inclined towards the wife unless the wife is really notorious. Trust me by shedding little tears, telling the judge that you still love him so much and you don’t want the marriage to be dissolved, you can practically screw up the divorce case filed by your husband. One judge, I have seen, would simply not allow any lawyer to speak. She would allow only the couple to speak. And there are other ways to stall divorce as well, which I wouldn’t discuss here.

I know a number of cases where the wives filed for divorce but later they retracted from their stand saying that they had realized their mistake and didn’t want the divorce anymore and the cases kept on lingering for years without any decision. In India, most divorces happen through settlements that arrive outside the court.

What are the qualifications of the poll strategist Prashant Kishor?

Does it matter what is Prashant Kishor’s qualification? For some people, qualification is never a criterion to measure their knowledge or expertise in their respective fields. Whatever degree you want to take, take but you do not become one of them simply by taking some degree. For example, no amount of degree in English can make you Sashi Tharoor. Tens of Ph.D. in music would fall short of explaining Lata Ji. What they do, they do - many a time formal education or degree may not have any correlation to their expertise or success. You wouldn’t find any logical explanation for why they are so good in their respective field.

Many of the legends didn’t have formal education or training in the field they are legends. Forget them, these are big people. Let's take some very practical and down-to-earth examples from more common people- organizations like TCS employ engineers from the Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical streams. Whereas they are a software house and should have appointed software engineers only.

So be prepared when you ask qualifications of such people. You can not measure their success by the levels of their degrees. Tharoor did his graduation History. He did his M.A. in International Relations. Tharoor further obtained his 2nd M.A. in Law and Diplomacy in 1977 and his Ph.D. in International Relations and Affairs. You can see English was not his specialization in academics. Well, his knowledge of English is a byproduct.

My knowledge of PK is limited, please get me right if you find something wrong. As far as my knowledge goes. Son of Dr. Srikant Pandey, born and brought up in Bihar, PK did his early schooling at a government school in Bihar. Yes, Prashant Kishore is the product of the same Bihar Government School that sometimes people mock at. There are reports that say the PK has done engineering from Hyderabad. However, this is not true. After 12th he got into Hindu College, Delhi University to pursue a BSc. in Statistics but went back to Bihar after falling ill and left it mid-way. Prashant Kishore has done his postgraduation in Public Health. This you can take for confirmation.

In an interview with Saurabh Dwivedi, PK revealed how he almost sat home after each crucial educational phase of his life much to his father’s dismay. Going by his words, Kishor took a break after the 12th for 3 years, left graduation mid-way, and even after he completed his graduation, he took a break for two years before doing his post-graduation. When asked what he did during his breaks, he amusingly said, almost everything that a young lad isn’t supposed to do.

After completing post-graduation in public health, Kishor began his career as a public health specialist in the United Nations. His first posting was in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and then he was transferred to Bihar to run the Polio eradication program. Back then, Rabri Devi was Bihar’s CM. After working for 2 years, he was called at the UN Indian Office, and then after working for 2 years, he was called to work at the headquarters of the United Nations in the USA. However, he was more interested in field assignments. After 6 months at UN HQ, he was offered to work as a division head in Chad – a landlocked country in North-Central Africa where nobody wanted to go. There he worked here for almost 4 years.

After completing his tenure at Chad, he was about to shift to Geneva. During this period Prashant Kishor wrote a research paper about ‘Malnutrition in rich high growth states of India’ which had a comparison of 4 states – Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. Interestingly, Gujarat was at the bottom. It is exactly at this time; that Prashant Kishor got a phone call from Gujarat’s CM office (Narendra Modi’s office) to know why so much criticism against Gujarat. It was From there, the two got connected. Modi then invited PK to work in Gujarat on the malnutrition program. During his work on the malnutrition program, he gathered and developed intensive as well as extensive insights that could be utilized in the political platform. And his service was utilized for the 2012 Gujarat election. This is the beginning and the rest is history.

So you can see PK’s present occupation or association doesn’t have any correlation with his academics directly. 

Can Mamata Banerjee expand her party beyond WB?

 Any party can be expanded or any party can be made a national party. It only depends on what needs to be added or mixed up to make a state-specific party or a regional party a national party. However, there is a fundamental flaw in the approach. Let me explain it.

Chicken is the basic ingredient for preparing Chicken Butter Masala and Chilli Chicken. You will add up other ingredients or spices depending on what you want to cook. But once you have prepared Chicken butter Masala, you can not convert it to Chilli chicken even if you know how to prepare it. For that, you have to buy fresh chicken.

This is the problem with Mamata. She formed TMC in 1998, last 26 years she has treated it as a state-specific party for Bengal, now she can not convert it to a national party overnight. She can not serve a Bengali dish to all Indian customers. She can not sell Bengali fish curry as Goan fish curry, nor can sell chicken butter masala as chili chicken. She has to buy fresh fish and fresh chicken and cook the dish from the beginning. Secondly, a cook who has specialized in cooking only Bengali dishes for the last 37 years, may find it too difficult to turn up to be a cook for North Indian dishes. You wouldn’t go to a Bengali restaurant to have North Indian dishes or Chinese dishes, particularly when you know that they don’t have a specialized cook for North Indian dishes

Suppose I am not happy with the food of a particular north Indian restaurant, I will go and look for another restaurant that is known for authentic North Indian dishes. I will not visit a Chinese or South Indian restaurant.

This is the problem with Mamata and TMC. Overnight she has just changed the signboard of TMC from a state party to a national party but everything else remains the same. Even If you are not happy with your cardiologist will you go to a gynecologist for your cardiac ailment? She would not be able to treat you. And even if she treats you, it's almost sure that you will die. Rather it's better that you continue with your old cardiologist who is not so good. But at least he knows the subject.

Mamata should have decided at the beginning itself whether she wanted TMC to be a state party or a national party. A doctor practicing 24 years as a gynecologist can not turn up to be a cardiac surgeon overnight. And how many patients would go to her for cardiac surgery? Even if Mamata shouted at the top of her voice, she wouldn’t turn up to be a national leader. Not that she was not capable of becoming a national leader, but she never took that call. It's a matter of specialization, where calls have to be taken at the right time. Whether you want to become a DM neuro or DM cardiology decision has to be taken in advance.

What could be the credit card limit of the high profile industrialists and Actors like Mukesh Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan?

First of all - most such people don’t use credit cards, they are not required to use credit cards. Credit cards are for those people who can’t pay instantly or don’t want to pay instantly. I am very sure that such people mostly don’t use debit cards as well. Most of the visits of the industrialist are official visits, other than the holiday trips. You can’t imagine Mukesh Ambani swiping his card to pay for bills. They have people to take care of such trivial jobs. His office takes care of everything. Wherever he or his family goes everything is pre-arranged by the staff attending to him personally. He just needs to mention his itinerary, and everything else gets arranged. His personal office just needs to pass on the instructions to the respective offices.

Ambani travel by his personal jet, how could you think that he would use his card? He wouldn’t be having any card at all. If he wants to do some window shopping, he simply needs to choose the item, the rest is taken care of by his staff. However, I doubt that he has time to waste on window shopping. Everything must be coming to his office. He will simply order his staff about what he is looking for, they will gather all the information and present it in front of him just to make the choice. Ambani just has to give instructions even for very large deals. He personally comes into the picture or signs when it comes to ultra-large deals like the deal with Google.

Let me share a personal experience. Some 23-24 years back I had the opportunity to be with one of the directors (Godrej family member) of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. Before I narrate the story, let me say a little about Godrej as most Indians do not know the actual worth of Godrej's family. Godrej & Boyce ( G&B) is one of the largest and richest privately held business conglomerates in India, which means G&B the flagship company established in 1897 is not listed on the stock exchange – means no share sold. G&B owns a few thousand acres of land in Mumbai alone. It was G&B which supplied 12.83 lakh ballot boxes for India's first general elections in 1951. Most of Godrej's operations are not in the public domain. Godrej closely works with ISRO and the Défense organizations. It manufactures the GSLV / PSLV rocket engine which takes the satellites into geostationary orbits, It manufactures the Brahmos Missiles the fastest cruise missile in the world. Godrej exports its products to over 80 countries of the world and it has business establishments in many countries of the world. However, they are very media-shy and stay away from politics. A few years back Godrej family casually bought the bungalow of Dr Homi J Bhabha, father of India's atomic energy program, who lived for years — for a price of Rs 372 crore outbidding Ajay Piramal. This is without any commercial interest as the property can not be developed even. Since the bungalow with a built-up space of 17,550 sq ft on south Mumbai's Malabar Hill is a heritage property.

Hope you would now consider a Godrej director qualified enough to be a decent industrialist. Coming back to the story – I had the opportunity to be with him for 2 to 3 hours during one of his visits to a particular state capital. His visit was absolutely personal, however the local Godrej office took care of everything – his travel, stay, vehicles, even some cash should he need something. His Mumbai office was coordinating everything and passing instruction to the local office. He stayed for around two weeks in that state in pursuance of some research work. During the entire duration of his stay and travel through the states necessary support was kept ready at all points. And I am talking about a period when mobile phones were not there. But the Company’s local office made sure to put people in place who would be constantly in touch with him, keeping district administration informed about his whereabouts should there be any need.

If this be so for a director, not even the MD or chairman of the organization, just think what kind of attention Mukesh Ambani would be paid wherever in the world he goes. No, he doesn’t need a card.

Film stars like SRK or Salman’s abroad visits are mostly sponsored. And even if not sponsored, these trips are well-planned and preorganized. Their managers arrange everything in advance in coordination with the local agents. If some payments are to be made for some purchase, the local agents would take care of it. I do not think SRK, Salman, or Amitabh swiped their cards for any payment. However, it is possible that they may have some special cards.

Following are some exclusive premium credit cards that are issued only on invitation and only if you meet certain requirements (like, say, being ultra-rich). They come with top-tier perks, including personal concierge services, and top-tier annual fees, some as high as $5,000.

Centurion® Card from American Express: Initiation fee $10000, annual fee $5000. you’ll need to charge between $250,000 and $450,000 per year on your current Amex cards. (A mere $20,000 per month!)

J.P. Morgan Reserve Card: Rumor has it you’ll need at least $10 million under J.P. Morgan’s asset management to get your hands on an invite.

Citi Chairman: Most sources say you must use Citigroup’s private bank to be eligible. To be honest, it’s probably one of those things where if you have to ask, you don’t qualify. Rumored perks include a $300,000 credit limit.

Dubai First Royale Mastercard: Dubai First Royale Mastercard, which is trimmed in gold and has a .235-carat diamond on the front. According to the bank’s website, it’s “desired by many but attainable by only a select few.” To get invited, you may need to live in the UAE, and you probably need a high net worth. You’re also welcome if you’re a member of the UAE royal family. The card doesn’t have any pre-set limit. As one of the bank’s executives promised: “You ask for the moon and we try and get it.”

Stratus Rewards Visa: If you don’t have your own private jet (you pauper!), this “white card” might be the one for you. It’s rumoured that you must spend at least $100,000 per year to nab an invite.

Image source - Referred article

Ref:

MoneyTips - Make Your Financial Life Make Cents

Are the real life spies as tough and well-trained in combat as shown in the movies, like James Bond, Jason Bourne, etc.?

In most cases, they are not, unless someone is tough in a natural way. Well trained -there could be a possibility. However, most of their training happens to be on technicalities, survival, using technical gadgets, coding & decoding, communication techniques, language, culture, adaptation, building intimacy, etc. They are extensively briefed on how to act without raising any suspicion, or on not getting caught. An extraordinary tough-looking muscular agent would draw unnecessary attention which would act as a hindrance or could alert the opponent and the security agency. Anyone gets suspicious if a few burly-looking guys close in. So even though the job demands, the agents have to compromise on this aspect. Recruiters would always prefer an average-looking unsuspecting person.

The success of a secret agent lies mostly in being unseemingly special. They have to avoid looking special, or extraordinary in any manner to draw attention. So you wouldn’t find an agent pumping iron unless he is mixing up with a crowd where not pumping iron would be unnatural. So you would find an agent to be absolutely commoner without drawing any attention, without raising any suspicion. Even in the cases where they build up intimacy deliberately - they have to make it look absolutely natural and keep it away from public glare.

The secret agents are primarily required to undertake three types of functions.

1. Intelligence gathering and transmission- For this function physical toughness or combat martial arts training is not an essential condition. Rather an agent on the weaker side will always rely more on his intelligence and avoid confrontation rather than relying on his combat ability.
2. Information Dissemination- This is by far the most important function for which agents are extensively used. Here they have to mix up with the target group or individuals in an unseemly manner in various capacities to influence them. Here also physical toughness is not an essential condition
3. The third major function is Sabotage - Agents are required to undertake sabotage activity, assassination as well as character assassination activities.. But here also their technical skill is more important than their combat skill. As already mentioned a burly-looking guy would immediately send an alert or alarm bell to the target and to the security agencies. Any display of combat skill will only send a higher level of alert and the risk of disclosing their identity and endangering their life.

So even in the face of getting apprehended, they have to act as if they are normal individual especially when chances of escape are low or they are being watched. No country takes responsibility if its agents get caught in a foreign land. So it is better to get caught as a normal individual rather than as a spy as the punishments are lighter. Secondly, your country could come to your defense without getting implicated. So in real life, you would not know if you are living in close proximity to a spy. In modern-day espionage, a major share of intelligence gathering and information dissemination happens through system hacking. So a spy is required to be a technical expert in IT & networking rather than being a combat skill expert for kicking around. 

What are the legal rights of real daughter on father's property and assets after the death of father? In this case the father had second marriage with a lady who didn't had divorce with her first husband. What the law says?

 This case is a bit complicated. However, you have not mentioned whether the family is Hindu or Muslim, as the decision would be based on a different set of rules. If it's a Muslim family, the inheritance is governed by Muslim personal law. And if it's a Hindu family the inheritance will be governed by Hindu Succession Act.

However, in this case, the father’s second marriage is legally null & void since the lady didn’t have a divorce from her first husband. So her first marriage is still valid. As such her legal status actually is that of a mistress, not that of a wife. And mistress doesn’t have any legal right under any law in India.

Second marriage, during the subsistence of the first marriage, is illegal in India and the relationship arising from the same does not have any validity. Second wives in India have little protection under the law. With the commencement of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (HMA), One of the conditions provided for a valid marriage was that neither party should have a spouse living at the time of the second marriage. Further, the lady has to prove her second marriage (socially or legally), but in doing so she will have trouble if her first marriage is brought to the notice and proved in the court of law. The lady would lose her case and could be charged with bigamy. However, the section will not apply if the husband or wife of the first marriage is dead. In case the second marriage is not legal, neither the second wife nor her children enjoy the privilege of being legal heirs to the ancestral property of the husband.

However, if the second marriage is proved legal then she will have equal rights as that of the daughter. In case the husband has left a will and the property is his self-earned, not inherited then his will has higher weightage even if he has willed the property to his wife (in this case mistress). But if the property is inherited, the daughter can challenge his will.

Now, married and unmarried daughters have the same rights on their father’s property as their brothers. They are also entitled to equal duties and liabilities as their brothers. In 2005, it was also ruled that a daughter has the same rights provided that both father and daughter were alive on September 9, 2005. In 2018, the SC stated that a daughter can inherit her deceased father’s property no matter whether the father was alive on this date or not. Hereon, women were also accepted as coparceners. They can demand a share in the father’s property.

As per the Hindu Succession Act – the heirs are classified into different categories. The following are classified as Class-I heirs, whose rights will have priority over other categories of heirs

i. Son ii. Daughter iii. Widow iv. Mother v. Son of a predeceased son vi. Daughter of predeceased son vii. Widow of predeceased son viii. Son of a predeceased daughter ix. Daughter of predeceased daughter x. Son of predeceased son of predeceased son xi. Daughter of predeceased son of a predeceased son xii. Widow of predeceased son of a predeceased son.

The Muslim laws in India are not codified laws and thus are governed by the 2 schools of Muslim Personal laws:-

Hanafi: Under Hanafi School, daughters do not have any right to their father's property. It recognizes only those heirs whose relation to the deceased is through a male child.

Shia: Under the Shia school, the daughters are given rights in the share of the property; they are given ½ of the share of the son in the property.

So basically, the daughter’s right to property under Muslim Law is given only under the Shia law.

Property rights of a daughter in Islam

Under the Muslim law, the rules of inheritance are rather strict. A son takes double the share of a daughter, on the other hand, the daughter is the absolute owner of whatever property she inherits. If there is no brother, she gets half a share. It is legally hers to manage, control, and dispose of it as and when she wants. She is also eligible to receive gifts from those she would inherit from. This is contradictory because she can inherit only one-third of the man's share but can get gifts without any hassle.

Widow’s right to succession:

Under Muslim law, no widow is excluded from the succession. A childless Muslim widow is entitled to one-fourth of the property of the deceased husband, after meeting his funeral and legal expenses and debts. However, a widow who has children or grandchildren is entitled to one-eighth of the deceased husband's property. If a Muslim man marries during an illness and subsequently dies of that medical condition without brief recovery or consummating the marriage, his widow has no right of inheritance.

What are the 5 most common questions that you need to ask yourself for self assessment?

The subject appeals to me. I believe self-assessment is good as well as bad. Quite often self-assessment is like self-medication. And we all know self-medication is not good. Most of us practice self-medication with little knowledge or no knowledge. A lot of people suffer because of self-medication. I have seen many people suffering from kidney failure as they kept on taking painkiller tablets without medical advice. Self-medication is not advisable even if you are a doctor. Because then you are both a doctor and a patient, chances are there that you may get influenced by your condition.

The problem is two-pronged. Firstly we may make mistakes in our assessment so there is a risk of wrong treatment. Secondly, we are not trained or educated to deal with the conditions properly. We need expert guidance. All the self-assessments we do are critical and crucial because they are connected to our lives and the people & environment we are associated with. Wrong assessment and wrong treatment both could be hugely damaging. Most often we are biased in our self-assessment either positively or negatively. Either we over-pamper ourselves or we are coercive to ourselves. And as I said we have knowledge or education on how to deal with the findings even if they are right. Please do not take these things lightly. They could be life-making or life-breaking.

Author Chetan Bhagat

Suppose you are too critical of yourself, possibly you would suffer from a lack of confidence. And suppose you are overpampering yourself, you will fail to spot areas for improvement. So the lens needs perfectly placed and from time to time calibration of the measuring instruments is required. Secondly, the parameters are also dynamic. There are good assessment centers that take the values based on multiple screening processes adjusting individual and isolated spikes.

I would suggest whoever is capable and wants to develop the finer aspects should attend some professional assessment center and attend training wherever required or possible. Positioning yourself effectively is a skill that needs to be attained and sharpened. We may have raw materials. But to achieve our maximum potential we have to go through the transformation process. We may do it ourselves, but in the process, we would consume valuable time following the trial and error method.

Anyway coming back to your question. What are the 5 most common questions you ask yourself for self-assessment? Quite often we make mistakes and waste invaluable time in rectifying our weak points. It is not at all necessary to focus on the minuses. It reduces our confidence. All the time we become concerned and conscious about weak areas. No matter what we do, very rarely is it possible to make weak points our strongest strength. And even if we do possibly we will be nowhere near someone for whom that skill is a natural strength.

So instead of focusing on our weaknesses, we need to focus on our strengths and find at best 2–3 areas of natural strength. And we need to work on them. To be highly successful in life just one strength could be enough. If you find academics is your natural instinct, that itself is enough for your success. If you find writing is your natural passion. Look at Chetan Bhagat, he is alminea of IIT Delhi and has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. But he has excelled as an author. He is extraordinarily brilliant. But possibly he has discovered his passion for writing many letters. The same with Raghuram Rajan. He discovered his passion for economics much later after doing his B. Tech (Elec.) degree from IIT, Delhi, and MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. but turned up to be a full-time economist.

They are extraordinarily brilliant and could have been successful in any chosen field. But they opted for their passion. Possibly those were their natural strength and passion. they might have taken time to discover that. Just imagine if they hadn’t discovered their passion possibly they would have ended up being among some fine technocrats and we would have lost a brilliant author and a brilliant economist.

Sorry, I have again digressed from the question. Your question is too open-ended to give a proper answer. I need to know for what level you want to assess yourself, where are you standing, what you want to accomplish, and what your chosen field is. See the questions for self-assessment will vary depending on where you stand. It is extremely difficult to give generic questions. However, I will try my best.

1. Who you are. Have you identified yourself purely as an individual separating yourself from all your roles, responsibilities, relations, stature, position, academics, surname, and family tree? This assessment is very essential because here you are analyzing your naked self - your likings, dislikes, passions, hobbies, skills, competencies, etc.
2. Have you identified your goal or aim in life purely on your strengths, likes, dislikes, and passion? Because one may not achieve the highest degree of success if the goal and dream are not yours own. You can not live the life of others. Quite often people say that I want to fulfill my father’s dream. That is rubbish unless you make them your dream and fall in love with them. Falling in love with your dream and goal is essential for a higher degree of success. It is very important to know your goal completely - both subjectively as well objectively. And finally locking your goal. Have you locked it? This locking should be like a laser-guided missile where the target is locked. No matter how much you maneuver, it will hit you.
3. Have you identified or worked out a roadmap to reach your goal for or achieve your dream? Without a roadmap dreams and goals are just wishes statement. It would not take you anywhere.
4. Have you identified and taken stock of your resource base? Have you done the gap analysis with what you have and what you need? The gap could include everything from competency, skills, money, connection, infrastructure, technology, training, manpower, coaching, etc. Practically anything and everything. This needs to be extensive and as exhaustive as possible without leaving anything to chance. Are you aware of the statutes and qualifying criteria?
5. Do you have a viable and feasible system or plan in place to meet the gap? How sure are you that the plan in place will work in a time-bound manner?
6. Have you assessed the risk area including the unforeseen ones, challenges, and competition that you are going to face? Do you have a process in place with an adequate buffer or protection? Are you aware of the statutes and qualifying criteria? Have you visited the past failure and success stories and their reasons?
7. Do you have an execution process in place to achieve your goal? Finally, all the above would be meaningless unless you dedicate yourself completely to execution.

Now your goal could be anything - cracking IIT, IIM, CSE, Medical, CA, getting your dream job, practically anything. Things can not go wrong if you have taken care of all the above. Most of us fail in the first two steps itself. We do not know ourselves. And if we do not know ourselves how would we correctly identify our goal?

These days, we find most young ladies are not ready for a serious relationship. They take time and want to explore men and test before concluding. Is this normal?

 The other day I bumped into a discussion on the subject and wanted to write on this topic, but I wasn't finding a suitable question so I had to put up a question myself.

I feel the assertion is a generic statement - “Most young ladies not ready for a serious relationship….” doesn’t hold good. It could be an assumption of some people. However such assertion is not supported by sufficient data. However, it is possible that there are people who would have seen or experienced similar incidents in their vicinity which influenced them to form such an opinion.

In today's generation, more & more girls are pursuing studies, and career options in almost all fields, even in the fields which were hitherto considered men’s domain. So there is much more free mixing between male & female, boys & girls compared to say 30–40 years back. Naturally, when there is an opportunity to mix up freely there would be chances to build up working relations, friendships as well as intimacy. Now when I say intimacy it could be temporary also. Girls are nowadays educated, independent, and strong-willed to decide what they like and dislike. They wouldn’t hesitate to discontinue a relationship ( at least before marriage ) the moment they feel that something is not working. This is true for the boys even. Nobody broods over for long.

If someone is attractive in whichever sense, be it a boy or a girl, it's possible there will be more than one suitor. And who wouldn’t love to be in such a position? So if you have choices available, you might want to check out what option suits you better. It's a different matter that certain people are very steady about their relationship. They take a lot of time to make their choice, but once they are sure about their choice they will stick to it. Now it totally depends on what type of person I am and with whom I am mixing, accordingly my experience would be.

I think no girl would be against having a serious relationship if she is ready for it mentally and most importantly if the person is right and who is also equally serious. If the girl is not prepared or not in a position to start a serious relationship, she won’t do it even if you are the best person. And even if a girl is ready for a serious relationship, she may adopt a watch-out strategy to test/taste water. She would like to be sure from all possible angles before committing to a serious relationship. Till such time one could be put on probation to be confirmed only after the successful completion of the probation period. Please appreciate for girls it's not so easy.

As regards exploiting a man before concluding, I would avoid calling it exploiting. Although again it depends on what kind of people one is mixing. But as I said the girls would like to be doubly sure before saying yes. So she might like to check how much you care, your financial stability, how committed are you, how are you as a person, etc. When a girl makes you spend or lets you spend for her, not necessarily she is trying to exploit you. Most girls like to be pampered and typically the boys try to impress by spending on gifts and treats. however, It doesn’t require spending money to impress someone. And don’t be under the impression that just because someone has heaps of money all the girls would get impressed. It all depends on your approach, your sincerity, your commitment, your personality, etc. Money may be important, but it's not the deciding factor alone. It may so happen that the girl is only paying all the restaurant bills when she is committed to you.

Let me give a small perspective. For the selection of a candidate, we may interview a number of candidates, conduct several rounds of interviews, and finally select someone. And even after that, the candidate has to undergo a trainee period, and a probation period before confirmation. While confirmation doesn’t mean that he can not be terminated. The better the job, the higher the competition. People do prepare for years to crack their dream course or career. But people who are focused and serious about making it, they make it. It all depends on your tenacity, and how persistent you are.