Need to introduce personality development courses in regular college curriculum.

Every person feels that he should have some characteristics, certain attributes which can distinguish him from everybody else around him. It can be anything, may be your temperament, way of interacting with others, ability to handle tough situations, or say presence of mind. All these qualities are unique. It is very rare to find all such features in an individual at the same time. But if someone has them, he will surely be a person who will be very much respected in the society. Personality is another such characteristic which is distinctive and can make a person very unique. Personality is what makes a person a unique person, and it is recognizable soon after birth. Charles M. Schwab has described in very simple sentence that Personality is to a man what perfume is to a flower.

The phrase ‘personality’ is derived from the Latin word persona, meaning the disguise which the artists wore on the Greek and Roman stage to differentiate their roles and increase their voices. It was used to mark off the individuality of or difference between one man and another. The act of enhancing this trait is known as personality development. In simple words Personality development is the developing of a personality cult so as to create a strong positive influence about self with the targeted group, or in general; and more relatable aspect of such personality is to sustain and prove in a long run. In other words Personality development is the development of the organized pattern of behaviors and attitudes that makes a person distinctive. Personality development occurs by the ongoing interaction of temperament, character, and environment. In recent years personality development has created a lot of attention. Now the reason I feel this change is taking place is due to the race to be the best in this competitive world. World is moving at a rapid pace. You have to keep pace with it, if you fail to do so you will struggle. So in order to succeed and stay alive in this competitive world you have to do some thing different. Personality development helps an individual in making him aware of his talent and taps his good qualities. By doing something in a different way, a person can create his own identity. And today’s youth are certainly up for it.

It is very aptly said that youth will reshape the world. Today’s youth are smart and independent thinking. They are the leaders of tomorrow. And so they should learn and try to practice virtue of discipline. But some where there is a sense of overzealousness, tendency to move fast. He has a lot to say, but some times he just fails to deliver it. And so he accepts things views as they are. In such situations if he is guided properly and taught to deal with things in calm manner he will surely succeed. Personality development helps in injecting just the spark that is needed to accomplish something. George Gurdjieff has aptly said that Personality in man is what is "not his own" . . . what come from outside, what he has learned, or reflects, all traces of exterior impressions left in the memory.
Students now days due to their hectic academic schedule don’t have enough time for other extracurricular activities. So if personality development courses are made available to them in their schools or colleges, students will definitely benefit from them. Personality development in general revolves around three aspects; firstly physique then the intelligence and finally the temperament. Generally in students the qualities of temperament and intelligence are determined by conditions in their academics. The experiences that a student gets during the course of his school life firstly and then his junior and higher classes, contribute in a large number of ways to the formation and development of his personality. When a student gets into a school his main aim is to do well in his studies, and lay a solid foundation for his future education. But in addition to that he has to keep a close watch on his extracurricular acts, which project his persona. Unfortunately at such a young age he is unaware of all this. In such a situation, it is the duty of the institute to make the students aware of things that matter a lot apart from the academics and which play a far more vital role in their life. But at school level it’s ok, if the authorities fail to impart knowledge about personality development. And so importance of college becomes very important as it is this place where students are much more matured and have to handle lots of critical issues.

There has been growing interest & keenness of personality development in the college going chaps. Western countries, which are economically and culturally quite different from India, were the first to realize importance of enhancing the personality. They had a strong insight, which helped them realize that it is the student class which is vital for nation’s development. Due to fast changing nature of the industries, business firms this concept came to India. But like in western countries, it did not get inducted in regular college academics here in our country. The personal and professional development plan helps to improve our capacity to understand what and how we are learning, and to review, plan and take responsibility for own learning and career choices. If a course in personal and professional development planning is started in colleges it will help in a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual. It can reflect upon their learning, performance and achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development. Personality development can boost self-confidence and increase staunch faith in a students own ability and power to undertake the task in hand with utmost confidence in order to make life really successful and happy. Colleges should try to be more agile and make students aware of what they already have in their life and what they are grateful for and then make them think about what is missing, what they want. Awareness has to come first, because without an awareness there can be no conscious decision to take action. Becoming aware also means asking your self different questions and then seeking out the answers. Personality development lectures if introduced can help in making students ponder over whether “there must be more to life than this?" By doing this your mind is already making an assumption that there is more to life and as if by magic you start to see things around you that maybe you did not notice before. Noted thinker Mae West has very correctly said that Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big black space where the audience is.

Personality development helps in making an individual flexible and willing to change his approach if things are not working. Sometimes when you set your mind to do something, with a set plan, things don't always go smoothly. Remember that as long as you are clear about your destination, you can always change your route, it may take you longer, but as long as you get there in the end. In colleges students have to go through a lot of hard work, there are assignments, homework, seminars, presentations and what not. Students have to do all this in prescribed time, which if not completed puts them in further trouble. By starting personality development courses in regular curriculum it can help students visualize their goals on a daily basis. After all it is all about believing in your abilities. As one Dr. White has very rightly said that Personality is a mask you believe in.
Also if a personality development centre is made active in every college, every student can engage in a creative process with like minded students. This can boost ones confidence and make one more social to know that there is someone else too who has the same interests as you have. These personality development centers should have a counselor too, who can give an ear to personal problems and provide the right direction to the student. The aim of such courses in college should be boosting confidence and raising self-esteem of particularly those students who have the ability but don't have the dash or the guts.

So summing up Life’s success lies in becoming a good human being and developing the personality acquiring good virtues and high morals and not in gaining high post or authority. So if an individual has to perform well and be the best, it is more of his inner skills, his flair and confidence rather than bookish wealth. These paper based things are just like our beauty aids they don’t increase the beauty but just assist in outer brilliance. So if personality centers are opened and made compulsory in colleges they will surely be a great boon for the students. On personal front, I had great experience. During my early days of graduation I found it hard to cope up with the immense workload and pressure to deliver in a big way in exams. Initially I didn’t do my self any good by scoring below the distinction mark, but later I joined the personality development course outside the college which changed my life completely. They made me think positively and helped me in coping stress due to academics. Since then I am a totally changed successful chap. So if such courses are compulsorily made a part of the curriculum they would not only help in creating successful students but also good human beings.

Terrorism And Indian Politics .....

Terrorism, a horrifying situation is a state, which impresses an organized system of using of violence or threats to influence the conduct or urge to comply of another.
The attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington DC, the Parliament House in New Delhi, the Bali bombings and attacks in London shook up the world and indeed made terrorism, its gruesome presence felt and highlighted the shocks that terrorism can unleash on humanity. Many parts of the world had been facing terrorism and urging for international action for facing the dreadful menace. Minor wakeup calls were coming up time and again, but the world did not do much beyond paying lip service to its cause of fighting terrorism. After such horrendous acts if terrorism comes to an end, it will be the most fortunate moment when the hopes and dreams of the people all over the world will be materialized. The world will be free of corruption, hatred, jealousy and with unity and integrity among the people. But, the euphoria will be soon marked by the tensions followed. On the other hand, if terrorism wins, then the world should be doomed to be doomed at the hands of terrorists for all the time to come.
Now one of the most important questions that come to our mind is how to control and overcome this menace. It’s very difficult to tell, because even after lots and lots of efforts that have been taken to overcome it, it shows its might in some or the other way. So it’s doubtful to say whether, it can ever be overcome or not. In fact, it feels very sad in saying this, but I have come to a conclusion that it will never end and will continue for years until some strict action is not taken by the world leaders against the dreadful acts of terrorists. It will never result in bringing and establishing peace anywhere in the world. The beautiful and spiritual places in the world will be battered, coupled with polarization of masses on religious grounds and petrified and helpless citizens of the world.

India in particular, is facing the problem since many years. Many actions have been tried and tested which can tackle this threat to some extent, but the results have never been on our side as our neighboring countries are the hub of all these activities. Terrorism has become a menace for India. No part of the country is unaffected by terrorism. Every time an attack takes place, the government puts the blame on `failed' intelligence and even after years, the cases remain unsolved. INDIA has been a soft target for the Pakistan and Bangladesh based terror-outfits for quite some time. While jihad against India has been the focus and main agenda of the Islamic terrorists, Kashmir issue, Babri demolition and Gujarat riots have become convenient reasons for the so-called liberals, secularists and rights activists to justify the actions of the terrorists. The bogus - worldly politicians, who fight with one another for acquiring the Muslim vote-bank, do not show the resolve and honesty to put an end to this briskly increasing menace. After our country got independence,, congress came out as one of the most strong party. Since then their presence has been more or less similar, until some 10–12 years ago, their position has started facing tough competition from other parties. As the Congress Party lost its foothold in many states over a period of time since Independence, the regional parties, which gained and captured power, have also been not far behind the Congress in appeasing the minority community. This vote-begging attitude of these fake parties lined the way for the rise of the fundamentalists to carry on with their holy plan through their priests, who have been continuously triumphant in their pacts with political factions. The officials, in their hunger for power, adopted troublesome course of action to divide the masses along social group and class lines, as at the same time, they paid special on capturing votes of minority class people by persuading their spiritual heads, whose directions are followed and obeyed by the people. The successive governments started curbing the privileges of the majority community, while giving undue privileges to the minorities. These governments allowed the minority communities to have separate personal and civil laws instead of ensuring a Uniform Civil Code despite directions from the Apex Court based on Article 44 of the Constitution. The official machinery remained as mute spectator when the minority community took the law into its hands. Lack of will to curtail the mushrooming of madrasas, lack of control over the growing fundamentalist organizations like the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Al-Umma etc have emboldened the local ’jihadi’ elements to connive with foreign terror outfits, resulting in frequent terror attacks on our soil. In 2004 the Congress government with the help of some other parties came to power again. It has been quite a long period of 4 years now that they are in power. In these 4 years there has been an opportunistic alliance of minority appeasing pseudo-secular parties and Islamic terrorism has increased manifold. The situation has gone beyond control to such an extent that the ’jihadis’ have started striking at will in trains, buses, markets, malls, temples, mosques, theatres and even courts. The only places, which are left untouched, are police stations! Some of the terror attacks which took place since the UPA government came to power shed some light on the hopeless sutuation of internal security in our country


July 5, 2005: Terrorists attacked Ram Janmabhoomi, Ayodhya.
July 28, 2005: Around 15 killed and 52 injured in an explosion on board Shramjivi Express at Jaunpur, in UP
March 7, 2006: 28 people killed and 62 injured when 3 bombs went off through the sacred town of Varanasi, including the famous Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple and the railway station.
July 11, 2006: Seven bomb blasts within eleven minutes on the suburban trains in Mumbai, killing 186 people and injuring more than 800.
February 19 2007: 68 people killed and dozens injured after four explosions on board the Lahore bound Samjhauta Express.

May 18, 2007: Ten killed and more than a dozen injured in a blast at Mecca Mosque in Hyderabad. Five more killed when police fired at an unruly Muslim mob when it tried to attack the police.
May 13, 2008: 60 killed and 150 wounded in a series of bomb blasts in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Apart from the above mentioned terror attacks, the country has also been facing consistent assaults by the Naxalites in and Maoists in states like Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.

The alliance government scrapped the most essential law like POTA, on the first day it took office. The prime minister loses sleep on the plight of the family of terrorists and terror suspects. The home minister doesn’t even have a clue on what, when, where, why and how such attacks are happening, one minister of state for home, ceremoniously visits the places of attacks and makes repeated statements condemning the attacks. The whereabouts of another minister of state for home, appointed just to satisfy an alliance partner, is not known at all. The national security advisor, every now and then, lists the susceptible targets of terror attacks and fund raising avenues of terror outfits, creating panic in the minds of the people. The extra constitutional authority remote controls the government and official machinery and makes them subservient and ineffective just to keep the nation divided on communal lines. The annual report of the Union home ministry has confirmed the involvement of Pakistan in most of the terror attacks, which have happened on our soil. It is reported that the Pak based terror organizations like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) have been active from across the border and have been involved in major attacks. Also, the Bangladesh based organization Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami’s (HuJI) involvement has been on the increase, it is said. All these organizations have been sending well-trained militants to set up ’sleeper cells’ and to ensure connectivity with one another by forming a network of sorts. The home ministry’s report claims that the government has banned 32 groups as terrorist organizations under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, as part of its counter measures. It claims that the Centre has increased strengthening of coastal security network, deployed para-military forces in sensitive areas, heightened the vigil in and around vital installations and enhanced the communication network of intelligence agencies and sharing of intelligence between Centre and states through well coordinated efforts. But the ground reality is totally contradicting the claims made by the ministry. In fact, the terrorists are active and effectively executing their attacks in Congress and Left ruled states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal and Kerala, which goes to prove that the areas of appeasement are more prone to attack. . In reality, the coordination and sharing of intelligence by the terrorists seem to be better than the intelligence agencies and security forces! Every time an attack takes place, the government puts the blame on ’failed’ intelligence and even after years, the cases remain unsolved and the perpetrators remain at large planning their next attack. The long and snail paced investigation process, lack of courage to get into the Muslim dominated areas and make them cooperate with the investigation, unnecessarily yielding to the pressure tactics and secular threats of the so called intellectuals, liberals and rights activists, who interfere and block the process of investigations and execution of judicial orders, the long delay in judicial processes and the absence of a stringent law like POTA, have all weakened the police forces, intelligence agencies and law enforcers.

A total wiping out of terrorism may not be practically possible, but, to make concentrated efforts to finish terrorism with an iron hand should be order of the day in the present day situation. In a country like India, it is very difficult as its neighboring countries are the hub of all these activities. For this, there should be collective action. Terrorism is not only brutal, but also a crime against the whole of humanity. Leave aside people, now the outlook is scarier, because, virtually, all the countries will have to be on guard against enthusiasts driven by religion bigotry, who think nothing of killing themselves in the aid of their dubious cause. They are so blinded by their religious frenzy that they seem to be devoid of all the normal human agitations of mind. The insane killings of blameless people including women and children like in Godhra Riots are no concern for them. The world powers will have to take a lead hand is this matter not only because they have equipped resources and useful tactics to tackle this menace if all. If unchallenged, these elements will ring the death knell of modern civilization. If they can dare to take on powerful nations like US, India, UK, one can imagine how vulnerable other countries would be. Our country, however should take appropriate stand to be effectively involved in the worldly fight against terrorism without giving up friendship of any nation. It is necessary to tell them that the clock cannot be turned back to the dark ages.
I think I should stop here saying that, there is no point in thinking whether terrorism can be overcome or not and whether it will bring to effect the calmness and peace, as it is the crying need of hour. The destructive acts of the mercenaries involved in terrorist groups, has forced all peace loving nations to come together. But then also these unprovoked acts of terrorists will only end in leading to evil and deadly as it is said by noted thinker Barry Farber;

"Crime expands according to our willingness to put up with it."

Terrorism will come to an end only by itself, when terrorists get tired or run out of resources.