FEAR SELLS, UNTIL WE STOP BUYING IT.

Let me explain from one of my personal experiences. In my thirty years of business tenure so far I have three types of business that I did, Jewelry, Dress designing and Brand retailing.  I ran a business of selling silver articles from 1990 to 2001. 

Initially as a beginner, I traded the traditional silverware that had a ready market and gave me an easy start. Slowly, I ventured out to designing artifacts while enhancing my knowledge in metallurgy and identifying the traditional craftsmanship imbedded deep inside Indian heritage closely then, hidden from the general public while catering only to the exclusive group of high profile elite.

 

I was able to source and sell exclusive niche products in an emerging Coimbatore society, thereby coming close to a discerning clientele.  By now I had the acumen and the expertise in dealing with precious stones and designer jewelry both in silver and gold. Soon I was a master of valuing precious stones and a dealer of loose diamonds with the help of big dads in the north mostly my relatives. During the Y2K days there was this “VDIS” introduced by the Government of India and I had the opportunity to give my valuation certificates too, to many who wanted their treasures declared. 

 

Something that always had its impression on my young mind was the refusal to accept Gem Stones could actually become remedies to human problems. I studied deep into the philosophy and frankly I was amazed to see the farce in it. Astrology based horoscope reading is a science where the horoscope is the pictorial map of planetary positions at the time of birth of a person who is in a way magnetized or charged with the proportion of those planetary cosmic energies depending on their distance from earth. These cosmic energies grow in the same proportion while the body ages. Hence they accept or repel the same in the same manner but depending upon the positions of these planets in the present. 

 

Gemstones attributed to these planets have no harbinger or astrological effect on our body. There is no mention of such remedies in the astrological Shasta’s that I have read in pursuance of my curiosity. I rely on the following literature and more to arrive at my occlusion. 

https://www.astrojyoti.com/articleongems.htm

https://www.futurepointindia.com/article/en/debunking-common-myths-behind-each-gemstone-9995

The market is based on superstition and FEAR. No one goes looking for an astrologer when things are good , but when they aren’t and when the mind is confused we rely on sundry touts and if we are a little well to do we hunt for references and blindly agree to spend valuable savings in search of remedies. 

Hey, when we are sick we need blessings and medicines not remedies. If something I wear makes me succumb to its presumed power, then that is never going to make me regain lost ground. 

 

I am a lover of gemstones and have always admired their creation. The marvels of chemically compressed crystals that can beautify my jewelry are a thing of beauty that should be admired, possessed and valued. Not to be used as remedies to problems, or overcome superstitions. 

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom

KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES IS THE DOORWAY TO WISDOM

Language helps foster a sense of belonging. Many children may be struggling to fit in to their communities or their schools. They may feel as though they need to abandon their roots and the cultural differences that set them apart from other kids, but it’s important to teach them how important it is to foster diversity, and how valuable culture is to enriching our society. 

For children who are growing up in a different place than they are ethnically from, it can help them feel more connected to their parents and relatives, those who speak the native language, and it can help them feel as though they have some form of ‘home’. This ‘home’ may not be a physical place, but even having the capacity to think in your native language can serve as a reminder that you’re culturally diverse and always have a ‘home’ to escape to.

To have another language is to possess a second soul. Change your language and you change your thoughts. Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.

Creativity can enhance only when there is genuine thinking in the comfort of language of a native rather than a forced thinking in a foreign language. The process of forming an idea and then converting it to a non native language in the mind and expressing will dilute the ethos of the very thought and may not be well delivered. 

While there is a drastic extinction of nativity and loss of language, culture and traditions in our society today, I’d say there are at least three reasons why we should frankly think about preserving native languages.

First of all, we currently have a language that is intertwined with its culture. Modern language teaching materials include insights about the culture and dialogues that are relevant within that context. Preserving a language helps preserve a culture's history and vice versa.

Second, every language has its strengths and weaknesses. We don’t have it all mapped yet. Understanding the pros and cons of every mechanism of communication may help us evolve our own language in the future, in the direction of more efficiency, ambiguity, ease, or whatever other feature we decide to go towards. There is an incredible richness here, much like the richness of medicine extracts in forests that might down even before we get to know them. That’s why languages should be preserved in documentation for further study.

Third, better knowledge from documented languages can help us trace back the origin of languages, their ramifications, and human groups dispersion thus helping us better recover and understand language evolution and human migration and history.

A native language is one that gives your identity , the process of right thinking and evolving a good tradition, A foreign language is like a frail, delicate muscle. If you do not use it, it weakens, though a language is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift. Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club – the community of speakers of that language.