Do Indians really love Cricket?

Cricket is considered the most popular sport in India. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is one of the richest sports organizations in the world and cricket players command a huge fan following in India. Even the International Cricket Council (ICC) has to be very careful while dealing with matters related to India and take every precaution not to hurt BCCI, such is the power and dominance of BCCI. This is all due to the immense popularity of cricket which generates a huge revenue compared to any other cricket-playing nation in the world. Indian Premier League (IPL) is an immensely successful venture of BCCI where all international cricket stars want to play not just for money but also for the popularity and fan following they get by playing in the IPL. So, one might think that the question of whether Indians really love cricket is meaningless because whatever I wrote so far clearly indicates that Indians are crazy about cricket. In the media also there is a strong perception that Indians love cricket. I pondered over this question for quite some time and I realized that Indians ONLY love a certain type of cricket, not all types of cricket. Their love for this game is very very selective. I did not realize the selective nature of this love until I thought about this issue and I consider myself a cricket lover. 

If we look at other sport-loving countries like the USA where sports like basketball and baseball are very popular, the distinguishing feature is that they have a fan following at every level of that game. College or university teams have a huge fan following, and their games also attract a large number of fans. NFL (National Football League) is very popular but college football is also popular. But in India college or school or even state-level cricket has no fan following. People don't even know when and where their university teams play their games, when are inter-university tournaments organized, and how many times their university won any such championships. State-level games also suffer from poor attendance even when star players play for their respective states. My observation is that Indians like to watch ONLY certain types of cricket. They love watching international cricket matches in which India is involved, all ICC world cups, and T20 tournaments with international stars, rest of the cricket they just don't care. This is a very unique and interesting pattern, this can also be the reason for India's inability to produce international-level sportspersons in other sports despite having so much raw talent. A certain type of cricket gets very disproportionate attention and revenue in India, and this phenomenon has resulted in overall poor sports culture. A sports culture where apart from cricket no other sports is not considered a viable career option. Even cricket gained this status very recently after the success of IPL which opened doors for many local players and helped them to earn a decent living. As long as this selective passion for cricket continues India will struggle to produce quality sports talent in other sports due to a lack of comprehensive sports culture like countries like the USA and Australia. Fans of any sport need to support that sport at every level so that there is recognition at every level which can help to build a sustainable sports culture. Until this happens India's unique love affair with cricket will continue but it won't make India a sports-loving nation.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

When abuse becomes the norm of discourse, there is no discourse

When abuse becomes the norm of discourse, then there is no discourse. This is the tragedy of most of the discussion happening over the internet or on news channels. There are arguments, fights, trolling, and bullying, but hardly any constructive discussion. Most political discussions on sensitive social topics are always very passionate, one side normally tries to rip through the other side's arguments, but even while doing this passionately people try not to abuse each other, not to insult or humiliate on a personal level. However, today it seems the intent of every discussion is to humiliate the opponent on a personal level, to demonstrate the contempt for the opponent's views in whatever way one can. People are willing to use fake news, manipulated data, fabricated images, and whatever they can to prove that their opponent is wrong. Abuse in many forms is becoming a norm and in this process, the level of discourse is at all time low.

With increased access to information and data, theoretically, our discussions should become more fact-based and data-driven. We should be using the more relevant information to enlighten each other about all sides of any given issue or topic. But in reality, the exactly the reverse is happening in most of the cases. People are creating, using, and succumbing to more false information. The internet has become a fertile ground to spread rumors and create tension anywhere in the world. Technology is making discussions more superficial and argumentative rather than more deep and enlightening. This is not the fault of the technology itself, it is just a medium that is bound to produce the results based on the way users use it. It's up to users to make the best use of technology for their benefit. Similar to any scientific discovery technology can be used or misused, it can enrich any discussion or it can make it utterly useless. Assertiveness, aggressive advocacy, or even an aggressive attack on opponent's views can be very effective tools to be used in any discourse, but abusing opponents just for having a different view than ours is not one of those tools. When abuse becomes the norm of any discourse, then there is no discourse, there is just abuse. Abuse can be either from one side or both sides, it really doesn't matter. Therefore, each side has the responsibility to maintain civility and dignity of discourse if they desire to produce any positive outcome from any discussion. I hope people realize the difference between being aggressive and being abusive. I hope the dignity and aggressiveness of civil discourse are maintained without being abusive so that we can keep on resolving most complex issues via the way to discussion and don't shut down one of the most useful and effective avenues available for us to resolve our issues.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

We cannot become good at something by not doing it

Many of us harbor fear for many things in our personal and professional lives. Some of us fear public speaking, some about writing, some about expressing their opinions because they think they can't articulate their opinions properly or people will laugh at them, and some fear taking initiative. We can add many things to make this list more comprehensive but I think you got my point. Many of these fears are due to our failures when we tried some of those things for the first time; maybe our first presentation was a disaster, maybe when we tried to express our opinion people didn't understand it as there was no clarity, maybe some of us think that we cannot write. The problem with such fears is that we try our best to avoid doing the things that we think we are not good at. In spite of knowing that we might need those skills to progress professionally and personally, we try to avoid taking any steps to master those skills due to our fear. We somehow feel that one fine day suddenly we are going to get better and overcome those hurdles or somehow we can progress by avoiding them altogether, but this is just wishful thinking. We face many situations where we need to speak in front of the public or we are told to express our ideas. Due to a lack of preparation or a belief that we somehow could manage it, we flounder and are not happy with our performance. Such instances solidify our fears as we don't perform any better than our previous attempts as we never tried to fix the original problem problem. The only way to overcome our fears is to practice the skills that we lack or need to improve. There is no way to master anything without practicing it, we need to do the things regularly that we need to master. Regular practice is not necessary only in sports but in each and every skill which we want to master.

I suggest one approach to overcome such fears: make a list of things that you want to learn or improve, prioritize that list as per your need or preference, and then start acting on one item at a time. It is not advisable to start working on each and every item from the list at the same time unless you have enough stamina and time to devote to each of them. Choose the platform and community where you are most comfortable, this is very important as you will need a very encouraging atmosphere at least in the beginning. The journey of personal development is not easy, it requires a hard push as well as a cushion of support. If you have some other responsibilities, like work or study, it is advisable to practice at your own comfort level so that you can handle everything without getting overwhelmed. The journey should be fun and challenging at the same time. It should not be burdensome and affect other parts of your life negatively. Of course, this approach will require an honest effort and sincere commitment from our side, it will test our patience as there will be many challenges and failures, but remember persistence helps and there are no shortcuts to achieving amazing things. If you want to improve on something start working on it, this is the only way to improve. We cannot become good at something by not doing it. All the very best.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

Try to improve your standard of life and your standard of living will automatically improve

We often talk about improving the standard of living. Many things contribute towards improving our standard of living: a big home, a luxury car, an exclusive wardrobe, the latest gadgets, comfortable footwear, perfumes, deodorants, makeup, other latest fashion stuff, and many other things. Most of us also have an illusion that improving our standard of living also improves our quality of life. Is this really true? Do we really get a better life with more physical or material comfort?

I don't think there is any doubt that the standard of living has increased in many parts of the world. Increased food production, access to education, and economic prosperity have contributed to increasing the standard of living across the social class all over the world. But, this improvement in the standard of living doesn't seem to translate directly to an improved standard of life. I understand that the answer to this question is not that straightforward. I am sure many of us will pause and think to answer a question about how much physical comfort has really contributed towards improving our standard of life. Are we so focused on improving our standard of living that we do not even bother to think about improving our standard of life? If this is the case, then it is time for us to take a pause and try to think about ways to improve our standard of living.

Material things contribute to improving the standard of living and this can many times translate into improving the standard of life. A more healthy and comfortable life could be a very desirable objective to achieve, but it seems we are going in the exact reverse direction. More and more physical comfort is somehow bringing more and more dissatisfaction. The problem is not more physical comfort, but our inability to deal with changing cultural and social surroundings. Our civilization is going through a radical shift in the way we communicate and interact with each other. Technology has become an integral part of our lives. For many of us, our day starts in front of a screen and ends in front of it. Our phones and computers are no more just gadgets but they are more like a trusted companion with whom we spend most of the time when we are awake. Definitely, technology has broadened our horizons, we get a lot more information than our brain can process or digest, and we can interact with a lot more people than we could have in the absence of this new technology. This all should have brought us together and bridged the gap, making us more social and less divisive, but it seems we are getting more isolated and more polarized. It seems with all the progress in each and every field our life is getting more messed up rather than getting peaceful.

Our standard of life is deteriorating and an increase in suicide rates is a warning signal for us. The truth is that we all are in a much better situation to help each other in every possible way, we can offer each other emotional support without the need to be in physical proximity of each other. Technology allows us to do this, but this will happen only if we are willing to extend a helping hand to each other. We can improve each other's standard of life by helping each other to overcome our personal problems, but somehow we are failing to do that. Probably, we could not figure out whether we are using the technology or technology is using us.

Improving our standard of life is not supposed to be such a hard task. Humans are master of it, this is why we dominate and control the world. But in all this progress somehow we lost our simplicity.  We need to enjoy simple things in life. We should pay equal attention to the people around us as much as we pay attention to the virtual world. We must realize that emotional well-being or comfort is as important as physical comfort. We must learn to give our best to our work and enjoy our free time equally. Try to give your best and enjoy the journey, not to worry too much about the destination. Give it a shot, try to improve your standard of life, and see that your standard of living will automatically go up.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

The art of happiness

A disclaimer first, this post has nothing to do with the book "The Art Of Happiness" written by Dalai Lama, I have not read the book but only came to know about it when I was searching if anyone has already used this title and no surprise that Mr. Dalai Lama has already written a book about it. The post is about my own experiences and struggles, it has nothing to do with the above-mentioned book.

If we look at the history of human civilization, the level and type of stress changes generation after generation. We improved our physical comforts a lot because of progress in technological aspects of our lives. Our generation has more access to travel, education, clean water, food, information, medicines, and many other things compared to our previous generations. However, our generation also has more complicated psychological problems. We also have two parallel worlds now: the real world and a virtual world in which we live simultaneously. Despite all this progress in the physical world, why are we struggling to keep up the same speed in the psychological or mental world? Why suicide rates are going up? Why are we not happy and more connected with each other and help each other in moments of need and desperation? Questions are many, and each individual needs to search for an answer for himself or herself. We humans are extremely complex organisms and hence our problems are complex and their solutions are going to differ from person to person.

Can we learn how to be happy on our own or is it something that entirely depends on our surroundings? Is being happy is a habit or an art? I think one can definitely learn how to be happy. Happiness is extremely personal and this is what people are forgetting, they are getting more into comparative happiness. I see that many people base their own happiness on how happy others are around them. They want to buy that dream house because everyone in their age group has such a house, they want that car because that's a status symbol, they want to have a job with a six-figure income because that's what they are being told a successful career is. Many of these perceptions and beliefs are acquired without giving any serious thought to what we actually want and what are our own needs and desires that make us happy. The biggest problem is that this conditioning of mind starts so early in our lives that we don't even develop a capacity to think about our own needs and desires. This conditioning wires our minds in such a way that we knowingly or unknowingly start walking on a path paved for us by culture, religion, media, society, or people around us. Mind it, this conditioning is very intense and organized, it's impossible to escape it.

So, how to learn the art of being happy? The basic question is, do we even know what the real happiness means? Is the pursuit of personal happiness worth the effort it will take, or it is better to surrender to what our society dictates to us? Why anyone should believe whatever I am writing is the right way to think about happiness? Actually, that's the whole point of the post, the post is not about educating you on what is happiness and how to be happy, but it is about recognizing the problems that are prohibiting us from being happy and being aware of forces that are pushing us on a fabricated path of happiness. The first step that anyone can take is to stop engaging in comparative happiness. Not everyone has to go on a vacation, and not everyone needs to own a house or a car. We all are different and there is nothing wrong with it. Our sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, or any other trait doesn't make us any better or worse. We all are unique and we must recognize this aspect not only about ourselves but about others around us as well. We also need to become aware of what are we actually seeking, for example, education is important not from which college or university you get it. It is important to have fun while doing your job, so if you are dragging every day to work then it is not the right area of work for you, it's time to try something different. There are many small steps that we can take to take control of our own lives. 

We need to enjoy the journey, struggle, efforts, and preparations as much as we enjoy the destination. If we focus too much on the end product then we miss so much which is equally important and on which we spend more time than the end result. We need to recognize that failures, fear, anxiety, depression, stress, joy, and grief all are an integral part of our lives. These emotions are bound to come we need to recognize them and be conscious of our mental hygiene. We should give equal importance to our mental hygiene as we give it to our physical hygiene. All these things will help us to learn the art of happiness. But please remember, there is no universal formula to learn this art. Everyone has to find their own way, you can only decide what makes you happy or sad. You can only decide when you want to buy the house or what type of profession you want to choose, others can always help you to make these decisions, but the final decision should be yours and yours only. 

Learn to spend some time with yourself, and try to understand your own identity and value. We get too busy in our daily struggles. These struggles consume us so much that we don't get time to think about who we are and what we really want. If this post kindles a desire to search for your own path of happiness, then it has served its purpose. No matter how different that path is, how weird you think you are, this is your path. Take all help that you can, find people who love and support you, and find people who are willing to invest in your wellbeing, this all will help you to find your own path. We must try to spread love and compassion, this is a duty of every human as there is always a need for more love and compassion. Imagine a world where all are happy and no matter how impossible that task looks we can at least give it a shot. Let's try to make this world a happier place, and let's start by making happy ourselves first. 

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

For good policies, you need good politics

Many countries in the world struggle to accelerate development or to make sure that the benefits of development can be enjoyed by most of the population. One of the main reasons for this problem is the lack of good policies. All these countries are not ruled by dictators or going through civil war or something other social or political crisis, many of them have well-established democratic election system that seems to be working, elections happen regularly, people seem to participate in the electoral process, and elected governments seem to enjoy people's support. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are some such countries where it seems no matter who is in power nothing much changes on the ground, parties win or lose but it seems the country always loses in every election. Every party thinks about its own political future first rest is secondary. They all use the country and nationalism as tools to solidify their own political base, to win an election, to propagate a personality cult, to suppress opposition, but never to bring any positive reforms, never to take some forward-looking steps that might harm them politically but are good for the country's future. I was excited when the current Indian government came to power and even wrote a post about their historical election victory.

For good policies, you need good politics. For good politics, you need well-functioning institutions of various branches of the government that perform their work independently. This doesn't happen in most of the countries that struggle economically despite being democratic countries for so long. I have seen this happening in India. Corruption on various levels cripples most of these countries. When I say corruption, I am not just talking about the bribe culture, I am talking about the culture of corruption. In a country where not allowing the largest political party to form a government is not unusual, horse-trading to buy legislatures of other political parties to gain a majority is not considered a wrong practice, open collusion between various branches of the government doesn't disturb people, political opponents are not only ridiculed but branded as anti-nationals, where one political party talks about eliminating their oppositions from the country, good politics cannot exist. All these are not signs of good politics, and no wonder India still struggles to get a government that can dare to implement good policies. As I said I was hopeful about this government that they will implement some good policies but after five years all I can see is that they spent all their time in establishing their brand and winning state elections, nothing else. I am not bothered by mistakes that happen while taking some radical steps (like demonetization), but I am surprised that a government with so many resources at its hand can't figure out the possible outcomes of its actions before taking such a drastic step. Announcing any reform is not a big deal, making sure that it gets implemented to produce its desired result is where all the skills of governance and management are required and I am still waiting to witness this in India. One such opportunity was lost in 1984 when only a few reforms (like telecommunications and the introduction of computers) were performed, but nothing spectacular was done as far as political and social reforms are concerned, and now this is another opportunity that didn't live to its expectations. Please remember, "for good policies, you need good politics."

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

When religion of the rape victim becomes more important than her pain, there is a serious problem

Two rape cases created a big splash on India news channels and on social media. One was the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl, and another was the rape of a 17-year-old girl by a lawmaker from the ruling party of that state. Both cases are equally horrible and condemnable. But, surprisingly on social media, there was extensive discussion about the religion of one of the victims and perpetrators of the crime. Some people accused people who were protesting about this case of their selective outrage. I wonder how these people come up with such twisted logic. There was huge outrage in India after the Nirbhaya rape case. At that time no one was accused of selective outrage. No one said that there are so many rapes happening in the country so why are you just protesting about this one case. But it seems just because in one of these cases rapists and the victim are from different religions this question about the religious identity of the victim and accused suddenly became relevant.

I wonder in which direction society is moving where the religion of a rape victim becomes more important than the crime of rape? In which direction society is moving where lawyers and lawmakers participate in a protest march in favor of accused rapists? There is no doubt that every accused of any crime must get a fair and transparent trial, the law should treat everyone equally. Every accused deserves a fair legal representation for their defense. But this is not even an issue here, some people are not only questioning the motives of people who feel outraged by such incidents but they are also trying hard to justify this heinous act, and this should worry any society. What do you call a society where outrage over heinous crimes depends on from which religion the victim or accused comes? Reactions on social media and some debates on news channels should stir the consciousness of every Indian no matter which religion they belong to or which political party they support. 

I hope polarization created due to political propaganda doesn't create such an unbridgeable gap between different sections of society that they can't even come together even to protest against overtly criminal acts. When all your discussions end up getting connected with the religion, then there is a problem. When we look for a person's caste, nationality, race, or religion before showing our outrage at a crime, then there is a problem. We all are humans first, and then political supporters or religious followers. If we forget our basic human qualities of empathy and compassion towards our fellow human beings and look at everything through the prism of politics or religion then we must evaluate what type of people are we becoming? I think we all need to question ourselves about this and look for the answers within. Maybe our consciousness might help us more than these social media posts, news channel debates, or statements from some senseless politicians. I request everyone reacting to this issue to see if they are reacting like a compassionate human, a responsible citizen, a blind political supporter, or a blind religious follower. In the end, the choice is always ours, and I hope humanity is still the most attractive choice for most of us.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this issue.

Six years!

It has been six years since I started writing this blog. I published my first post on 5th March 2012, and the blog has now more than 400 posts. The main aim of writing this blog is to share my thoughts and not to publish articles regularly. This journey started with the intention of sharing my views on various social, political, and personal issues while getting feedback from readers about their own views. It has been a very rewarding experience for me so far. I hope to continue it as long as possible, the frequency of posts might get reduced based on how busy I get with various other things in my life, but the blog will remain an active place to share ideas in the near future also. 

As I already mentioned, so far, this has been a really rewarding experience for me and I hope all blog readers also enjoyed reading the blog. Please feel free to share your thoughts, all of us need to express ourselves in whatever medium we feel comfortable with, this is how we educate each other and learn from each other.

Thanks for reading and encouraging me. I wish happy reading to all readers.

Peer pressure - good or bad?

We all face or must have faced "peer pressure" at some point in our lives. Peer pressure is not only the pressure one feels from their friends during high school or college which forces them to do the stuff they don't want to do or when they take drastic steps to fit in the stereotyped definition of a "cool person," it is the pressure which we feel from people from our age group at any point of our lives. It can be in school, college, workplace, society, family, or on online social media. In today's era of social media, these people don't have to be our school or college friends, they can be anyone from anywhere in the world, and this aspect has broadened the group of people who can exert peer pressure on us. I see many people get affected not only by their friends and relatives who are part of their inner circle but also by people whom they don't even know personally (only know from social media).

Is peer pressure good or bad? If it is only bad then why do people succumb to it or get affected by it so much? The truth is, that many of us need continuous validation from people around us. We crave recognition and praise. Why? Because it motivates us and makes us feel happy and valuable. And this is where peer pressure kicks in. To get that validation and recognition we feel the need to cater to what is demanded or liked by the people around us. Before social media, these people used to be the ones from our peer group, people whose validation we crave the most. This why we try to fit into stereotyped definitions of beauty, try to achieve success in ways the society defines it to us, and try to live life the way it is being advertised, even our definition of happiness and success is heavily influenced by the advertisements and market forces. However, thanks to social media, there are so many things apart from our immediate peer group that can create peer pressure on us. Social media has expanded the definition of the peer group, not we can be peer pressured by anyone from anywhere in the world.

If this pressure encourages you, helps you to work harder, motivates you to wake up every day and go to work, and feel good about yourself then it is good for you and it is helping you. But, if this peer pressure is making you frustrated, feel overburdened with expectations from others, feel dejected and worthless about yourself, adding to your anxiety, and making you depressed, then definitely it is hurting you and is bad for you. It can work either as a motivator or depressor depending on how you react to it.

The first step is to try to recognize what this pressure is doing to you and based on that one can plan how to deal with it. The best way is to immunize yourself from it so that it can't affect you in any way, but in this case, you also lose the positive effects of it. Another way is to be aware of its existence, use it only in a positive way, and consciously avoid getting negatively affected. It is not that easy, but I think it is necessary in today's world that we keep the focus on our mental hygiene as much as we focus on our physical hygiene. There is a lot of help available (books, blogs, and online forums) to learn how to use peer pressure to our advantage. We must take advantage of all these resources and make peer pressure work for us. The truth is, it is very difficult to avoid peer pressure, so it is better to learn how to deal with it so that it can help us rather than drag us down. 

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

Being a devil's advocate

To be a devil's advocate is not that easy. While doing so a person tries to defend a less popular view or a minority stand. This is not an easy task and also not that popular for obvious reasons. Some people do it just for fun as they love to engage in any sort of argument, but there are many good reasons to do this. I do this with my kids, not because I love to engage in arguments with them. Many times they really get mad at me when I do this, but as a parent, I think it is my responsibility to make them realize that there can be another side to every issue and they must be aware of counterarguments that others may pose against their opinions. When I challenge their stand my main aim is to know on what grounds they are basing their opinion: is it a very superficial and weak base like, just because everyone thinks like that I also believe in it, is it because of peer pressure, or they really thought about the issue seriously before reaching to their conclusion. By being a devil's advocate in front of my kids I make sure that they are not blindly following either me or someone without testing those opinions independently. My aim is to initiate that rethinking mechanism where they start considering alternative opinions that are contrary to their own.

Actually, I didn't start doing this consciously, it happened over a period of time. I observed that there are families who follow the same political ideologies for generations, just like their religion. They become so devout to that particular ideology that they can't even imagine that the other side has anything good to offer, it almost becomes like a religion for them. Parents and kids share the same political and social ideology, religion, dietary restrictions, and even superstitions. I felt that many families are becoming factories where carbon copies of humans are produced under the name of culture and traditions. I don't mean to say that following culture and traditions is wrong or parents should not guide their kids. I just want to emphasize that these things also should be challenged and refined to tune them with the changing times. Not every tradition is timeless and can survive the test of time, but if we make them immune from any attack then of course they will survive forever. This cannot be called the greatness of that tradition but rather is a weakness of that culture, society, religion, or group that failed to change with the changing times. 

Being a devil's advocate doesn't mean you have to defend each and every unpopular issue. There are many things that can't be defended. My main aim is to bring forward unrepresented views to that discussion. If it is a pro-Republican setting I try to highlight some Democrat policies which make sense and vice versa. If it is an anti-Trump group, I try to present some policies of his administration that look very promising. If it is a pro-BJP group I try to question the performance of the BJP govt and want to know if their supporters are analyzing it in the same way or blindly following it. The list can go on, the real point is I try to project another side of the issue to the group which otherwise may not bother to look at it. I try to engage in discussion in such a way that they realize that the other side also may have some good ideas which as a society we need to consider and shouldn't ignore just because it is coming from our opposition. Opposition and diversity of views are very necessary for any society to progress. A society with monotonous views or where there is no opposition runs into the risk of living under blissful ignorance that they are always on the right path (which may or may not be true).

I should also give one warning to everyone who wants to try this method, the risk is that it might make you less popular in that particular group. People normally don't like it when their core beliefs or deep-rooted political ideologies are challenged. People feel uncomfortable when you ask really difficult questions about their leader, religion, or political party. So, one has to be really careful as there is a very thin line between being inquisitive and offensive. You might even sound arrogant to some (especially when you question some religious beliefs) or elite (especially when you are trying to defend capitalism in a group that believes in socialism or communism). One has to take the risk of being labeled by various names if you want to try to do this exercise, but I think it is worth that risk.

I think my kids benefited from this exercise, at least they are aware that there can be an equally compelling argument from the other side which they should at least listen to, rethink their own opinions, and analyze objectively before coming to any conclusions. If you want to test this methodology with your kids, friends, or relatives just try it, at least you will know the tolerance level of people around you for counter opinions if nothing else.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.