"Excerpt 1.2"

The campaign to save our planet earth we usually see on social media. I am not against the campaign to save our planet rather very intrigue to know how many of us really got the message? By the way, the campaign messages we received on WhatsApp and on Facebook account are without doubts beautifully structured with facts and figures.

I wonder if our solution to the message is just to forward it again to another friend. If that's the goal of the message, then we are just trying to save our planet by words not by deed.

Awareness is good. There are 1.65 billion monthly active users on Facebook and WhatsApp has a user base of 1 billion. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the scale of the figures and to think, can we really make a difference? Is there anything we can do as individuals?

This spring season I have planted few trees. Hopefully by next year, all the trees will grow up another feet and so on. Nelson Mandela said, ‘It's not the kings and the generals who make history but the masses of the people.’

Moving on to the title Excerpt 1.2, “Citizens live through positive contribution”. Excerpts from the prologue by Swami Budhananda.

The first point to remember is the glory of man. That was one that Swami Vivekananda, time and again, taught us: ‘Never forget the glory of man’. When we all live for ourselves, think that the whole universe is accountable to us and we are not accountable to the universe, we are at the wrong end.

Therefore, two things must go hand in hand. They are:

1. Awareness of the great potential of every human being and that
2. we have to grow towards attainment of self-fulfilment, not by each of us singly, but together.

We must also believe that all of us can be looked after well. Our sorrows and sufferings can be minimised and there can be ever so much more happiness for all, of all, if only we own all of us our own.

The important point to remember is that to help manifest everyone's great potential is the business of every advanced civilisation. Our ancient teachers taught us to set in motion within oneself a self-chastening process to go together with keen ‘other-regarding’ process. In other words, self-development and the development of everybody else should go on simultaneously. It is not enough if we have a vast land, rich natural resources, mighty rivers, highly talented people and other endowments. What is important is to learn the art and science of turning these things to good account, in the service of man. To learn to do this and to teach to do is the business of enlightened citizenship which is of supreme importance for every nation in this world, particularly, India. As the Buddha says, that which is most needed is a loving heart.

Up next, Excerpt 1.3.

Platform

Probably, everyone knows who Bill Gates is! According to Forbes magazine, he is the richest man in the world and the founder of Microsoft. Few weeks ago, I started reading his blog on daily basis and it gave me new perspective on how I can contribute for the welfare of our present society. And I can assure you this, reading his blog is a way to know more about him as a philanthropist rather than the billionaire or the founder of Microsoft who revolutionized technology.

When I was in junior high school, I was provided the platform to learn computer science in theory as well as practically for the first time. Frankly, before I was introduced to computer science subject, I didn't have any clue about computer and Internet except for the typewriter machine..:) Those days, around 3-4 students would share one computer for practical, and that too, once in a week. But now, everything has changed for the better. I bet the visit to cyber cafe in regular basis has drastically reduced which has been impacted by the revolution of smart phones and the easy access to Internet. Of course! I'm also enjoying it.

But I don't understand why some of us can't use this platform to better use. In my opinion, negativity is all we see and spread rather than come up with a better solution. May be one opinion matters more than the other; but is it worth the time to move forward? I believed that's the only analysis needed whereas individual efforts is a choice. After all, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

My blog post doesn't matter at all because it is more or less about awareness. However, if you have a time to spare, please visit and read Bill Gates blog at: http://www.gatesnotes.com/ so you can experience the way he used his platform in order to change the lives of millions people around the world for better.

Food for Thought: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Winston S. Churchill.

"Con-Art in Internet"

“Selling eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their money back after the goods are not delivered.” Victor J. Stenger.

Few days ago, I received an email from Yahoo Internet Lottery informing me I have won £ 1,000,000 lottery, an amount I have never ever dreamt of. I stared at the email hilariously because they wrote “One million United States Dollars” in words whereas the sign of dollar is showing as À£. And how comes I have just won a lottery when I have never ever purchase a lottery ticket in London or use any website by the name of Yahoo Internet Lottery? I knew about the present days email scams in order to extort money from unsuspecting internet user. Anyway, I took a screenshot of the email and save as wallpaper for my amusement. See the image below:

I’m sure any rational person will not reply to this kind of emails or follow up but many times I have come across in some news report when victims, especially old ones who have retired from work, are extorted from all their life time savings in return for the fake winning lottery amount. I can feel for the victims and it is not entirely their faults because they just got swayed away by the words “Lucky Winners” and also the jackpot amount. But yes! One has to rational and logic on this kind of email. First point, how can you possibly win a lottery when you have never purchase a ticket? No one has ever won a jackpot lottery without a ticket.

Second point, when a person wins a jackpot lottery in term of millions, it is big news but the scammer choose to communicate with you via your personal email address although you haven't provided your email address to anyone else except your friends, family and work related. Just think for a while before pumping our arms in happiness, why is the jackpot lottery I've won was not announce in any of the major news channels? Think about it and I'm sure most of us will conclude with the following phrase, "To hell with the email, and every day is not April fool’s day."

Third point, in order to convince the victims to the core and extort the amount by any means, the scammer framed the email in such a way it is believable as soon as we start reading. For instance, “You were randomly selected from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over thousands of companies”. However, before reading all the content of the email, it is extremely advisable to visit: Google.com and search for World Wide Web lottery or whatever the lottery name is. The Google search results will be show the words “scam or lottery scam” in abundant on the 1st page. There and then, don't even bother to read the email completely, just delete it permanently. In fact, there is no organizer by the name of “World Wide Web lottery” or any kind of lottery committee communicating with you via email to claim your winning prize.

Fourth point, the scammer also tries to blackmail potential victims emotionally. In this kind of case, the email is different from the lottery email scam. The scammer framed an email with short unreal story about family inheritance and assets however the story can easily sway anyone with the tone used in it. And if the potential victim is sentimental, it just makes it easier for scammer. They will request a monetary loan from the victim with a promise to repay back with mouthwatering commission on the inheritance and assets. Honestly, who does a thing like this? It is really kind of funny to send random emails to stranger for the first time just to borrow money and to repay later on.

The points I have mentioned in this blog are few of the circumstances most of us came across while checking our email inboxes. Anyway, criminals are criminals; they are very confidence artist and ruthless with their execution of plan. Frank Abagnale said, “Technology breeds crime and we are constantly trying to develop new technology to stay one step ahead of the person trying to use it negatively.” Frank used to be con-artist but now he is FBI security consultant and entrepreneur. I believed the statement is not against technology rather the misuse of technology by criminals when we try to stay ahead. In the end, I really believed email/internet scams can be prevented only if we can just apply some sense and logic in our head.

Thank you. Have a good evening!