As the old saying goes, nostalgia is no longer what it used to be. Even so, in a discourse dominated by the here and now and the ephemeral, Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy has struck the right note by talking of the nation’s diminishing stockpile of role models.
“The number of role models that our youngsters can look up to is decreasing. How many people in our public life can you be proud of for honesty, courage, commitment and hardwork? And that number is dwindling. Our youngsters don’t have role models to look up to and therefore, and sadly because of corruption, some of the people who are doing exactly the opposite — dishonest, deceit, ‘chalta hai’ and all of that… they are becoming more and more powerful… they are becoming wealthier,” Murthy has been quoted as saying.
Not just in politics but in business, industry, economics, science, art, music, media, films, cricket, etc, there clearly is a dearth of people to look up to. Sure, the standard Miss India responses—“Mother Teresa, “A.P.J. Abdul Kalam“, “Narayana Murthy”—are still valid, but who beyond and beside them?
So, who in this day and age, in big bad India do you think is the ideal role model? Do today’s young who are connected to a wider world really need Indian role models?
churumuri 
having a good role-model is so important for me and i try to follow the good one.
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How about E Sreedharan
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Surely, our system of economic incentives and disincentives are such that it encourages wrong kind of aspiration. When wheeling dealing power brokers can earn far higher than hard/honest working achievers, when corrupt corporate oligarchs can put out of business upright entrepreneurs, the aspiration of a new generation will certainly be to emulate those who have thrived in such a system.
As they say, the leaders produced by a system are reflective of a system. I always ask my wife this – ‘Are we making our children misfit in this society by giving them ideals of honesty, truthfulness, austerity, humility etc.”
It increasingly appears so. To survive in a jungle, you need to be an animal. Or, you need to leave the jungle, like so many of my friends have done. :(
We are sticking to teaching our children the values we feel are out of place in current society – Our only hope is that our society will be made a better place tomorrow by their generation.
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True enough. We dont have to go looking for only the people who have achieved a lot. There are people who are honest, doing what comes naturally for them, without cheating, without browbeating others. Unfortunatly we never get to hear about them.
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nrn is def not it!
he is ex his right 2 speak
not to worry
the youngsters will show us the way
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Leave us alone, mr.NRM we have enough role models around us,whats required is a sensitive inner self to identify them. We certainly dont consider forcible british english accent speaking, acres of farmer land grabbing, morals and ethics lecturing, ultra capitalist people as role models. A general practitioner treating patient from 30 years , with utmost sincerity with a smile for minimal profit is a role model, a cobbler in northern part of karnataka who also publishes kannada books is a role model, an auto driver in bangalore who returned five lakhs cash to the customer who forgot the money in the auto is a role model.
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It is true that we lack the number of young leaders. It is highly necessary to have a blend of the youth and the experiences cos they both bring in qualities to the table which are indispensable for an administration to run. For now, we do lack on the front of highly educated and the inspired youth in this front.
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Dr. Ramesh, you forgot to add HDD to your list.
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This whole concept of ‘Role Model’ is hogwash. Tell me who is role model for NRN? Did he follow his role model?
The current senior bureaucrats who are in their 50s & 60s were born between 1940 & 1960. They had plenty of so called ‘role-models’. But what have they become? We have a bureaucracy steeped in corruption. What happened to their role models?
Mother Teresa a role model? Give me a break, nobody can emulate her since she is a nun. Again she treated people with leprosy, TB and AIDS, when whole world threw those people out.
Those who claim Mother Teresa is their role model, how many patients have they talked, let alone serviced them?
Kids, if you are reading this, listen – there isn’t any towering figure called role model. Nobody has followed his role model to the T.
Role models just figure as passing reference in keynote speeches. You educate yourself, acquire skills, learn about others, get inspired & live your life.
If you need inspiration, just identify cases like Dr Ramesh has done & get inspired from their random acts. (eg, auto driver is not role model, but get inspired from his act of returning money).
In this age of free information, nobody can be life time role-model, only selected acts of inspiration.
~*~
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You don’t need to make a statement just for the heck of it. Anyways, NRN has a thing or two to say on just about anything when he is stuck a mike in front. The stockpile of role models a couple decades back – were they any bigger or better than they are currently? Don’t think so.
With the economy having opened up, in fact, if we look deep, there could be quite a lot of people we could call role-models. It’s very relative. A lot many folks have already stated examples above
I guess you got to be your own inspiration first!
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To some extent, T.N.Seshan can said to be a role model because he converted a rusted and unheard system into a vibrant one, without changing any rules and with the same set of people under his control.
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Having a role model and following them is a brahmina conspiracy akin to having a ‘Veda’ and keep reading that even if you don’t understand or implement that.
It takes out the freedom to live and realize oneself.
Yes he is just wanting some slaves to keep his company running.
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“So, who in this day and age, in big bad India do you think is the ideal role model? Do today’s young who are connected to a wider world really need Indian role models?”
Ans: Chanakya/Kautilya. We need a selfless sage-statesman like him today!
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Role model is a dream. It dissolves as the time passes.
During 70’s whenever the IAS results are published,our elders use to cajole us and use to compare our performance and advising us follow their path.Many of our elders and our lecturers were advising us devote and pass KAS/IAS/ or do MBBS. Whenever the IAS/IPS toppers were being interviewed by the news papers, each one has said that they want to serve the nation, do something to the poor,just like our Miss universe and Miss World.
Now those young Officers are in the top post of the state and are before us. What they have done to the poor or to the country. One Sr.Most officer, who boasts that he comes from a family of civil servants and he has a legacy. But it is all, eye wash he gets scotch at the cost of the Government Company, he needs branded pen costing more than Rs.15000/- Just because he is chairman of a PSU, he orders to have his chamber lavishly furnished. Every day in the afternoon he spends in famous club house and returns to office at 5.30 p.m. His p.s announces that Officer is busy in attending a meeting. Do we need such role model.Let our children understand pain, hunger and true problem of a commoner, are the role model to our children.This is what,they have to learn and to live.
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Navjot Singh Siddhu is a pretty good role model.
– He hit many sixers on Indian pitches and gave Indians something to cheer about in the only sport they follow.
– He killed a man in broad daylight for daring to come in his way and got away with it.
– He became an MP and resigned.
– He gives random commentary on TV and people love him for that.
– He hosts a hit comedy show with sexy co-hostesses.
Any angle you see, there is something to be emulated. He is a man of 64 skills.
NRN should make Siddhu his role model. Siddhu at least had political power for sometime, which is an elusive thing NRN and family crave for.
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dear arh, may i suggest lalita pawar or rakhee sawant
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AG–
Had NRN not said something to the effect of making our national anthem–which sounds barely intelligible to most Indian ears–more singable, he might be having his second run as the President of India now.
I am not saying he is a role model, however. I would vote for Devegowda and his parliamentary and mla–and retired KAS offspring–anyday. BSY and Siddharaamayya are also on my list. And Varthur Prakash. And Halappa. And Katta. And SMK. And
Dr. Ramesh
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Several common folks for me.
The old townsfolk in the Fukushima area who volunteered to clean up the reactor area knowing fully well they will be radiated far beyond health limits, because they are already old and are not worried about health risks any more.
The road-sweepers and cleaners who are always looked down upon.
The everyday, yet enterprising folk around town with a keen knack of sensing opportunity and creating a service or product to address it, and make some people’s lives a little better.
The list is huge, but there’s nobody famous on it.
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very well said, its the real truth also……….
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If you desperately need to have one Subramanian swamy is a good candidate, although churumuri may not take kindly to that, now that he has plans to go after madam.
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I see lot of similarities between yeddy and NRM, they simply cant keep quiet,they refuse to be away from media spotlight. They somehow think that entire country is waiting to hear their words of rotten wisdom. But they fail to understand that people who are real achievers, people of real substance believe more in work than words. Look at Tcs Ceo, mahindra ceo or devegowda,manmohan singh, they simply go about their job. Asking people to be like himself,Nrm has proved again tbat he is self obsessed, more than normal. Softy techies saying bangalore today is because of them, is a mere symptom of this megalomaniac trait.
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Truth had been the role model or Gautama Buddha .Compassion and Forgiveness had been role model for Jesus Christ. Work and honesty has been role model for Basavanna. Non Violence was the role model f or mahatma Gandhi. Self respect was the role model for BR Ambedkar.
All crooked politicians , bureaucrats, business man, film stars, cricketers , conman, dons has been role models for todays people. Only God can save these ignorant fools.
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Truth and his Dharma had been the role model for Gautama Buddha. Compassion and Forgiveness had been role model for Jesus Christ. Work and honesty has been role model for Basavanna. Non Violence was the role model f or Mahatma Gandhi and Mahaveera. Self respect was the role model for BR Ambedkar.
All crooked politicians , bureaucrats, business man, film stars, cricketers , conman, dons has been role models for todays people. Only God can save these ignorant fools
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I agree with ‘slave theory’ that the concept of ‘ROLE MODEL’ is Brahmin conspiracy which is supported by its “ATMAN” Theory. Now it is transformed into a Corporate thought and the worst now is even rural folks also falls under this decease worshiping film stars , politicians. This is discerned by Lord Buddha at its very root and he given the famous “Anatman” doctrine. He even dares to reject the notion of “self” or “atman”. Depicting it is just conventional -illusion or temporary phenomena far from realistic world. If we surrender our mind into this false doctrine of “Atman” we will end up in fallacy in realizing true nature of world as really as it is.
From Anatman theory we can conclude Terrorism is the reality. Terrorist is illusional(temporary phenomena). Mahatma Gandhi is illusion but his values of non violence is reality. Rama, Krishna, Ravana , Kamsa all are illusion but the virtue carried by them good or bad are only reality.
Some fools can celebrate by killing Osama bin laden, it is the end of terrorism. But reality take its own course. Until we have proper mechanism and thinking mind to understand reality, Fools and their false doctrines rules the world. Till then we have to bear these nons ense.
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We are connected to the world but we still have culture and problems very much unique to us. And that’s what a role model is ! Someone who looks like us, feels like us but has done so well that it gives us heart !
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Continuing,
The beauty of “Anatman” doctrine is- it ask for unification of all dogmas and balancing it to understand reality. if we want to know the good or bad role model. we need to unify its two components -Subject and Object merging into a single entity. we no longer see its separation and our wisdom is at its peak. the efficiency of this unification also is at peak.
In science we speak of power factor.
-The work done(distance covered) is at maximum when the direction of force and velocity is same( cos(0)=1).here we see unification of force and velocity when power factor tends to unity.
-The efficiency of AC motor is maximum when both voltage and current are in phase with each other, again cos0=1, . here we are seeing the unification of voltage and current.
So take whatever pair of physical components, it asks for unification of its pair to get maximum work done. Same for Subject and Object.
The more beatuy pagents talk about Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi makes me wonder what is their power factor. it must be negative! both subject and object are in opposite direction!
The biggest mistake done by the man is to create more deviation between subject and object Here he becomes mere worshiper of objects- idol, wall post, celebrity worshiper.lack substance in it.
why this man looks for distant objects, when he got his own, Gods given-Body and Mind!
So children if you want to see a role-model. don’t look into others just merge the good subject into your own object,experiment it, that is only way to increase efficiency within u!.
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