2 Sides of Passion

        

Passion is said to be spice of life. It brings excitement, adventure, thrill and uncertainties in life. No doubt, without passion, life would become routine, mundane and dull.

Passion originates from heart and not from thoughtful, logical, intelligent thinking. You don't indulge in much of thinking, contemplation or calculation before pursuing your passion e.g. photography, gardening or cricket. Hence passion allows one to take uncalculated risks.  Not surprisingly, passionate people are considered "lively".

But is passion always "good to have"? Something that allows you to take uncalculated risks.

Pardon me for a bit of generalization or stereotyping but it's usually considered that North Indians are passionate people. The recognition of the fact goes as back to the British rule when Army recruited them in large (disproportionate) numbers, thus recognizing (apart from their physical built and abilities) their passionate nature and ability to embrace danger without thinking and fearing much. This is the trait (we may call it bravery) perfectly suited for such a job.

But is the same passion responsible behind the alarmingly high rate of  crime in North India also? No doubt there is crime in cities like Mumbai but most of that is organized crime or at least crime with a motive- for money, for living (or luxury living) etc. In fact, there's very less 'organized crime' in North India and here what drives people is the bravery, fearlessness and daring attitude. Hence here most of the crimes are either committed in the heat of the moment or what we call "crime of passion". Aren't rape, road-rage, murder all crimes of passion?

In other words, usually there's a distinction between a common man and a criminal but among the society of 'passionates' this distinction gets blurred. Among the breed of passionates, anyone can get jealous, angry or feel provoked and turn a criminal or beast. I intentionally refrained from citing examples because firstly any average person can himself recall more than sufficient incidents from his own memory or from media and secondly there are too many in my mind and it will be hard to choose a few to cite here.

I suggest you think again before you say "I am a very passionate guy".. may be in response to "introduce yourself" in your next interview.
  

Socio-economic Structure and Personal Structure

Everybody is aware of the big story of emergence of the great Indian middle class. If you see Indian society, a large part of the population from the base of the traditional socioeconomic pyramid is rapidly shifting towards the middle of the hierarchy; the reasons can be many- the opening up of the Indian economy, new employment opportunities created by the entrepreneurial spirit of young India, or urban migration et al. The use of 'pyramid' term to represent this society is about to get inappropriate or obsolete. Such a society full of middle class populace 'd better be represented by a 'diamond' structure- bulging from the middle.

Have you ever thought of any correlation between socioeconomic status of a society and the structure of the people of that society?

In fact there seems to be one and a positive correlation which is not just coincidental in the case of India. The people in  the new middle class have a great tendency to become diamond shaped themselves, bulging from middle either from front or from back!! Blame it on the lack of fitness awareness, unhealthy lifestyle, fitness being at lower priority than earning money or as faulty a belief as "fat means healthy" or "thin means weak".  Another explanation could be the overuse (abuse) of newly acquired affordability of high fat/protein diet even if it doesn't suit their newly acquired sedentary life styles.

India is not alone to witness this widespread shift in waistline. An increase in per capita income usually leads to an increase in waistline of the people. Even in USA during the middle of 20th century, a similar trend was seen and historical evidence shows that such a  trend prevails for 1 or 2 generation (around 4 decades) and then the ill-effects of unhealthy practices and perceptions start to show up which force people to think otherwise and check their perceptions, become conscious of lifestyle and food pattern, or simply rethink their priorities. No surprise the current generation in US is one of the most health conscious.

India is also on the same track, it's repeating the history; the only difference being that we are lagging behind by a couple of decades. Indian economy opened up in 1992 and prosperity reached masses in 2000s and an optimistic estimate is that the bulging waist lines would continue till '20s or '30s.

Hope India doesn't take too long to correct it's perceptions and gets saved from the imminent epidemic of lifestyle diseases upon which the healthcare, pharmaceutical and health insurance industry are banking big.