Sunday, December 13, 2009

Have you reviewed your life performance for 2009?

I started doing this from past 2 years. Similar to the performance review you do in your company.......I started documenting goals, reviewing periodically and assessing the status at the end of the calender year for my life goals ........... for the year.

When i ended my 2007.........i knew it went well some part which i over focused on........ but didn't knew what went wrong or what went right. I was very clearly unclear about if i have hit the balance in all all sphere of my life for the year.

In that quest I ended 2007 with list of goals for 2008. I ended up in 25 such items ....from learn Meditation to buy another property........ from going for North India trip to learn south Indian cooking. Than I segregated them under 5 categories. Money, Health, Family, Life style & Career-personal. AT the end of the 2008 i didn't do all but i knew what i didn't do well and why I didn't do them well. It became very powerful tool for me to understand my Career direction, My work life balance and my life.

That understanding lead me to planning for 2009. When i looked into my 2009 on how I performed i feel good as I know what i did well and what i missed.............more importantly if those goals are relevant now. Overall I felt i did well. Not exceeded but achieved.

Rule No 1:
  1. Ensure it is done on paper or in your computer . Excel is good enough.
  2. Make it very clear and specific. No emotional words and no negative wording.
  3. Keep the list well under 12.
Steps to follow:
1. If this is first time you are doing this . Than start with list of all you did/achieved in 2009.
2. After finishing the what you did with 2009. Start putting your goals for 2010.
3. Ensure to number them .
4. Use next column to categorise them. Under heads which will ensure you are covering all part of your life...money, career, family, Personal, Health, life style etc.
5. Check if the list is balanced .
6. Check if you feel strongly about each of them.
7. Though it is realistic to keep the list within 12......at the same time don't limit your self and keep going even if you end up with 100. Than work towards prioritising them and bring out the top 10. After all we are planning 1 year of your life and not the life itself.
8. once you are ready with "your" list. Read it out loud to yourself .
9. Than take time ( appropriate time!) to talk to your spouse/Children/Parents..........if they have any one of "their goal" for you to achieve next year for them. Take it and add it with appropriate wording which make it your own. Ensure to read it out to them .
10. I also recommend you to share your goals for next year with your spouse/Children/Parents depending on which stage of life you are in and who matters most and who can contribute to your goal .

Don't ever forget:
I have come to a frightening conclusion.
I am the decisive element in MY WORLD.
It is MY personal approach that creates the climate.
It is MY daily mood that makes the weather.
As a individual I possess tremendous power to make a person's life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is MY response that decides whether a crisis
will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized”
-Quote inspired by Haim G. Ginott

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Who am I....


Who am I ............a question I may not be able to answer at full length. I can definitely define how I see myself as.



I see myself as a selfish fool.






This defines me........


Selfish: Selfishness is the ultimate truth. If you are selfish and you ensure you achieve your goal with.......honesty, integrity, truthfulness........you bound to create much bigger positive impact. If you lead such a positive life by being true to yourself and to no one. I believe in this. I refer to story of Rama.......Indian epic......Major part of story of Rama is about his adventure to bring his wife back. He achieved it with highest level of integrity and honesty.....resulted in bigger welfare of human society.


Fool: I take risks.Life challenges me and surprises me at every step....it poses several option. I chose one. I

believe I take risk at this very moment when I chose one with with immense sense of astonishment and surprise. The process of making this choice is foolish. it is big risk on whatever happens after that moment.SO I have to be a fool to do it. I never let life just pass by me. TO ensure this......I have to make choices every moment in life.

My Life is about being.........


I spent same time last month during my NLP session to define (....and affirm..) what is my life is about. Several factors popped up almost a list of 20+ items. When i re looked at the list with perspective and comparison........very truth emerged which made me feel..........this is it.


I define it as "My Life is about being honest, success full, keeping my family happy and above all being MYSELF."


Honest: my Behaviour is about being honest with myself ( so that at the end of the day I get good sleep). This ensures i provide my opinion honestly based on my understanding and without any bias. This get exhibited both in my work life and personal life.


Successful: I thrive to be successful at very personal level. I also believe and keep very close to being honest. For me both honesty and urge to succeed can not be separated. If a success can not be achieved by showing honesty ........... than it is not worth the success. Simple reason you will not be able to enjoy and sustain at personal level.


Keeping my family happy: very personal and very close.


above all being MYSELF: I never want to move out of being MYSELF. It is me and me alone. I am very selfish.


Thursday, September 3, 2009

Looking out for Job....be careful of scams!

One of my friend who was looking out for job had an interesting encounter with scamster.
He received letter from Nigeria in a public listed well known oil company. He was smart enough sense a possibility of scam.





If you look at email he received it has every possible email address....yahoo, GMail and live.
If this is not enough ...it had offer letter as well.
Than I went into the website provided and found .....Scan alert put by the company...thank god.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

my news letter No.1


I sent out my first news letter last week end. It has been great experience of winning by inhibitions.

Hi Friends,
Staying connected with Friends add to life expectancy. Very
selfish reason to stay connected. It never the less keeps you happy...
Lazy
fellow which I am….and not on twitter …not very active on social networking
sites….very unlikely I will connect regularly. I planned to connect with all my
friends…including colleague , old bosses and people I met during my
professional life…...via this virtual world. So was the reason for this
monthly news letter Idea.
I am sending this email with lot of inhibition and
anxiety of not very sure if it is a right thing to do. Let me see how far I can
go.
Let me know if you wish to remove yourself from the email list …..if you
find this another junk in your email box.
Do write back.....with your
input...feedback...comments.
Eagerly awaiting your
email!.
Regards,
Harish
http://harishbk.com
+919845438231

I got very good reviews .

Thanks to all .

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Learning Chinese : I am damn frustrated!

I am preparing to take my 1st level exam for Chinese next week. It has been never so frustrating. It just doesn’t get into you.
I think it is probably because, it is not related to either my social or professional work. I am unable to relate it to anything which is happening around me on daily basis.

I am also taking to complete my Black Belt training and Lean expert certification..........I am very confident I will make it. But Chinese learning is really getting into my nerves. Like always I went into internet to find answers. I found below link giving really really realistic reasons why it is hard to learn new language.
http://www.helium.com/items/1505424-why-learning-languages-is-so-hard

Than I wanted to understand if it is about any language or just about Chinese. Almost every article recognizes Chinese as one of the most difficult language to learn.

http://www.wisegeek.com/which-are-the-most-difficult-languages-to-learn.htm

Age ( ia m 39 years) certinly is not helping me either. I am already so biased and so much pre defined perceptions have taken over my brains. It is getteing tough to push something completely new

But I was proved wrong with very scientific argument in one of the article Please read this if you are really interested in leaerning new language. I should have read this 10 months back.(http://www.zompist.com/whylang.html)


Why do children learn languages well, when even adults who want to learn them have trouble with them? Innate abilities aside, children have a number of powerful advantages:

They can devote almost their full time to it. Adults consider half an hour's study a day to be onerous.

Their motivation is intense. Adults rarely have to spend much of their time in the company of people they need to talk to but can't; children can get very little of what they want without learning language(s).

Their peers are nastier. Embarrassment is a prime motivating factor for human beings (I owe this insight to Marvin Minsky's The Society of Mind, but it was most memorably expressed by David Berlinski (in Black Mischief, p. 129), who noted that of all emotions, from rage to depression to first love, only embarrassment can recur, decades later, with its full original intensity). Dealing with a French waiter is nothing compared with the vicious reception in store for a child who speaks funny.


And...

One reserch article proclaims (http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/87-9dig.htm) :
Can older adults successfully learn foreign languages? Recent research is providing increasingly positive answers to this question. The research shows that:


there is no decline in the ability to learn as people get older;
except for minor considerations such as hearing and vision loss, the age of the adult learner is not a major factor in language acquisition;
the context in which adults learn is the major influence on their ability to acquire the new language.
Contrary to popular stereotypes, older adults can be good foreign language learners. The difficulties older adults often experience in the language classroom can be overcome through adjustments in the learning environment, attention to affective factors, and use of effective teaching methods.


Advice for language learners ( I will start doing it now!!!) .(http://www.zompist.com/whylang.html)


Read books in the target language.
Better yet, read comics and magazines. (They're easier, more colloquial, and easier to incorporate into your weekly routine.)
Buy music that's sung in it; play it while you're doing other things.
Read websites and participate in newsgroups that use it.
Play language tapes in your car. If you have none, make some for yourself.
Hang out in the neighborhood where they speak it.
Try it out with anyone you know who speaks it. If necessary, go make new friends.
Seek out opportunities to work using the language.
Babysit a child, or hire a sitter, who speaks the language.
Take notes in your classes or at meetings in the language.
Marry a speaker of the language. (Warning: marry someone patient: some people want you to know their language-- they don't want to teach it. Also, this strategy is tricky for multiple languages.)



I am bit more relived now............as I have reasons to tell myself why I am struggling....more importantly how I can really improve on language learning skill. Though I can not use much of this for next week test. I will implement this for my next level.

I am going to do it. I will ensure I will learn Chinese good enough to read news paper by June 2010. It is a promise to myself.

I know it is tough.....but definitely possible.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Thank you!!

Thanks you utilizing my blog and providing your feedback /inputs. It has been great journey. I am sure we will go long further from this point.

101 visits came from 23 countries (India, Singapore, China, United States, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Malaysia & Philippines) with 46 visitors from the day it started on 16th March 2009.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Trains, Railway station, Beijing,Shanghai, Singapore, Malasiya and other

My work at office got over. I need to rush to hotel before 6 and chk out to avoid full day charge. I got my Hotel reservation changed in for Shanghai. Took Michelle help for printing. She also offered me to help in finding the train in railway station. I went to Hotel, freshened up, Chked out. As suggested by Michelle I went to “The place” nearby. It has all kind of restaurant. As I entered the premises…there was large canopy above me. It was almost as big a Street. I think it is for the concerts. Went into the mall…found a Indian restaurant “The Ganges”. Ordered for tomato soup, 5 chapattis, Dal and masala chai. Filled myself. Came out of the mall.Oh my god!!!.............the canopy was not canopy but a big LCD screen. Someone told me it is largest LCD screen in Asia. WOW!!!!. Took some snaps. Walked into hotel and collected my baggage. Michelle arrived on time at 7.30. Went to Beijing square …and than to RAILWAY STATION. WOW!!!!!At last I am railway station. Safe with….. Michelle as
she knows Chinese. Parked the car, Walked through the station front area. Very crowded…... Very very crowded. She went to police standing nearby to check for the visitor ticket. We stood in queue to enter the station. It was a small que but we have pass through scanning machine. I was pretty excited by then. My baggage went through the scanner. I was busy in clicking photos. I wanted to take photos of the scanner as well. Oh my ghosh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I slipped . Fell down. Didn’t get hurt but few photos got clocked when I was slipping.I got up. I felt like 2 to 3 pairs of eyes are observing me very closely. We looked at the train schedule. Everything was in Chinese (Thanks got Michelle can read it). We need to go to waiting hall 2 upstairs. The hall was decked up pretty nice and very traditional way (chandelier and chairs). I still had at least 1 pair of eyes very close to me…… watching us. Went it to final hall …..our train was still not called. We had sufficient time. I realized Michelle is not very comfortable with this much crowd. Believe she is in this railways station after almost 4 years. Last time she came to board the train to a location which was not connected by Air. We went back to main hall. I requested her to stand with me till train is called. It was amazing to watch people. The culture, their behavior, dress, interaction ….amazing stuff. Now it was time for our train. We went back to next hall which will lead to ticket chking. We stood in Queue (Well pretty much India Railway station queue. 5 or 6 people moving together.). Ticket chk is done landed in bridge got down by elevator. Holaluya!!! In front of me ….white bullet train. Searched for my coach…...Than my seat. GOT IT!!!!!The coach is really high class….the berths are luxurious. The comfort of a Hotel room bed. I congardulated myself for the my decision to use the Train.. Lady in front of me was from university. She can speak in English. We spoke about Tai Chee, Yoga & recission for 1 hour. Then I went to sleep. Though there was Mr. Mrs smith on the TV but it was in Chinese ( no English channel!).Trying to sleep. The train was picking up speed ( 91 Km/hr….135 km/hr….).ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZWoke up around 5.30AM. it was already sunney outside. Country side was clearly visible. Village house, paddy fields etc. Always seen a countryside from 5000ft . The feeling of seeing at ground level is pretty exciting.Reached Shanghai @ around…..7.30Am. It was pretty crowded ventured out of station without asking anyone for direction. Followed the instinct on where the tax stand might be (depending on the direction towards which empty taxis are going). Ended up in a escalator going down. Asked a police man about “T-A-X-I”. He showed me to go down. There you are in front of taxi stand. I mentioned the hotel name to them. They understood the same. Dropped me at hotel. I chked in and went to office. So convenient!!!!
My next interesting journey was …train from Malasiya to Singapore. Language was not an issue. Everyone understands (almost!!) English. But issue was train. After experiencing Bejing to shanghai bullet train. Malasiya to Singapore train looks very uncomfortable. Well…..train is never uncomfortable…..but the earlier experience has raised my expectation. One was a train where passenger didn’t even feel the vibration when it is moving at 200+ km/hr …other was …oh god….every break u can fall down of your bed or seat. Each break was experience. It is a cabin for 2. I had young male international lawyer as company. We talked about my work …his work…Malay politics… Indian food… recession….They serve food….I ordered for biriyani. It came with Chicken stew and I ate only the biriyani part. Went into sleep mode. Had very god sleep until …they woke me up at Malay border for passport chk. Them immediately I had got down for Singapore immigration. Officer was bit confused of I not mention my address in Singapore. As I was flying on same day my plan was some shopping and then get to airport to write this diary.Got out at Singapore railway station. No one can say it is Singapore railway station. It doesn’t look like Singapore. I felt like suddenly the Singapore was exposed compared what we usually see out there in Orchards road, Changi Air port or bogy junction etc. Take my word….nothing like using road transport to understand real culture of the country. Somehow I felt this time Singapore came out as bit arrogant, Careless and “like any other’ country. I for the first time had experience of Singapore cab driver take me for ride and making me pay more than double to reach my address.

Flight to Singapore

Hi Bhavani,
I entered Airport around 8.15. No one tell this is summer. Very windy and pretty comfortably cold. This is namma Bengaluru. Always surprises you with its whether….really air conditioned. No doubt………… it torubled us with its last 15 days with peak summer of 34 degree.
I stood in the queue to pay airport development fee. Reached counter and gave my Amex card. Guy returned it back saying “transaction declined”. Oh shit…did they really blocked my card for that 5000+ due amount?. Can’t believe they have done something like that as I paid everything on time but this one amount pertaining to prior December…..which I haven’t been able to reconcile. Card worked even 2 days back. Never mind I will work with my personal card plus cash I have.Went to check-in counter. This Singapore airline guy saw my receipt for development fee payment. “they realy asked you to pay”…I said “yes”. “But, no charge for international passengers! Check in and we will get you refund”. I chked in got my exit seat only till Singapore. I didn’t get Exit seat for Singapore to Beijing. Never mind. It is ok. The airline team helped me to get refund of amount paid to Airport authorities in jiff. Indian red tape has really come long way. There was time which required one to fill in forms together to get refund or make payment. But today I got the refund in cash within no time without a hassle.I got in to security clearance. Than into the arena. Than to Kingfisher restaurant. Took some time to choose my dinner. Ended up with panneer mattar and laccha parata plus tomato soup. Food was amazing. Paid by my personal credit card (I can survive on personal card for full trip ….but will connect with Travel lead once I get to Beijing office and get this resolved).Sat at the launge for 30 minitues doing nothing. Well not really. I was watching the people passing by. The tiredness on some faces, frustration on that Japanese guy face, amazement on other guys face, elderly person wearing a Dhothi , 3 old couple probably visiting their children, Families going on vacation, Family which came in and sat in front of me while wife sat few chairs away……………lot to absorb. Natures call, I went to loo. Realized my Zip is open. Look like I had lot to watch about other and didn’t realize this (Shame!!).Who tells it is recession…..lounge is full….restaurant is full. Yesterday at Commercial Street all shops were full with people. Off course even I was there with my family. I am not able to understand this. May be this is the effect of having highest % of employable population less that 65 years.Well….only 10 minute left to take off. Final call. Let me rush now. Oh shit! Computer Is not shutting down. Carry the lap top and open lap top bag on one hand ……. Passport and boarding pass on other. I am mad…never though writing can get so additive. Shameek you are the culprit. You got me into this. Now people have to read this bad grammer.Flight is not full. I got my exit seat. I am off to sleep. Told the attendednt no to my fruit plater. I don’t eat anything else on flight. I hate the preservatives in the food.Bye for now. Will see talk to you soon.ZZZZZZZZFlight landed in Singapore. It is 6.30 in Singapore. My mind tells me it is 3.30 in the morning. Collected my stuff and myself up got up…walked out. Singapore airport…as beautiful as she ever was. She is beautiful. My flight to Beijing is in next 2 hours. Need to go to Terminal 3 gate B9. Got into train. Reached T3. Walked along stores purchased my power converter which will work with my Indian power chord.
B9……..lot sof tourist families…..father , mother, brother, wife, son, daughter, brother in law, sister in law…….group old travelers…..families….honeymooners….etc etc……………….aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…………who says it is recession. Who is wrong…what is real?Got into Flight…..didn’t get sleep. I got up……surfed channels. Watched “Dasvidyaian” (not sure I am spelling it right). I got my Fruit platter. This time I was hungry.Survived the 7 hour flight. Landing was terrible. Got out. Got into immigration chk in. Hurrah…..for the first time I filled he imigartion form in Singapore airport itself. Got my turn. He chked double time if at it was me on the passport…with my ever changing hair and beard styles.Collected my baggage. My new bag. It was neat. Went to taxi stand. Got int taxi. Hotel address is in English. He doesn’t understand. My phone didn’t work. He called the hotel number. Hollalya! He got the address. Went their …..chked in.
Will continue later once I get to Beijing Train station. Everything else is official. Doesn’t make sense to document. No photos . wait till I go to Railway station.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Way it works in Corporates - Lagori



Way it works in Corporate is more of Indian ancient rural game called “lagori”.
1. Make two teams of equal number on each team. Get hold of a rubber ball (For maximum pain factor) or make one using cloths rolled around a stone.
2. Have a toss (coin or yes-no on a hand with stone) and decide between the playing and defending teams.
3. Arrange a pile of flat stones in the form of a pyramid.This will be normally done by the defending team to ensure that structure is resistant to casual hits by a ball.
4. One of the players from the playing team will take an aim at the structure from a predefined distance. He has 3 chances to hit it. If he can't, another person from the same team will try his hand. If no one can hit the pile, then the team is said to be out and has to defend .
5. Once the pile is disturbed by the ball, the playing team has to redo the pile while dodging the ball thrown at them by the defending team. This is not easy because of a keeper(!!) standing near the pile, defending it .
6.If the ball hits any of the playing team, then they would be out and the defending team gets the chance to play.
7.If the playing team manages to reconstruct the pile without getting hit, then they score and will get another chance as the playing team.At the end of the day, Lagori was a game of simple rules, hurt backs (courtesy of considerate defenders) and awesome fun.

As you can make out you are out if you don’t make the pyramid fall………..in the end you are you are out if you don’t fix the pyramid back into its shape.

This is pure game……. What can make you a winner at the start of the game will not make you a winner at the end of the game. You need move on with new strategies. I am not making this comparison with cynicism rather with positive note of ……. Playing with moving target and changing success factors is the way corporate works. That is what ensures maximizing revenue and optimizing operation cost.

After all………leadership is about…… bringing stability when things are unstable and creating instability when things stable…………RIGHT?

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

You can not enter prayer room wearing yesterday’s unwashed cloth….but can you enter prayer room wearing yesterdays soul.

“I don’t want to enter prayer room wearing my yesterday’s cloth…….doing so is not correct as per my religion tradition”

When I herd this it tickled my brain to think…..though I have heard this from child hood till date in different words in different place.
I never believed this to be true but followed it just to ensure not entangle with my parents religious emotions and later with my wife’s religious emotions.
But today I wanted to think about it………..and felt it is so right!!!!!
If we consider there is god in everyone…..when we actually offer our prayer sitting in front of gods idol we actually putting our life into the idol to offer pooja……..
If we take this further …… the idea of this practice of not entering pooja place wearing yesterday’s cloth must be to symbolize…….. Don’t enter the prayer room wearing yesterday’s soul.
We have to grow each day….new learning must get into our should every day every minute….every learning will clean the darkness of ignorance further……if you have not learnt anything from what you experienced yesterday than you are not clean enough to put your soul into prayer.

Negative Charity & Positive charity....


More you think about charity…..the more we get picture of some one giving something to a poor person. It somehow doesn’t make much sense to me.
It doesn’t make sense as:
1. As it assumes poor need charity
2. It assumes something is bad and need to be elevated to good

We need some attempts on creating positive charity…which focuses on:
1. Making good to better
2. Focusing on strengths of poor and channelizing it into sustainable earning mechanism
3. Focusing on weakness of rich and channelizing them to mitigate those weaknesses.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

India is on Yang (=light) side of the current recession?






Today I found a great analysis of current recession. It compared the current recession in US with Japan recession. Slides are great insight on what actually happened in US (without talking about usual stuff!) it dwells in macro economics with new perspective out side “text book economics”.
http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2009/04/richard_koo_on.html
What cached my attention is slide 32 (last but one slide!!!) which shows the where each country stands. India was on the Yang side of the recession getting pregnant for next bubble in sub continent. I have asked experts to help me to understand this better. I will keep you posted with more.



Something different but shows correlation.....but i am not sure...but worth looking at

Why we chose what we choose

Today I was watching some inspiring talks on TED. I was really intrigued by what understood for these 2 speeches. They were pretty old speeches done in 2004 & 2006. But had such a strong connection and relevance to current date or even to future.
In his speech Gilbert( http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html ) refers to synthetic happiness and led us to what Adam smith mentioned in “Theory of Moral Sentiments”.
It is truly the over rating the permanent situation lead us to the short sighted decision. This is true both for financial decision for choosing once investment or for choice in relationship or choices in life or even most of corporate decisions.
I recommend you to listen to the following lecture as well and visit below website.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Travel in rescission.....experiance unfolds

I met one of my friend from US last week. He was business travelling on economy class though he was at very high band. Yes…..travel restriction during recession is catching up. I have been always an economy and economic traveler……never claimed perdieum ….always went on actual expense reclaim basis…..stayed in serviced apartment……..went to modest restaurants…..kept my trips to only essential…..never consumed alcohol or entertained alcohol. Still………I travelled almost 70+ international travelled in last 6 years across 3 continents …….. Across 15+ countries.



But if you look market report they very upbeat about prospect of travel industry.


Back to actual subject….For me traveling was always a prudent spending. Coming from a lower middle class upbringing I always felt guilty about consuming any luxury.

In corporate the travel budget gets tightened during pre budget time. Today the Travel budget is tight due to market conditions. Very different situation than earlier.

For me this situation is boon in disguise.......I am 100% enjoying the time of non travel for past 3 months.....no one is seeing a very compulsive reason make me travel nor I am seeing very compulsive business reason to travel . But look like the time has come again ....I need to travel now to Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo,Singapore & Malaysia. As usual I am happy to cover this in 9 working days.

BUT...this time I want to make a change. Take cost cutting to next level . I am planning to travel with next level cost cut :
1. I am travelling by Train from Beijing to Shanghai
2. I am travelling from Malaysia to Singapore by Train
3. arrange travel in such a way to avoid lodging where ever possible.

So watch out some adventures stories and pictures about my train trips abroad.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

I learnt something more about apology…...courage!


Today morning I saw an email in my email box where some one sending an apology note for an incident which they thought occurred during one of our earlier meeting a fortnight back. I was unable to recollect any incident in the meeting which required an apology.
What intrigued me in the situation was courage and morality of some one senior to remember, reflect and act to apologies. That too in professional environment, where incident like this will go unnoticed if there was a situation where the person did some thing wrong …..As he/she perceived.
This has left very big mark on me today. Given my nature/attitude there were incident in my 18 year career I did crossed the thin line during meetings or email in a rush to get things done or convince someone he is wrong. But pot the incident though I reflect on my behaviors I have not shown courage to send an email apology.
I wrote back to the person about this learning I had from her email. Hope it will get perceived appropriately. In the end it was precious learning for me.

'from God to God' and 'prana prtistapane'


Yesterday night I was reading a book Christianity. In the chapter about Christian prayer it is mentioned that Christian worship is from God to God. Worship comes from God in two senses:



  • it focuses on who God is and what he has done

  • God himself puts into people's hearts and minds the desire for prayer and praises.

During my weekend Veda class, my Veda guru was explaining to me about prana prtistapane. This is ritual which we Hindus perform before we start pooja to an God Idol. He explained this ritual is about installing prana (life), which is the life energy of the deity, into the God Idol. I believe this is more way to recognize god in oneself and in every object.
Grossly....I feel both prayer coveys the same. While praying you are basically awakening the god in your self.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Valentines Day, Charlie Chaplin & terrorism……are we focusing civic activism on wrong issue.

Stimulus: A religious activist group wants to ban Valentines Day. http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20090211/818/tnl-valentine-s-day-was-non-event-in-ban.html
Result: All intellectuals take time to organize themselves and protest such move. Political parties go on statement rampage continually for 3 weeks. Youths come together and make “Pink Chaddi capihn” across the country. Some techno savvy group creates face book group attracting thousands of followers to join the “cause” to protest such great protest. Religious group went on further and support its stand in all possible manner. It believes this is make or break point for a thousand’s of year old culture.
Impact: Multiple sheets of newspapers loaded with news on this all over the country. Multiple channels devoting hours of satellite time on this “Breaking news”. Billion of SMS’s across the country. Thousands of web pages filled with this news. Political parties taking strong stand on their position with this subject.
Stimulus: Some film shooting unit wants to erect a 60+ feet statue of Charlie Chaplin in front of a temple in a village near Udupi. http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/16/stories/2009031656371300.htm
Result: Hell breaks loose….people oppose such thing for different reason….from religion of Charlie Chaplin to religion of people in that village to administrative issues about permission. And same set of youth group, Media, intellectuals & political parties get involved with same rigor as earlier incident.
Impact: Multiple sheets of newspapers loaded with news on this all over the country. Multiple channels devoting hours of satellite time on this “Breaking news”. Billion of SMS’s across the country. Thousands of web pages filled with this news. Political parties taking strong stand on their position with this subject.
Stimulus: News on front page of all major news paper about how all the money from pirated DVD market is flowing into terrorist funding. The report is supported by research. www.indianexpress.com/news/buying-pirated-dvd-you-could-be-helping-dcompany/431798/
www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_MG742.pdf
Result: The news doesn’t go beyond that date.
Impact: Nothing. Neither the Activist group which focused all their earlier effort in the name of saving country from western influence …….all the youth, intellectual, Media & Tech power who tried to save freedom of expression continue to buy the same DVD on the street to fill the bank account of terrorist funding.
Do they think the people who are watching are fools?…..who get carried away by these groups who try to convert their liberty of impression into larger manipulated freedom of expression?

If these groups who took stand by taking position and “Action” on either side of issue………to save larger interest of humanity or larger interest of the country…………..why are they not taking any stand and action on the real issues where real civic activism in required.
Can we do something?
1. On priority STOP purchase of pirated DVD’s
2. Avoid focusing our energy on misplaced civic activism which doesn’t serve any thing bigger than bringing some popularity to people who are involved in it.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Upcoming posts

1. My experiment with Six Sigma
2. Me and 海瑞士
3. Am I an expert
4. I want to teach
5. I want to give
6. I want to learn
7. Is my profession adding value to human kind?
8. Travel in rescission.....experiance unfolds
9. Do you know what happened today??!!
10. My trip from Beijing to Shanghai.......by train
11. My trip from KL to Singapore........by train

Food Food Food....



I love food.....if people think they don’t have live to have eat but rather eat to live. I am very clear I live to eat good food.

Let me give you my piece of philosophy on this...........food is the only material benefit for which you say enough. According to me that is a big thing according to me.........if your material focus is on is on something for which you will say enough than you are left with more satisfied mind to focus on other things. In today’s world, as long as you are focused and committed to do something than you will end up making material benefits.
Officially I am a vegetarian (I know my Dad and Mom don’t use internet so I can confess this on my blog). My family is hard core vegetarians…eating non vegetarian food is an unforgivable sin.
I have experimented on all types of food. I have tasted both vegetarian and non vegetarian food across the places where I have travelled. I have tasted enough to remember the taste. Travel has enabled me to do that as well. I have traveled almost 70 times across the globe touching 14 countries and 3 regions. Asia is my most destined region due to my work focus.

I have tasted from deserts made of Frog sperm in China to rattle sake sizzler in Arizona. I have never tasted red meat of big animals .

My Ganesha

I spent last Ganesha festival with one full day of work to create the Ganesh mantap inside my house. I did the front side Rangoli as well myself.
That is the kind of passion, love, attachment and last but not the least...Bhakti...I have for Ganesha. This is not today but this is teh way from the age of 3...I am 40 year old now.
People say I have Ganesha images & Idols all over in my house. But I am not sure if the I have Ganesha all over in my house or I am all over in Ganesha's house.

I have nearly 40 Ganesha Idols in my leaving room, one Mysore paint of Ganesha presented by my friend, a wooden carved Ganesha presented by another friend, a Ganesha mural at the entrance door. Not to forget 27 Small Ganesha Idols which are from Nepal ( I purchased it in Bangkok for a very good rate) made of pancha loha.

My both Names are named after Ganesh.....my house in Yeshwantpur in called Benka also the house in Malleshwaram is named Benaka.

Ganesha has his hands in all my success and given strength to face all challenges I had in my life.

I am confident he will continue to do the same all through my life in future as well.