Passion of Life!!!

Life is a jigsaw puzzle, people normally gets confused and subdued while facing the difficult situations. In my opinion, they have to change the mindset, to look at the difficulties in a slightly different manner. They should understand that everyone adds to his or her knowledge while solving the queries, while answering the questions raised by others or even by their own mind & while working practically to solve the issue. Learning is greater, when difficulty is more. Practical learning is the easiest and the best way to learn a thing. Theoritically anyone can learn to drive a bike or a car, its simple, start the ignition, press the clutch, press the accelerator slightly while releasing the clutch and steer with the help of steering wheel. But practically, its altogether different, once u learn it practically, your hands and legs move with reflex action and produce the desired result of moving the vehicle in any situation easily. So, learn to face the situation and add to your knowledge. I like to share a small question, I answered on Linkedin recently, to showcase my attitude towards life..

Q - What's your passion?
Asked by Ann Tracy Mueller 4 days ago in Career Management Open
Your public answer:
“My Passion is just to "Add Value to every Work I Do" and that too on every day basis. This passion has made my Life exciting, as I never neglect anything or anyone. Be it my work or my personal Life, I enjoy them both. I have learnt to live life with almost zero stress, as I am able to work hard with passion to produce the desired result and even I reach home ontime to embrace my wife and kid. I understand my responsibilities towards both my work and my family and so able to balance between them easily. By trying to Add Value on daily basis, all the results keep on improving without much effort. Try it and enjoy the Life!!!”

Teach more, Learn More

In corporate world, I have come across many people, well skilled, well toned up practically to even smell the slightest problem in the process and have ready solution for all such problems. But, when it comes to sharing the knowledge, they become introvert and shy away from the responsibility of teaching the young recruits to face the cruel customers. They think, they will lose the edge over others, if they impart knowledge. In my opinion, its their short-sightedness which prevents them to do so and its also their lack of confidence in their own abilities, which holds them back from becoming the true leaders and mentors. By not sharing the knowledge, they take on the burden of each task on their own shoulders, which means they lack the value of delegating the work to their juniors. So, many a times, they get entangled themselves to small pity jobs and do not have time to look at the big picture. In my opinion, it hampers their own journey towards the Top because they make themselves Almighty Specialists for a task that even management do not want them to allocate more or greater responsibility.

I am in support function for last 19 yrs and known as "Free Consultant", not only for Related technical expertise but also for any personal problem among my friends and colleagues. I know for sure that each time, I give a suggestion to anyone, it also increases my own sphere of knowledge. Its like adding words or thoughts or knowledge or problem solving skills to your own database of inner Library and you can depend upon same ideas to sort out your own problems, many a times later on in Life. You do not have to think again of an idea in case u have suggested something earlier to a friend for similar issue and apart from that u must have known the result of that idea, so u can even change a bit accordingly.

The above thoughts started when I had answered a Question on Linkedin and the same was selected as a Good Answer, the same is shared below, enjoy the lanes of my thoughts..

Q - What has been your most valuable reward as a mentor? Mentee?
Asked by Vaughn Akins 7 days ago in Mentoring Closed
Your answer was selected as a Good Answer
Your public answer:
“By sharing my experiences, I do mentor many but more than that I learn myself new things, my self confidance increases. Above all, the best possible reward comes in the shape of glint in the eyes of the so called students, which reflects the gain in their confidence to handle things in much better manner. Their appreciating words do create a flutter in the mind and pump up the adrenaline to impart the knowledge in the best possible manner. I enjoy it..”

Add Value

Most of the time, we have seen people getting fired day in and day out, for the faults they commit, while carrying out their duties. Its very normal for humans to make mistakes. Some make very little mistakes, some have a habit of being the frontrunners in making errors. Apart from failing to perform up to the standards or expectations, people sometimes do tend to take the firing by the senior management in a different manner and start losing their self confidance and so fall in a kind of trap of self destruction. People should understand that there are always limitations of infrastructure, which holds up the processes and financially its not possible for every business organisation to build up so much backups to avoid any mishaps. Above all, customers at the receiving end have a right to shout at the every moment of breakdown, as his desires of getting the idle, ultimate production at much more than the rated speed, shatters at every breakdown. Every customer wants to wipe off the word "Downtime" from the dictonary of this high speed working environment.

People at the receiving end should take heart and should have to build heart to accept the blame of not performing up to the expectations of the esteemed paying customers. This does not mean that they should not worry about the mistakes and stop performing. It simply means that try to give the best possible out of you and then leave the rest for the almighty God to take care. One should learn to add value to the job he or she is performing, every moment for the best results, rest is not under his or her control.

I like to share a Question & answer from Linkedin, which invoked these thoughts out the lanes of my mind, enjoy it..if u can...

Q - Recruitment is a thankless job... Agree or Disagree?
Asked by Vineet Thakur [LION] vineetthakur@hotmail.com 6 days ago in Staffing and Recruiting Open
Your public answer:
“Life is like that. A person is known by the errors he or she makes. Even while studing, the person making it to the Top is the one who made minimum errors, 99.99% also means there is still an error involved. Similarly, many a times, a person is appreciated just because his or her colleagues makes much more errors in a day than that particular person. I am in a support function for last 19 yrs and always heard shouting noises from management and customers for the 2% of the complaints not solved on time, no one even bothers to look at the infrastructure provided by the management or the reasons how the other 98% of the cases are solved on time. I have learnt to happily accept my fault when I fail to deliver as per the expectations of others, everyone should do it to enjoy the life. Just try to give ur best shot in every move and add value to the every job u r doing and try to make minimum mistakes in Life, rest is beyond ur control at present and the same failure is a learning path for ur future. Enjoy it..”

Advantage of being a Delhiete..

A few days back, while browsing through open questions, I read a question about cities which inspires. The moment I started writing, my thought process completely transformed from what I had planned to put down. It really even surprised me, how the mind moves from one thought to another while unfolding the new unknown vistas. Sometimes, I feel like writing is an art which develops an individuals mind to wander into sky and unfold the mysteries of unknown... I am not finding exact words to define the feelings. I like to share the question and answer, to showcase the movement of mind from one thought to another..

Q - What are the most inspiring cities around the world?
Asked by Sharon Reus 3 days ago in Business Dining and Entertainment Open
Your public answer:
“Every one of us has heard that the Beauty lies in the eyes of the Beholder. Similarly, each bit of space on this earth beautifully created by God and destructed by Man, inspires everyone of us attached to that bit and make us learn something new, if we want to..finally its our observation power and learning capabilities, which creates new ideas, not the place. The Law of gravity was inspired by an apple falling towards the earth, its the observation which matters, not the place, as the apples are falling almost all around the world. So, I love my place of birth, New Delhi, the capital of India. This is a city of extremes, too hot in summer, too cold in winters, too much rain in rainy season, except snow, we see almost all possible seasons, starting with winter, fall, spring, summer,rain, autumn and winter again. Even the restaurants, pubs, discos, theatres are either of 5 star quality or absolute cheap dirt...Life is like that in every aspect and we learnt to adapt to all such situations easily. May be thats the reason, I am adaptable enough to fit in every situation..”

Enjoy the game of adapting to be the best fit..

The Eye of God

All of us receive many a chain letters from our near and dear ones, normally I do tend to break the chain at my end and do not forward the letters to anyone. But, Yesterday, I recd such a mail with caption "The Eye of God" from one of my old classmate Pankaj Sehgal. It is a real picture taken by NASA via hubble telescope. Its awesome, so enjoy the same..

Balance between Work & Home.

A few days back, I had answered a Question on above topic, the answer is selected the Best answer in the category. I like to share the Q&A, its as follows -

Q - How is your work life affecting your children?
Asked by Dimple Kaur 3 days ago in Mentoring Closed
Your answer was selected as Best Answer
Your public answer:
“I can also say that I do take care of my family's needs and desires in the best possible manner. But, I know with the country developing with a fast pace, the financial matters are turning the lives of many, upside down as they are bound to follow the sun to earn their livelihood and so the stress to perform and succeed at every level force many to spend long hours at their workplace and so the quality time spent with the family is going down. In my opinion, such persons should plan their day well in advance and limit the commitments for the day to a level where all the same can be taken care of within 6-8 hrs, so that he or she should reach home on time for most of the days. for those involved at a level, where it is not possible to come home before midnight, they should plan a week off every quarter to match with some off days at their children's school and take the family on an outing to a nearby spot or may be to a resort of their choice. Also, whenever with the family, let the children decide the restaurant and the food they want to eat, allow ur mind to rest and allow them the joy of independence of decision making. Family is also a priority and add them on the meeting list/ to do list and schedule it daily, to enjoy the life!!!”

Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic

Last Saturday, we decided to go and watch a movie and have dinner outside. My son suggested a new movie "De Taali", but when I looked at the ticket availability, most of the cinemas are running just one show and everywhere tickets were easily available with most of the cinemas empty. Thanks to the technology, you can judge such minute things in advance and change your plans accordingly. It simply means that the film is not good. So, I decided for "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic", a Yash Raj film directed by Kunal Kohli.

As we settled in Audi 01 of PVR, Vikaspuri, the movie started after a usual ads and trailers. The movie started with a little boy asking her mother for permission to go and play with a girl, clearly indicating that his luv will desert him shortly as happens in all Bollywood Movies and the same happenned as the girl moved out with her parents to some other city. Next scene showed an ambulance and the boy's mother left him & the boy moved to a Hostel. The pace seemed very fast and good as the director had not consumed much time to build the character of the main hero, devoid of love from the women in his life. Within a short time, the story comes to the actual point, wherein the main hero Saif Ali Khan met with an accident and in the process the occupants of other car dies. Next, during the final hearing of case, Saif arrives with Ameesha Patel at the court. For a change, Ameesha has a short supporting role and the dresses she wore are quite short & sexy. Overall, the role was good and she had done justice to the role. The Judge, for a change, gave an unusual sentence and asked Saif to take care of kids of the deceased till they attain the age of 18, with a condition that in case the kids do not like to stay with Saif, he has to undergo a sentence for 20 yrs.

The kids are of mischievious nature and do not like to live with anyone and also they hate Saif, as he was the killer of their parents. The kids decide to take revenge with Saif by not cooperating with him, so that the judge can force him to undergo the sentence.

Next, God is shown taking the routine meeting and consulting his fairies about the problems faced by the people of earth. Its good to see a change in attitude of the director from the normal routine, as he showed the God in modern day suit with all kind of latest gizmos to access the problems of people on earth instaed of Ramlila style dresses and head gear. Rishi Kapoor in white suit with a short French beard, in the role of God looked quite smart. In between the scenes, when people remarked Oh God!, the God (Rishi Kapoor) actually comes in the form of a sweeper or helper and actually ask the person about the problem, but the person just ignores him. It clearly indicates the message from the director that may be the God comes to us whenever we think of him but we could not recognise him and sometimes rebuke him. A good thought on the part of director. As the kids were not in a mood to cooperate with Saif, the God decides to send one of his fairy "Geeta (Rani Mukherjee) to his rescue and to unite the kids with him. At the start during the casting, the name was shown as Rani Mukerji, may be a change of spellings because of Astrology. Whatever the spellings, Rani also showed the talent of her acting, the role was a bit of comedy and a bit of drama and she did complete justice to the role. The parts where she used her magic to take care of kids first and them help all to get praise added a lot of humour to the film. All the four kids choosen for the roles are good and shown the talent. Initially, along with the kids, a dog and a pet rat is also shown, but surprisingly, both disappeared shortly with absolutely no role in the movie, may be the director editted the scenes later on. Later on, Saif has to go abroad for his business and he has to take the kids along with him as per the court ruling. There the kids as part of the revenge factor, decide to get even with the kids of Saif's partner and so a fight starts off between Saif and his partner. Saif defended the kids in the process and so all the kids forgave him after understanding his genuine feelings towards their safety. In the end, as usual for a Bollywood movie, the Madam fairy "Rani" falls in love with Saif and decides to stay on earth & the God gives his permission to make it a happy ending.

Overall, the movie is a good package for an outing with the complete family, a good movie specially for the kids. In between, some scenes are put in to spread the message of humanity, doing good work and also telling that Sikhs and Hindus are part of a same family. Saif also showed that with age he is growing/maturing as an actor to carry the burden of a Drama film as a solo hero, the role was quite serious with almost no smile on his face. Saif maintained that grim expression throughout the film except the last few scenes. In last few scenes, the way he picked up the little girl clearly showed that as a father, Saif is at home in doing so. Go and watch it and enjoy the outing with your family.

Need to Adapt

Yesterday, while browsing through the open Questions, I came across a Question which simply asked to suggest two things which are developed independently without the second thing in mind, but later on both the things are combined to get a new thing, which is very useful and now they are inseparable.

Below is the Q & A -

What is a good example of two things that are 'meant to be together'?
Asked by John Rooney 3 days ago in Advertising, Computers and Software Open
Your public answer:
“Sales and Support, both teams work to achieve their goals but the moment they compliment each other, its a win win situation for all. Obama and Hillary are the two persons that fit perfectly, as they are leaders in their individual capacity but they have to join their efforts to win the presidential race against John Mccain..”

There are many such things which fit in the answer like camera & phone are combined to make a cell phone with camera and nowadays, almost no one wants to buy cellphone without a camera. But, individually, think of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both were fighting for the presedential nomination to be a Democratic candidate for US presidential race. They were accussing each other like anything, digging out their gory past and writing off each other at every opportunity. But, now within few months, when it is clear that Barack Obama will fight to be the US President, both Obama and Hillary Clinton are praising each other in front of the crowds, and efforts are ON to make Hillary Clinton to be the candidate for Vice President. The main motive is to beat the Republican candidate, Jon McCain. So, look at the level of adaptability shown by both the groups, in understanding their standing against the rival and they all joined hands to be a one party to take on the other party rather than remaining a group against the second group and allowing the other party to win easily because of inter party rivallary.

So, in Life, everything is possible, one has to understand the facts of today, forsee the events of future and plan according to same. Do not remain rigid and try to stick to the words you may had uttered in some different circumstances, always be prepared to say sorry and change the course of Life, to be successful. Those who get success are counted and remembered. The success stories are told and retold for generations, no one remembers the unlimited failed candidates, who worked hard to reach the goal but failed to attain success.

Be Adaptable, attain success and be counted..enjoy the game of Life!!!

Luck plays an Important role in Life

The famous Bhagvadgita says

फल की इच्छा न कर, बस कर्म कीये जा

It means that as a human you should just do the good work and leave the rest to the almighty God to give you the desired result. Most of us will not agree that we should not worry about the result. In this cruel world, the end result is the most important factor for which we all slug it out and then how can we leave the result in the hands of the destiny. But, ultimately the destiny or Luck do matters. Recently, I had started spending my free time in answering some of the questions on the Linkedin network without caring about the subject or my expertise. I just answer the questions which creates a flutter in my mind and is related more to Life's Philosophy or Self Descipline or to the Basics of Life. While doing so, a few days back, I received a mail confirming that my answer is choosen as the Best answer for the question posted and so I become an expert in "Advertising, Freelancing & Contracting". I was really surprised. I quickly browsed back to Linkedin to find the question and the answer given by all the other respondants and I found out the reason for my success. I like to share the Q & A, after which I will share the basic aspect because of which my answer was selected as the Best among all.

What 3 features of a brochure advertising the provision of services makes you respond positively?
Asked by Nicos Sarantis (nicossarantis@googlemail.com) 20 days ago in Advertising, Freelancing and Contracting Closed
Your answer was selected as Best Answer
Your public answer:
“1. Clarity of USP & Price.

2. Comparison with similar competetor's products.

3. Reviews of major (acknowledged) users”
When I checked the other answers, I found out that only two people responded to the question put up and among those two, mine was selected as the best answer. So, its the limitation of respondants which makes me the expert in the category. So, its the luck which factors in to give you success many a times even when you don't deserve it or you even don't desire it in your dreams. There are many instances in our life where we do face such situations and we should be able to understand the luck factor and always try to give our 100% to the work without worrying about the outcome. The outcome is important but you may not get the best desired result even if some one better than you is there to compete on that particular day and you may win even after a disastarous peformance if the others perform worse than you.

So, take the chances and always work hard without looking at the oponents and back your heart and chip in with 100% of the effort and leave the rest to the almighty. You can win in any situation..thats Life..enjoy the chances...options can be turned into oppurtunities.

Best Way to Relax

Yesterday, around 11 am in office, one of my colleague entered and sarcastically commented " Bhupinder, I heard that you reach office by 8 in the morning?". I fully understood the meaning by his tone and a gentle smile on his face. I simply replied that I consider office as my home so I have the liberty to come and go at any time, it does not matter. So, I just avoided the conflicting situation with a little bit of homour. But in real terms, only I know the advantage of coming early. Also, I know the stress the people who come late, take while driving on busy streets and then finding the parking slot and then making excuses to their supervisers, ..only God knows why....In the evening, I found an interesting question, similar to the situation described above and I answered the same. I like to share the Q & A below, read, understand n try to grasp, if possible..

WHAT SHOULD I DO TO TAKE SOME REST ????
Asked by Nitin Jain 19 hours ago in Mentoring Open
Your public answer:
“The best way to take rest is to finish ur work ontime. Not Easy.... Try this.....Instead of a office cab, drive to your office in ur vehicle, try to reach office at least one hr prior to the start time. By doing this, u r in control from minute 1. After reaching office, ask for a good refreshing cup of coffee, enjoy it while ur laptop boots up. First thing is to finish reading all ur mails in the inbox, do not answer any, just keep the mails to be answered open and rest all can be read and closed. Then, open ur organiser and list out the work pending with u including scheduled meetings, mark the priorities and then make out what max u can finish today. Make a target for work and a target for time to leave for Home. Start answering open mails and try to finish work one by one while browsing the new mails recd during the day. Try not to indulge in gossip sessions, cut down on smoking time, lunch time, etc. Try to leave office after spending 8 hrs. Do not try to reach for ur laptop at home. In my opinion, u can relax at home after going through this regularly in the sweet company of ur family. Learn to set priorities and able to achieve those priorities within set time frame. Enjoying the Life with ur family also should be one of the priority..Enjoy the Day.”

Life without a Laptop

I talked about the best ways to respond to the mails received in my last post, basically it was to prevent undue stress. As with the advent of technology, people stay connected even at odd hours and the moment they get to see some mail asking for info, they get stressed because of the unavailability of data or the people holding that info. It is always better to divide the official hrs and personal hrs and try to take rest, so that one can rejuvenate and work more harder, once he is back on official task.

Yesterday, on Sunday, my wife was busy doing the usual morning chores of preparing food, dusting the house and doing the laundry, my son is away at his maternal grandmother's house spending his vacations, I had some free time. First, I browsed through the newspaper and read some articles, after that I wanted to check my emails but I avoided my laptop and instead picked up the TV Remote. Usually, with my son at home, remote is his forte, he has to watch all kinds of cartoons and wrestling matches and he really does not allow me even to watch News for good amount of time. So, here I am with Remote and no one to disturb me. I browsed through some of the news channels and finally settled for Sony which was showing Boogie Woogie. I know this is a program running for last 8 or 9 yrs and actually this is the program which started the trend of song and dance competetions on TV. Javed Jaffery is the centre of attraction besides good dance sequences. I really love the dance routines shown by some young participants, so I settled for it. It was a very good show and during elimination time Javed read out two names of the candidates which could not succeed to match and should be left out for furthur competetion, but suddenly one of other successful candidates came forward and told everyone that he works at a school as a dance teacher and his principal strictly told him to either report back to school or lose the job, as they can not wait any furthur for the dance teacher. So, he wanted to drop out of the competetion, as he had no other means of livlihood and does not want to lose his job. Everyone was surprised, but thats the reality of this India, where no one wants to support an artiste even when he is winning and can make a name for the school, which may help the school to attract more children. Ultimately, his request was accepted and one of the losing candidate was allowed to join again. Such a pity...

After that, they showed repeat telecast of the new laughter challenge - IV, which is judged by Shatrughan Sinha along with Navjot Singh Sidhu, it was just introduction round where the old winners introduced the new candidates and some acts thrown in here and there, even the young lady hosting the show is new, nothing special only the teeths are visible and the smile seems to be fake. Lets see how it shapes up...

After that, they showed Ek Shaam Mastaani See, hosted by Mini Mathur, same old Chulbulee, ever smiling & gracious. She used to host music programs at MTV. The singer was Shankar Mahadevan, known for his song breathless. He started well with a tapping number which was picturised on Salman Khan. In between they even showed some recordings of messages from the people associated with the Bollywood. First message was from Karan Johar, who apart from telling good things told that now Amitabh Bachchan always wants the voice of Shankar Mahadevan for his shots, thats incredible and speaks about the quality of singing talent this person holds, as Amitabh is known for his singing abilities also apart from acting. Shankar was accompanied by his wife and two sons. He even sang the song Maa from Tarre Zameen Par along with his son. It was a good hour spent, just pure enjoyment...

After it , again one more episode of Ek Shaam Mastanee See, this time the singer was Sunidhi Chauhan. Another hr passed by without even blinking. its just pure enjoyment with songs like Crazy Kiya re, Tuk Tuk Dekta Hai Kya, and many more. The best was Lakad from Omkara, the song really showed the depth in Sunidhi's voice and the control of emotions a singer can fill in the words of the songs for all of us to feel and enjoy. Even the song from Krazy 4, the famous item song picturised on Rakhi Sawant, Dekhta Hai Kya, this song is known for the dance moves of Rakhi Sawant, but after listening the song from Sunidhi without any dancer at the background I can assure that the song became famous because of the voice and the way it was sung and lastly Rakhi Sawant added just the Glamour. Even without Rakhi Sawant, this song could have reached the same heights.

By the time, this program ended, it was lunch time and time to savour the delicious Bitter Gaurds deep fried in oil on low simmered heat, so I closed the TV session.

But really, I enjoyed the time without being connected to the network, which most of the people can not do nowadays, try staying away from the network and live the life which is essential to rejuvenate for the NBD ( Next Business Day) and enjoy the moments...

Communication & Public Speaking

This week while browsing through the open questions on Linkedin, I came across a question which is quite simple but while answering, it gave the feeling of self discipline, etiquettes reqd to showcase oneself in public life. My Answer was choosen as the best answer in the category. The question and the answer is shared below -

Q-How do you manage your email?
Asked by Mike Edwards 5 days ago in Communication and Public Speaking Closed
Your answer was selected as Best Answer
Your public answer:
“In my opinion, its simple. All the mails are directed to me and so I am responsible for answering them. I receive almost 120 mails in a single day, with almost 60% as just the updates. But, I do read all the mails including updates seriously as I know no one other than me can make out the action to be taken in case something is missing in a particular update. I do keep a scrap text window open to keep on writing the subjects/mails to be replied later on. In case u think someone else should be reading and replying most of ur mails then what value addition u r doing by receiving those mails, better ask the senders to send the mails to that person only. He can come and take ur advice if needed anytime. Regarding the time to reply, keep it simple, don't read mails when in a meeting, when on a dinner table and when spending time with ur family at a baseball game. Once u don't read them, the urge to respond will not be there. But never delay the response once u have read the mail and u know the data to be sent, for mails u do not have data, simply forward the same to person who holds the data with a cc to the sender, so that the data can flow easily between the person holding it and the person requiring the same, without ur intervention. The technology of email is an addition to the ways u express ur feeling to anyone, so don't be bogged down by the etiquetes of email transmission, whatever u can say to a person on his or her face should be sent by emails also, be it simple exchange of data, dirty jokes or the snaps u enjoyed during ur growing years. Just do not send all these stuff to the persons u do not know very well, it should not be a spam circulated to all n sundry, just keep it to ur very personal group and enjoy all the little amount of excitement u r entitled to..in this Life...enjoy the game!!!”

Summary of Indian premier League T20 Cricket

• Great Script for any Bollywood Masala Movie.
• The best Kind of strategy.
• Execution - better than expected by the planner - Lalit Modi.
• Leadership Skills - Shane Warne.
• Self belief - Jaipur's team - Rajasthan Royals - started as 8th and finished as 1st.
• Enduring the pressure - all the newcomers playing n excelling in front of dignified International superstars.
• Game is to be played as a Game only, someone has to lose at the end of the day - ShahRukh Khan partied and splashed gifts on his players even after defeats.
• Luck - Always pray for the best - Rain can play spoilsport in the best of the plans.
• Now is the time to say cheers ...without the cheerleaders... Try to inculcate the Basics of Life in any project & Enjoy the Game of Life!!!

Changing Air Traffic

As a frequent flyer, I am observing a change everyday in things and people associated with the air travel. Even the vendors associated with the air travel industry are changing. Many a times, on occupying a seat usually during the afternoon, I find only the regional newspapers in most of the seat pocket, surprising but no one in this regional newspaper industry had even given a single thought about distribution in the travel sector about 10 yr back in India. No one could have imagined the shape of travel industry would change so drastically in last 10 yrs. Even five or six years back, the air travel used to be a luxury, now its a necessity atleast for the corporate world to save the time & to make the world a smaller place. About 80% of traffic consist of people who are travelling officially and most of the rest are trying to cash in on the discounted cost associated with the air travel. So, habits are also changing accordingly. When we travel so much by air for our official travel, even for personal travel, the first choice is always the air travel, if possible to afford. With all this change, all the airlines are lined up to woo the customers and increase their share of the traffic. In this competetion to grab the traffic, almost all the airlines are running at a hugh loss, but somehow they are managing the show till somewhat poor airlines loss the money and the appetite to fight for survival and finish up on the market to be grabbed by big fishes. To fit in this race, I can observe the changes these airlines are going through in every possible way, to save the cost and keep their noses above water, avoiding the financial bankruptcy. Yesterday, as I came down the premier lounge inside the Mumbai Airport, I observed a young lass moving pointlessly in the airport, looking confused, trying to spend time, trying to hide her emotions of fear and shyness. Her dress easily indicated that she is working with the Jet Airways as an air hostess but somehow she was alone, may be not able to reach on time to be a part of the crew and trying to locate her crew members to join in. She must be in her late teens but the face and the size zero body gave her an impression of not more than class Xth student. As I boarded the plane I was greeted by same young girl with innocent looks in her eyes trying again to hide the shyness. Almost every crew member looked very young and inexperienced and under pressure to perform, to compete and to serve the ever growing demands of the customers. All the airlines in their jist to compete are reaching out to the non metros, to much younger and to much more inexperienced people for the coveted jobs to save on the cost of their salaries. While writing this, I can also understand that in one way it is helping the people of non metros and smaller states to get the jobs and join the mainstream of bigger cities, but the innocence and pressure on their faces do justify a need to develop some good kind of training modules, to take care of these traits of these employees, so that they can perform easily without thinking about the pressure and so does not risk their healths because of such rigourous routines. During the flight I observed that a person was always asking for water or juice, etc and almost all the time, the air hostess returned with same and unable to find this demanding person and delivered the things to a wrong person, this person was quite annoyed and oogling at the airhostess with his eyes wide open and the airhostess always said sorry and returned with things again. I don't think why the training staff does not train them to note down the seat number of the customer asking for something instead of trying to recognise the faces. This will save each of the crew from many such situations and they can work at peace. Also, in almost all the airlines, the boy crew members are generally of 5'10'' or 6' height but the girl crew members are of only 5' or 5'2'', very rarely I find girl crew members of 5'4'' or more. I think with growing demands of this industry the HR involved with air travel industry should look at this anamoly and try to rectify the same by appointing girls with slightly more height and body weight. Nowadays most of the people try to squeeze in all their bags as inflight baggage to avoid delays to wait for the checked in baggage to collect on arrival and so the space is jampacked and these girl crew members do face a lot of problems in adjusting all this stuff in the overhead compartments. Things are changing and also the habits of passengers, I had came across some unusual habits of passengers which I think can be avoided easily by them, I will try to jot down some of same in next post,,,,,till then enjoy the changing life...

Change in Life

It's been almost 45 days that I had posted a new blog, in between a dear friend also suggested towards an article showing the amount of money involved into posting blogs and adding to the revenue earned. Thanks to the buddy for indicating the same and clearly showing the interest in the blogs I compose and put up here. I know there are very few who read my blog, but I do not have any regrets. I do not write for money or to show my hold on the subject, the real reason for me to write a blog is just to spend some free time, so I do put up something on my mind whenever I am free and whenever I have my laptop with me and no one else to talk to and no other work to do. I had started the blog writing, only when my office was temporarily closed and I had been working from home and many a times the network used to be down and I had no other option but to either chat or do something else. I know, I am old enough to waste time in loitering around in chat sessions without enjoying the stuff so initially I started by creating an orkut account at this age of 40 and then refreshed my Linkedin profile and in between I came across a blog about Life which I do not like, so I put up an answer to his blog. As I was thinking about the answer posted about that blog, the mind clicked about writing a blog myself and so, I started it, never thinking about the money to be earned or the frequency at which I will be able to add up the content. My life is like that and I enjoy the same, I enjoy the changing time and I love to adapt according to the time. I do believe in setting the priorities and work only to accomplish those priorities within the set time frame. In between, I do forget about the little things like this blog or may be I do not allow my mind to add stress by thinking about such things which are really not important.

इन राहोंन पर , चलते चलते

ज़िंदगी कट जाए गी , यूँही बदलते बदलते

So, change according to the time and enjoy the changing time..

Why a Sikh is a Happiest Person on this Universe!!!

Venue – Jet Airways Lounge, Place – New Delhi Airport, India, Date – Apr 9th, 2008, Day – Wednesday, Time – 0440 hrs. As I completed the check-in formalities and settled in the lounge for my 0550 hr flight to Hyderabad, I was going through my cell’s old messages. It was time for some house keeping, deleting some of the old inbox and outbox messages. Most of the messages, I noticed were regarding the wishes sent out or received during the festival of Holi. I observed one particular thing that almost all the messages were directed to Almighty God praying for the enjoyment, good health & wealth for the receiver of the message and his or her family members. We do the same on every festival repeatedly for all the near and dear ones. So, the festivals are the only times when we pray for others, as normally we always ask God for granting unlimited personal wishes and wealth. We are always self-centric during our prayers most of the time.
This fact even leads me to think that as Indians, we have too many festivals and so we do pray often for others and I think these prayers are well directed from the heart without any feelings of ill thoughts and so God must be taking good care of the persons to whom these wishes are directed. Going further in my thoughts in this direction, I realized that most probably, in India Sikhs are the people who have maximum number of festivals. Apart from the normal north Indian festivals, they do celebrate twenty GuruPurab’s on the occasion of Birthdays and Martyr Days of their Ten Sikh Gurus, starting from Shri Guru Nanak Dev Jee to Shri Guru Gobind Singh Jee. All of us know, how well their Guru Purab’s are celebrated and each Sikh and Punjabi does take part in the celebrations and processions during those days.
So, by having maximum number of festivals, Sikhs must be sending maximum wishes to others and similarly receiving equal amount of wishes from near and dear ones. May be this is the reason behind “Why Sikhs are the most happiest persons on this universe”, they even have guts to enjoy the jokes directed at themselves apart from enjoying the unlimited Patiala pegs in the evening.
Keep the spirit ON, do keep on sending messages and keep receiving the same to be on the good looks of the Almighty God. Enjoy the Technology and enjoy the festivals… enjoy the Life!!!

Be a Team Player

Venue – Hotel The Best Inn, Place – Kolkata, India, Date – Mar 11th, 2008, Day – Tuesday, Time – 0700 hrs. As usual for me, yesterday again took a morning flight at 0615 to Kolkata from Delhi. But the surprise part is that the fog has returned to Delhi once again. Delhi is one of the very few places on the universe, which experiences the maximum number of seasons. Except snow, almost every season is experienced by the people of Delhi. Be it long and hot Summer, chilly and foggy Winter, Rainy season which brings all kinds of chaos and water logging, Fall season which teaches us that whatever comes (born) should go (die) making the way for the new ones, Spring season to bring in the new refreshing colours to every street and gardens of Delhi and the Autumn which brings the respite from the long summer. May be with changing Global Warming scenario, even after some years, Delhi may see some kind of snow also. In last few yrs, during the chilly winters, in fact people had witnessed some kind of snowflakes around South Delhi and regions of Gurgaon. So, keep your fingers crossed, anything and everything can happen in this ever-changing Beautiful World.

As my flight took off at 0615 hrs, it was quiet dark and foggy at ground, but the moment aero plane passed the clouds, the scene changed from dark to white to mustard yellow and then a bit reddish orange and finally it was completely normal day with full bright sun up there knocking on the windows of the aero plane। The scene was awe-inspiring. At that point, I looked below and we were floating well above the clouds, which were looking like cotton balls from above. Give it a thought, what are these clouds made off, just the water vapours and water droplets. But surprisingly, these tiny water droplets have the power to stop the almighty Sunrays, which have the power to burn things up and which brighten up all the planets, which are millions of miles away from Sun. It is not the power of just these water droplets but it is actually the power of TEAMWORK, how well they come together and move in a unified manner to become dense clouds and able to stop the rays of the sun.

बूँद बूँद से सागर बने, कण कण से संसार

मिल कर काम करो, सीमाएं हैं अपरम्पार

TEAMWORK is one of traits people have to learn in a big way to go through the chores of daily official life. A good Team can do wonders and can achieve the unthinkable in the easiest of the manner. So, be a team Player, start thinking of building up the tempo of your team. Sit together and work out of the ways to success. Start thinking of achieving the Team goal first and then your individual goal. The moment your team goal is achieved, you are bound to grow up the ladder along with the Team. Also, bear in mind, a successful team always consist of successful individual members. Everyone chips in his or her part to perfection to make the Team click. It’s a great learning process and you need to adapt a lot to gel in the team. Just think of the young Indian Cricket team’s achievement of beating the World Champions at their home turf convincingly to raise your enthusiasm of being a good team player.

In fact, everything is made up of firstly the atoms, atoms combine to make molecules, molecules combine to make up compounds and finally mass of substances. Observe the creativeness of the nature and learn to adapt similarly using teamwork to shape up in your new wonderful, awe-inspiring avatars in this digital age…go on…enjoy the Team.

ATTITUDE

Yesterday, while browsing through the open questions at Linkedin, I came across a question which really made me think deeply about the way we work for a company with a certain degree of passion and devotion, but after some time the sheen is gone and we start looking for alternate avenues. The Question was -

Q - How important is to love the company you work for?

My Reply - “In any form, when Love is mutual, both parties enjoy the courtship and build a long lasting relationship based on trust and understanding. The moment Love is just from one side, the second party starts misusing the sentiments of one who loves unconditionally and the term becomes exploitation. Life moves like that... In work life also, you love the company you work for till you get an environment which is suited to your needs, till you get a package which takes care of your needs and probably till the responsibilities given to you kicks up a storm in your mind to do extreme things which gives you recognition & growth. The moment you sense a drop in any of the factors, you sense exploitation and starts looking at other doors for more love & affection. That’s Life...enjoy it.”

I always use a quote – “LIFE IS A BALANCE BETWEEN NEEDS & DESIRES.” The basic fact of Life is to understand your needs and your desires. Or in other way, you can understand your needs and set your desires accordingly. Whichever way you think, the ultimate goal remains to grow in Life and live with minimum levels of stress. The winning is important, like every one of us is talking about the great Win of Indian cricket team over Australia in CommonWealth Bank Tri-Series. Yesterday, the Team arrived back in India and at Ferozshah Kotla Stadium Delhi, a big felicitation was organized. Now, go through any newspaper column or listen to any commentary during the play or after the play, its all about Self Belief, Body language, Stick to basics, Doing the right things at right time, handling the Pressure. These are the best of words to instill confidence in anyone to achieve anything in Life, if he or she is capable of understanding the value of these traits. It’s all about ATTITUDE, the way you look at the goals you want to achieve and so adapt yourself to accomplish those goals.

A few days back, one of my old class mate Jaideep Chowdhary circulated a simple presentation called “MATHEMATICS OF LIFE”, I expected it to be about some old dirty jokes but to my surprise it has the best calculation about the words which Leaders use to motivate you. It says –

If the alphabets A to Z are taken as 1 to 26, then HARDWORK adds up to 98, KNOWLEDGE adds up to 96, LOVE adds up to 54 and LUCK adds to 47. The most importantly ATTITUDE = 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100. So, the full marks go to ATTITUDE. Start building a positive ATTITUDE and start a journey towards greater success in Life. The presentation also talked about certain words which adds up to much more than 100, but there is a limit to everything so I don’t want to mention those nice words, lets be happy to achieve just 100% in Life…Enjoy your ATTITUDE.

NETWORKs and beyond...

Venue – Home sweet Home, Place – New Delhi, India, Date – Feb 29th, 2008, Day – Friday, Time – 0830hrs. The day started with the usual cup of tea and the newspaper. The newspaper is full of thoughts from all section of society wanting to get some respite in taxes from the budget which will be presented by our Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram today. But, suddenly the phone rang and the message is that my kid’s school van is not coming. Next is the responsibility to drop him at school. By the time I returned, my wife was ready to leave. Suddenly, I am alone at home with no one even to serve me a cup of tea. No issues, I switched ON my mood, lifted my spirits and straight away headed for kitchen. The tea is ready, it just takes 2 minutes to prepare a cup of tea, and I don’t understand “why the wives makes such a hue n cry while making tea?” Now, I am on my own for next few hours till my naughty kid returns home after his exam, its computer basics today and it’s the last exam for the session. So, definitely he will land up with all kind of plans for the next one month, including no studies n lots of trips to market for dinners, shopping n also some trips to Fun n Food Village. He loves the water swings even those, which I do not dare to attempt.
After finishing the tea, still the time is not ready for my office network to start. My office is sealed for last few months and I am working from home. So, the Network starts at 10am and operates till 7pm. Besides the limited availability, the Network is so slow that sometimes you feel like going for a walk or taking a nap in between replicating the mails. It’s a mess but I have found a way to keep me busy and keep me interested.
So, whenever my Official NETWORK jams, I switch over to my Professional NETWORK. Thanks to my Professional Network “ Linkedin”, I am able to find out at least 35+ ex-classmates from my institute “Indo-Swiss Training Centre, Chandigarh” and revive the contact besides reviving the memories. Its Batch of 1985 and we started our career in 1989, and so most of us are talking after almost 18yrs. Some of them are part of Linkedin and a few are adding up but finding out about so many people in so few days is really an amazing experience.
I know this is just a start, but sky is the limit. All of us besides having memories now have individual success stories and already the talk is on “ how to benefit each other from all this cumulative experience and the practical knowledge we have, which is immense by any standards. A good percentage of people are settled abroad including Australia, New Zealand, China, US, Gulf,…. One of us just floated an idea of sourcing something from this Global Network & Trading at other end, which looks very easy with so may known faces and identities available instantaneously. Seems a great start.
So, this is the world today. Use the available technology. Depend on the NETWORKs, official or professional or personal and learn to use them to benefit all the possible identities that are attached with it.
Enjoy the Network, …Enjoy the Life!!!

Reduce the Levels of Stress.

Venue – Hotel Adithya, Place – Chennai, India, Date – Feb 23rd, 2008, Day – Saturday, Time – 0630 hrs. I am writing this while waiting for my cup of coffee. On one side I am missing my home, my family, the cup of tea made by my wife, the early morning hugs available, the daily chores which start every day to ensure that my naughty kid catches his school bus. On the other side, there is no one to disturb me, no one to tell me that it is not the time to write a blog, it’s a complete freedom to do whatever I like and the way I like.
It is an official Holiday but I am here at Chennai to attend a Meeting with a customer, that is way world goes nowadays. On one hand, I can crib about the way the Life is going because I am traveling on a holiday; I am working on a holiday; I am away from my family; my life is affected; …. On the other hand, I can control these emotions and start the day coolly by having a good cup or may 2-3 cups of coffees at leisure and then start thinking about my meeting, brushing up the points to be discussed at the meeting as it makes a whole lot of difference when you do your homework well before the actual start of work, a meeting, a project, a presentation, an interview, anything…
It is all about managing your thought process and more importantly, it is all about managing STRESS in one’s Life. The moment you start thinking about the negativities, you start putting burden in your head and you are increasing your own stress levels. It is always good to remain positive and try to shape up your thought process where in you think about what best you can do in the available circumstances and how best you can utilize this available moment. This is a sure shot way to reduce the stress initially and finally when you get accustomed to control your thought process, you can easily live a Life with absolutely zero level of stress.
I do the same and I can claim to be the person with minimum stress. Also, in addition to shaping up your thought process, it is important to depend on the small simple Basics of managing your work and your Life with it. One of the most important works in your daily Life is to make a list of pending work you have at hand. Always keep a pen and a piece paper handy, Start the use of pen and paper, Start writing it down, if not paper open a note pad file on your desktop, open a memo on your cell phone, do whatever suits you and start jotting down the work at hand. Believe me, the moment you start jotting down your thoughts, the thoughts starts shaping into a poem. A poem stands for a well shaped up thoughts. The Life is about setting priorities, and you can set priorities only when you know each and every small piece of work pending at your hand.
So, list out the pending work, set the priorities, understand the time reqd to finish of each work and so allocate time accordingly to each piece of work. Believe me, once you reach this stage, you will be able to commit about the time of your arrival at the meeting more effectively, you will be able to commit the time when the work allotted to you or the project you are working on will finish in very much true manner rather than making vague commitments.
Also, one more thing, in addition to writing down the pending work, at the start of every month start making a list of dates for the payments you have to do, like the school fees, the electricity bill, the credit card payments, the LIC premiums, the telephone bills, the list is endless. We pay so many bills on a monthly basis, it is very hard to remember each and every bill pay date, so it is better to write down and follow on from there, set a pay date for each bill by keeping a buffer of 2 – 3 days to avoid the last minute rush & anxiety and the stress of not able to pay on time besides paying the penalty. If you are too busy, start using the online options more to save time and the stress attached with it. Never wait for the last day for the payments, better to pay on the day you receive a bill. These are some important small basics to reduce your levels of stress, try it and enjoy the stress free Life… Enjoy the Life!!!

Learn to Accept Defeat

Yesterday the newspaper started with a headline “AGGRESSIVE SREE SANTH BREAKS DOWN AFTER SRI LANKA MAULING“. Surely after the reading his bowling statistics “3-0-48-0”, anyone will say he must have bowled very badly, but its not his bowling but the extra-ordinary explosive batting display from Sanath Jayasuriya which made all the difference. Sanath’s batting not only ruined the bowling figures of Sree Santh but also ruined the chances of Indian Team and so won the match easily for Sri Lanka.

Life is like that. One has to learn to accept Defeats along with the Wins and not lose heart after every Defeat. One has to understand that when you lose, you do not lose only because you chipped in badly, many times the winner has done exceptionally well to outperform you. So, despite the loss, one has to learn to understand that he/she has to perform with consistency to be able to reach on the top and to end up on the winning side more often. The basics of Life teaches us that it’s the circumstances that matters the most and one has to learn to adapt according to the circumstances to be able to come out as Winner more consistently.

I still remember in my early days at Kodak, the company started an award for providing feedback for the work you attend. This was awarded just for two months and somehow the same was discontinued. Both the times, I was the winner with ratings of 92% and others achieved an average of merely 48%. One of the VP asked me the basic reason behind the success and the difference between others and me. My answer was that this is a company’s standard policy of filling the feedback for every call attended and everyone must do it 100%, so if I achieved 92%, I am also not good at my job, by achieving 92% I am still short of 8% but no one will question me about that deficiency because others are not doing their work properly and so I will be seen as a Winner.

So, winning and losing is a relative term. One has to try to work hard and chip in his 100%. Winning is important but losing is not the end of the world. Work hard…Enjoy the Life!!!

Life is a Journey

It is been more than 20 days that I had posted an entry at my Blog, as I was busy traveling all these days. First, it’s a trip to Shirdi and Mumbai along with my family starting 26th Jan 2007. Then the official trip to Goa to attend the Service Workshop.

I like traveling. Most of my trips start at 3 am in the morning and end well past midnight, as I belong to the group of people, who depend on first and last flight available for the journey. The first flight to reach the destination and the last to reach back home. This gives me ample of time to devote to the work for which I am traveling and rarely I postponed my flights because of time constraints at my disposal.

Similarly, the personal vacation with my family started by catching the first flight from Delhi to Mumbai at 0650 hrs. This really gave an ample understanding to my family, the hardship of beating the early morning winter blues to catch the first flight, which I go through regularly for my official work. From Mumbai, we caught a Bus from Dadar for Shirdi. But, it took us to wait for at least 4 hrs before getting into the Bus because due to holiday season all the buses till 2 pm are completely reserved. Although, we utilized the time by hiring a taxi for a short trip to Hanging Garden, Girgaum Chowpatty, Marine Drive till End Point, Aquarium, Gateway of India and return. We got the Good Value for the amount of Rs 350 paid for this taxi trip, and above all the taxi driver double hatted as the guide all along the route to these places.
The Bus trip to Shirdi took almost 8 hrs including the two stopovers in between for short breaks of Tea & Snacks. But, the view all along the route is quite good, with a mix of mountains, valleys, temples, remote villages, railway tracks & windmills. This is the first time in my Life, I had seen the Wind Mills, the whole scene of umpteen windmills running slowly in the fields in the backdrop of mountains makes up a novel view at least in India. I had never expected such a scene in the villages of Maharashtra. Also, the exciting views of Railway tracks entering a tunnel or coming out of tunnel gives you a feeling that you are living in a comic world as a small child. We reached Shirdi at 10 pm in the night; the amount of people present there really showcased the belief of people in Baba Sai Ram, we checked into a Hotel straight away to start the journey afresh in the early morning for the Darshan.
Next Morning, by the time we positioned ourselves for the Darshan, the queue was almost 4 Km from the gate, but the crowd management team did a fantastic job, we finished the Darshan within 4 hrs after covering 4 Km outside plus almost 2 Km inside the temple. It’s kind of a great satisfaction after we came out of the temple; it’s like a feeling that we had left all our worries there at the sanctum sanctorium of Baba Sai Ram’s Samadhi. Afterwards, we visited few more of temples nearby before embarking on to the journey back to Mumbai.
At Mumbai, we visited ESSEL World and Elephanta caves to add up the itinery of our vacation. Both ESSEL World and Elephanta caves are really good trips to be remembered for a long time in the list of very few family vacations.

We returned by Rajdhani to Delhi to finish the vacation on 31st Jan and again I started on 3rd Feb for the official trip to Goa. Really speaking, Goa is not the place to be for any official work, but we tried to enjoy the atmosphere as much as possible by spending the free time on Calangute beach, our Hotel’s Swimming Pool, etc. the most I enjoyed was my early morning walks on the beach all alone in the lap of nature getting a glimpse of waves, sea shells, fishers with nets, ships in the background, etc. Nothing much about, what Goa is famous for. But, I do remember the occasion as I got the Trophy for the Best Service Revenue Achievement for 2007 across all Kodak BU’s.

Life is a journey for me. I do travel a lot and learn a lot from all the small things I come across at every moment, at every destination. Enjoy the learning...Enjoy the Life!!!

Be Adaptable

As usual, again the day started with a look at newspaper, it gave a glimpse of slight hopes of self-belief in Indian cricket team to win at Sydney against the World Champion Australians. So, I quickly switched ON the TV to have a look at the Indian Cricket Team’s renewed Body Language in their attempt to tread a difficult task. But, quickly Virender Sehwag departed getting bowled from a Clark’s well pitched up delivery and soon Rahul “The Wall” Dravid followed Sehwag without adding much. Then I switched to NDTV for a better look at the News Headlines.
They were showing the clippings of the NDTV Awards, and the NDTV Leader of Year went to our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, and Pranoy Roy asked him “ What goes through his mind while going to sleep?” And the answer from the PM “ I think about all my decisions as every decision makes an impact on the lives of the billion plus people of my country, and normally night passes by in these thoughts.” Pranoy Roy jokingly shot back that “ If you think all this and do not sleep at night, it means that you are not a Politician”. The PM replied “I am a politician, now I am into politics for so many years, and every moment is a great learning for me, Life is a process of Learning and Re-Learning ”.
These are the words to be understood, to be inculcated by heart by every individual. Life is a Learning, Life is about change, and Life is about adaptability. You need these traits to grow in Life, to make things happen, to move ahead in Life, to make a mark in Life.
Similarly, presently an ad is going on in TV for Canara Bank, it shows the wife trying to learn about Cricket and makes a comment while his husband is watching Cricket “ Oh! He should be trying late slice”. The husband got amused and corrects her that it should be “Late Cut and not Late Slice”. This shows the adaptation of wife to gel in a better manner with the habits of husband to make him happier, to grow in married Life, to make her marriage more successful. And it works; the expression on the face of mesmerized husband proves it. So, the adaptability works not only in official Life but equally well in personal Life.
Recently, a huge issue is going on regarding racialism between Australian Cricketer Andrew Symonds and Indian Cricket Harbhajan Singh. Andrew reported that Harbhajan called him a Monkey and it is a racial abuse. Someone had quoted in newspaper that we all evolved from Monkeys, so what’s the fuss being called a Monkey. Recently, someone raised an eye and negated that we evolved from Monkeys, his question was “ If we evolved from Monkeys, WHY still many monkeys are left on earth?” My reply was simple ‘ Its all about the willingness to change, those who tried to adapt to the situation slowly evolved into human beings and those who are not willing to change, remained as Monkeys.
So, its natural to evolve as a better person by changing according to the circumstances and this change is known as Adaptability. Some acquire this naturally; some needs to learn this tact. A simple observation, while at a barber shop if your head falls automatically, away from the side the barber moves, you have learnt to adapt to the situation, but in case the barber has to always use his hands to move your head to correct position, believe me you still need to learn to ADAPT.
Keep changing, to be an easy fit in this cruel corporate world, otherwise people will someday start looking over your shoulder for a change, …Enjoy the Life.

Time Management

Early to Bed, Early to Rise.
Makes a person, Healthy, Wealthy & Wise.

I learnt this saying from my Late father and inculcated this in my lifestyle from very early days of my childhood. At that time, my father used to tell this to us with his main emphasis that the early rays of sun and the morning fresh air are very useful for the body and also you feel rejuvenated all day long.
Later on, I realized that its not only about the early sun rays & fresh morning air, but its all about self discipline and time management. As, the above saying is being conceived in good old days, probably in those times, when there is scarcity of electricity or may be no electricity. So, the main idea behind this saying is to sleep early to make good use of the nighttime, wherein one cannot do much without availability of light. And by doing so, one can easily get up early and start his/her day with the onset of first rays of light. Remember the old farmers, they used to wake up at 4 am and move out towards their farms and start their work with the first rays of light. Also, this way one can make maximum use of the daylight available and finish off most of the pending works easily well on time, every time.
So, nowadays with every thing changed, with electricity available, round the clock. We need to understand this saying in respect of Self Discipline and Time Management. One has to understand the needs of his job/ work at hand and plan his/her day accordingly. Early to Bed nowadays means go to bed at the time so that one can have a sound sleep for at least 6 hrs and Early to rise means get up at the time which allows him/her to prepare for the day easily and reach his destination of work well on time. Punctuality is the key word, which comes with Self – discipline. The etiquettes say, “ if you reach five minutes earlier than the appointment, still you are ten minutes late”. Plan your day/ schedule, so that you can easily reach your destination at least fifteen minutes in advance. Believe me, it makes a difference, it starts making an impact slowly. People will recognize you for your ability to reach on time; they will recognize you as the person who stands by his commitment. Once you get this recognition, half the battle is won; you always start the match with an advantage, as “The First Impression is The Last Impression”. Also, by reaching early, you have ample of time with you to settle down and start your work at the time expected of you. Most of people think if their office starts at 9 am, they have to touch the office gate by 9 am with limit of extra 10 minutes. But, I think if your office starts at 9 am, you should be starting your work at least by 9 am. It means you should reach office at least 15 or 20 minutes before 9 am and easily take your coffee, talk to your colleagues (if there are any self disciplined persons), start your PC, settle down, etc. Try it for a week, you will feel less stressed out, you will start feeling that you have some extra time to finish off your work, it helps a lot.

The day started as usual with a glimpse of newspaper, and the front page displayed a photograph of Anil Ambani running on Mumbai streets in the early hours of the day when it’s still dark. The first few lines clearly says, he gets out of his house at 4.45am for his morning jog and after going through all his morning chores he reaches his office at 9 am. This shows what a Self Discipline person he is, at this stage of life, no one can dictate terms to him, but still he has a dedication, devotion, self-discipline, every possible virtue to drive him towards more success. Also, once a boss arrives on time at office, no other employee can dare to think of coming late to office. I have seen many bosses coming to office well late and then start shouting that no one in his / her company works on time. How can they expect others to deliver on time, when they themselves cannot even stick to coming on time to office? They should try to reach office on time like Anil Ambani and watch the productivity levels grow day by day.

So, be on time, every time, n ….Enjoy The Life!!!

The Fire - Within

आग, तपन भी ये ही, जलन भी ये ही
अन्दर की आग, कहती है कुछ कर गुजरने को
यह आग बुझ जाये तो, इंसान को आग लगा दी जाती है

Aag, the Fire, yesterday we celeberated the festival of fire, “Lohiri”. This is one of the very few Indian festivals, which is celebrated on exact date, Jan the 13th, like all English, American festivals. All other Indian festivals are celebrated on the basis of moon calendar and so the date of their celebration keeps on shifting from year to year. “Lohiri” is celebrated to mark the outset of winter, as from this day the cold winds starts receding and the day starts to become longer. Also, this marks the start of sowing season in North India.
During “Lohiri”, a bonfire is lit and people pray to the God of Fire “Agni”, by putting small amounts of popcorns, rewri and Mungphali (groundnut) into the fire and take rounds of fire. It’s considered to be like putting all evils into fire to destroy them and make the life full of enjoyment.
Fire is an important element of life. Every one knows the fire to be the one that destroys most of the things or used to cook food, but the Fire within us is the one, which shapes up our Life and also the life of our near and dear ones. This fire within us is the urge to do something, to achieve something, to move ahead in life.
The person lacking this fire within them, really botch up their lives and more the lives of their family. Mostly, the life of such person’s children are affected the most. As, such persons are too content with what they have and does not make an iota of effort to add something more, to achieve something extra, to run slightly faster to catch up with the world. They always blame “The God” for every failure occurring in their lives. Even they ignore the basic necessities of proper education for their children. They just send their children to any school in the corner block and never care about their studies or marks or standing in the school. They fail to inculcate in their children the importance of winning, the value of “to be on the TOP”. So, most of the time, their children lack the confidence to compete, to stand out or to win.
The good education is so important nowadays that it really shapes up the future of anyone, if applied correctly or judicially. I have seen a small petty shopkeeper in Palam Vihar, Gurgaon with a small shop ten years back sitting on top of sacks full of grocery turning into a kind of small mart with different sections for latest electronics gadgets, AC’s, washing machines, etc besides selling grocery like a latest mall. It’s a complete transformation within a few years. This transformation happened just because of the shopkeepers three sons who are educated enough to put their minds to understand the market dynamics and change with it to stay competitive and win. Their shop is one of the best in the market. I have seen them growing every year. They started with one shop and kept on adding one or two neighbouring shops every year, currently they own about 8 to 10 shops and all put together functions like a big mart with everything available for a general consumer, a big plus for customers to shop at one place.
So, you need a good education to frame up your mind and a fire within you to do something different than the world to get noticed and so to harvest the profits, which comes along with appreciating eyes.
Invest in good education for your children to fire the belief in them to “WIN”. Enjoy the Life…!!!

लम्हा लम्हा जोड़ के, संजोयी थी जिन्दगी
अब इन्ही लम्हों के सहारे कट जायेगी, ये ही जिन्दगी

At Kodak, we say " Capture the Moments, Share the Moments", officially this punch line drives the business. Similarly, the Life is full of certain moments which needs to be remembered again and again. I always remember the lines of Boman Irani in Bollywood Movie " Bluff Master", where Abhishek Bachchan is worried and keeps on asking Boman about the time left in his life. Boman asks Abhishek to count the moments of his life, he cherished and always remember. They could count max 30 such moments during 30 odd years of his life. So, Boman tells him to either be worried for rest of your life, just thinking of death or make each day as good as those 30 moments and enjoy the rest of Life. Those words really changed the thought process of Abhishek and he starts to relive & re-enjoy every moment there-on in the movie.

Similarly, its upto you to shape up the journey of Life, in which ever way you want to. Its your thought process which matters. If you keep on thinking about the things you are not able to achieve, you always wear a sad look, the body language drops down and become sloppy, the work you do always gets delayed, the productivity goes down. Even a blind person can visualize your state of mind just with a shake of hand with you.

So, if you are content with what you are able to achieve every moment, you are always happy, you feel dignified, your body language radiates confidence. This kind of energy is always contagious, the moment you shake hands with anyone, the other person gets a positive energy, you can sense a genuine smile on other person's face. And this positive energy & this smile on other person's face always push you to add more to your achievement, to go for an extra mile another time, get appreciated another time and to feel on the top of the world for another moment.

This way you can keep on adding the laurels and be recognised. "Life is a Journey". Think of a river, the flowing water is always fresh and think of a pond, the stagnant water is always dirty. So, you need to keep on adding the good moments in your life to grow as a successful person.

Even all the world records get rewritten every day, every moment. Always do your bit to be one of the new world record holder, even if you can not be one of them, still it makes you moves faster in life.

Going through all this, do not wait for the good moments, but try to make every moment a good & memorable one. Enjoy the moments...Enjoy the Life!!!