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!!!