Why me ?

Arthur Ashe- first African-American male to win a Grand Slam from USA was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983. From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: “Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied: “The world over - 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD ‘Why me?’.

And today in pain I should not be asking GOD ‘Why me?’ “

Example of Linear-active and multi-active cultures

Yesterday I was reading an interesting book 'When Culture collides' by Richard D. Lewis and then come across the following example of Liner-active multi-active culture and somehow linked Indians to one of these categories as well. If can find out 'Indian belong to which category ?'  by reading following :

Sven Svensson is a Swedish businessman, living in Lisbon. A few weeks ago he was invited by a Portuguese acquaintance, Antonio, to play tennis at 10am. Sven turned up at the tennis court on time, already in tennis gear and ready to play.Antonio arrived half an hour late, in the company of a friend, Carlos, from whom he was buying some land. They had been discussing the purchase that morning and had prolonged the discussion, so Antonio had brought Carlos along in order to finalise the details during the journey. They continued the business while Antonio changed into his tennis clothes, with Sven listening to all they said. At 10.45 they went on court and Antonio continued the discussion with Carlos, while hitting practice balls with Sven.

At this point another acquaintance of Antonio’s, Pedro, arrived in order to confirm a sailing date with Antonio for the weekend. Antonio asked Sven to excuse him for a moment and walked off court to talk to Pedro. After chatting to Pedro for five minutes, Antonio resumed his conversation with the waiting Carlos and eventually turned back to the waiting Sven to begin playing tennis at 11. When Sven remarked that the court had only been booked from 10 to 11am, Antonio reassured him that he had phoned in advance to rebook it until 12 noon. No problem.

It will come as no surprise to you to hear that Sven was very unhappy about the course of events. Why? He and Antonio live in two different worlds or, to put it more exactly, use two different time systems. Sven, as a good Swede, belongs to a culture which uses linear-active time – that is to say, he does one thing at a time in the sequence he has written down in his diary. His diary that day said 8am get up, 9am breakfast, 9.15 change into tennis clothes, 9.30 drive to tennis court, 10–11am play tennis, 11–11.30 beer and shower, 12.15 lunch, 2pm go to the office, and so on.

Antonio, who had seemed to synchronise with him for tennis from 10 to 11, had disorganised Sven’s day. Portuguese like Antonio follow a multiactive time system, that is, they do many things at once, often in an unplanned order.

Multi-active cultures are very flexible. If Pedro interrupted Carlos’s conversation which was already in the process of interrupting Sven’s tennis, this was quite normal and acceptable in Portugal. It is not acceptable in Sweden, neither is it in Germany or Britain.

Linear-active people, like Swedes, Swiss, Dutch and Germans, do one thing at a time, concentrate hard on that thing and do it within a scheduled timescale. These people think that in this way they are more efficient and get more done.

Multi-active people think they get more done their way. Let us look again at Sven and Antonio. If Sven had not been disorganised by Antonio, he would undoubtedly have played tennis, eaten at the right time and done some business. But Antonio had had breakfast, bought some land, played tennis and fixed up his sailing, all by lunchtime. He had even managed to rearrange the tennis booking. Sven could never live like this, but Antonio does, all the time.

Multi-active people are not very interested in schedules or punctuality. They pretend to observe them, especially if a linear-active partner insists. They consider reality to be more important than manmade appointments. Reality for Antonio that morning was that his talk with Carlos about land was unfinished. Multi-active people do not like to leave conversations unfinished. For them completing a human transaction is the best way they can invest their time. So he took Carlos to the tennis and finished buying the land while hitting balls. Pedro further delayed the tennis, but Antonio would not abandon the match with Sven. That was another human transaction he wished to complete. So they played till 12 or 12.30 if necessary. But what about Sven’s lunch at 12.15? Not important, says Antonio. It’s only 12.15 because that’s what Sven wrote in his diary.

So Indians culture is Linear-active and multi-active  ?...you got it right !!

Delhi Airport Express train - A whole New experience

I was visiting my father on this Holi and landed at terminal 3 of IGI airport,Delhi in early morning. I was out of airport in 30 minutes(super quick).I suddenly saw Delhi airport express train signage just out of gate number 4. As I had time in between my journey to Lucknow, I thought to explore it.......I enjoyed the Delhi airport express train operated by Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt. Ltd. (DAMEPL) and believe me it live upto it's expectation of 'A whole New experience'.I was mesmerized to see the facilities at the IGI station for airport express train like automatic ticketing machine,ticket kiosk and friendly English speaking staff to help the passengers. The price of one way ticket is kind of nothing as compared to what is being charged in another big cities for similar services.(see comparisons below).
London : 16.5 pound ( 1185 rupees)
Paris(RER line) : 9 Euro (568 rupees)
Oslo : 170 kroners (1373 rupees)
New delhi : 80 Ruppes( in future it will go upto 150 rupees)

Air-conditioned Delhi airport express train now runs between Dwarka(sec 21) station and New Delhi railway station (Paharganj side) and in between covers IGI airport,Delhi Aerocity(NH 8), Dhaula Kuan Station,Shivaji stadium. Now it operates with frequency of 20 minutes starting from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.It has 5 underground stations and one elevated one. plateforms on all the stations are covered with glass to avoid any problem and maintain cleanness. Security is very tight as reliance has hired the security personnel from government agencies.Facilities of trolleys are their for luggage on every station and very soon check-in facilities are going to start at ND station and Shivaji station as most of the airlines has already opened their counters but not started serving yet. Coaches are imported from CAF spain and are very spacious(and different from regular metro coaches) with ample space for luggage.

So India has proved that , when it comes to world class service , we can provide world class services at very reasonable price.

Supermoon - Do we need more natural tragedies in march 2011 ?

It is always a pleasant feeling to be with your own family. So I am happy for myself and my father when I am travelling on 19th march,2011 to India to stay with my father during the next week as one of main Indian festival-Holi is being celebrated on 20th march.
19 march is important as moon will swing around Earth more closely than it has in the past 18 years, lighting up the night sky from just 221,567 miles (356,577 kilometers) away. This phenomena is called 'extreme supermoon'.

Many astrologers believe it could inflict massive damage on the planet.It should be noted that astrology is not a real science, but merely makes connections between astronomical and mystical events.) But still past supermoon event suggests that there 'may be' some problem(havoc) like Huge storms,tsunami,volcanoes or earthquake.

Science : Scientists have studied extreme supermoon scenarios for decades. As per them moon has some impact - all the time on earth but intensity is matter of concern. Even under normal conditions, the moon is close enough to Earth to make its weighty presence felt: It causes the ebb and flow of the ocean tides.The moon’s gravity can even cause small but measureable ebbs and flows in the continents, called “land tides” or “solid Earth tides,” too. The tides are greatest during full and new moons, when the sun and moon are aligned either on the same or opposite sides of the Earth.

The effect of tides on seismic activity is greatest in subduction zones such as the Pacific Northwest, where one tectonic plate is sliding under another. William Wilcock, another seismologist at the University of Washington, explained: “When you have a low tide, there’s less water, so the pressure on the seafloor is smaller. That pressure is clamping the fault together, so when it’s not there, it makes it easier for the fault to slip.” Scientists says that earthquakes don’t respond as much to the tides as you’d think they would. Most natural disasters have nothing to do with the moon at all. The Earth has a lot of pent up energy, and it releases it anytime the buildup gets too great. The supermoon probably won’t push it past the tipping point, but we’ll know for sure, one way or the other, by March 20.

Some people are saying that on 19 , we may have big catastrophe in Japan itself.

With this hope that 'Mankind will not see 19 march as black day' . I am signing off to India- land of my parents and my own countrymen.

Term : lunar perigee =the closest moon's approach during its orbit

Infosys 3.0 - International to local transition

Now a days many IT consultancy companies are re-organizing themselves considering the market situation and future growth trend.Big multinationals like Accenture,IBM,Capgamini have already taken a leap and established processes in such directions.

Moving from a technology solutions company to a business solutions company and proactively help customers build the enterprise of tomorrow is not easy task for a traditional Indian IT company but Infosys seems to determined as they know that this is the only area where they can use its hard working and smart workforce to compete with companies like Accenture, Capgamini and IBM.

History: Infosys started its journey in 1981 and went public in 1993. With very sound planning and strategic decisions , infosys has achieved a place in world IT services companies.During first 30 years of business, company worked on Infosys 1.0 and 2.0 model and now working towards 3.0 to be world's number 1 IT services and consultancy company with employee strength of 120000 plus headcount.

Infosys 1.0 : ( 20 years) - focus on developing and managing technology applications for customers and on building a global delivery model.
Infosys 2.0 :( 10 years ) - develop end-to-end service capabilities, systems integration capabilities, and added some consulting and innovation expertise.

During Infosys 1.0 and 2.0 , i.e in the past years it's project are categorized as :

1. Transformation projects <--- traditional business( 25% revenue) 2. Innovation projects <--- traditional business( 10% revenue) 3. Operational efficiency projects. <--- traditional business( 65% revenue) Now Focus are for Infosys 3.0 which means developing expertise in global trends like : 1. 'digital consumer' (digital products permeating all aspects of life), 'new commerce' (mobile commerce leading to extremely small transactions), 2. `healthcare economy' (healthcare becoming more preventive, affordable and inclusive) 3. 'sustainable tomorrow' (doing things in an environmentally and socially sustainable way), 4. `smarter organizations' (making organizations more adaptable, less complex), ' 5. emerging economies' (global growth concentrated in these areas) and ' 6. pervasive computing' (all devices becoming computing devices). Not only this but after success of finacle, Flypp and iEngage , now infosys is also working towards strengthening its reputation as complete 'product company' by creating 'Infosys Lab'.

The company now wants to do many more of those, as also co-create products with their customers.

Challenges :

• Establishing permanent base in smaller countries ( like middle europe,east europe and nordic ) to establish reputation of local international company. This should be on the same pattern as Accenture and IBM is doing.
• Establishing its brand among the western countries. Objective is to recruit local talent in western world and train them to become the face of Infosys in the concerned country.
• Core business consultancy ( or some called it management consultancy) requires the knowledge of :
  1. Business processes that are applicable in the client's geographical area like America,east Europe,China , Nordics. etc...
  +
  2. Innovative business/strategic solutions to improve the competitiveness of business/process efficiency.
  +
  3. The theoretical and practical business concepts applicable in client domain eg. insurance,banking,oil and gas etc.
  
  excelling in all 3 areas can only give Infosys lead or establish it as respective international competitor.

Pomegranates : We produce 60% of world's pomegranates and export 2%

My Dad loves pomegranate and its juice.And so I have the natural tendency of loving it as well. We in India get this juice on most of the local juice corners. But slowly and slowly it is getting costlier and costlier and so getting out of the reach of common people. I just got to know that India produce around 60% of worlds's pomegranates and has number 1 ranking in world.

India produce so many diverse variety of fruits and vegetables which are not possible in many other countries of the world. But still Indian fruits and vegetable export is very less as compare to many other countries.
For entrepreneur's point of view ,India has a great window of opportunity for the people working in food and vegetable export business.And that is the reason why Ashutosh Sawant(IIM-B) took up the challenge of making career in this feild. He started by working with farmers and help them produce export-quality fruits and vegetables and finally export them. He started a firm which looks at exporting frozen fruits like alphonso mangoes, frozen strawberry, pomegranate arils, frozen vegetables and cauliflower florets.

He says - "The main reason why our products could not be exported was because we used farming methods that were unacceptable in other countries — like using banned pesticides. I will work closely with farmers, help them with best practices and finally export the produce,"

Ashutosh has already started his pilot projects. Back at his hometown in Kadegoan, Karad taluk, Maharashtra, he has entered into a contract with the owner of a 150-acre mango grove. "I helped the farmers with the technical knowhow like dip irrigation and use of chemicals. They do not have access to such knowledge. I consulted with the Central Food Technological Research Institute. The first produce is almost ready," he said.

The total value addition to fruits and vegetables in India is less — around 4% — compared to global standards of 45%-50%, he points out.

Once the produce is there, he will look at marketing it to retail chains in other continents. The processing involves cleaning them from chemicals, cutting them according to the specifications of the client and packing in refrigerated containers. 

In the experiment, a group of men and women were given a 500ml bottle of pomegranate juice to drink every day for four weeks.The researchers found that nearly half of all volunteers had much lower NEFA levels by the end of the trial. They believe that this will make them less likely to store fat around their stomach.
Besides, more than 90 per cent of the men and women had lower blood pressure by the month end. 


There is no doubt that pomegranate juice is beneficial in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease because results showed a significant and consistent lowering of blood pressure.

S.H. Kapadia - Class IV to CJI

Sarosh Homi Kapadia, Chief Justice of India has proved that Indian judicial system has sufficient power to question the Prime Minister as well. It was not possible for government to remove CVC without SC's this verdict and may be that is the reason why PJ Thomas resigned in minutes of SC verdict.s

Since May 2010(when he became the CJI) , people of India has experienced a new phase and a sharp contrast to the earlier phase when KG Balakrishnan was the chief justice. Under leadership of Kapadia the court's credibility has been restored after the damage it had suffered during the 3 year tenure of Balakrishnan, whose kin are now under the scanner for amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.

He is giving due consideration and utterly focus to PILs :
- PIL againts Balakrishnan
- PIL againts CVC appointment
- PIL in 2G scam
- PIL in CWG scam

Not only this his administration has also given due consideration to
- Ratan Tata's petition raising concerns of privacy and other such related matters and so they were all placed before the already charged-up Singhvi bench.
- revive the police reforms case which had seen little action during the Balakrishnan years. Not only this but current bench for the first time fixed a time frame for states to report compliance of the reforms aimed at reducing political abuse of the police forces.

It is very important to understand that Kapadia has the high level of integrity and honesty and his past is equally dignified. I tried to find more details about him and so ....

Kapadia was born in 1947 in a lower middle-class Parsi family. His father was a clerk in a defence establishment, his mother a homemaker. There was enough to eat, but barely. Kapadia completed his BA and LLB. He started his career as a class IV employee . He acknowledged his humble beginnings in a letter he wrote to Justice V R Krishna Iyer recently. “I come from a poor family. I started my career as a class IV employee and the only asset I possess is integrity...” he said. He joined Gagrat & Co, a law firm as a clerk and later, went to work for firebrand and highly respected labour lawyer Feroze Damania. Soon after, the family moved to Andheri. There, in the neighbouring building lived a young girl, Shahnaz, with whom Kapadia fell in love. She became Mrs Kapadia. They were to have two sons.

The young Sarosh may not have been rich but what he did possess was ambition and determination to become a judge. He became counsel for the income tax department in 1974, aged 27. He also appeared for the then Bombay Municipal Corporation in matters concerning rateable value and octroi. He represented the Maharashtra government and several PSUs until he was appointed a HCJ. As a judge of the Bombay HC, he developed a reputation for his expertise on commercial and tax law.

The best thing that ever happened to him was the stock scam of 1999 involving broker Ketan Parekh. On August 5, 2003, he was appointed CJ of the Uttarakhand HC and in December of that year, he was elevated to the Supreme Court, thus serving only a very short tenure as chief justice of a high court.

Now, the biggest professional challenge for the man who has spent his entire life working towards becoming a judge is to decide who should scrutinise the Chief Justice of India and whether he should come under the purview of the RTI Act. This has far-reaching implications for both law and justice.

Kalu Varti in Riga - there is reason why it is so popular

Yesterday , we visited Kalku Varti (Latvian for Limestone Gate), Restaurant in the historical of Old Town of Riga.This restaurant  is very famous(and expensive) in old time for it's varying and delicious gourmet meal along with traditional latvian dishes.I ordered a bottle of red wine Châteauneuf-du-Pape( as I wanted to have it again) which was quite appreciated by fellow partners.I also tasted some other wines but I think my choice was better enough :). We enjoyed diverse nordic+asian company of each other and wines.Later for main course,My dinner partners made quite adventurous choices but I ordered roasted duck breast with parsley root puree, pearl barley, and carrot sauce and was fully satisfied with my choice.The most surprising part of the dinner was desserts. Every desert we ordered has some kind of speciality as most of them are with exotic berries.but I ordered the dessert of the day 'the tower' which was unique in itself as it has the artistic shape of 1 feet effil tower(kind of) made of sugar( they dipped the warm sugar tower in freezing cold water to have that special shape. It was not possible to eat even 20% of tower so we just enjoyed its cream and few bites of tower.....but al together it was fantastic evening at kalku varti..............Paldias

Link to kalku varti website : www.kalkuvarti.lv

Dhooni should not do this again

I read today dhooni complaining/commenting about Sreesanth's temperament and saying "...the Irritate opposition, not your own team...". I read his full interview and so I can say that , I did not expect this to come from the captain of Indian cricket team and if anybody wants to know why I think so ..please read following points :
1. As a leader of the team he should never talk/discuss about the Sreesnath temperament in public.
2. He should not publicly criticize behaviour of his team member in front of media and if there is any concern then he must discuss it with Sreesanth only not with press/media.
3. A Leader must make sure that he talks positive and always ready for improvements/ betterments.
4. Leaders who criticize their team members in public lose respect from the whole team.
5. Dhoni has shown in the past as well that he does not like Sreesanth. When he had chance of selecting 15 players for WC-2011, he did not select the Sreesanth and instead selected Praveen kumar.He also showed his feelings about sreesnath in Durban as well - "I think it's important to keep him under control. It's good for him, for us, for the opponents, for the umpires, for the board and for the spectators,".
6. Leaders should always try to encourage team for positive things and try to avoid the negative.

PS : It does not mean that I am favouring Sreesnath for his short temper.I fully agree that he must improve his habit and must not be personal on any level.

"Free our collector"...patriatic words

"Free our collector"...This is the goodwill sentence painted on the banners by the local schools marching on the streets of Malkangiri,Orissa. Objective of this sentence is to peruse the Maoists and pressurize them to release the Malkangiri district collector R. Vineel Krishna.Krishna has been abducted by maoists while he was visiting remote are of his district.

Mr. Krishna(IIT Madras Alumnus and IAS-2005) has been doing what a real public servant should do. Some of the key things:
- Riding on bikes,boats to meet the native people on daily basis.
- Not having heavy security and police for the sake of VIP stature.
- Staying out of local politics and focus on development issues.
- Trying to improve government outreach and services in the most alienated pockets(the best way to tackle the maoist problem).

To show the sympathy to Mr. Krishna , local shops, banks, schools were closed, and the streets were empty. Not only this people organized a meeting at the public ground to display show of support for him.People,NGO and district administration all are vouching for him in one single tune.

Medalistic statements :
1. "He was both clean and hard working," said Madhusudhan Panda, a grocery store owner. "Why else would everybody voluntarily down shutters?"
2. "Go visit those areas and talk to the people. They will tell you about the good work he has done. That is why I am hopeful the collector will return safely soon," said Balwant Singh, project director of the district rural development agency.

Hats off to the to this young lad.He showed that if top level officers are honest and considerate then people at large will appreciate him and adore him. I am very sure maoists-who are our own people will release him ASAP and let him serve the local people to the best of his capacity and prove the India again that if we want we can get over al odds.

Indian's Heart needs more Valentine Days

As today is valentine day..it is justified to be concerned about the heart.As Indian I think we need more such days when people think about the heart not just to impress someone's heart but to save someone's heart as well.....BUT WHY ?

Answer is : The Indian heart, due to a faulty genetic makeup, is more prone to heart diseases than an African or a Caucasian one. Worse, several studies have revealed that Indians are likely to suffer heart attacks a decade earlier than other ethnicities. Factors such as urbanisation, the rapid Westernisation of the traditional diet and stress worsen the weak-heart syndrome.

Want stats to understand the seriousness, please read following :

Population : 1 billion+
No. 1 Killer disease : Heart disease
Cardiologist : 4000
Cardiac surgeons : 1200
Desired ratio : 50 cardiologists per million
( PS : India lacks authentic data on the causes of deaths. )
Stars : Dr Naresh Trehan,Dr Devi Shetty,Ramakant Panda etc....

So, heart disease is not an emerging problem anymore. It has already emerged as a ma
jor cause of death in rural areas.Awareness about the first aid is not there in common people or if they are aware then means are not there to get the first aid within the time period*.

*
1. Treatment is most effective when started within 1 hour of the beginning of symptoms.
2. Next 15-30 minutes are most crucial after an heart-attack.

So what is needed :
1. Special laws which forces to have a cardiac unit in every nursing home with 24x7 trained staff and complusery ambulance facility.
2. Door to door Heart disease awareness programs and prevention plan.
3. Special cardiac care departments in each general hospitals.
4. Free ECG checkups at all the nursing homes and clinics.

Kiwifruit is a Vitamin Bomb !!

Kiwifruit is a Vitamin Bomb !!

A lot of people think that kiwi is not good food because it does not taste good in start.But few of them know that it is one of the great gift from nature which can give us a lot vitamins.I did some goggling and found out the following :

Eat 1 kiwifruit because One kiwifruit contains:

• Vitamin C ( = 2 oranges = 250 mg ) … stimulates the capacity for work , actively participates in the metabolism.
• A lot of magnesium( source of iron ) ………………… provides a healthy heart function
• vitamins A, D, Е, В2, В3, В6, a lot of potassium
• Actinidine, which improves the protein digestion
• cellulose, which, as is well known, helps in excess cholesterol excretion and digestion normalization.

Advantage :

• Reduce the risk of oncological and cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary insufficiency and hypertension.
• very healthy for the face skin so widely used in cosmetics, in various masks and creams.
• Antioxidants found in kiwifruit are absorbed by the body most effectively than those from other antioxidant-rich fruits( US study )

* Kiwifruits shouldn’t be eaten too long after cutting and if possible , eat it with brushed peel

Sourav Ganguly deserves a more respect from us...

I read the news that some media news rumours that Sourag Ganguly- flamboyant Indian cricketing legend has decided to quit all forms of cricket.Later it was cleared by himself that this is not the case. As a humble Bengali moshay style , he disappointedly mentioned :

"I had the runs. Players of my age, Gilchrist, Dravid and Laxman are still actively involved. I haven't been able to put the finger on the button why I was left out. Cricketing logic and past form suggests I should have been picked. There are several reasons I could have been dropped, but not for cricket."

"If I don't get to play IPL I will not be participating in any form of domestic cricket,"

Personal rapport is not useful in business : Considering the following :
- KKR : Nobody denies that KKR is best place for Sourav because he is the true BENGALI and very few IPL players have been as closely associated with the city they played for as him. In my opinion Kolkatta loves him more passionately than Mumbai loves Tendulkar(sorry whole India loves SACH ...I know).Everybody says that GANULAY is Bengal tiger........The Knight Riders(SRK) has never shown any miserliness when it comes to money-spending. So why SRK left Sourav(bother/pal)...was it because of his base price of just 400,000 dollars(1.82 crore Rs.). Question - Is 1.82 crore is big money for SRK ?
- Sahara, Pune Warriors - This is new franchise(and Sourav has had a long relationship with its owners ) and could have benefited from Sourav's talent but they left Sourav as well.
- In IPL-2010, Sourav played 14 matches and made 493 runs (avg. 37.92) and was the 5th best scorer in IPL-3. SO performance is not the issue here.Not only this he was one of top 10 scorers in IPL-1.He has more IPL man of the match awards than any other rejected player.

Looking at the above, Yes- Sourav you are absolutely correct....99.9% cricket frenzy indians believe the same and have full faith in your skills but you know what now cricket specially IPL is not just cricket but a business where people are not there for fun,enjoyment and sports but wish to earn money and that seems only reason behind your exclusion...NOTHING ELSE.

IPL can sustain omitting of Sanath Jayasuriya, Brian Lara, Chris Gayle but Sourav Ganguly is certainly desired a place in IPL(INDIA). An Indian , would love to see you contributing to Indian cricket in any form be it player,captain, coach or office bearer of BCCI/IPL or CAB.

Humbled Interview

I read the following interview of a good human being and impressed with his responses and understanding. No points for guessing who is he ?......Some excerpts

• ..I think it's a very foolish thing to look back at your life and have regrets for anything that you do. You should tell yourself that at that time, for that place, I did the best with what my instincts provided me. Now you're wiser. As long as you can attach a reason to your failure, you'll learn, you'll grow wiser. But if you just sit and keep saying, 'arre yaar what did I do,' it's pointless. You have to ask yourself, what is the one thing I can learn from this experience which is a 'failure' in other people's minds? If you can do that, it no longer is a failure. It turns into feedback, and you will grow with it. So eventually, there are no failures. 

• ...I feel it's my responsibility to demonstrate that you should never counter an attack with more attack.That's the essential path to peace. I want to feel good about myself, and so, what I do is, I type back - 'Well, I try, and now I will try harder; thank you for your feedback.' And I feel good about myself. And he relaxes, nothing has hit his ego, and so he's not going to attack any more. I have brought about peace in this war - even if it is the micro level........

• ..I think you have to be the most foolish person, and the weakest person, to get into a fight. The only time you have to raise your hand is if there is injustice being done in the present, right there, where I am. If a lady has been wronged, then I will raise my hand. There is no other situation where you need to raise your hand.....

• ...I have gone through a battery since I was five or six years old. I used to come home from school and weep through the evening, weep through the homework, because I didn't want to go to school the next day. I didn't want to go through the torment of being the guy who is laughed at all the time. I had nothing working for me. Even the fact that I was a hero's son worked against me, because of the sort of school that I was in. It was looked upon as something a little cheap.Now, when I join the dots, I see that I had to go through all that to be what I am, to reach where I am today. The hammer that moulds the stone hurts, but it shapes you into something beautiful......

• ..........there was a particular situation in London. It was just after we'd got married, and we were walking down Leicester Square, and there were some badly behaved boys who were obviously high on something. One of them passed by her and gave her a nudge and then abused her, called her, umm, a b**ch. And instantly, she wanted to attack back, and she was physically inferior, so that infuriated her even more. She wanted me to strike back. But my perspective was different. I consider myself the peaceful warrior. If the guys hadn't passed by so quickly, I would probably have walked up to the boy and spoken to him, and made him feel good about himself so he wouldn't need to attack someone like this again.

• People are carrying their own frustrations inside and they are looking for scapegoats to vent out, to get a chance to hit out, to release their own frustrations. He doesn't even know her, I've got nothing to do with him. He calling my wife that doesn't make her a b**ch, and that's the truth. If he'd passed me by and said, 'Hrithik Roshan, you don't have a right arm,' what would I say? People will either say the truth, or a lie. He will say, 'You have a right arm'; yes, I have a right arm, I'll keep walking. Or he will say, 'You don't have a right arm'; he's wrong, he's lying, and I'll keep walking. Same thing - he calls my wife a b**ch, I know she's not, I walk on. I don't need to go and bust his face, that would make me one of them. I'm above all that. I would feel defeated. I didn't give that guy what he wanted; he wanted to get into a fight, and I didn't give him that chance............

• ...I have a good understanding of how important money is. And now that I have children, I want to gather as much of it as I can, yes. But I know what it means. Money is a means to an end. For me, it is also a means to help people. I can never say no to anyone, and if I am in a position to help, I help. I have seen my father struggle for 20 years. I know what it is like to have no money at all. I have slept for four nights on the floor in a house with no furniture and not even a fan, and I remember crying to my mother that I couldn't sleep without a fan.I must have been about nine. We were thrown out of our building because we couldn't pay the rent. And then for about six months, we lived at my nani's house. My father was too embarrassed to live there, and so he stayed with a friend. And as soon as he got some money, he got this place, and he just had to get us into our own place. So, for the first four nights, I slept on the floor with my family in a house without any furniture and without fans. Those are the memories that keep me grounded. .....

• ..........I think the poison of our world are the fairy tales that are taught to our children. There is not one fairy tale that speaks of how beautiful real life is, where there is no happy ending. It's just a journey filled with sadness, happiness - it's all there - and you have to live that and know that that's your fairy tale, how you're going to overcome every little obstacle and how it'll never end. The End is something that is a poison; the Prince Charming comes, he and the girl fall in love, The End. The End is something that never happens in real life. Even in death, there is no The End. How do you know if that's the end? You don't, really.

• I personally have built a fairy tale for my children which I narrate at their bedtime. It is on a character called the Blue Light Kid. He is as old as my sons, who are three and five. I talk about all the things that my sons go through. My son came last in a race, and so I created a chapter on that, about how the Blue Light Kid came last in a race. He was in his room and a Blue Light appeared and spoke to him; he asked why he came last, though he worked hard, and the Blue Light told him that he didn't work hard enough. So he works really hard for the next race, and he again comes last, and gets really angry and says to the Blue Light that it's not fair because he worked really hard. And the Blue Light says, 'As I said, you didn't work hard enough.'. I have these chapters and talk to them about things like losing toys. I tell them that you will get excited about your toys and at some point you will also lose interest in many of them. I talk about these little things; hopefully it'll continue till I can compile it all and release it as a real life fairy tale about this Blue Light Kid.After all, fairy tales are about a world of fantasy, but none of us live in such a world.  

If you have guessed the Guy...please let me know...Thanks

Why Scandinavian Lemmings are being referenced in India ?

Yesterday I was reading the Blog of Sri. L.K.Advani where he mentioned that '....there is a rodent in Scandinavian countries known as “lemming” about which it is said that this species is unique: for no explicable reason, these ‘lemmings’ commit mass suicide.....'.
Not only this but Last week, the Hindu correspondents, P. Sainath, articled “The lurch of the Lemmings”( about the 2G, Radia, illicit funds, and a stubborn CVC, the U.P.A. Government’s scams in general).
So what is this Lemming suicide ?
I read the wiki and found that fact is - lemmins do not suicide but their lemming suicide is a frequently used metaphor in reference to people who go along unquestioningly with popular opinion, with potentially dangerous or fatal consequences. So Mr. Advani was not describing the fact but metaphor.

So as per these people Scams are multiplying faster than Lemmings and U.P.A. Government is in suicidal mood !!!

Serving the Nation - Chaitanya Gurukul Public School

I am very much touched with the feeling and efforts of Mr. Chandrakant Singh(36 years). He has proved that if somebody wants to serve the nation with heart, then means come automatically. The way he setup the Chaitanya Gurukul Public School( Gopalganj,Bihar) shows the zeal and patriotic spirit. He faced all the problems that a NRI typically think before starting anything in India. But his planning,vision and methodology showed that 'There is will there is way'....Great work by a REAL HERO.

Following are some points that seem to be important here :
1. Many times one or the other event force the INDIANS to do something but later they are stopped by one or the other things....but very few do................A role of mentor/guide(here Dr. Srinivasan Suryanarayan - Dean,IIT) plays an important role in such initiatives. And not but not least -> Age does not matter...He is just 36.
2. Planning is important for any project - Here Mr. Dean, suggested him to make a plan for revenue-generating, self-sustaining model instead of taking the charity route.This plan was sent to 3000 engineers but only 8 accepted.
Project : Establishment of Educational Institution as-Model School from class 1 to 12, Degree Engineering College and Research and Development at Chamanpura, Gopalganj
Investment(In Crores Rs.) : 30 ( as submitted to State Investment Promotion Board,Bihar)
Challenge : Project is located in a place "where there is no electric pole forget about electricity"
Response : 5000 students came for 500 seats(admission)
Phase-1 : in 2 years,CGT Public School started with investment of just 2 crore.
3. Money Matters : Even if we talk to NRIs Money is big issue...so project had/has some of the following investment points :
- This money invested by others will go as fixed deposit in SBI Bank.
- This money will not be used but we need to show the gov that they have FD on the name of trust. That was the reason they were taking loan from individual investors than bank.
- FD paper will be with investors and money will be locked for Minimum 1 year. At the end of the maturity investors get FD rate + 2% (for investment below 10 lacs) . For investment of 10 lacs or more they get FD rate + 3%.
3. Quality Control : use of technology in maintaining service/process quality. Examples:
- Use of latest technology through Skype, video conferencing and Internet.
- Apart from regular inhouse teachers,8 of Singh's associates, sitting in various corners of the world, have joined hands to teach children right from Class I to Class VII, through video-conferencing.

Best of luck to Mr. Chandrakant Singh and all others involved in such nationalistic cause.

Every time we say...we should improve but .....

1. Satyendra Kumar Dubey.2003-Project director(IIT-K alumni),NHAI at Gaya,Bihar
2. Shanmugam Manjunath...2005-manager( Graduate) at IOC,Lucknow
3. Yashwant Sonawa.............2011-Additional District Collector,Malegaon,Maharastra

Above list just does not show different names but shows that :
1. Corruption is not specific to any department or state.
2. Young officers have the courage to face the corrupt people even if the system is not supportive.
3. All state government took some action to show that they will not spare the culprit but is punishing one culprit is enough ? should not they do more to avoid such occurrences ?
4. Central/state Governments does not have policy/regulation in place to protect the honest officers.People can say that we have :
- RTI( where RTI activists are killed) and
- CVC(Mr. P.J. Thomas) where top official of the country's highest anti-corruption watchdog seems to be an accused on bail.
- Legal system - where 2/3 laws are obsolete,thousands of cases are pending.

Such incidents lower the morale of honest officers and, in many cases, political interference helps the culprits to escape capital punishment. Unless these are checked, criminals will continue to rule the roost.So what action is needed :
1. Anti-corruption Legislation from Central government with severe punishment for guilty or even guilty probable. After Raja,Kalmadi,Ashok Chavan,P.J. Thomas PM is in desperate need of such legislation to save his face(if not Kursi).This is the high time* when Dr. Singh can invite a special anti-corruption session in parliament where all national level parties unanimously pass this bill.
( * When )
2. Absolute Fast-track courts for corruption cases.
3. A Wikileak type of online interface where people can lodge corruption-proof anonymously.

I wish no mother will lose his son to such pathetic system.

Why Neem Honey should be used more for healthsake ?

My niece has comparably weaker immune system and thus she is susceptible to cold. On my recent visit to India , one of the experienced KGMC,lucknow doctor told me to give her the some natural things to improve his immunity.One of those things was Neem Honey.He asked her and us to use it in our daily life as it is full of Vitamins & Minerals. I did some efforts before I finally got a bottle of Neem Honey at matabadal pansari,Aminabad.

Later I tried to explore the goodness of Neem Honey and surprised to know that it is one of the finest Honey type for everybody.It is obtained from the Neem tree. So Neem Honey is natural blend of anti-inflammatory+anti-tussive+antiseptic qualities of Neem plus antiviral and faster curing properties of Honey.As per the records :
1. It is good for improving eye sight.
2. Harmless for diabetic patients.
3. Good Blood Purifier.
4. Improves complexion of body.
5. Natural tonic for kids.

Best Usage: One Teaspoon before bedtime or once a day in the morning before breakfast.
Note : Do not mix with anything HOT as this will destroy the live enzymes in the honey and cause some of the venom to evaporate.

Some more points for Honey in general :
Ancient Greek athletes consumed honey to boost their energy and performance levels during Olympics events as it contains glucose and fructose, known to produce tremendous reserves of glycogen in the liver.1-TS in night can support our brain function. The fructose is stored as energy reserves in the liver, ready to fuel the brain overnight.

Colds are caused by viruses and honey is a natural antiviral. In a Pennsylvania State College of Medicine study, a spoonful of honey outperformed over-the-counter cold remedies.,Research in 2007 by Shone Blair at Sydney University concluded that honey dressings for superbug wound infections should be used as a 'first choice'.

Honey supports friendly gut bacteria, aiding digestion, and is good for those with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and thrush. According to previous studies, one should consume 2 TS , 3 times a day for gastric ulcers.

Honey boosts the immune system and has an antibacterial effect internally and externally, helping the body to heal.

Why Norway is warmer than other similar places of Northern hemisphere

I did not know answer to above so .....
The Gulf Stream* is the reason why the temperatures in Norway are 5-8°C warmer than at comparable latitudes elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.

*The Gulf Stream is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

The Namesake - another revisit

After 3 years,A watched the The Namesake , a movie that has more meaning and substance to the Indians settled abroad.I also looked at Nikolai Gogol to unearth the hidden treasure about him as well.Somewhere I am deeply touched with the events portrayed in the film and experienced the deja vu.

I guess the real credit goes to Jhumpa Lahiri for writing such a great novel and then to Mira Nair and her team for the remarkable film. It perfectly shows the :
1. Indian immigrant family experience
2. Emotion of Indian parents and relatives.
3. Generational gap between NRIs and their foreign born kids

I wish kids of all the NRIs/PIOS and their kids watch this movie and love and respect the culture( irrespective of the problems and issues that we face in India ).

I wish in future,my kids ( if they stay in foreign land for rest of their life) watch this movie and understand the feelings of Indian parents and culture.