When I heard her say for the first time “what does ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mean? what is good and what is bad?”, I stared back with a blank expression not knowing how to handle a question like that. It seemed like a trick question for all I could see; one of those questions that breaks into a silence and anything the respondent says thereafter is either incorrect or incomplete. Luckily this time, it was a rhetorical one and the answer soon followed from her.
“Good and bad is what WE define: the society. But if you look at it, there is really no good and bad in this world. It’s about how we look at it.” I think she went on for the next ten minutes elaborating on this worldly issue of perceptions. I must have trashed it as pop-philosophy then, now that I come to think of it. But in keeping the subject of good and bad going, I see two cases that are clearly presented to my mind where one could put the two words into context in a way that it has a fair deal of meaning. One is of ‘intentions and actions’ and the other being ‘subject and environment’.
Intentions and Actions
I’m currently involved in a project wherein we’re putting together the largest Clean-room in an academic institution in the country. While the construction is happening, the designs for the subsystems (like water supply, fire suppressants and so on) undergo continuous changes and is a work-in-progress, as you would know if you were an architect, a civil engineer, or simply knew the ways of the business. In one of our weekly reviews with the contractor, we were just not pleased with the fact that he had deviated from the frozen design, albeit a small one, without prior notice. This argument started, went back and forth, and finally settled. At the end, the contractor said in his defense “We only have good intentions for you”.
He had hardly finished the line, and a professor who was part of the design team flew at him. “Haven’t you heard my favourite saying?” he asked.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
I guess the penny dropped for the contractor, and a prolonged silence implied he had got the point.
Why does this happen all the time? For long, I maintained that my Uncle held the copyrights to the line “I’ve always had good intentions.” Though I never brought it up with him, I often wondered if that were to be true, why are the actions not in line with ‘good intentions’?
Which do I more trust in and buy into- the good intentions or the bad actions? Some would call it ‘walking the talk’, but call it what you will, it’s a gap in what we wish to do and what we do that baffles others, but rarely bothers us! Ask any child whose parent declared they loved the child and yet somebody went home in the evening after school having to lie about their test grades for a variety of reasons that are irrelevant to this theme.
Subject and Environment
There’s the story of the famous violinist Joshua Bell who stood on a busy street in Washington D.C at peak hour in the day playing on his $ 3 million violin. In their haste to get to work, hardly any one took notice, and by the end of 45 minutes of playing, all he could show was about 32 dollars in collections in his hat that was laid out. Just a couple of weeks earlier, he had played to a packed audience of a few thousands at a landmark auditorium in the same city.
Environment makes the man. This idea is as old as the hills. But when you think about it, environment really makes the man; or the woman. A friend and I recently co-authored an article for a college magazine. When we got the prints in our hands, we were disappointed to see the article aligned and typeset very poorly.
“It makes us looks like bad writers”, my co-author remarked and I couldn’t disagree with him.
There are several cases like this where a good subject stuck in a bad environment ends up being perceived by the outside as bad. A good student in the midst of teachers who can’t rise beyond their petty selves, a good athlete and a poor coach, a genuinely good stand up comedian (or a musician) playing to the wrong audience all end up looking not quite like what they should.
The natural order of arrangement implies that a sharp looking person, well dressed, would be taken more seriously by a stranger in an air-conditioned conference room, or a social setting of some standard, than in a flea market by the heat of the day.
There’s always a best fit for everything. When there’s a sizable gap between the quality of the subject and the quality of the environment and an optimal fit doesn’t occur, it’s best for the subject to look elsewhere for a place or a way to work things out where it feels easier and more natural. Until then, he’ll continue brushing his teeth with his left hand.
Showing posts with label Inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspiration. Show all posts
Friday, August 6, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Goodwill Learning
Going through exam days and the days prior to it were painful. But watching my brothers at home go through the same pain now is not nearly as hurtful to me as it was for me to go through it. They’re in the classes 9 and 10, and are busy stuck in the race to meet society's goals to get a cut above 90 or whatever, so as to land a decent seat for classes 11 and 12 (or PU 1 (Pre-University) and PU 2 as it’s called in Karnataka).
The ability to produce good results consistently, be it in academics or in a sport, or in acting often has the same underlying basis: that of being a good student of the subject. Being a student comes with the implication of being a superior learner. What then makes for ‘good learning’? Here are 5 points in their order of importance that I think makes sense.
1) A desire for the subject: It’s another way of saying 'you’ve got to do what you like'. A desire for a subject is so paramount to the learner and for learning, simply because it makes the learning process much easier. The desire is like a drug; an anesthetic. You don’t feel the pain of the learning process. This one factor is of such giant importance that placing it anywhere but one would be undermining it to a large extent. History has scores of literature to support this fact.
2) A teachable attitude: I can have all the desire in the world to learn cooking, but if my attitude towards learning stinks, I’m not getting anywhere close to making tasty pasta. And attitude towards learning could mean a whole lot of things – patience, subduing one’s ego for the benefit of learning, stickability to the subject over a period of time, asking questions and not questioning everything, curiosity and initiative, and so much more.
3) Superior Coaching: The saying goes that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And the converse is true as well. A student who wants to learn and is willing to pay the price for it will, by the Law of Attraction, bring in a coach into the circumstance. And superior coaching can bring about (and always does) the difference between doing well and a stellar performance.
4) A competitive fire: The connotation of the word ‘competition’ to mean dog-eat-dog is rampant today. But this is not that kind of a competitive fire that I’m referring to here. It’s that traditional and boring meaning that you’re Principal in school told you about: each day, am I getting better than I was the previous day. It’s that competition with the self.
5) Rote repetition and mastery of the basics: Once these four factors are in place, it’s time to sharpen the pencil, learn the technique and get good at it. Unfortunately, most of us put this at number one. Learning the basics, sticking to it and repeating it over and over again is really the key. There’s nothing fancy to the big win. It’s very unsexy, but who cares; it works all the time.
What other factors do you think can be added to this list?
And btw,here's a great video that captures the essence of being a student and great learner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKXFGVMO3pc
The ability to produce good results consistently, be it in academics or in a sport, or in acting often has the same underlying basis: that of being a good student of the subject. Being a student comes with the implication of being a superior learner. What then makes for ‘good learning’? Here are 5 points in their order of importance that I think makes sense.
1) A desire for the subject: It’s another way of saying 'you’ve got to do what you like'. A desire for a subject is so paramount to the learner and for learning, simply because it makes the learning process much easier. The desire is like a drug; an anesthetic. You don’t feel the pain of the learning process. This one factor is of such giant importance that placing it anywhere but one would be undermining it to a large extent. History has scores of literature to support this fact.
2) A teachable attitude: I can have all the desire in the world to learn cooking, but if my attitude towards learning stinks, I’m not getting anywhere close to making tasty pasta. And attitude towards learning could mean a whole lot of things – patience, subduing one’s ego for the benefit of learning, stickability to the subject over a period of time, asking questions and not questioning everything, curiosity and initiative, and so much more.
3) Superior Coaching: The saying goes that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And the converse is true as well. A student who wants to learn and is willing to pay the price for it will, by the Law of Attraction, bring in a coach into the circumstance. And superior coaching can bring about (and always does) the difference between doing well and a stellar performance.
4) A competitive fire: The connotation of the word ‘competition’ to mean dog-eat-dog is rampant today. But this is not that kind of a competitive fire that I’m referring to here. It’s that traditional and boring meaning that you’re Principal in school told you about: each day, am I getting better than I was the previous day. It’s that competition with the self.
5) Rote repetition and mastery of the basics: Once these four factors are in place, it’s time to sharpen the pencil, learn the technique and get good at it. Unfortunately, most of us put this at number one. Learning the basics, sticking to it and repeating it over and over again is really the key. There’s nothing fancy to the big win. It’s very unsexy, but who cares; it works all the time.
What other factors do you think can be added to this list?
And btw,here's a great video that captures the essence of being a student and great learner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKXFGVMO3pc
Friday, January 8, 2010
A Nobel for the attitude
I’ve got friends in universities in the US Europe
Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year for his work on the ribosomes structure at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge , England
There’s no dearth of role models for students in science. Text books are awash with Linus Paulings and Neils Bohrs. As Dr.Venki (as he likes to be called) himself pointed out earlier in the week on a show on NDTV, the nature of science is universal. Intellectual property can flow (and usually does) with relative ease as the matters of the mind cannot be contained by judicial laws. This very nature of science has meant that scientist role models are not in shortfall, and that their country of origin is almost seemingly inconsequential. The DNA doesn’t care if the discoverer was Irish or Japanese.
The first half of Dr. Venki’s talk was an autobiographical one. He had slides on the screen, and in talking about his journey through school and college in Baroda
The second half of the talk encompassed decoding the ribosome structure at the MRC Laboratory in Cambridge
I’m not sure if I understood the part about the ribosomes, but I sure learnt that a constancy of purpose is very important in one’s career, and that even a Nobel Laureate gives credit to those who have gone out before him and created that pool of knowledge for the rest to work on.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Barter in the blood
I get these quotes for the day on my i-google homepage. Helen Keller is on today saying “College isn't the place to go for ideas.” All the due respect to the great woman, but I can’t seem to agree with that statement.
To the vast majority, college appears to be a collection of people who can be classified as the haves and the have nots. And I’m talking strictly brains here. You have those who have brains, and you have those who don’t. Or atleast that is the popular belief. The dogma persists that a nerd is brainy and the guy with gelled hair and torn jeans is thought to be sans the gray matter. Or the girl with the skin huggin' outfits. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
I’m doing the 3rd reading of a classic book written by Dr. Charles Schwab called The Magic of Thinking Big. Chapter 5 – 'How to think and dream creatively' outlines the meaning of the word creative thinking. He says in this chapter that when the word 'creative' or 'creativity' is brought to the forefront, most people think of the inventors and artists of the world. The author clarifies here that creativity includes even the smallest of things: like a person managing to live inside his/her budget, or a teacher who gets her students to do what they aren’t ready to or any of that stuff. All of that counts as creativity too.
If you aren’t familiar with the two halves of the brain, fyi the left side does the logical reasoning and the right side is responsible for the creative side of things. And so, going back to the case of the nerd and the non-nerd, the former might have a highly developed left sided brain, while the non-nerd might have a superior right sided brain. That doesn’t really make one better than the other, does it? But yea, our big bad black society likes to put labels on people.
I’ll prove it to you.
While I was in Engineering College at NIT Hamirpur until last May, we ran a bi-annual quiz called The Big Quiz. This was a major event for all the quizzers on the campus; the prizes were usually attractive and there was a rolling trophy attached to it as well. As organizers, we seldom expected the beer guzzling, late night-partying, movie watching crowds to show up at the quiz. We were mostly right. But there was this one guy who did all the ‘wrong’ things in life and he’d show up at these quizzes and would be seated in the audience. He would answer nearly 60 to 70 percent of the questions that were passed to the audience. And every time he got one right, the quiz master threw him a Perk or a Munch. By the end of the quiz, this guy would have collected close to 5 or 6 of these chocolates. He’d then leave the venue and make his way to the little chaachu’s dhukaan. He’d hand in the 5 chocolates to chachu and get a packet of Kings in exchange for it.
I think smoking is bad, but come on; that barter was some creativity from a right-brained torn-jeans beer guzzling dude.
To the vast majority, college appears to be a collection of people who can be classified as the haves and the have nots. And I’m talking strictly brains here. You have those who have brains, and you have those who don’t. Or atleast that is the popular belief. The dogma persists that a nerd is brainy and the guy with gelled hair and torn jeans is thought to be sans the gray matter. Or the girl with the skin huggin' outfits. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
I’m doing the 3rd reading of a classic book written by Dr. Charles Schwab called The Magic of Thinking Big. Chapter 5 – 'How to think and dream creatively' outlines the meaning of the word creative thinking. He says in this chapter that when the word 'creative' or 'creativity' is brought to the forefront, most people think of the inventors and artists of the world. The author clarifies here that creativity includes even the smallest of things: like a person managing to live inside his/her budget, or a teacher who gets her students to do what they aren’t ready to or any of that stuff. All of that counts as creativity too.
If you aren’t familiar with the two halves of the brain, fyi the left side does the logical reasoning and the right side is responsible for the creative side of things. And so, going back to the case of the nerd and the non-nerd, the former might have a highly developed left sided brain, while the non-nerd might have a superior right sided brain. That doesn’t really make one better than the other, does it? But yea, our big bad black society likes to put labels on people.
I’ll prove it to you.
While I was in Engineering College at NIT Hamirpur until last May, we ran a bi-annual quiz called The Big Quiz. This was a major event for all the quizzers on the campus; the prizes were usually attractive and there was a rolling trophy attached to it as well. As organizers, we seldom expected the beer guzzling, late night-partying, movie watching crowds to show up at the quiz. We were mostly right. But there was this one guy who did all the ‘wrong’ things in life and he’d show up at these quizzes and would be seated in the audience. He would answer nearly 60 to 70 percent of the questions that were passed to the audience. And every time he got one right, the quiz master threw him a Perk or a Munch. By the end of the quiz, this guy would have collected close to 5 or 6 of these chocolates. He’d then leave the venue and make his way to the little chaachu’s dhukaan. He’d hand in the 5 chocolates to chachu and get a packet of Kings in exchange for it.
I think smoking is bad, but come on; that barter was some creativity from a right-brained torn-jeans beer guzzling dude.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The biggest landmine in sports
Argentina just squeaked into the last flight leaving to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. Phew, what a relief!
The curse and blessing of the Argentinean team has been its coach, El Diego. A blessing for obvious reasons and a curse because it has now been laid out bare to the world that a good player need not always be a good coach. In fact, some the best coaches in the world in sports were seldom good players. Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger had forgettable football careers as players. Jean Todt peaked as co-driver in his racing days, never really achieving anything significant during his stint as a (co)driver. On the other side of the spectrum are cases of players-par-excellence turned coaches-par-nightmare: Kapil Dev, Alain Prost, and Diego Maradona until recently to name a few.
To succeed as a player requires a different skill set than it does to succeed as a coach. For long, I often wondered that if Sachin was the best batsman in the world, why was Anshuman Gaekwad his coach? I had never even heard of Gaekwad’s batting prowess. Or why did a Tiger Woods or a Roger Federer need a coach? Being a coach means bringing out the best in a player, or a team. That often involves placing belief, trust and transferring motivation and bringing about the discipline to develop the ‘balls’ to go out there and succeed. These things need a third party to be involved even with the best players on earth. The lack of understanding of this concept is probably the biggest landmine in all of sports.
Up on skimming through a couple of books recently, my friend noticed that baseball and basketball coaches in the US were well respected, often quoted and remembered even after their prime years. Similar was the case with European football coaches. Maybe in India, we should start doing the same too. Our coaches (only the deserving ones), in any sport, need to be recognized way beyond what they get in the deal now. And we may just have solved one of the problems in the eternal question: “Why can’t a nation of a billion bring home a few Olympic Golds.”
The curse and blessing of the Argentinean team has been its coach, El Diego. A blessing for obvious reasons and a curse because it has now been laid out bare to the world that a good player need not always be a good coach. In fact, some the best coaches in the world in sports were seldom good players. Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger had forgettable football careers as players. Jean Todt peaked as co-driver in his racing days, never really achieving anything significant during his stint as a (co)driver. On the other side of the spectrum are cases of players-par-excellence turned coaches-par-nightmare: Kapil Dev, Alain Prost, and Diego Maradona until recently to name a few.
To succeed as a player requires a different skill set than it does to succeed as a coach. For long, I often wondered that if Sachin was the best batsman in the world, why was Anshuman Gaekwad his coach? I had never even heard of Gaekwad’s batting prowess. Or why did a Tiger Woods or a Roger Federer need a coach? Being a coach means bringing out the best in a player, or a team. That often involves placing belief, trust and transferring motivation and bringing about the discipline to develop the ‘balls’ to go out there and succeed. These things need a third party to be involved even with the best players on earth. The lack of understanding of this concept is probably the biggest landmine in all of sports.
Up on skimming through a couple of books recently, my friend noticed that baseball and basketball coaches in the US were well respected, often quoted and remembered even after their prime years. Similar was the case with European football coaches. Maybe in India, we should start doing the same too. Our coaches (only the deserving ones), in any sport, need to be recognized way beyond what they get in the deal now. And we may just have solved one of the problems in the eternal question: “Why can’t a nation of a billion bring home a few Olympic Golds.”
Monday, June 15, 2009
Always grateful, but never enough
My Principal in high school taught us chemistry. Besides the Aufbau principle of how electrons fill into the atomic sub-shells, I remember one other thing she told us. It was on our graduation day and I quote her “The purpose of an education is not to compete with the other person; but rather, it is about competing with oneself”. How boring and clichéd is that statement? Very.
But how important and significant is it? Very.
In his blog, my friend Sumeet talks about an inner struggle. He describes his constant search for perfection in anything he does, or in anything he seeks. A part of the brain is constantly scanning and probing around to show each of us why that guy or girl is better than us. Sumeet goes on to describe how we live our lives by measuring ourselves with our peers. Or what the world popularly knows as keeping-up-with-the-Joneses. A key takeaway from his article for me was the line “i myself think of many things i have not and i am not. it brings a feeling of discontentment towards quality of life in me …”. This line packs in everything that I was looking to tell my audience on this blog.
Society teaches us to operate from a win-lose paradigm - that in order for me to win, someone needs to lose; that there are only so many seats available and there are more people in the race than there are seats available. In a nut shell, we are told from day one that there is a ‘lack of’ resources in this world. Stats are all over the place showing how only a fraction of the people who appear for the IIT/IIM entrance exams clear them. A kid comes home from school with the report card, and the mother asks “How much did Karthik get? How much did Richa get?” The kid must have got 4th rank, while Karthik and Richa stood 1st and 2nd respectively. The mother doesn’t appreciate the fact that her kid outperformed 35 others in class. She instead chooses to focus on the fact that her kid lags behind 3 others. So there on, the kid is constantly operating from a feeling of ‘not enough’. And this remains until the ‘not enough’ becomes a part of the gene. That kid could be you. That kid could be me. This is the kid that moves through life with a sense of zero accomplishment even when that may not be the case.
How is this problem fixed?
I heard this somewhere and it made sense to me. This is not about thinking positive. It is about working with a sense of gratitude; and gratitude is a word I go back to very often. That is to say you are thankful for whatever you have now, but we just can’t stagnate here. Always grateful, but never enough.
“Fantastic that I outperformed 35 others in class. Superb! But how can I get to number 1?”
And mom, when the child falls, you don’t shoot the shoot the wounded.
But how important and significant is it? Very.
In his blog, my friend Sumeet talks about an inner struggle. He describes his constant search for perfection in anything he does, or in anything he seeks. A part of the brain is constantly scanning and probing around to show each of us why that guy or girl is better than us. Sumeet goes on to describe how we live our lives by measuring ourselves with our peers. Or what the world popularly knows as keeping-up-with-the-Joneses. A key takeaway from his article for me was the line “i myself think of many things i have not and i am not. it brings a feeling of discontentment towards quality of life in me …”. This line packs in everything that I was looking to tell my audience on this blog.
Society teaches us to operate from a win-lose paradigm - that in order for me to win, someone needs to lose; that there are only so many seats available and there are more people in the race than there are seats available. In a nut shell, we are told from day one that there is a ‘lack of’ resources in this world. Stats are all over the place showing how only a fraction of the people who appear for the IIT/IIM entrance exams clear them. A kid comes home from school with the report card, and the mother asks “How much did Karthik get? How much did Richa get?” The kid must have got 4th rank, while Karthik and Richa stood 1st and 2nd respectively. The mother doesn’t appreciate the fact that her kid outperformed 35 others in class. She instead chooses to focus on the fact that her kid lags behind 3 others. So there on, the kid is constantly operating from a feeling of ‘not enough’. And this remains until the ‘not enough’ becomes a part of the gene. That kid could be you. That kid could be me. This is the kid that moves through life with a sense of zero accomplishment even when that may not be the case.
How is this problem fixed?
I heard this somewhere and it made sense to me. This is not about thinking positive. It is about working with a sense of gratitude; and gratitude is a word I go back to very often. That is to say you are thankful for whatever you have now, but we just can’t stagnate here. Always grateful, but never enough.
“Fantastic that I outperformed 35 others in class. Superb! But how can I get to number 1?”
And mom, when the child falls, you don’t shoot the shoot the wounded.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The Lord was in town
Yes, he was!
Lord Jeffery Archer met fans and followers at Landmark, Nungambakkam on 11th May 2009 at 7 pm. Chennai was the first stop of the 5 city India tour of his book release “Paths of Glory”. The evening started with the Man outlining the tale of the book. He went to share the story behind the story and the entire behind-the-scenes effort that went into bringing out Paths of Glory.
This was followed by a short story that he shared from his upcoming collection of short stories "And thereby hangs a tale". Questions and Answers were next. Like only Chennai can do it, the well read audience came out with some fabulous questions. Lord Jeff provided valuable insights into what goes into writing a book. For instance, Paths of Glory is a 140,000 words novel. It was completed in 1000 hours and it took him reviewing 17 drafts before the publishers snatched it away from him. Archer’s writing routine goes like this – he writes during the following time slots in a day: 6 am to 8 am; 8 to 10; 12 noon to 2 pm; 4-6 and 8 to 10 pm. It takes close to a year before the book can hit the shelves. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t suffer from Writer’s bloc. Sometimes, it just takes fours days of walking to get the plot right. Like with playing a violin, painting and dancing, he believes that writing a book is a God given talent too. He rarely knows the ending of a novel when he begins writing one. “The story takes its own course along the way, and the writer must follow that. One should never stick to a rigid structure”, he said.
His favorite writer is R.K. Narayan who he believes had the double bonus of being able to tell a good story in an excellent way. Most other writers write observations, he remarked. A good story necessarily has a good beginning, a middle and all of this leading up to an ending.
The evening concluded with a long round of book signing. He’s promised to be back in India next year.
You can catch up with Lord Jeffery Archer on his blog:
http://www.jeffreyarchers.blogspot.com/
Lord Jeffery Archer met fans and followers at Landmark, Nungambakkam on 11th May 2009 at 7 pm. Chennai was the first stop of the 5 city India tour of his book release “Paths of Glory”. The evening started with the Man outlining the tale of the book. He went to share the story behind the story and the entire behind-the-scenes effort that went into bringing out Paths of Glory.
This was followed by a short story that he shared from his upcoming collection of short stories "And thereby hangs a tale". Questions and Answers were next. Like only Chennai can do it, the well read audience came out with some fabulous questions. Lord Jeff provided valuable insights into what goes into writing a book. For instance, Paths of Glory is a 140,000 words novel. It was completed in 1000 hours and it took him reviewing 17 drafts before the publishers snatched it away from him. Archer’s writing routine goes like this – he writes during the following time slots in a day: 6 am to 8 am; 8 to 10; 12 noon to 2 pm; 4-6 and 8 to 10 pm. It takes close to a year before the book can hit the shelves. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t suffer from Writer’s bloc. Sometimes, it just takes fours days of walking to get the plot right. Like with playing a violin, painting and dancing, he believes that writing a book is a God given talent too. He rarely knows the ending of a novel when he begins writing one. “The story takes its own course along the way, and the writer must follow that. One should never stick to a rigid structure”, he said.
His favorite writer is R.K. Narayan who he believes had the double bonus of being able to tell a good story in an excellent way. Most other writers write observations, he remarked. A good story necessarily has a good beginning, a middle and all of this leading up to an ending.
The evening concluded with a long round of book signing. He’s promised to be back in India next year.
You can catch up with Lord Jeffery Archer on his blog:
http://www.jeffreyarchers.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
5 men and 2 lessons
Times of India’s Heart Beat Concert that happened last night at the Central Auditorium of the University of Madras featured the very best of the very best - Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Shivamani, U.Srinivas and Selva Ganesh. To say the very least, what a treat!
I’m not going into the sing-song of praises for the musicians because everybody knows them and their talent. But I can say this: Zakir Hussain’s fingers flow. I mean, they literally flow. Shivamani is insane. U Srinivas is “one of the greatest instrumentalists of all times”, according to Zakir Hussain who said that during the course of the performance. Sivaganesh is nothing short of a genius, for only someone like him can create such an array of beats with one drum. And Shankar Mahadevan’s vocals sound exactly like on the records, I mean, the guy is good!
But as the concert went on, I watched some very interesting things happen on stage that got me thinking about music and musicians. In my experience, I have noticed that almost every human being that plays an instrument really well, or in other words is a musician of some form or another, is a person of humble nature. I don’t understand this, but I sure appreciate it. You know what I mean. If you can wake up a guy or gal from sleep in the middle of the night, and they’re able to 5 minutes of coherent music groggy-eyed, chances are 9 out of 10 that he or she is your “down-to-earth” person. Maybe, all those endless hours of practice and hardships make you refined when you come out on the other side.
Here’s another thing I noticed on stage. During the solo performance of each artist, the remaining 4 had their eyes fixated on the performer and provided him much valuable feedback through hand gestures and mainly just by their body language. You could say that the guy playing was literally drawing energy from the 4 other champions on stage. And this happened in turns with all the 5 under the spotlight at different times in the evening. This brings me to another conclusion. Musicians respect other musicians. Only one instrumentalist knows what goes into the making of the other instrumentalist. When Shivamani stands and applauds for Selva Ganesh, that’s an applause of respect. When I stand up and applaud for Selva Ganesh, that is applause out of hollow excitement and recognition for a man that can play ‘an instrument’. I have absolutely no idea what has gone into the making of this A-class drummer. And so, by the time he gets off stage, my applause for him is gone and I’m now excited to clap for the next guy. But when Shivamani claps for Selva Ganesh and viceversa, there’s mutual respect in it. And I think, that’s a healthy lesson we can take and apply it in our lives and to the people that we come in contact with – recognizing and applauding for people’s talents, irrespective of what it is and how much we like it.
I’m not going into the sing-song of praises for the musicians because everybody knows them and their talent. But I can say this: Zakir Hussain’s fingers flow. I mean, they literally flow. Shivamani is insane. U Srinivas is “one of the greatest instrumentalists of all times”, according to Zakir Hussain who said that during the course of the performance. Sivaganesh is nothing short of a genius, for only someone like him can create such an array of beats with one drum. And Shankar Mahadevan’s vocals sound exactly like on the records, I mean, the guy is good!
But as the concert went on, I watched some very interesting things happen on stage that got me thinking about music and musicians. In my experience, I have noticed that almost every human being that plays an instrument really well, or in other words is a musician of some form or another, is a person of humble nature. I don’t understand this, but I sure appreciate it. You know what I mean. If you can wake up a guy or gal from sleep in the middle of the night, and they’re able to 5 minutes of coherent music groggy-eyed, chances are 9 out of 10 that he or she is your “down-to-earth” person. Maybe, all those endless hours of practice and hardships make you refined when you come out on the other side.
Here’s another thing I noticed on stage. During the solo performance of each artist, the remaining 4 had their eyes fixated on the performer and provided him much valuable feedback through hand gestures and mainly just by their body language. You could say that the guy playing was literally drawing energy from the 4 other champions on stage. And this happened in turns with all the 5 under the spotlight at different times in the evening. This brings me to another conclusion. Musicians respect other musicians. Only one instrumentalist knows what goes into the making of the other instrumentalist. When Shivamani stands and applauds for Selva Ganesh, that’s an applause of respect. When I stand up and applaud for Selva Ganesh, that is applause out of hollow excitement and recognition for a man that can play ‘an instrument’. I have absolutely no idea what has gone into the making of this A-class drummer. And so, by the time he gets off stage, my applause for him is gone and I’m now excited to clap for the next guy. But when Shivamani claps for Selva Ganesh and viceversa, there’s mutual respect in it. And I think, that’s a healthy lesson we can take and apply it in our lives and to the people that we come in contact with – recognizing and applauding for people’s talents, irrespective of what it is and how much we like it.
Friday, September 19, 2008
The Gratitude Rock
Try this:
Pick up a small stone or a pebble. Clean it and let it dry completely. Carry this stone around with you where ever you go. For men, let it remain in your pocket throughout the day, and when you retire for the night, leave it on your desk along with the wallet, keys and the hand-kerchief. Ladies, it can remain in your bag. But take it out every night, and put it back in the next morning.
This is called the ‘Gratitude Rock’, and this technique has been featured in the movie The Secret. Every time you see the rock or feel it with your hands, just say this to yourself: “I thank the Universe for giving me _____”. If there is something that you’re missing in your life at this point in time, fill that in the blank. It could be as simple as “I thank the Universe for giving me a good night’s sleep” (which is something that I have been saying a lot lately!) or “I thank the Universe for giving me a stress free day” or “I thank the Universe for giving me a triple frappaccino latte with double cinnamon shot”. Ask for anything. And sooner or later, you will see yourself attracting it. Gratitude works well with anything in life. This is a law of the universe.
‘Focus’ is the next key word. Always be specific in what you ask the universe for, and focus on it in your mind. And that evokes another great law: What you focus on is what you get. If your want to be healthy, thank the universe for granting you good health. If it’s money that you need, every time you touch the gratitude rock, thank the universe for giving you an abundance of money. But do it regularly and consistently with focus. To burn a piece of paper, it takes a magnifying glass to remain in one position and focus the sun’s rays on to the paper. Obviously, nothing much is going to happen if you wave around the magnifying glass. Why? Focused attention ALWAYS delivers, but when executed with a sense of gratitude.
This might be heavy philosophy from someone who’s been writing about coffee and beer and escapades. But then, we all change tracks.
Coming soon: Coffee, beer and escapades.
Pick up a small stone or a pebble. Clean it and let it dry completely. Carry this stone around with you where ever you go. For men, let it remain in your pocket throughout the day, and when you retire for the night, leave it on your desk along with the wallet, keys and the hand-kerchief. Ladies, it can remain in your bag. But take it out every night, and put it back in the next morning.
This is called the ‘Gratitude Rock’, and this technique has been featured in the movie The Secret. Every time you see the rock or feel it with your hands, just say this to yourself: “I thank the Universe for giving me _____”. If there is something that you’re missing in your life at this point in time, fill that in the blank. It could be as simple as “I thank the Universe for giving me a good night’s sleep” (which is something that I have been saying a lot lately!) or “I thank the Universe for giving me a stress free day” or “I thank the Universe for giving me a triple frappaccino latte with double cinnamon shot”. Ask for anything. And sooner or later, you will see yourself attracting it. Gratitude works well with anything in life. This is a law of the universe.
‘Focus’ is the next key word. Always be specific in what you ask the universe for, and focus on it in your mind. And that evokes another great law: What you focus on is what you get. If your want to be healthy, thank the universe for granting you good health. If it’s money that you need, every time you touch the gratitude rock, thank the universe for giving you an abundance of money. But do it regularly and consistently with focus. To burn a piece of paper, it takes a magnifying glass to remain in one position and focus the sun’s rays on to the paper. Obviously, nothing much is going to happen if you wave around the magnifying glass. Why? Focused attention ALWAYS delivers, but when executed with a sense of gratitude.
This might be heavy philosophy from someone who’s been writing about coffee and beer and escapades. But then, we all change tracks.
Coming soon: Coffee, beer and escapades.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
A Gate-a-way.
It's been almost a week now since the celebrated Chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates stepped down from office. As an aspiring entrepreneur myself, I have always kept my ears open to the words that spring out of his mouth every now and then. Like many great men of the previous centuries whose words continue to be quoted long after they're gone, Gates will be be no exception.
There's little that remains unsaid of his scholastic, professional and financial genius; and Blogger wouldn't bail me out if I were jailed for repeating it. For a couple of days now, I have been keeping myself busy with Robert Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers. An interesting incidence that points out repeatedly in this book, and even as History has put into spotlight: there are always the theorists, and there are the practical men. Theorists will 'study' patterns and trends and show light into the way of the future. That is how consultants have always earned their bread and butter in any field. No one better than Peter Drucker in Management Circles and futurist Alvin Tofler pop up into my head here. I haven't read of much of Drucker myself; but the number of volumes that carry his name on the cover page across the book shelves of the world speak for themselves of the guru. I personally adore, respect, follow and worship Alvin Tofler. Call this clan as Toflerians, but if the previous sentence made you want to jump out of the window for lack of comprehension, I would at least urge you to read The Third Wave (one of the most influential books of the last century) before doing so. But Bill Gates would figure ahead of the two gentlemen. Having opened the doors of the information age, he has always operated ahead of the rest of the world by at least 5 to 10 years. What does that mean?
The 5 to 10 years window is not necessarily in the sense of a visionary. Most men/women that have achieved anything significant in life have all been visionaries. Bill Gates, as of today, can say what exactly technology will look like in some years from now. Picture this as the look out in a ship standing atop the sails and warning people on the deck know of what lies ahead. And the man is pin point accurate to what he says. Having started out as a programmer, he went on to play a sales man pitching the world to buy into his software, then built a strong business system and provided super leadership. Besides this, he's donned on other caps as a successful investor. an economist (he's a regular face at the World Economic Forum in Davos annually), a futurist, a writer and more recently as a philanthropist. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is far bigger than the Rockefellers' or the Fords'. In charity size does not matter, but then, it matters.
He deserves all the accolades that have been bestowed on him. Thanks Bill for the new age! I'm proud to have lived on this earth at a time that he did.
There's little that remains unsaid of his scholastic, professional and financial genius; and Blogger wouldn't bail me out if I were jailed for repeating it. For a couple of days now, I have been keeping myself busy with Robert Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers. An interesting incidence that points out repeatedly in this book, and even as History has put into spotlight: there are always the theorists, and there are the practical men. Theorists will 'study' patterns and trends and show light into the way of the future. That is how consultants have always earned their bread and butter in any field. No one better than Peter Drucker in Management Circles and futurist Alvin Tofler pop up into my head here. I haven't read of much of Drucker myself; but the number of volumes that carry his name on the cover page across the book shelves of the world speak for themselves of the guru. I personally adore, respect, follow and worship Alvin Tofler. Call this clan as Toflerians, but if the previous sentence made you want to jump out of the window for lack of comprehension, I would at least urge you to read The Third Wave (one of the most influential books of the last century) before doing so. But Bill Gates would figure ahead of the two gentlemen. Having opened the doors of the information age, he has always operated ahead of the rest of the world by at least 5 to 10 years. What does that mean?
The 5 to 10 years window is not necessarily in the sense of a visionary. Most men/women that have achieved anything significant in life have all been visionaries. Bill Gates, as of today, can say what exactly technology will look like in some years from now. Picture this as the look out in a ship standing atop the sails and warning people on the deck know of what lies ahead. And the man is pin point accurate to what he says. Having started out as a programmer, he went on to play a sales man pitching the world to buy into his software, then built a strong business system and provided super leadership. Besides this, he's donned on other caps as a successful investor. an economist (he's a regular face at the World Economic Forum in Davos annually), a futurist, a writer and more recently as a philanthropist. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is far bigger than the Rockefellers' or the Fords'. In charity size does not matter, but then, it matters.
He deserves all the accolades that have been bestowed on him. Thanks Bill for the new age! I'm proud to have lived on this earth at a time that he did.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Courtesy
Week before last, I was at the bank. The lady behind the counter was a fabulous person; always smiling and really helpful. Next to me at the counter was another woman who was there to transfer money to her relatives in a neighboring district. She was the typical villager who worked in the field all day, and she was roughly in her late 40's.
Since she didn't know the details of the account fully, she was facing trouble completing her work. But of course, the banker woman, being the helpful soul she was made this woman's life easy by going out of her way to arrange for information that she could have very well dismissed as being beyond the scope of her job. The two women spoke in pahadi (the local dialect of the hills). After a couple of minutes of going back and forth, the task at hand was finished. I stood there watching as the villager woman handed the currency notes to the banker lady. And just she was about to walk away, the villager stopped and looked at the banker and said : Thank you. I was stunned. So was the banker across the counter. She asked her customer to repeat what she said. And smiling, with her lips concealing her teeth, she repeated: Thank you.
Courtesy doesn't demand much time. It is something as small as a Thank you to someone who doesn't expect to be thanked. If a woman with nil education knows this, it is embarrassing for us who hold fancy degrees to somehow think that we are above all of this. Do I say I was touched by the woman's act? Yes. But I learned a valuable lesson that day - Be courteous even to strangers.
Since she didn't know the details of the account fully, she was facing trouble completing her work. But of course, the banker woman, being the helpful soul she was made this woman's life easy by going out of her way to arrange for information that she could have very well dismissed as being beyond the scope of her job. The two women spoke in pahadi (the local dialect of the hills). After a couple of minutes of going back and forth, the task at hand was finished. I stood there watching as the villager woman handed the currency notes to the banker lady. And just she was about to walk away, the villager stopped and looked at the banker and said : Thank you. I was stunned. So was the banker across the counter. She asked her customer to repeat what she said. And smiling, with her lips concealing her teeth, she repeated: Thank you.
Courtesy doesn't demand much time. It is something as small as a Thank you to someone who doesn't expect to be thanked. If a woman with nil education knows this, it is embarrassing for us who hold fancy degrees to somehow think that we are above all of this. Do I say I was touched by the woman's act? Yes. But I learned a valuable lesson that day - Be courteous even to strangers.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Honda is right
In October 2004, I sat in an auto with 2 others driving around the India Gate area in New Delhi. A couple of blocks away from there, we chanced up on Hotel Shangri-La. At the very first sight, my brains blew out. This was the most enchanting (yes, enchanting) 5 star I had ever seen. I got a dream that day: to go into the Hotel on invitation.
I must have driven past Shangri-La at least a dozen times after that. Every time I looked at the tall building with its majestic driveway, I felt more strongly about my dream. I sat up at wee hours during many a nights in my little AF-2, and visualised myself walking through the doorway there. How would I get an invite? When would I get it? I knew nought, but I knew that it would come.
I was at the National Round of Career Launcher's Tycoons 2008 (separate posts on this coming soon). After 4 gruelling days into the competition, we were to have the Graduation Ceremony. It was at the Shangri-La.And of course, there was an invite. At 7 pm, I walked past the gates of my dream, up the drive way, into the lobby. I climbed the stairs leading up to the banquet hall. And I thought that my dream had come true. The best was saved for the last.
Satya, the Chairman of Career Launcher called me over to the table where he was sitting. There were 30 minutes left before the start of ceremony. And he said- "Will you be the Master of Ceremony?" I jumped at that opportunity like a hungry dog. And I went on stage and compeered the night. There were dozens of CEOs, Venture Capitalists, Journos,reporters et al. in the gathering. It was humbling to talk from stage that night. I also realised what a small thinking person I had been. I asked for one time chance to go the S'la and do nothing there. I would have been on top of the world if I just sat there for an hour, sipped on lemon coriander soup and walked out. But I got what i asked for and ten folds of it.
The Power of Dreams- Honda. They are right.
I must have driven past Shangri-La at least a dozen times after that. Every time I looked at the tall building with its majestic driveway, I felt more strongly about my dream. I sat up at wee hours during many a nights in my little AF-2, and visualised myself walking through the doorway there. How would I get an invite? When would I get it? I knew nought, but I knew that it would come.
I was at the National Round of Career Launcher's Tycoons 2008 (separate posts on this coming soon). After 4 gruelling days into the competition, we were to have the Graduation Ceremony. It was at the Shangri-La.And of course, there was an invite. At 7 pm, I walked past the gates of my dream, up the drive way, into the lobby. I climbed the stairs leading up to the banquet hall. And I thought that my dream had come true. The best was saved for the last.
Satya, the Chairman of Career Launcher called me over to the table where he was sitting. There were 30 minutes left before the start of ceremony. And he said- "Will you be the Master of Ceremony?" I jumped at that opportunity like a hungry dog. And I went on stage and compeered the night. There were dozens of CEOs, Venture Capitalists, Journos,reporters et al. in the gathering. It was humbling to talk from stage that night. I also realised what a small thinking person I had been. I asked for one time chance to go the S'la and do nothing there. I would have been on top of the world if I just sat there for an hour, sipped on lemon coriander soup and walked out. But I got what i asked for and ten folds of it.
The Power of Dreams- Honda. They are right.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Things that make a difference
I often times wonder why a person would go beyond his comfort zone to get what he wants, if he wants it bad enough. Though this has intrigued me a little in the last few days, it still fails to explain why some people attract certain events in their lives effortlessly, while certain others fail to do so with humongous effort; for what ever reason that might be.
Sunday last, I walked up to room no. AS-15 and knocked hard on the door. It was Sagar's room, my ex-roomie. Satyam computers were coming over to our campus (which is a pick in itself) for recruitment's. Despite knowing that Sagar didn't have the required numbers to make the cut off, I still thought he could give it a shot. The guy opened the door with blood shot eyes. Apparently, as I later heard, he was 'busy' the previous night till 3 ;-).
As he walked towards the hall, he msged in saying 'what's the point..? I don't think there's any use in me going'.. I replied ...' A'ole, just go.. who knows.. something might click'.... and hence, go he did. Never having seen an aptitude test before, he walked into one. With 5 minutes to spare before full time, the Satyam guy threw Sagar out of the exam hall.... for disturbing (if you know what I mean).
The list of qualifiers came. Sagar had made it. He had turned up in a Tee and a pair of denims for the test. And his interview was to start in the next 10 minutes.... I rushed in with his formals. He changed. And went into the interview.
I lay half asleep on my bed. Narayan rushed in shouting - "Oye! Sagar got thru' da!" ... At that instant it seemed like the script of my dream had just changed. But 5 minutes later... as I saw a beaming Sagar kicking his feet and hands in the air.. I knew it was true. And yes.... all of us were sure glad for him. Way too glad.
Despite knowing that he would have to fight it out for getting a placement in this coll. , he had held on to that one thought for long.. And held it strongly. And he got it. There were people there in that test who didn't make it. And I'm told they had better grades than my friend. But that noon, they didn't make it. I think they didn't focus hard enough. And full points to Sagar for doing just that.
Big things in life never walk in with the drums sounding loud and the glitterati all over. They creep in through the door, when you are sleeping. And they creep in because you were expecting it. And you deserve it. And it's the expectancy that makes all the difference.
Congrats, Sagar!
Sunday last, I walked up to room no. AS-15 and knocked hard on the door. It was Sagar's room, my ex-roomie. Satyam computers were coming over to our campus (which is a pick in itself) for recruitment's. Despite knowing that Sagar didn't have the required numbers to make the cut off, I still thought he could give it a shot. The guy opened the door with blood shot eyes. Apparently, as I later heard, he was 'busy' the previous night till 3 ;-).
As he walked towards the hall, he msged in saying 'what's the point..? I don't think there's any use in me going'.. I replied ...' A'ole, just go.. who knows.. something might click'.... and hence, go he did. Never having seen an aptitude test before, he walked into one. With 5 minutes to spare before full time, the Satyam guy threw Sagar out of the exam hall.... for disturbing (if you know what I mean).
The list of qualifiers came. Sagar had made it. He had turned up in a Tee and a pair of denims for the test. And his interview was to start in the next 10 minutes.... I rushed in with his formals. He changed. And went into the interview.
I lay half asleep on my bed. Narayan rushed in shouting - "Oye! Sagar got thru' da!" ... At that instant it seemed like the script of my dream had just changed. But 5 minutes later... as I saw a beaming Sagar kicking his feet and hands in the air.. I knew it was true. And yes.... all of us were sure glad for him. Way too glad.
Despite knowing that he would have to fight it out for getting a placement in this coll. , he had held on to that one thought for long.. And held it strongly. And he got it. There were people there in that test who didn't make it. And I'm told they had better grades than my friend. But that noon, they didn't make it. I think they didn't focus hard enough. And full points to Sagar for doing just that.
Big things in life never walk in with the drums sounding loud and the glitterati all over. They creep in through the door, when you are sleeping. And they creep in because you were expecting it. And you deserve it. And it's the expectancy that makes all the difference.
Congrats, Sagar!
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