HABITS !!!

Habits

Our character, basically, is a composite of our habits. “ Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny.” Habits are powerful factors in our lives. They are consistent and constantly, daily, express our character and produce our effectiveness or ineffectiveness.

Habits can be learnt or unlearnt. This involves a certain process and a tremendous commitment.

A habit is the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire. Knowledge is the theoretical aspect, the ‘what to do’ and the why. Skill is the how to do. Desire is the motivation, the want to do. To form a habit we need to have all three; but most of all we must have the desire in a fairly strong measure. The important question is, therefore, how to get children to form good habits; and that too habits based on abstract qualities? The answer could possibly be in giving the children some activity that might give them the experience of that quality. For example let us take the quality Compassion, which according to Amma, is love in action. If we expose the children to human misery and suffering by taking them on a visit to a government hospital, an orphanage, a leper colony, or a school for handicapped children, it is possible that some of the children may be deeply moved and the visit may have a lasting impression on them. Parents, Mentors, Teachers should use their imagination and ingenuity to organize such activities, which could give the children an experience of the abstract quality we wish them to inculcate.

Jai Ho...

Jai Series

Well.....The series of Stories that iam going to write are mostly from real life experience which i have heard, seen and experiencing...If you find some coincidence with your life, it is purely accidental...

Jan 17th..The story is about Jai who enters this world With her first cry...When she was born, she radiated a beam of divinity...Her father Vasudev was the first person to see her...The nurse called Vasudev and showed the baby girl...Divine, Lovely and the aura of divinity was felt instantly...Vasudev could not take his eyes from his baby. What a great moment of happiness when he saw the baby...The first thing Vasudeve did was to chant this favorite Hanuman Chalisa and Mantra...Welcoming the new born with a mantra relishes the atmosphere.

The next few days in the hospital was of great experience to Vasudev. His perception of seeing his wife Devaki aka Devu became different...Even for Devu, it was a punarjanma...She always tells V that Certain things happen for a reason. " V!!! We are really blessed to have a healthier child."
The doctor( Shiromani by name) who attended to Devu and the new born was telling that the new born was seeing saying ''mmmmaa!!!!mmmaaa!!! mmmmaa" rather than crying.....Sounded as though the child was calling the DIVINE MOTHER Maa...

Everyday routine for Devu and her mother would be to take care of the child...Vasudev would do a small help by bringing food for Devu and her mom...He spends most of his time in the hospital....apart from his regular work schedule..

The journey moves ahead with Devu being discharged from the hospital on jan 23rd..She goes to her house in Puthur, Palakkad. Life totally changes for Devu..Her priority is only the new born.....who she called Jaishree( Shortly as Jai)..

Vasudev too gets busy by coming back to Kochi...Joins his School..where he works as a teacher in English dept...All his thoughts are only on Devu and Jai...and nothing else....Vasudev hails from a place called Gramam, Vadakancherry, Kerala...

Life takes a turn when Devu joins Vasudev in March at Kochi....By this time, Jai is grown up - 50 days old...

(Continued in next post )

Go Kiss the World - Subroto Baghchi

The books starts with his own life - the way he really struggled in life as an ordinary person...

- Lesson on Governance as a child - just as we learn in the corporates

- Lesson on treating people as how we want others to treat us

- Way of showing consideration on people - Business begins and ends ...

- It is important not to measure someone's personal success and sense of well being through material possessions

- It is not about what you create for yourself, it is about what you leave for others to pick it up

- It we imagine a future , we can create it, if we can create that future, others can live in it

- Success is all about the sense of independence, it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light

- There is no limit to how concerned you can be for another humanbeing and what the limit of inclusion can you create

- Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is all about unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

- Success is all about our VISION - the goal that we have in our mind and how we are going to chase the goal and connect it to the world so that we can give back more to life that to take out of it..

I deeply admire Mr. Subroto Bagchi for the above words..

I am great fan of all his three books - the latest being " The Professional "

CT - 41st Workshop Bcom Participants

41 st Workshop – S6 Bcom – batch 1

All the 24 participants wanted more CT workshops and a team mate came out and said that – “ Sir, thanks for giving us this workshop. We were feeling less worthy of ourselves. You made us realize the worth of knowing ourselves better. Thank you so much sir…
Personally, I felt so happy mainly because of the energy level and cheerful attitude this batch had today. The cheerfulness was consistent right from beginning till the end. After a long gap of 3 months , I was delivering this workshop that too alone as my co-facilitators Vishnu and Sekharji are busy with their respective subjects and research projects. I thank Sekhar for his valuable inputs. I think that I was able to deliver this workshop only because of MOTHER’s Sankalpa alone. The Shakti given by her to deliver the workshop. It helped me to improve my attitude a lot too.
I deeply feel better after doing this workshop. Iam indebted to Paul Sir, Bijuji and Manisha Mam for providing me a good platform to showcase the hidden talents of S6 Bcom Students.
I thank my CCR Admin team for their support as well as my training team who have been very supportive in adjusting their classes.


Feedbacks are as follows :


Team Work was the best thing that happened today. Last part of tableau really took us to greater heights of teamwork where everyone was ready to contribute, listen to each other’s ideas and were willing to cooperate for the team to succeed – Iam feeling good and proud of being Bcom student today. Team Work was the main things that gave us success – Great experience. Team Work will bring more success – All classmates were really helping each other and they collaborated well for the success – Cooperation was fantastic. Which made our job easier – Lot of cooperation and I experienced team work fully for the first time. – All of them had creative ideas and that made our team to succeed – Everyone was working hard. Efforts came from all with lots of ideas and everyone encouraged the other. Unity brought us more closer and understanding. If we are united like this, We can always prove ourself that we are the best in this campus – We all have the same potential - First we were little panicked when we got the scripts. But later we understood that if we have the will to do, we can always achieve success. Ideas came from everyone and it got accepted too. The path became smooth when we were very clear about where we were going to reach. All were very comfortable and committed. I don’t think we will bunk any class hereafter wards. We got to understand that we are only responsible for our state. Thank you so much sir for this great opportunity – We trusted each other more and everyone’s caliber came out and it was a great chance to showcase our talents. Please give us more chances like this to prove our potential – CT is excellent . All were really good and innovative. Cooperation was so high and all our hidden talents came out – feeling very happy and we can always do many great things if we are committed as a group – We were so self-conscious before the start of the workshop. I experienced a lot of team work and encouragement from my team. Planning was effectively done. We felt little tensed initially, but later felt so good at our performance . Our self-consciousness vanished - Proud to be in Bcom class. Very cooperative and higher level of acceptance was there. We are ready to take up any challenge now – We experienced the unity of strength today. Thank you sir – Excellent workshop and great job done by team mates. All of our talents came out – Fabulous workshop. Iam so happy and grateful to you sir – Team work and unity was the greatest thing we experienced , which brought us success – Now after taking this workshop , I strongly feel that I can take on any challenge in my life and help others also to reach their goals – Wonderful experience with Corporate Theatre. We can be our own self . Iam happy that my inhibitions, mental blocks and defensive attitude have gone. Thank you so much. It was fun – It was excellent group work where all of our brilliance came out. Happy to see how others are performing at their peak – I am really so happy because all of my best abilities came out, which I never believed that I had . I thank sir for this workshop and it was terrific experience – CT helped me to gain more self-confidence. I learnt the importance of unity, I can face any challenge in my life now, I experienced the importance and role of a member in a group. We can always achieve success if we cooperate well with others and we can grow mutually. Thanks to Sir.


One more marked on the wood - believe me guys, Bcom professionals are calm and composed, at the same time, they are immensely talented , well enough to mark their values on earth soon..

Soft Skills and its importance

Soft skills training becomes essential for India Software Inc
Suraj grew up in a small town in Haryana from where he did his schooling before obtaining admission in IIT Delhi. On completion of his MTech, he joined one of the leading software giants of the country and within two months was sent to Santa Clara on an onsite project. And that was when Suraj’s nightmare started. Having been educated in a vernacular medium school, he was neither too fluent in English nor was he at all comfortable with girls, having studied in a boys-only school. After landing in an open society like the US, where boys and girls mix freely, the shy and coy Suraj had a major adjustment problem, he turned into an introvert and finally fell into depression.
This is not a tale of fiction, but a real-life incident, and the saddest part is that it keeps happening again and again with Indian software companies. Reasons are not far to guess: most companies send a huge workforce to alien shores, and many of these people coming from non-urban backgrounds are subjected to a major culture shock which can cause major mental upheaval. So what are the solutions to this problem? Imparting training that inculcates communication and culture skills amongst all employees. And it is here that the companies need to come to the forefront to take the responsibility for providing this training, especially considering the number of people they send abroad every year. But, are Indian IT companies performing this role? Sadly, apart from a handful like TCS, Infosys, Wipro or NIIT, no companies are taking care to train employees on these so-called softer skills. It is true that many other organisations do train people on technical skills, but unfortunately this vital part remains neglected.
However, an independent study conducted on CEOs, by Stanford Research Institute and Carnegie Mellon in the US, found that long-term job success depends 75 percent on people skills and only 25 percent on technical knowledge. Another study done by Harvard University had even more startling results—85 percent of jobs and promotions happened because of the candidate’s attitude and only 15 percent due to the facts and figures he packed under his belt. In fact, companies lose almost 10-15 percent of possible business due to their inability to meet the perceived level of services linked to soft skills.
But why do most IT companies desist from providing training on these softer skills? Many experts opine that this is due to the huge expenditure involved in setting up the entire infrastructure required for making available this sort of training. This effectively means that apart from the giants, most other companies think twice before investing such sums on people, especially when the attrition rate is one of the highest in the software sector. Take the case of TCS, which claims to spend six percent of its revenue on this sort of training in the sprawling training centre they have set up in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram. Considering the company’s revenues, this translates into a sum of Rs 300 crore.
What is the sort of training these majors provide? In case of TCS, it is mandatory for every new entry-level recruit from all over the country to spend three to four months in the Thiruvananthapuram training centre. The centre has the capacity to hold about 600 people at one time, which roughly translates into about 2,400 employees going through it every year. With Reveals R Narayan, vice president-education and training, TCS, in charge of the training centre, “It is mandatory that every professional with us should have 20 days of training in one year, which can be at the centre or in emergency cases, even at the worksite. We also try to bring the professionals down here for a de-briefing session on their live experiences for six to eight weeks.” Is it imperative that there should be some official recognition of this training too. According to Narayan, Canada has recently experimented with certification for soft skills training, while the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge is also attempting to give some recognition to it.
The Infosys management tries to build leaders at all levels. The company has leadership training programmes called ‘Pravesh’ for aspiring leaders. Specific actions in Wipro include weekly communication on vision and business plans, continuous communication and Web training to new recruits, extensive verbal and documented communication to line managers and intensifying efforts to add to the current robustness of people processes.
Make no mistake! You may be an MCA, MBA-IT or even a PhD, but one thing is certain, besides technical skills, it’s the softer skill-sets that make a difference if you want to move up the ladder. A survey of IT recruitment advertisements reveals that for 60 percent of entry-level jobs, technical skills are most important. Soft skills like “the ability to work well in a team” become more relevant as one moves up the ladder and would start assuming importance for candidates with over two to three years of experience. For positions like those of team leaders that demand experience and supervisory skills, it is almost impossible to find even a single advertisement which does not have phrases like “excellent communication skills”, “strong interpersonal skills”, etc.
But are these training in soft skills going to help the companies in the long run? R Vidyasagar, head, HR, i-flex solutions, reveals that corporates in India spend more than Rs 600 crore a year in direct training costs. “A recent survey revealed that the IT industry spent more than 40 percent of its training budget on skill building. Training was always high priority on the IT manager’s agenda, but amid project completion deadlines, hectic travel schedules and long teleconferences, skill building took a backseat. With the slowing down of the sector, this spending could be better utilised now, with techies having more time on their hands.” Clearly, soft skills are being increasingly recognised for their true worth. And with an increasing number of organisations training their personnel towards it, it can only augur well for the IT industry towards making India Inc globally competitive.

COSMIC RELATIONSHIPS

COSMIC RELATIONSHIPS

When two humans meet,
They communicate
In vocal or silent companionship
Or mutual animus.

Each bundle of energy, vibrates with
Its own brand of thoughts,
To discuss, dismiss or demonstrate.
A word, a glance, a gentle touch with love
Warms the soul to ecstasy.
A stinging word,
A stare, a violent thrust,
In all consuming anger or distrust
Could souls destroy.

Is it a matter of choice or chance
Such relationships take place?
Do souls meet and part at will?
Or do they, guided by some unknown consciousness,
Forever wander the cosmos,
Pausing briefly on earth, to bump into one another;
Seemingly without design,
Attracting or repelling,
To leave their mark and be marked
By each passing atma?
And in this endless process be tutored, honed and tempered
With slow and painful precision,
To perfection and nirvana?
Few know.
Most don’t care.

Ignited Minds - A review

“Ignited Minds: Unleashing the power within India”, by APJ Abdul Kalam, Viking (Penguin Books India ), 2002, Rs. 250/-.


“From Rameswaram to Raisina” might soon replace “From Log cabin to White House”. A poor fisherman’s son has risen to become the President of India, along the way adorned the mantle of being the “undisputed father of India’s Missile and Nuclear Program”( as a full page advertisement in a South Indian newspaper recently claimed) and awarded all possible honors including the Bharat Ratna. But prior to moving to Raisina Hill, Mr. Kalam spent almost a year meeting with thousands of school children all over the country and trying to “ ignite their minds so that India turns into a developed nation by 2020”. This book is a chronicle of his thoughts and ideas in this period.

The year 2020 comes from his earlier book, “India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium”, based on a report prepared by the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment council (TIFAC) which gave a blueprint for achieving a developed nation status by 2020. The report was essentially a technocratic vision of development without any reference to societal and political constraints. The report’s (and the book’s) prescriptions were totally devoid of any realistic assessment of our polity and society. It is to this that Mr. Kalam now turns with his new book.

Recently there was a bit of controversy when the latest Human Development Report ranked India slightly above sub-Saharan Africa. The venerable Minister for Human Resource Development, Prof. M.M. Joshi rubbished the report saying that it only measures material well being, while we Indians are far superior spiritually! If this had not come after 4 years of similar idiotic statements by functionaries of this government, it would have provoked some reaction. But by now, we are so used to politicians and bureaucrats, especially in the field of education saying bizarre things that such pronouncements pass unnoticed.

Let us face it: by any measure that one can think of, we as a nation fare poorly in the global community of nations. Our GDP per capita is pathetic, our infant mortality rates are alarming, and we have the largest number of illiterates in the world and so on. But if one were to read Mr. Kalam’s latest book, one would think that all that is missing for us to vault into the community of developed nations is an aspiration to do so and confidence in ourselves. In his amazingly simplistic understanding, he suggests that “there is nothing mysterious about the abundance in developed nations. The historic fact is that the people of these nations believed over many generations that they must live a good life in a strong and prosperous nation and the reality became aligned with their aspirations”. How wonderfully simple! Alas, the reality is a bit more complex.

Mr. Kalam is of the opinion that we Indians have a unique characteristic of belittling our achievements and this trait may even be genetic! ( an appalling statement coming from the most well known scientist in the country) In reply to an innocent question asked by a child about whose weapons are stronger, India’s or Pakistan’s he asserts “ India can design, develop and produce any type of missile and any type of nuclear weapon…. You remove all doubts from your mind”. At this, the child gave a very satisfied look, as he reports!

What is one to make of such a statement? Notwithstanding the self congratulations and paeans sung to our new-found scientific heroes, the recent expose in a newspaper of the terrible state in which India’s missile programme is in, is illustrative of the kind of self delusion we are capable of. At one point, Mr. Kalam talks about “Transparency being the cornerstone of development”. This coming from a person who spearheaded projects, the accounts of which were not even disclosed in the Parliament, leave alone a public debate on accountability!

This is not to say that everything that he says is superfluous. Mr. Kalam talks about the necessity of role models for a child, something which is obviously important. He also talks about the need for self reliance and a search for solutions which are specific to our conditions rather than imported or transplanted from other countries. He discusses the need for improvements in agriculture, education, health etc. He also warns against becoming a provider of cheap labor in areas of high technology and the pitfalls of getting carried away with the success of a few in the software industry. No one can quarrel with him on these issues.

For instance, in a long chapter on “Learning from Saints and Seers”, he talks about his meetings with holy men of various hues. All of them, including Mr. Kalam are of the opinion that spirituality must be integrated with education. Then follows the inevitable singing of paeans to the knowledge contained in our ancient scriptures (including constructions of airplanes!), in a way which will certainly gladden the hearts of the likes of Mr. Rajput and Mr. Joshi. No critical understanding here of the nuances of integrating spirituality in a multicultural, multiethnic society such as ours. Just the proffering of “gyan” by charlatans who produce Seiko watches out of thin air or Swamis with immense political clout who use it to play politics with emotive issues like Ayodhya.

There is also a strange naiveté with which Mr. Kalam writes. Take for instance his statement that we could “easily accomplish three times what we do, in half the time we normally take , if we were to operate in mission mode with a vision for the nation”. Missions to develop missiles may be successful ( or not, if the Times of India is to be believed) but missions for social and political problems are a different ball game. Think of the National Literacy Mission; was it an unqualified success? Did it achieve the results which were commensurate with the expense and the hoopla? Or did it only generate pretty reports made by high powered consultants? All these are issues which one needs to grapple with before pontificating on the solutions to our complex and interrelated problems.

Or take his solution of creating a ring of villages, connecting them with high quality transport and communication systems, giving them Internet connectivity, encouraging reputed specialists to locate schools and hospitals and marketing this to attract industry and commerce! As he puts it, high bandwidth rural connectivity is the minimum requirement to transform India into a knowledge superpower! In a country where the rural telephone penetration is so abysmal, and the rural literacy rates are so low, it can only be naiveté which makes a distinguished and experienced person like Mr. Kalam to make such statements.

Another theme repeated in the book is his obsession with making India strong militarily. The old argument of some countries having the Bomb and hence we need to have one is repeated. But what provides insight into the mind of our Ex-President is his pontification to an anti-nuclear activist that “he should first go and demonstrate in front of the Kremlin and White House before he protests in front of the Parliament House”. Surely a dangerous mindset for a Head of State.


The constant use of first person singular throughout the book is another irritant. Mr. Kalam might be “the father of our missile programme” but it is certainly a bit much to say “when I first launched a rocket it failed”. Surely he is not suggesting that he launched the rocket single-handedly?

No one doubts the need for a vision for a people. Especially so in times like now when the world is changing so rapidly. But the vision has to be rooted.