Greetings to you this Monday Morning!!
As I waited at the red light on University road on my Yamaha RX-100, I watched the timer next to the red light, clock down - 40-39-38-17-36……the timer told me how long I had to wait for the light to turn green. It was noon and the sun was beating down badly…
Traffic was sparse, with hardly anyone out on the road. There were hardly a couple of vehicles waiting next to me for the light to turn green… There was no traffic cop either.
I watched the timer again……22-21-20-19-18…As it hit 18, a motorcycle whizzed past me. The young man on the bike exhibited NO respect whatsoever for the system…
And worse, he paid the price. He completely misjudged the traffic coming on from the right side of the intersection. They had the green light and so it was their right to move on…He raced a few meters ahead of me…… A moment later I heard the screeching of rubber on hot tar as drivers made desperate attempts to halt and then… “WHAM” one loud “BANG”… .He survived, but probably lost 4 weeks recovering from whatever happened to him.
18 seconds of patience would have made a big difference.
How often we see people beating the system. My experience reminded me of what I read in one of Zig Ziglar’s book. He writes “Entrepreneur Claudio Claravolo, a Psychiatrist from Italy cashed in big time on a mandatory seat belt law. He invented a “security Shirt” a simple yet devious design. It was a white Tee Shirt with a diagonal black stripe designed to deceive the Police into believing that the driver was wearing a seat belt. The inventor and the drivers who wore it fooled the law but ultimately they fooled no one but themselves and the first collision proved this clearly.
Systems and rules are built not to hold us back but to help us. Without a red light or a divider strip there would only be chaos but also no one would cross the intersection. It is necessary to respect the red light not only for safety but also for movement of traffic.
The next time we get this urge of beating the system, let us remember the young man who lost 4 weeks trying to save 18 seconds.
Have a great week !!!
Monday, April 11, 2005
Monday, April 4, 2005
A touching story...
Greetings to you this Monday Morning!!
Food, Clothing and Shelter are our basic needs and I am sure that if you happen to be reading this email these basic needs are taken care of in your case. However there are plenty of fellow humans who are not as fortunate. They are still struggling to satisfy even these basic needs.
On many occasions, you would have observed in places such as restaurants, cafeterias and dining rooms people waste considerable amount of food. It is sad that we don’t value and respect the food we receive.
Irving Cramer, a representative of MAZON appeals to all such people to be more considerate. MAZON is a Jewish response to hunger-an organization that collects money to feed hungry people. Irving Cramer tells this story:-
“In a kindergarden classroom, the teacher once asked the children, “How many of you had breakfast this morning?”
About half the students raised their hands.
The teacher then asked those who did not raise their hands, “Why didn’t you eat breakfast today?”
Some said that they got up too late and didn’t have time, some said they were not hungry in the morning and some said that they did not like the food served to them. All students gave an answer except one little boy. “And why didn’t you have breakfast today?” the teacher asked him.
“Because” he replied, “it wasn’t my turn”.
“It wasn’t your turn?” asked the teacher, “What does that mean?”
“Well,” said the boy, “there are five kids my family. But we don’t have enough money to buy enough food so that everybody can eat breakfast everyday. We take turns eating breakfast and today it wasn’t my turn.”
Food, Clothing and Shelter are our basic needs and I am sure that if you happen to be reading this email these basic needs are taken care of in your case. However there are plenty of fellow humans who are not as fortunate. They are still struggling to satisfy even these basic needs.
On many occasions, you would have observed in places such as restaurants, cafeterias and dining rooms people waste considerable amount of food. It is sad that we don’t value and respect the food we receive.
Irving Cramer, a representative of MAZON appeals to all such people to be more considerate. MAZON is a Jewish response to hunger-an organization that collects money to feed hungry people. Irving Cramer tells this story:-
“In a kindergarden classroom, the teacher once asked the children, “How many of you had breakfast this morning?”
About half the students raised their hands.
The teacher then asked those who did not raise their hands, “Why didn’t you eat breakfast today?”
Some said that they got up too late and didn’t have time, some said they were not hungry in the morning and some said that they did not like the food served to them. All students gave an answer except one little boy. “And why didn’t you have breakfast today?” the teacher asked him.
“Because” he replied, “it wasn’t my turn”.
“It wasn’t your turn?” asked the teacher, “What does that mean?”
“Well,” said the boy, “there are five kids my family. But we don’t have enough money to buy enough food so that everybody can eat breakfast everyday. We take turns eating breakfast and today it wasn’t my turn.”
Monday, March 21, 2005
Riding a bicycle...
Greetings to you this Monday Morning!!
I am sure most of you would agree that learning to ride a bicycle was avery exciting activity as children. Some of my earliest memories areassociated with this activity. I remember my elder cousin sisters helpingme. First they got me a small bicycle with "supporting" wheels."Supporting" wheels are wheels that are attached to the center of the mainwheel at an angle such that they will touch the ground if the bicycletilts to one side. The wheels supported me if required. Eventually I was comfortable riding that bike with supporting wheels until one of my sisters got them removed. I was scared to ride the bicycle without the supporting wheels, but she reassured me that she would hold on to thebicycle from behind and not let me fall. After some persuasion, I finally agreed and off we went. She ran alongside holding on to the seat of the bicycle, balancing me whenever I needed. I was soon enjoying this and a few rounds into this activity she just let go of the seat. I realized her absence immediately and it was quite unsettling. The result also was obvious. I went a few meters and "bang", I was lying flat on the ground with the cycle over me. I sure was upset. My sister let go of me when I was banking on her. She had let me down and Iwas annoyed with her.
It was only with time and age that I understood the importance of what she did. She let go of me not because she wanted me to fall but because she wanted me to ride. From a dependent and hesitant cyclist, she wanted me to become independent and skillful at riding the bicycle. She knew that Ihad to be on my own some time and she trained me for that.At most stages in life we take on one of the roles in the combination of amentor-mentee, a senior-junior, a supervisor-subordinate or a teacher-student. If you happen to be the senior remember that it is partof your responsibility to let go of your junior at the right time for his good and if you happen to be the junior, remember that someone you were banking on has let go of you NOT to make you fall but to make you ride; independently and skillfully.
Have a great week!!!
I am sure most of you would agree that learning to ride a bicycle was avery exciting activity as children. Some of my earliest memories areassociated with this activity. I remember my elder cousin sisters helpingme. First they got me a small bicycle with "supporting" wheels."Supporting" wheels are wheels that are attached to the center of the mainwheel at an angle such that they will touch the ground if the bicycletilts to one side. The wheels supported me if required. Eventually I was comfortable riding that bike with supporting wheels until one of my sisters got them removed. I was scared to ride the bicycle without the supporting wheels, but she reassured me that she would hold on to thebicycle from behind and not let me fall. After some persuasion, I finally agreed and off we went. She ran alongside holding on to the seat of the bicycle, balancing me whenever I needed. I was soon enjoying this and a few rounds into this activity she just let go of the seat. I realized her absence immediately and it was quite unsettling. The result also was obvious. I went a few meters and "bang", I was lying flat on the ground with the cycle over me. I sure was upset. My sister let go of me when I was banking on her. She had let me down and Iwas annoyed with her.
It was only with time and age that I understood the importance of what she did. She let go of me not because she wanted me to fall but because she wanted me to ride. From a dependent and hesitant cyclist, she wanted me to become independent and skillful at riding the bicycle. She knew that Ihad to be on my own some time and she trained me for that.At most stages in life we take on one of the roles in the combination of amentor-mentee, a senior-junior, a supervisor-subordinate or a teacher-student. If you happen to be the senior remember that it is partof your responsibility to let go of your junior at the right time for his good and if you happen to be the junior, remember that someone you were banking on has let go of you NOT to make you fall but to make you ride; independently and skillfully.
Have a great week!!!
Monday, March 14, 2005
Every soldier is important...
Greetings to you this Monday Morning!!
My colleagues and I are definitely not in the army but we are at war -which can be termed as - "A War for Talent", and that is what the current IT industry is all about. The business of recruiting can be made very exciting by perceiving it as a war and not simply as a job.Last weekend I participated in a "battle", i.e. "mega" recruitment event - and I call it "mega" only because of the scale at which the preparations happened. We rented an entire college in Mumbai, leased out a large Volvo bus for 50 "soldiers", managed our risk by traveling in different vehicles and on different days and before doing all this, carefully planned thecomplete execution of the "battle".Like in any battle, the "army" was divided into "units" that were assigned specific responsibilities and each unit, headed by a "unit leader"consisted of "soldiers" who knew where exactly they were to be positioned and what exactly each of them was supposed to do. Each one of them may not have known the details of the whole "battle", but each soldier'scontribution was extremely important. A blunder by any one of them was very likely to affect the overall success of the "battle".
You could actually be in the army, or you may be part of a softwareproject delivery team. You could be a teacher in a school or a salesperson in some company. If you look at your business as a war to be won,you would be occupying the position of a "General", a "unit leader" or probably a "soldier".A General may plan his battle brilliantly but its success depends as much on the execution by the soldier in the battlefield as on the planning by the General.
Remember that we all have a part to play in a larger objective and Every Soldier is Important.
Have a great week!!!
My colleagues and I are definitely not in the army but we are at war -which can be termed as - "A War for Talent", and that is what the current IT industry is all about. The business of recruiting can be made very exciting by perceiving it as a war and not simply as a job.Last weekend I participated in a "battle", i.e. "mega" recruitment event - and I call it "mega" only because of the scale at which the preparations happened. We rented an entire college in Mumbai, leased out a large Volvo bus for 50 "soldiers", managed our risk by traveling in different vehicles and on different days and before doing all this, carefully planned thecomplete execution of the "battle".Like in any battle, the "army" was divided into "units" that were assigned specific responsibilities and each unit, headed by a "unit leader"consisted of "soldiers" who knew where exactly they were to be positioned and what exactly each of them was supposed to do. Each one of them may not have known the details of the whole "battle", but each soldier'scontribution was extremely important. A blunder by any one of them was very likely to affect the overall success of the "battle".
You could actually be in the army, or you may be part of a softwareproject delivery team. You could be a teacher in a school or a salesperson in some company. If you look at your business as a war to be won,you would be occupying the position of a "General", a "unit leader" or probably a "soldier".A General may plan his battle brilliantly but its success depends as much on the execution by the soldier in the battlefield as on the planning by the General.
Remember that we all have a part to play in a larger objective and Every Soldier is Important.
Have a great week!!!
Monday, February 28, 2005
Shall we dance...
Greetings to you this Monday Morning!!
I visit the theatres occasionally and in most cases only after reading movie reviews knowing what I am going to witness. This weekend however I walkedinto E-Square knowing nothing about what I was going to see and I must say that "Shall We Dance?" was worth every moment that we spent there. Starring Richard Gere and J Lo, "Shall We Dance?" is definitely not amovie for folks who love suspense and action. And while I do not intend to share any more details about the movie, what struck me in the movie is the fact that so many of us hold ourselves back from so many actions because we think that they are not in line with our age or our social and professional standing. This is so true in real life too. We are often ashamed of doing so many things and in the bargain we miss out on so many moments of joy.As children we hardly have any inhibitions, however as we grow up we keep adding them to ourselves. These inhibitions prevent us from doing so much.
Sometimes we might impulsively feel like walking out in the first rains or playing football in the muck. We might feel like playing "Gulli-Danda"with kids in the neighborhood or shouting ourselves hoarse on some mountain top. We might feel like dancing on upbeat music but feel that we would look real funny.we might feel like singing on stage but are afraidthat we would make a fool of ourselves. And we would have done all this as small children without a second thought. Isn't it true that as we grow old we tend to pick up so much of excess baggage in form of these inhibitionsthat we cannot be free to enjoy moments of simple and genuine joy? So the next time, when you feel like making paper boats and setting them afloat in puddles formed by rainwater or when you feel like flying a kite or when you feel like dancing to a new track with younger folks around, don't hold back. Just go ahead and shed your inhibitions.The next time when someone asks you "Shall we dance?" and you feel likeit, don't hesitate, or better still you can take the lead and encourage others to enjoy the simple moments of joy by going ahead and askingthem.... "Shall we Dance?"
Have a great week!!!
I visit the theatres occasionally and in most cases only after reading movie reviews knowing what I am going to witness. This weekend however I walkedinto E-Square knowing nothing about what I was going to see and I must say that "Shall We Dance?" was worth every moment that we spent there. Starring Richard Gere and J Lo, "Shall We Dance?" is definitely not amovie for folks who love suspense and action. And while I do not intend to share any more details about the movie, what struck me in the movie is the fact that so many of us hold ourselves back from so many actions because we think that they are not in line with our age or our social and professional standing. This is so true in real life too. We are often ashamed of doing so many things and in the bargain we miss out on so many moments of joy.As children we hardly have any inhibitions, however as we grow up we keep adding them to ourselves. These inhibitions prevent us from doing so much.
Sometimes we might impulsively feel like walking out in the first rains or playing football in the muck. We might feel like playing "Gulli-Danda"with kids in the neighborhood or shouting ourselves hoarse on some mountain top. We might feel like dancing on upbeat music but feel that we would look real funny.we might feel like singing on stage but are afraidthat we would make a fool of ourselves. And we would have done all this as small children without a second thought. Isn't it true that as we grow old we tend to pick up so much of excess baggage in form of these inhibitionsthat we cannot be free to enjoy moments of simple and genuine joy? So the next time, when you feel like making paper boats and setting them afloat in puddles formed by rainwater or when you feel like flying a kite or when you feel like dancing to a new track with younger folks around, don't hold back. Just go ahead and shed your inhibitions.The next time when someone asks you "Shall we dance?" and you feel likeit, don't hesitate, or better still you can take the lead and encourage others to enjoy the simple moments of joy by going ahead and askingthem.... "Shall we Dance?"
Have a great week!!!
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