From to 2007 to 2008...

Here I step in to another New Year of my life. The year 2007 had given me mixed feelings with emotional distress, joy and happiness. Having met with an accident and injuring my right knee (Ligament Tear) just a day before the New Year (31^st Dec’06), I was bed ridden for one month (Jan) and was walking with the support of a stick for the next three months. A one month long and painful stay in bed had taken away all my energy and confidence. I struggled for a long time to regain my focus on work and, in a way, self-confidence. It was one of the toughest phases of my life but the support and encouragement I got personally and professionally was great and that made life quite easy for me. The happenings and changes at workplace taught me important lessons in life. There were a few opportunities missed, chances not utilized but that is how I understood the importance of changing my approach towards work, people and more importantly life. The second half of 2007 was been interesting as slowly things started coming my way.

Now, there is a long way to go in my life. A lot has to be done personally and professionally to fulfill my ambitions, realise my dreams and achieve my goals. Hope this year and the coming years will be quite challenging and fruitful for me.

Wish you all Happy Days in 2008 and the days ahead...

An Article Long Overdue.....

Finally, I wrote an article after a long gap of one-and-a-half years and it has been published in Auto Focus Asia alongside the writeups of industry experts. This is my first article since I left ICFAI. I struggled to work on the topic selection, structuring the article etc. all of which were done with half-mind and lack of proper focus. I had got an opportunity to write an article earlier this year for our magazine on Outsourcing but somehow I let down myself and then on I struggled with the writing part. For sometime I was thinking wishfully that I'd be writing an article but I hardly made any attempts that way. Slowly, I realised that I was becoming very lazy and lethargic not only at work but also on the personal front. But finally I got enlightened (courtesy: my loved ones and a bit of introspection and self learning) how important it was for me to show my contribution to the magazine.

My loved ones helped me in getting my confidence back and that paved my way back to worklife as it was a year ago. What made me struggle for months was lack of initiative and once I took the initiative it took less than two weeks for me to arrive at the topic, prepare article structure and finally preparing the writeup. I came up with a writeup which, I feel, was good enough to be published. This might not be a great achievement but accomplishing this task of writing and getting the article published in the magazine has indeed given me a lot of confidence and energy to go further. Now I look forward to working with a more focussed approach and broaden the scope of learning which will help improve my performance and knowledge.

This way I make my comeback to the blogosphere and hope to update my blog regularly....

'Men in Blue' – On a Dream Run

Men in Blue are back with a bang in the T20 world cup. I have been an ardent follower of the game. But I had lost interest in cricket after the dismal performance showed by our team in the 2007 world cup. For months I kept myself away from cricket and even had a feeling that it was not worth spending time watching cricket. But the Men in Blue’s performance against England in the recently concluded Test series drew me towards the television set again. The T20 world cup has brought out the fan in me and I’ve been following almost every match. The tournament has created a lot of enthusiasm and the final has become even more exciting as the fans will be witnessing tug of war between the archrivals India and Pakistan. The road to final has not been easy for either. Do not forget the fact that Indian team is here in this tournament without the big three Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.

After having lost their first Super-eight match to the Kiwis, India has shown a remarkable comeback by convincingly beating the likes of England, South Africa and the world champions Australia in close contests to reach the final. It has been an all-round consistent performance and team effort by the Men in Blue. MS Dhoni, the captain, has led this young Indian team with conviction and confidence against strong opponents. Dhoni's mantra to his players was "Play your game, enjoy it, do not worry about the result." The young blood has brought about a lot of spirit and shine to the team. The bowlers sent down lethal deliveries some of which rattled the stumps. The batsmen came up with scintillating strokes and the ground fielding has been outstanding. This is what happens when you have a young team which carries a lot of spirit. Reputation brings lot of expectations while new entrants play with lot of freedom and burning desire to perform and win. Experts have termed this as a welcome change for Indian cricket and opine the same should be carried in the future. One cannot stop but praise this team and the young captain who is improving and molding himself into a leader. Dhoni’s attitude is quite cool and approach towards the game very simple which have helped him transfer a lot of confidence to his team members. India has great chances of winning the T20 world cup if the team displays the same commitment and spirit in the final. Let us wish the young lad and this new team “Good Luck” for the final and hope to see them come home triumphant.

‘Golden’ Temples for whose ‘Benefit’?

Often we get to hear about some industrialists or business tycoons donating money and/or gold ornaments worth crores of rupees and we wonder why those people never think of spending atleast some part of that amount on charity. And yesterday, I saw a news channel broadcasting news about a golden temple in Vellore, Tamilnadu. Out of anxiety I watched the brief coverage and I was shell-shocked after knowing the details. A grand 'golden temple', of Goddess Mahalakshmi, has been constructed in an area of 100 acres at Sripuram, near Vellore in Tamilnadu, by Sri Narayani Peetham, headed by spiritual guru Sri Sakthi Amma (Amma). Surprisingly, as much as 1.5 tonnes of gold was used for the temple and it took six years for the construction. The consecration (Kumbhabhishekham) of the temple was to performed on 24th August. The temple is open to all religions and is proclaimed "Amma's gift to mankind". The path to the temple will have messages from the Geeta, Bible and Quran. While this might evoke a great response from millions of devotees, many I believe might be shocked to know the fact that it cost around Rs. 600 crore. I find it astonishing. Many have been criticising the authorities for the amount of money that went into the construction of this temple, which could have been used for helping the poor. But the temple authorities claim they spend a lot on charity and the criticisms about the temple are unwarranted.

We hear people (read politicians, leaders and religious heads) talking about eradicating poverty, helping millions of economically backward, upbringing of the downtrodden and thus developing mankind. But when will such talks turn into action, when will those ideas and thoughts materialise and when will India develop. Is it by building golden temples or preaching the importance of religion and greatness of God? How can one expect to serve the humanity by constructing a golden temple? We have been taught since our childhood “Service to Humanity is Service to God” but are we really bothered. People are busy promoting their respective religions, in their own ways. Seldom do we think of those millions starving to death because of hunger. There are millions of Indians who are deprived of basic facilities to live (food, shelter and clothing) and hundreds of thousands of people in the country who do not have access to proper living and education or who have lost their living due to natural calamities. Why can’t we think of helping them in improving their standard of living?

There are thousands of charity homes, orphanages and old age homes in India. Does our god ask for golden temples? Does God curse if we donate money to those orphanages and charities? One cannot help but wonder thinking what these golden temples would do for the betterment of mankind. I am not against religious practices or sentiments but I follow a basic rule of life - helping those in need. God has given us a wonderful life as human beings. Let us make it meaningful.

A Memorable Birthday

Here I enter the bloggers’ world for the first time. After thinking a lot about what to write and how to start, I decided to begin with something about myself, a blog about one of the most memorable birthdays (5^th August 2006) of mine.

I had just finished two years of my job life after MBA. I had a Hero Honda splendor (6yrs old by then) to move around. Even though it was pretty old, I had the same love for my splendor and was quite happy with its performance. My father, and even my friends, suggested me to go for a new bike instead. A week before my birthday, my father told my friends "I want to see my son with a new bike on his birthday and I leave it to you my boys." And I was like "Jaane do yaar, one week is too short a time sell this bike and buy a new one."

4^th August, 9am - I was about to start for my workplace when my friend asked me for my choice of bike, if I were to buy a new one. Sure shot and I told it would be Bajaj Pulsar 150cc, black. But as I had already made up my mind I told him that it was not possible to go for a new bike in two days for which he gave a gentle smile. I was busy at work all day long and at 4pm my friend called me and to my surprise he told me that he had booked a Bajaj Pulsar and that I was supposed to visit the showroom to sign on some papers. I was told that the bike would be delivered in 2 days meaning I would get it only on 6^th. I requested the showroom guy to deliver it on 5^th evening at least, but of no use. I had no idea that something was happening beyond my knowledge. I reached my room by 9pm, and my friends joined me by 11:30pm.

As a regular activity, at 12 mid night I cut the cake and got a lovely kick bash from my friends. They sang the birthday song, put the cake in my mouth and presented me the bike keys (I was under the illusion that those were dummy keys to give me the feeling of possessing the bike).... They asked me to follow them downstairs...... and there it was the New Shining Black Pulsar; believe me, it was a wonder, great surprise of my life... Tears filled with joy and unbelievable happiness rolled out from my eyes... I hug my friends, felt the warmth. “Happy Birthday, Ram. Here is your gift.” they said. What else could I ask for? A sense of achievement (the reflection of happiness in my eyes) was visible in their eyes. I called up my parents, immediately, told them about the splendid gift I got from my friends. I had no words to express my happiness. I am so grateful to my friends who have made it one of the most memorable birthdays of my life. I did not even think of going for a new bike in just one day, not even in my dream. My friends showed me how much they love me and what our relationship meant.

And, with this blog, I just want to make a point to all – Money alone does not fetch you everything, you need to have your loved ones around to lead a happy life.