Library at home

No doubt that I am fascinated by books. Many people are as well. I am not much used to reading books online or e-books. I love to read paperback books. It's a great feeling to hold a book in your hand and listen to the author in our minds. I am on my way to build a good library of good collection of books in my home.

 

All of us who study through different classes of our childhood read many types of books from text books to encyclopedias to story books to novels to competitive books. How many of these books do we actually preserve in our library? Many a times we just sell the old text books for the sake of new ones. How many times do we actually buy books which are not related to our syllabus? It was quite an unknown phenomenon to me upto my 9th std. I had no idea of books which were unrelated to our education stream. It was the book 'You Can Win' which I caught hold of in my 10th std that started my reign of buying books for reading purpose and developing exclusively. From then onwards I have been keen on buying books that can impart extra education unavailable in our syllabus. The moment I joined my job, I got into the addiction of building a library of my own.

 

Often people tease that you may not be able to read all the books that you buy and hence it's a waste to have a library at home. I am sure lot of us have many unread books in our homes. It just doesn't matter as long as there are instant solutions to your problems in the form of books in your home and available right at your sight. If you also endorse this idea, do let me know on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Happy to see more volunteers

With growing impact of inspirational and motivating talks by Inspiration Unlimited on young people of India, I am happy to see more number of students volunteering to take part in different social initiatives taken up by IU. Hence I take this opportunity to congratulate and thank each of these volunteers who are coming forward to contribute their bit to our society.

 

 

Starting with 36meals.com, an NGO which aims at eliminating hunger from the world, Hitesh.G from Vijaya college along with his group of volunteers from the same college has been able to reach out to more than 2000 people with the message of not wasting food. IUNPB - IUNewspaperbag project has just multiplied in its impact of reaching more than 1 lakh newspaperbags being made throughout the country. VVN college was the recent wholesale contributor to take up this project and execute it successfully. IUY2C - IUYouth-to-Children campaign of promoting the teaching to under-privileged by the youth of colleges has taken a great shape in reaching thousands of students being educated on different lines of basic education. IU Cares has just been expanding its wings in different horizons through book donation and other campaigns.

 

All such developments have been possible only because of more number of volunteers jumping into the working and execution of all these projects. We need more number of young people to take part in such projects and project the impact even much higher. It shall happen only by sharing about such ideas with our friends. Do share about your ideas on  is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Let me give up

As I have taken up the challenge of completing 365 blogs by the end of March 3rd,2013, it has been rigorous blogging from almost last 4-5 days. Everyday I need to invest a solid good amount of hours to rack my brain for different valuable topics and brainstorm through different ideas on blogging about them because I can't go under-quality on my blogs.

 

While I am doing so, the mounting pressure of writing 11 blogs a day just keeps growing in my head. If I miss blogging in the morning, I have to sit for hours continuously in front of my laptop typing out until I finish my target for the day. Sitting in front of the laptop is what I hated and it was one of the prominent reasons for me to leave Oracle which was a software company. Now that my goal is very near and clear on my mind, I need to be steadfast in my approach and can't miss anything on the path to reach it. At such times, I also feel like giving up due to frustration or other reasons. I have even heard of people who take up Ph.D's feel the feeling of giving up while they are half-way through their journey of studies. This feeling doesn't make one a failure. It's bound to occur when we are desperate to reach the goal but are just astonished by the surmountable work in front of us.

 

At such times, you just have to calm yourself down and tell yourself that you shall achieve the target soon and then you are free from any kind of pressure. You just have to gather back all the reasons for your working towards the goal, take a deep breath and continue once again on your endeavour. If you also feel the same, then share on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Quotes on appreciation

It's always necessary to know what great men and women have spoken about what we are learning. Just in the previous blog, I had mentioned about appreciation and as I was going through different websites to find certain important quotes on appreciation, I found a mine of wonderful quotes on www.iuquotes.com. Hence sharing with you all

 

"Any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day"
- Booker T. Washington

 

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us"
- Albert Schweitzer

 

"Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower"
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

"Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the gratefully and appreciating heart"
- Henry Clay

 

"Encouraged people achieve the best; dominated people achieve second best; neglected people achieve the least"
- Anonymous

 

"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you"
- William Arthur

 

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
- Cicero

"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well"
- Voltaire

 

"Always remember, everyone is hungry for praise and starving for honest appreciation"
- David Berg

 

"Appreciation can make a day - even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary"
- Margaret Cousins

 

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Appreciate the known

Appreciation is the best form of encouragement is what I believe. Appreciation is what that leads to a person repeating his work again and again and grow it more and more. Only through appreciation can one show his/her support towards someone in the simplest format. Every appreciation improves the confidence in the other person.

 

Generally we are awed by some skills or talents of others that we don't possess ourselves. Even by the success or wealth that one has achieved we are surprised and appreciate such people to an extent that we become marketers of their names. We appreciate all those stuff in others which we ourselves do not possess and there is absolutely nothing wrong in it. When we see people doing what we can do, we just think that it's not out of the box and something that everyone can do and hence deny that person of appreciation. Probably that thing which is so common to you might be the next difficult task that the other person has just achieved. Probably you have grown through the stage what the other person is reaching now. Unfortunately our mind doesn't appreciate what we already know and the other person loses his share of appreciation.

 

It's very important to observe and learn how people around you are developing. No matter how much ever successful you are, you still have to have an open eye to appreciate every small development in people around you. In fact the most noticeable quality in most successful people is that they appreciate the smallest of the good things that they notice in people. Feel free to share your appreciation on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Planned and packed

It's time to get back to the powerful phrases from the book 'Life Simplified!' by Sujit Lalwani, serial entrepreneur running a number of businesses and social projects. This time we get into a quote that speaks about the optimum and efficient utilisation of all the time that this Universe has blessed us with during an entire day.

 

The author says that when your days are completely planned and packed, you shall soon realise that the pain of past fades, vision of life gets clearer and all that seemed to poison your life ceases to exist. I have spoke about planning a number of times before and hence shall avoid repeating the same here but definitely I would like to touch upon the point of packed days here. Everyone has only 24 hours in a day and no one can work for more than that in a single day. I have seen people who ask for 10 minutes of rest for every 30 minutes of work. If your work schedule is something like this then definitely you are not making the best use of time. You have to pack your day with different work that you need to cater to with proper time planning. Not all the times just a day is sufficient to complete all that you have planned. Hence it shall be very important to plan and pack your work for days ahead and also stick to the strict plan made by you. Every work's completion should be followed by the beginning of the next work with absolutely no idle time in between.

 

When your days are filled with work and commitments, seldom do you get time or mental space to think about problems of your past and hence the pain of past fades away. As you keep working, you progress nearer to the vision day by day and it gets clearer. More the work less the thought of problems in your head. Just by disallowing the mind from being idle all the above advantages can be exploited. Do let me know what you think on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Book your favourite book 'Life Simplified!' on www.sujitlalwani.com

Get out and get it

Get out of your comfort zone if you are looking for comfort in life. Lying in a cushioned sofa and whiling away all your time shall not bring the comfort of parking a luxurious car in the balcony of your huge mansion constructed and customised exclusively for your family which you dreamt of. All your dreams shall come true only if you are not watching them while you're asleep but working for them.

 

Everything is achievable in this world. I don't have to cite the stories of successful men who made a private jet a toy for their kids, people who loved golf and hence built golf courses and many more. All that you want exists on this earth and all you have to do is to go and get it if you want it. The prayers or chants or spells that you cast at home with your empty hands shall not bring any of your dreams back home. You have to get out of your comfort zone and get into the outside world, search for what you want, work to get it and bring it back yourself. I am fed up of seeing people who complain that they don't have what they want and always sit at home. Man was given legs only to get out of his home and find what he needed and not to fold and sit liesurely on the sofa.

 

It is so important for each one of us to realise that we need to work to get what we want time and again. Some of the most important treasures of this planet are hidden deep inside the earth and we need to excavate the ground to find them. Similarly what we desire for also exists deep inside the world outside our homes. We need to excavate through all the noise to reach them. Feel free to share your feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Love, Trust, Character, Brotherhood

It's time to hit back at one more awesome quote from the book 'Life Simplified' by Sujit Lalwani, the magician who has changed many lives for the better. In this particular quote mentioned in the picture he speaks of the greatest religion on this earth and that's called humanity. He mentions the key ingredients that form the four pillars of the religion called humanity.

 

Every bron child grows up into an individual because of the love that parents shower. Every soul finds another soul completely unrelated upto the adult age who lasts for lifelong along is because of love. The reason an illiterate child turns into a literate student is because of the love of a teacher. Only love is responsible to create and maintain relationships between people through different means of respect, kindness, generosity, compassion and others and hence love is one of the strongest pillars of humanity. Trust is what keeps the relationship strong and going forward in any case. Lesser the trust, lesser the bond and co-operation between people, more the trust more the bond and co-operation between people. Trust develops in any relationship based on the characters of the two individuals related. If not for the character, trust shall never develop. Hence trust and character form the other two pillars of this sacred religion.

 

Universal brotherhood is what that can bring about unity among all those people habitating the earth. Lack of brotherhood shall always create gaps and loops and give rise to enmity between people. Hence brotherfood forms the binding factor that can keep people united irrespective of their backgrounds. Thus these four qualities shall form the four pillars to uphold the religion of humanity. Feel free to share your views on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Keep aside the emotional side

Man was born with emotions and shall die with them. Still at times it's necessary for us to see this life and the life around us from a higher plane. It is just like how we talk about a third person. Every occasion brings along with it some associated emotion. Not just an occasion, people associate feelings and emotions with people and things too. This is what makes life complex and miserable.

 

As I had mentioned in one of my previous blogs named 'Mood matters', the emotions through which a person is going through definitely matter to the reactions s/he will show and decisions s/he will take. We have so many favourites and so many unfavourites and
correspondingly we start
associating different feelings with these two. Unfortunately because of some wrong assignment here and there, we tend to lose the major lessons of life. A very simple example is that of time. We say those times during which we don't enjoy as bad phases. May be those are the phases during which we learn the best lessons of life. We are no one to decide which time is good or bad. So the author Sujit Lalwani drives home the same point in his book 'Life Simplified!' that if we can keep the time devoid of our emotions then there are no such bad times that cause us pain. All that happen shall happen for good and make us feel good.

 

It's difficult to reach the spirtitual stage of life where in we can separate the emotions from things happening around. Bhagvadgita also states that it is the highest level of life to see both good and bad as same and feel hot and cold as the same. It should be an aspiration for each one of us to reach such highly stable levels of life. Please share your feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
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I AM THE PRESIDENT OF .....

Once again I just want to go back to the movie LINCOLN to share one more amazing learning from the same. Abraham Lincoln is witty, humourous for most of the movie but during 2 instances we see the powerful Lincoln exercising his power of being President of United States of America. These two scenes teach us that all of us need to exercise the power vested with us at the right time.

 

While Lincoln is discussing with his fellow-mates in his board room about the passing of the motion for 13th ammedment to the American constitution, his colleagues claim that the civil war would end in a week and the term of Lincoln was nearing its end and hence it's not the ideal time to pass the motion as it cannot be used for any political benefit. They even offer other reasons that the confederate peace talks would be coming up and hence the motion needs to be postponed. At that time Lincoln bangs the table and says it's the right time to pass the resolution and shouts 'Now!', 'Now!', 'Now!' thrice at the people around him and all of them just agree to his decision.

 

 

During one more instance when only last two Democrats' votes are to be confirmed for passing the motion, Lincoln's subordinate questions Lincoln himself as to how to get those votes. At that time Lincoln stands up and tells at the top of voice that he was the President of United States of America and that his order must be followed and then the work gets done. These two instances are more than sufficient to showcase the proper usage of power by Lincoln. Power is like a weapon in your hand which must be used only when nothing else works and Lincoln does precisely that. Being powerful should not make you use it again and again as it would lose its value if used more than needed. Do pass on your feedback on

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The office amenities

I was watching the current trending video on facebook about the importance of coding in school education and in that I found that Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and lot of other CEOs and founders of different companies shared about the importance of coding education. There were few samples which showcased the offices of such big software companies which make it so comfortable for coders to work.

 

I was just awed by the looks in some of these offices. They have a kitchen, laundry, play stations, sports equipments, gyms, bean bags, sofa sets, coffee shops, skate boards and lot of other stuff all inside the office. If someone saw these without any awareness about the company, s/he would think that it's a big mansion of a joint family. People are just carefree in their clothes with no strict restriction of being in formals while at work. Some are playing while some are working. The office looks the same 24/7 with all the amenities available just at a phone call or even an online ping. Today companies are striving so hard to provide all the amenities to their employees so that they contribute their best towards business. I have seen lot of people who have even forgotten their homes because food, clothing, shelter, all these three basic necessities of life are taken care in their respective offices itself.

 

Many people just dream to work in such companies with such awesome facilities but all these don't come just like that. You have to be really talented and skilled to find yourself fit in their companies. Only then stands a chance of enjoying such official luxury. So make sure that you sow enough amount of hardwork to reap such wonderful benefits. Do share if you have had such experiences on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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EPC - Empty Plate Campaign to share

All of us want to spread a message that can do good for the humanity but most of us wouldn't want to repeat what others have already stated or done. We belong to the new generation of creating things ourselves. Hence I thought that if I could share different quotes or messages about EPC, it can be helpful while you share your photo of empty plate on facebook. Some of my quotes/messages are here for U

 

1. Life shall be fulfilling if our meal plates are empty

 

2. Participate in the Empty Plate Campagin

    And present to humanity your soverign

 

3. The more our plates are empty,

    The more food is saved in our country

 

4. Empty vessels make noise

    But empty plates are people's voice

 

5. Plates are for serving meals

    Empty plates are for saving meals

 

6. Food is a life's basic necessity

     Let's save food from being wasted by making our plate empty

 

7. Empty plates are cleaner to wash and clean

    They shall make you perfect and lean

 

8. Not spending a rupee is equal to earning a rupee

     Not wasting food is equal to donating food

 

9. Food is nice to see on plates rather than in dustbin

    Let's make sure that the food on our plate doesn't reach a dustbin

 

10. Zero has no value but adds value when behind another number

      Empty is nothingness but adds value when it's behind your meal

 

Feel free to share your quotations too!!!!!!!!!

36Meals.Com Presents EPC - Empty Plate Campaign!

EPC - Empty Plate Campaign

36meals is an NGO which aims at eliminating hunger from the world. We believe in the tagline - "FOOD NOT WASTED IS FOOD CREATED". while having breakfast/lunch/dinner, some people tend to leave a bit of food in their plates. If such left-overs are summed up for a period of 10 days, they can form one complete meal and hence a meal gets wasted.

The main thing that 36meals advocates for is preventing wastage of food, as we believe that it's a way to contribute towards the lives of those sleeping with the pain of hunger. It's definitely not the sufficient step, but a necessary one for sure. It's not the complete act of being able to do something for them, but definitely the first step. As the chinese saying goes "A journey of 1000 Miles begins with the first step!"

To take this mission forward, we are coming up with a novel campaign called as 'Empty Plate Campaign'. Every individual taking part in this campaign just needs to make sure his/her plate is empty at the end of the meal as shown in the picture. S/he just needs to click a picture of this empty plate and upload it on 36meals FB page or any other social media channels, he or she is a part of.

EPC - Empty Plate Campaign is a very simple concept that aims to make sure there are enough number of empty plates at the end of meals so that no little left-overs are wasted. Only when we consume completely what we gets served on our plates, that we understand how much we can consume.
We have seen time and again, that a lot of people leave food in their plates either because they serve themselves too much, or they dislike the taste. Either of the reasons just lead to wastage of more food and nothing else. Just give a moment of thought to this: While on one side of the world, there are people who have the pleasure of making a choice of type and quantity of food, the other side has neither choices nor food.

Hence, we feel it becomes our moral responsibility, to make sure that we consume right, in order to protect the right to consume, of someone else. It's more than a duty for all of us, to spread this awareness of not wasting food, in every manner we can. EPC is one possible means to SHOUT THIS to the world.
Social media has been a platform to express oneself and connect to the world. Let's use this to spread the awareness for social change. Let's contribute our bit that can save millions from sleeping hungry. Can we count on YOU? We believe - Definitely YES!

 

All you have to do is to follow 3 simple steps;

Step 1:- Make sure there are no leftovers on your plate after your meal on 23rd, 24th Of march.

Step 2:- Take a photo of your empty Plate.

Step 3:- Upload the photo on facebook on

www.facebook.com/36meals Page or on your Twitter account and tweet to @36meals or any other social media channel you are connected to.

 

You can do it for all 4-6 meals (including both 23rd and 24th of March, 2013) or any one of the meals. It's upto you. Are you in?

Then, Let's DO IT!
(You don't have to wait till the Main dates, you can start posting from today on our page! We will appreciate!)

 

Mohan.B.N.

Chief Promoter, 36meals

Follow up, don't fall down

As I have been involved in sales and marketing for quite sometime now, it's been a huge learning experience for sure. Your sales presentation is the only thing that you have the complete control over for a good long amount of time once your time of presentation has been agreed upon by your client/customer. The next step, once your presentation is done is that of closing the sale. Intermediary to this comes the follow-up which eventually will help your towards closing the sale and majority of the salesmen fail in this crucial step of follow-up.

 

Follow-up is the step when you reapproach your potential customer to find out if s/he needs any clarifications about her/his confusions or answers for any questions. During follow-up, you get the second chance of re-citing the key points from your presentation that shall be highly attractive for the customer. Many hesitate to go for following up the customer because they feel that they're troubling the customer with one more call or meeting and eating away his/her time. Unfortunately this is not the case. Each customer needs another meeting with you to understand clearly about your product or proposal but s/he is not too keen to call you and find out. Hence you have to initiate the call from your side to follow up. Obviously some salesmen follow up in such a way which forces the client to buy the product which is completely wrong. Follow-up should be the discussion where in you explain how well your proposal or product might benefit the customer and enhance his/her life/business. You should be able to show different dimensions in which the customer can enjoy the benefits from your proposal.

 

Follow up shows your real care towards the customer. Hence there is no need to shy away from following up your client. Even a customer who has rejected your proposal during your presentation might convert his NO to a YES just by your sound follow-up. Hence don't fall down for a rejection, rise up and follow up once again to get a confirmation. Feel free to share about your views on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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At the end of the day only results matter

As each day passes by, we are involved in a variety of processes and operations. We learn a lot, we work a lot, we do a lot, we produce a lot. We perform various kinds of activities. Sometimes we are totally up with our motivation while sometimes we are really down. We are engaged in work that interests us while sometimes we might be entrusted totally unacceptable boring work. Every being on this planet is going through one or the other emotion which is felt by you at least once during the entire day. Each one has their own problems to handle and take care of. For each person, his/her own problems are much bigger than anyone else's. No matter how many reasons we have for not completing the work entrusted to us what matters at the end of the day are just results. If someone else has got the results that are better than that of yours, you have to be straight forward to accept that you fell short of your targets when compared to the other person. There is no point arguing or defending oneself with a whole lot of genuine reasons for one's own failure in reaching the required results.

 

Am I making most of the day that is given to me? is the question that each one of us need to ask ourselves. Am I working at my highest efficiency level? is the second question that each one of us has to answer to ourselves. If you are not satisfied by the answers to either of the above questions, then accept egolessly that you got to improve. The reason I am stressing upon the responsibility in our own hands is because I have heard a lot of people who exclaim that they are working very hard but are not getting the desired results. First of all, they themselves decide the hardness of their work and exaggerate it further with their jargons. Hardwork and efficiency of efforts should not be calculated by the person who is working, they should be estimated by the results that the work produces. No comparison between two people is possible with the kind or amount of work each one performs. The only evident comparison will be that of the results produced by both these people. Hence I once again proclaim that at the end of the day only results matter and nothing else. Feel free to share about your views on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
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The simple short research

Most of the times you might have observed that there are some walking encyclopedias around us. They seem to know everything about everything in and around us. They seem to know the past, present development, future scope of every small thing that they see. Not just sometimes but many a times we are awed at such huge database of not just general knowledge but also specific knowledge. What makes such people so wonderful who seem to know everything that's happening around us?

 

The simple answer for this question is a 'simple short research'. This is one of the methods that I learnt from my mentor, through which you can possess the pleasure of knowing the minute details that can surprise the person in front of you. Let's take a very simple example. I hope each one of you reading this current blog have a watch with you. You might have it on your hand or in the shelf. Do you know the brand to which the watch belongs to? If no, just peep into the watch to find out. Now, give yourself just 5 minutes to google out about the brand. You shall get to know the time when the brand was established, its owners, the path through which the brand has evolved, the future designs offered by the same brand and much more. All such information is just accessible on net with a simple google search withing seconds. If you can just go through this information for five minutes and remember 5 key points, it's more than sufficient. 

 

The next time you see the watch, all the google pages and key points shall get reinforced in your mind and you don't have to invest any mental concentration power to learn this information by-heart. Repeating such simple short research on many a things around can make you empowered with diverse knowledge and hence increase your ability to relate things when compared to others. In fact this is a simple way to turn into a genius. Feel free to share about your sales experience on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Who made the Law?

Two world wars have already demonstrated how man is dangerous unto himself. Apart from the two world wars where countries tied up against each other fought for supremacy, there have been many other wars fought. Some were for power while some were for women, some were for wealth while some were for land, some were for freedom while some were to curb freedom. So many countries with so many constitutional laws have failed to make a law that could prevent these wars. The reason is that these laws were made by man and 'to err is human'.

 

As I was watching the movie Lincoln, I was just shocked to see that the American civil war went on for four years and the government couldn't do much about it until Abraham Lincoln proposed the 13th ammendment to the American constitution. More than 6000 lives were sacrificed in this horrible battle. Lincoln even remorses that there were hardly any 16 year old boys left in the country due to this civil war. The Blacks were fighting for their freedom while the Whites were fighting to hold them as slaves. What was law doing for these 4 long years? Why does man fail to make a law that is just for all? This is where I feel that God should have existed in physical form to guide all the people on earth. Since there is no one to question, each man is a God to himself and hence makes laws as per his convenience ignorant of the troubles that they pose to the others.

 

Law is supposed to make sure that equality and harmony exist among the inhabitants of the earth. Unfortunately the same laws are leading to more and more conflicts between countries and people today. Just like there exists the universal law of gravitation, universal law of attraction, universal law of thermodynamics, universal law o magnetism, can't there exist a universal law of governance? Do let me know your answers on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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The pressure of Politics

Mr.Stevens takes a dig at what is politics in the movie Lincoln saying that you cannot believe anyone in politics in his introduction scene. Politics was supposed to mean just the activities associated with the governance of a country or an area. But in today's world politics has just become a synonym for cheat, disbelief, betrayal and other negative dysphemism terms. During the passing of 13th ammedment to the American constitution, the politics involved for the sake of power rather than for the good of people clearly makes itself visible at the surface of the movie.

 

Not all conservative Republicans might support the 13th ammendment says Abraham Lincoln's close associate in spite of knowing that the ammendment shall put an end to the 4 year long civil war of America. People of the same party of Lincoln might still oppose or abstain from supporting the cause because they are not willing to give away the power to vote in the hands of blacks. Even more is that his party people are afraid that Lincoln might just lose in this trail and it shall be a black mark in his political career and hence oppose the motion so that his and his party's political image is kept clean from losing anything. Here comes the intra-party politics that Lincoln has to handle to get the motion passed in the house which he manages to handle with the penultimate power of being an

influential President.
 

 

Coming to the democrats, they are completely against the passing of the motion for the 13th ammendment just because Abraham Lincoln had signed the emancipation proclamation during the beginning of his term and had favoured the civil war to curb the revolting blacks. Now that Lincoln had gone to the extent of abolishing slavery was totally unacceptable by a majority of them. In order to pass the motion in the House, it requires at least 2/3rds of majority voting 'Yes' and hence Lincoln needs 20 democrats to vote for his motion. Hence he deploys 3 people to get these votes through any means possible. Buying votes by offering jobs is as equivalent to as bribing someone for vote and yet Lincoln approves of it because it's for the good. While these three are struggling to get 20 democrats to support Lincoln's proposal, Lincoln himself jumps on to the field and goes door to door convincing different democrats as to why they need to vote for the passing of the 13th ammendment. Lincoln exhibits his ultimate belief in himself and his decision amidst the growing pressure of politics both intra-party as well as inter-party. Do let me know your learnings from the movie Lincoln on

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Lincoln - the familyman

It's often rare that the common man gets to know of what happens in the household of a president. In the movie Lincoln, the family part of Abraham Lincoln has been handled in three separate parts. The relaitonship between Lincoln and his wife, Lincoln and his elder son and Lincoln and his younger son. Each of these three lines of relationships show the virtue that Lincoln carried as a familyman.

 

While Lincoln is narrating about his nightmares to his wife, she is complaining about her persistent headache, yet, he consoles her that it shall get alright. She has so many qualms with Lincoln's presidential decisions and Lincoln manages to handle all of them with the ultimate grit. In fact the way his wife expresses her regrets for the way she had been during the tough times of Lincoln, itself shows how strong a man Lincoln was to forgive all that and just ask her to be happy. With the younger kid, Lincoln is the same old father who carries his kid on his back from floor to bed. He shows that a father needs to be with his kid while reading through the story books as well. He makes sure that the kid doesn't feel the void of his father just because his father is the President of USA. Almost throughout the movie we see that the younger son accompanies Lincoln in many places, be it office or home.

 

The sequence between Lincoln and his elder son where in, Lincoln slaps his son and the son retorts just like how a grown up child  screams against his father is a very natural phenomenon that's observed. The moment sons touch the adult age, they tend to think that they are now self-sufficient to take their own decisions. Exactly in the same manner does Lincoln's son shout at his dad and walks away to take a place in the army though both his parents are completely unwilling against the same. Lincoln shows his integrity and responsibility as a determined husband, lovable father and a caring dad in each of these relationships. Do let me know your learnings from the movie Lincoln on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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To enjoy or learn from a movie

Those of us who are accustomed to watching movies, watch so many movies in our entire lifespan. There are different reasons as to why we watch movies. In fact these reasons differ from person to person. One person might have gone to enjoy the movie while another person might have just gone to learn from the movie. What you focus is what you see. As I was watching Licoln movie last evening, probably I didn't enjoy much of it because of my own personal reasons. Does it mean that I didn't learn from the movie at all?

 

As I stated above, people go for movies for different reasons. These reasons are based upon the upbringing of each individual and his/her experiences. What you see in a movie is also completely dependent on your past but what you intend to see depends on what future you see for yourself. Enjoying is related to the emotional and feelings part of the mind while learning is realted to the logical bent of brain. Different people are used to different genre of movies. Picking out the best lessons from any movie you watch is the perceptional upliftment that you have inside you while you might not enjoy even a bit of the movie. Perception is all about the way you see something and if you can relate to what's happening on the screen in some way or the other you can definitely extract the juice out of it which shall be called as a learning. You can force someone to learn but not to enjoy. Hence enjoying the movie is not mandatory though you can learn from it. But when is that you enjoy learning from the movie?

 

This happens when the movie is packaged in the form of your taste and still able to teach the same lessons. Then you will not only learn from the movie but even enjoy it. Not all film-makers are talented to make such movies that entertain as well as deliver a message. That's the reason you see that the top grossing movies at times are not the award winning ones and vice-versa. Do let me know the reason you would watch a movie on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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The House of Representatives

In the movie Lincoln, the scene of the House of representatives consisting of the Republicans and the Democrats is what that cathes the attention of all the viewers most of the times. We see the parliamentary behaviour of the two parties fighting against each other having a war of words between them. Thanks to the two-party system of USA that it is spared of the antics that happen in the assembly house of a multi-party system. However we clearly understand the attitude of 'opposition for the sake of opposition' in this House.

 

When the motion for the 13th ammendment to the American constitution of abolition of slavery is being carried out there is a lot of debate that takes place in the house of representatives. The conservative Republicans are in favour of the motion while the Democrats are against the passing of the motion. People representing each of these two parties are given a chance to come to the stage and share their views and question the resolution. During this debate we see that the majority of the Democrats oppose just for the sake of opposing the ruling party's resolution though they know inside that rightfully all humans should be treated as equals and hence slavery needs to be abolsihed. Some even have a selfish motive for opposing the passing of the motion as it would affect them being in power. There's a lot of commotion when the debate is going on because people are more focused on debating on each other than the topic. Unfortunately this sets a wrong example to the people of the country.

 

To my surprise, Abraham Lincoln was not present in the House on a single occasion. Probably I am not aware about how the governance functions in USA. During these sequences in the House, we see how the senior people involved in and working with the government are present in the first floor witnessing the debate going on. These scenes give the common man a purview of what happens in the House. Do let me know what you learnt from the House of representatives sequences on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Lincoln talks about Euclid

In one of the incidents when Lincoln is dictating a telegraphic message, he asks the two people sitting in front of him whether the birth of a person is fitted to the times s/he is born in. Both these guys are clueless as to what to answer and one of them just musters up the courage to say that the president was fit for the time he was born in. Lincoln just smiles and asks the other guy who was an engineer. He replies saying about how people employed to operate the machines were not fit to work. Then Lincoln asks if he new Euclid's axioms for which the engineer replies that he might have known it sometime during his childhood and doesn't remebmer now. That is when Lincoln says an amazing statement which goes like this 'what you learn, stays with you'. Probably this clearly indicates why the current generation is busy studying a lot and simultaneously forgetting a lot as well. People are not focusing on learning stuff, they are just busy studying and preparing for tests and exams which eventually doesn't stay with them the whole life.

 

 

While talking about Euclid's axiom, Lincoln says that he had learnt it from one of the books that he had borrowed. Euclid's first axiom goes like this, 'two things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other'. In fact the zeroth law of thermodynamics also states the same except that it applies to thermodynamics while Euclid's axiom applies to mathematics. Extending this philosophy further into the realms of humanity, Lincoln explains that all the humans were born as equals in this world and it's absolutely against humanity to treat certain set of people as slaves just because of their colour complexion and hence he advocates the 13th ammendment to the constitution to abolish slavery to bring about equality among all the citizens of America. Perceptional ability is always linked to how one can relate one thing to the other. Lincoln just demonstrated that his perceptional abilities were par excellence during this scene. Do let me know your reviews on the movie Lincoln on

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Lincoln - The story-teller

I shall not be satisfied if I completed sharing my experience of having watched the LINCOLN movie with just one blog of mine. There were so many things to learn and so many to discover that I need to go blog after blog sharing them all. One more amazing experience was to watch Abraham Lincoln narrate stories in this movie. He is an ace story-teller is what I can say and probably no one shall deny that.

 

The story of a portrait of George Washington was one of the best ones out of the lot. Even the story of the old woman case when Lincoln practised as a lawyer doesn't get erased from memory easily. I would never imagine that a president of any country would have the patience or time to recall a story and narrate it to people around him. Abraham Lincoln just defies all such misconceptions attached to the position of a President. Lincoln narrates his stories so well with emotions and voice modulations that the people listening to them get immersed in them. For solving every conflicting situation, Lincoln has an evidence of a story. He makes sure that the solution is conveyed not by his presidential words but by the story itself. He takes up the story with such an ease that it doesn't sound too demanding on the ears of the listeners but still drives home the message.

 

 

If Lincoln could have so many stories in his kitty then the only reason would be the combination of his vast diverse experience with millions of people and his humungous efforts into research and reading. The humour that is attached to every story of Lincoln just brings along the breeze of understanding to anyone who is listening to it and that is what makes Lincoln a great story-teller. Do let me know your views on story-telling on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Lincoln - Man of conviction

Abraham Lincoln, the ex-president of United States of America stands as a symbol of conviction to the world. The Oscar winner movie 'LINCOLN' directed by Steven Spielberg has just spellbounded the world audience with its immense powerful narration. I had a chance of watching this movie this evening along with few friends of mine. I was just reminded of the nostalgia that 'GODFATHER' has left on us. I learnt a new face of Abraham Lincoln in this movie.

 

Earlier, I remembered Lincoln for his repeated efforts in elections in spite of failing a lot of times and finally achieving the pinnacle of political power of USA, ie becoming the President of USA. I had learnt lessons of 'never give up' and 'try again and again' from those stories of Abraham Lincoln which I had heard of. In the movie 'LINCOLN', I got to see the humourous side of the same person. Probably now I understand the reason why he never gave up on competing in elections. His vision of serving people was very clear in his mind and having power in his hand was a dire necessity. The struggle through which Lincoln undergoes while he is determined to get the 13th ammendment to the constitution passed is a mere reflection of the mission of Lincoln's life. The hardships that he faces in his own family coupled with the lack of belief among his own peers failed to waver the amount of confidence that Lincoln had on the passing of the motion in the house.

 

The 13th ammendment stated the abolition of slavery in the United states of America. Slavery was a traditional custom that had come ages after ages seeing the climax leading to civil war in America. More than 6000 lives were sacrificed during this civil war. Lincoln's decision to take up the 13th ammedment was very crucial for the human race itself as it not only casted an influence on America but also on the rest of the world and Lincoln won his risk. Do let me know your reviews on the movie Lincoln on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Let me give an example

You would have heard this phrase a million times till now. To explain any particular concept, everyone tends to use an example to assist the authenticity of their concept. We see that examples exist even in our text books to prove the theory mentioned previously. Each one's life is an example to someone else. My only question is, how many times do we actually give or get the right examples?

 

First of all, let's see what is the necessity of giving an example. Whenever something explained to us, we may not understand it to an extent to which it has been explained. Let me give an example for this. When someone says that s/he has headache, you/I might just understand the existence of pain but we will not be able to understand the extent of the pain. When the same person gives an example that he is feeling the pain which happens when someone is hammering your head continuously, immediately we understand that the amount of pain is too much to sustain. Examples emphasize the depth of the concepts and situations. They help in better understanding and learning. Examples work as similes. Our brain can remember things by correlation. Hence every concept associated with an example is easy to remember and reproduce.

 

However, giving example is also a skill is what I believe. Unrelated examples completely take away the integrity of our understanding itself. One can give more examples only if one has read a lot, travelled a lot, met a lot of people and experienced a lot. Only when you can explain a simple concept by giving multiple examples do you become a great teacher and can spread your knowledge to a large mass of audience. Please feel free to share your feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
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Quality assurance

As I have been writing blogs continuously for more than 300 times now, more and more people have started reading my blogs. So it becomes a responsibility to write quality blogs. Now that I have taken up the challenge of completing 72 blogs in next 9 days, it's an added pressure to squeeze out quality in each of these blogs. Without quality, any amount of quantity doesn't have any value. So it is very important for me to assure quality with every new blog of mine.

 

Same is the case with every kind of work that we repeat day after day. Most of the people out there feel that they needn't give an extra look at the routine work that they do everyday, be it the office work or work at home. It sets in the subconscious mind that no matter how well you do it, you still have to do the same the next day. This is the reason why most people don't enjoy their work and as a result do not reap the complete benefits out of it. They halt their own personl progress. A simple example of consistent quality is that of our Litter Master, Sachin Tendulkar. He has played cricket for more than 2 decades now. Still he is the no.1 batsman that any new aspirant in cricket would look up to because he tries his best to assure quality cricket in every new match of his.

 

Life makes us repeat certain things because it is essential to repeat the important stuff. It's not the work that should excite you, it's you who has to make your work exciting. No matter how much ever you dislike your work, at the end of the day only you shall be responsible for the output of your work. Hence make sure that you assure quality no matter even if you are repeating the same kind for work for the millionth time. I give my best to assure quality in my blogs and hence expect your quality feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
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