Boru kottina, THANK YOU!

Attitude of gratitude can take us to great altitudes of life. Thanking for whatever we have and whatever we have got is a must to lead a satisfying life. Sometime back I was watching the audio launch of a Telugu movie "Iddarammayalatho", where in the hero of the movie stylish star Allu Arjun gave a speech. Initially, he told that generally during such functions people thank cameraman, director, stunt master, choreographer, music composer, technicians and others and it seems boring to the audience. In spite of it being repetitive and boring, he exclaimed that he would do the same boring thing of thanking all the people who had worked for the movie.

 

Here is where we come to understand the title of the post today. Probably the south Indian audience understands the title being partly in Telugu which is a language of Indian origin. For overseas readers, let me give a brief description of the title. "Boru kottina" in Telugu language means "Even if one gets bored...." Allu Arjun began his speech by thanking everyone though it might seem boring to anyone who has been watching such shows regularly. He explained as to how 300 people come together to work for a movie. The dance masters keep thinking about different variety of steps that they should choreograph for the hero to impress his fans. The music composer keeps researching and experimenting about what kind of songs need to be composed in order to bring life into the movie. Likewise every other person in the entire unit works and gives his/her best to make the movie a grand success while at the end, the hero of the movie takes away most of the credit.

 

First of all, I appreciate Allu Arjun's attitude of gratitude. Many of the times, we also tend to take certain things for granted and seldom remember to acknowledge or thank or appreciate the help that we receive. It's very important for us to thank God for what He has blessed us with. All people living around us have been in some or the other way responsible for our well-being. We must acknowledge every such person at some or the other occasion. Last but not the least, we must thank our very own souls for being in us and leading us.

 

I thank each and every reader of mine who has inspired me to write more and more and share my thoughts and ideas. Thank you all once again!

The RIGHT thing

Right things at right places with right people make right things happen at the right time. There are so many 'right's in the previous sentence that it just gets difficult to understand as to what is the right thing to be done. However confusion is a part and parcel of life and hence you are bound to enjoy its bliss. Right and wrong are two perceptions at the end of the day. What is right for one person might seem completely wrong for the other.

 

I have heard this justification from a lot of people that all the successful people were just present at the right place at the right time and that's the reason they were able to become successful in life. If success was a mere result of coincidence then probably half of the world would have been successful which is not the case. Success is a string that is formed by connecting all the dots at the right intervals. Success is not a point on a board, it's a long route that doesn't seem to end at any point of life. Success demands perfection and perfection happens due to the combination of right inputs. That's what this blog post speaks about. Along with being at right places at the right time, doing the right things along with right people is also important. Nothing right happens on its own. We need to execute the right action to encash the right results.

 

Connecting back to the perception concept in the earlier part of the article, doing what is justifiable and brings about good to majority at no cost of harm caused to the minority is called the right thing. Things which are done with good intentions in life will always ensure right results for us as well as for the ecosystem around us. Give your best and you can be sure that the right thing shall happen on its own and God shall take up the responsibility to reward your efforts rightly.

Something will happen for sure

All of us were born tension-free into this world but as time goes by, we attach every type of tension around us and by the time we leave this planet we also leave behind a huge pile of worries and tensions. Fear of what will happen in the future is one of the most critical issues that's disturbing many souls around us. What will happen in the result? What will happen if there is a catastrophe? What will happen to me if my company shuts down?

 

Man has the unlimited ability to think out of the box whenever it comes to predicting the future. More than predicting the future it's more of the fear of the future that keeps talking in the person. No matter what we think or what we do, none of us have a complete control to what can happen in the future. We can try our best to make happen the best but we need to be aware that not always what we desire is what we deserve. Just because this probability of things turning out wrong can happen, we needn't worry about those things which turn out wrong. All that we need to know is that something will happen for sure. At least nothing will happen for sure if nothing else takes place. Man has to be prepared to face the unexpected. Life is a journey that brings every other day unexpected challenges only to make us stronger to face the life ahead.

 

Exam is a big worry for students while inflation is the biggest worry for a country. Recession is a big tension for final year students while food for the next day is the basic worry for a poor fellow. At the end of the day, each one of us want something from the future and the probability of it not happening often feeds imbalance into our minds and life. If we are able to console ourselves that something shall happen for sure and we can give our best to make something that's beneficial for us to happen as well, we can free our mind of tensions so that we can concentrate on what needs to be done at present.

Laugh Learn Live Love Lure

Life is a word that starts with letter 'L' and has a vowel as its second letter. I was just going through my mind as to what those 5 words could be which would start on the same lines of the word 'life' and follow the same structure. That's when I heard some of these words in the title during a session. If you observe the title, each of the words starting with letter 'L' has a vowel as its second letter and we have 5 words with all 5 vowels of our language.

 

 

Life is meant to be laughed out loud. We need to laugh at our mistakes, we need to laugh during our happiness time, and we need to laugh at the sad times only indicating to them that they don't even qualify to make us cry. Laughing is the best therapy to solve all kind of issues with our physical and mental body as well.

 

Learn to live. Right from the time of being born up to the time of dying, man is never spared of the learning curve. Each of us has to learn our lessons of life. No matter how many ever times we fail to learn, life remains the good teacher who keeps teaching us until we learn.

 

Live your life. Living means to be lively while living. Most of them just sail through life. On the other hand, they were supposed to play through life. Live every moment of your life. There is no point in passing through the hours. Every moment and minute should become the live memories stored in our past.

 

Love is the most important emotion of life. If you can't love, you can't be loved. One must learn to love the things around him and the people who surround him. Loving and spreading our love to the world around is the birth right of every individual on this planet. "Love all and live tall" as Er. Sujit Lalwani says always.

 

Lure everything that you want out of life. Life is that unlimited box of wrapped gifts that never gets empty ever. It's left on us as to how much we can lure life to give us all that we want. If one is not asking for something from life, then s/he is just wasting the magnificent gift of God called LIFE.

 

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What's so special about these bathrooms?

This is a question that I have asked myself and many of my friends a million times probably. After one of the recent most powerful ideas popped up in my mind while I was in the bathroom, I just decided that I have to pay my gratitude for the number of ideas that this bathroom has been a reason for. Hence, I decided that the best way to convey my regards is by writing a blog. I haven't heard of any written material about why ideas pop up in bathrooms. Probably, this blog shall serve as a material in future for people who come across the same question.

 

I should state the incidence of Eureka here. Though I had never read about it, I had heard about this instance many times from different sources. When Archimedes realized the Archimedes principle of buoyancy, he came on the streets running naked and shouting "Eureka! Eureka! Eureka!" If he had realized something related to water and he came out running, I think it's easy for anyone to guess that he was running out of bathroom. So the best law that rules a branch of Physics today was born in a bathroom. That far lies the history of ideas taking birth in a bathroom. I have heard many bathroom singers just like how many of you have and some of you are. Many of us make our bathrooms as our self-motivation zones. It becomes the ideation zone at times. It is the best singing and dancing zone as there's no one else to comment or ridicule us. Total freedom is all that I can say. I just keep wondering as to what is that exclusive freedom that all of us realize and experience while we are in bathrooms.

 

Probably, the fact that one is already naked in the bathroom and nothing more can be lost makes a person totally free to express his mind and heart out. Being in bathroom is a momentary moment of relinquishing all the pride and tensions that we carry on our heads. As we are cleansing our external body, being in bathroom gives sufficient time for a person to clean through the stuff on mind as well. Probably that's the reason why many high profile people prefer a shower more than once in a day. Anyways, I must thank the bathroom that has helped me out of difficult situations by ideating the right ideas at the right time. It's your chance to thank your bathrooms as well!

The environmental influence

I would want to reiterate the same example that my mentor says which is very simple and gives the exact gist of the makeover of our lives. Why does an apple in a refrigerator be fresh? The reason is very simple; it's because of the environment that's provided by the refrigerator to the apple to keep it fresh. This is a very simple example about the environmental influence. Similarly, in our lives also there are more chances for us to get in tune with the kind of environment we are surrounded with.

 

Your character is determined by the 5 people that you spend your time with. This was a statement that I heard almost 3 years back and ever since then, I have made sure that I have spent my time with the 5 chosen people who I believe are as ambitious as me. Once again, even this anecdote speaks about environmental influence. In one of our recent discussions with our team, our technical expert unexpectedly started talking about how the marketing needs to be done for one of our upcoming projects. The same person who would be more concerned on the technical part of the work was here speaking about marketing and that too about the convincing of the customer on the pricing. All the marketing people in the meeting were dumbfounded and were gaping at our tech-expert. When I went back to dig into the reason as to how this unexpected lesson was thrown across, I understood that it was because of the environmental influence.

 

Many a times, our technical team is involved during the discussions of marketing aspects and as a result, even without any practical training, some of the intricate topics of marketing have got subconsciously engraved in the minds of our tech team as well. Just by the environmental influence if a techie can grow to an extent of advising the marketing personnel, I think we must salute the environmental influence cast by great men and women. Just by being around with such people can make us leaders. That's how powerfully this external environmental influence can work wonders in us internally.

 

You can cast your influence through your comments.

Prompt and instant

Recently, during a book-reading session with my friends, I came across a line which asked, 'How long is your response to stimulus?' The stimulus can be anything that's external or internal. How fast we are in answering the stimulus determines our speed of action. The world is delighted with prompt and instant replies and actions. The slightest delay that we do in our prompt responses results in sowing seed to a disease called procrastination.

 

The general perception of people about others is that people are lazy. Each one has his own set of problems which seem much bigger than that of others. Amidst the chaos that one is going through, it's generally tough to be alert all the times when there is an external calling. It might not just be the problems, even the to-do list of a person might be too long to cater to someone else's calls. Unfortunately, the outside world is completely unaware of the problems that we are entangled in or the tasks that we are entitled to fulfill our duties to. When opportunities knock our doors in the form of others, if we are not prompt in answering them, they move on to the next door without waiting for us. Hence problems or our work can never stand as a reason for not responding promptly to others' requests. On the other hand, if we are prompt in responding to an external request or call or an order, we are respected for our quick responses and opportunities shall follow later.

 

Prompt response does not mean that one has to leave all the tasks at hand and start answering the external request. If each one left their work to fulfill what others ask for, then not even a single work will be completed. Prompt response only means to answer the incoming query and providing a suitable action plan for the same. Once a prompt response is given and an action plan is stated and decided upon for a task, it enters the to-do list of the person and should be done as and when required. However, work will happen only when our responses are instant and prompt.

 

Feel free to throw in your comments here.

Today's youth

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” Can you guess who made this statement? The youth has been totally taken to task by the person who quoted these statements. Keep guessing while we get into the details of the article.

 

There have been a lot of complaints on the youth today by the elders. Now what's the age where in we should treat someone as youth has become a big question for many. People of age 45 are being called as the symbol of youth, the youth icon, young leaders and so on and so forth. Even the children who start their teenage are considered as youth nowadays with facebook allowing people above the age of 13 to enter the online world. However, only the youth can be the saviour of youth of such comments. The youth always feels that the elders are there only to blame the youth. They aren't in sync with the new modern age that the youth is in today. Hence they feel that whatever the youth does is always wrong. Coming to the manners, discipline and respect, the elders always feel that the youth isn't up to the mark. While saying 'Hi!' is a mark of respect for the youth, it's totally unacceptable in the adult community. The trends have changed. It's a big question as to when will the aged accept the youth or the youth live up to the expectations of the elders. So how long has this cold fight between the youth and the elders been happening from?

 

With the changing times and the growing number of new innovations the lifestyle of people is continuously getting modified day by day. The old customs and traditions are being challenged as the new day jobs are much more demanding and contradictory to the lifestyle of the olden days. As a result of all these changes in the situations the behaviour of people is also getting affected and every generation is seeing a new trend that's much more liberal than that of the previous generation. Probably many of you would have guessed that the quote at the beginning of this article was said by some person who belongs to the 20th or 21st century. Some of you might have even succeeded to take a name from 18th or 19th century. But I was shocked to learn that this quote was quoted by an ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates who lived between 470 B.C and 399 B.C. The youth has been complained about for more than 2400 years now.

 

So, you being a youth, do you have any answer for these complaints?

Something for something

'Give all that you can but expect none from the others' is the slogan that people advise the disturbed souls. For the universe to be balanced, they say that for every particle there is an anti-particle. So if one person is giving away something to the other, definitely there shall be an imbalance because the giver receives nothing as per the general perception. However, the world doesn't survive if there is such an imbalance. Hence we jump into the theory of, 'for every something that is given there is always something taken as well'.

 

Let's take a few examples and prove this hypothetical theory. If someone gives another person some amount of money then he receives back a promise that he shall repay the amount. May be the give and take doesn't happen in equivalent form of an object but definitely in equivalent forms of feelings. The guy receiving the money is happy and the guy lending the money is happy because he knows that he will get back his money with extra interest added to it. In a class, when a teacher is teaching, she is passing on her knowledge to the students in exchange for their attention. The teacher gets attention for her teaching while the students get education for their attention. In above two examples, if the receiver would be absent i.e., either the students or the loan receiver then there would be no scope for the lender or the teacher to exist to perform their roles just like how if all planets cease to exist, the sun would have no reason to burn. So there is always a trade of something for something in this universe.

 

If we accept the theory of this barter that there is always that's got for something that's lost or given away, a lot of problems and worries in our life can be reduced. If a thief steals away your money, it only means that he gave back the lesson of safety to you. If a friend cheated your trust, he only gave back an experience to trust a friend carefully in future. In every possible situation, your assets remain the same. Only that, with every occurring transaction the form of your assets keeps changing. When you know that you receive something for every something that you lend out, then why worry? You can just be happy always. You can throw in your comments here.

26 between 62 and 71

Good morning all! It was one of the most memorable days today in my life. For the first time ever in my life, I was invited as a chief guest for an event for MBA students though I, myself am not a MBA post-graduate. The event was COMMUNION-2013 at Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Technology, an engineering college in Bangalore, India. It was an honour to share the dais with prominent dignitaries who presided over the event. I was invited to deliver an inspirational speech regarding the most pressing topic 'Career opportunities for Management Professionals'. I have been into  my career only about 3.5 years back and here I was to address people about career opportunities. I should thank the hosts for believing that I could pass on some useful information which I graciously accomplished.

 The event started around 9:30 am in the morning with the conventional inauguration speech followed by an invocation song by the students of MBA. Dr. B.R.Dwaraki from RIMS (Ramaiah Institute of Management Sciences) who is a Registrar (evaluations), was the chief guest for the function along with me. Both of us were introduced to the audience. Then it was Sri Dwaraki sir's turn to address the audience of close to 100 MBA students. He was a man with a huge warehouse of knowledge, wisdom and experience. He brought out some of the best excerpts from his past and advised the students as to how they need to be prepared for their future. His speech was highly informative and humourous as well. All the students enjoyed the sense of humour that sir possessed. He addressed about women empowerment and the importance of the role of women in our society which won the hearts of all the girls in the auditorium. He shared some of the most important lessons that he had assimilated from over 4 decades of his experience in his profession.

 

At 11 am, it was time to strike the chord of inspiration and energy and that is when the IU speaker, Mr. Mohan.B.N (not-being-so-modest) was invited on the stage. It was once again a pleasure to address the MBA students after addressing the same stream of students in Krupanidhi School of Management, Adarsh Institute of Management Studies and Sheshadripuram School of Management Studies. I started off with how just 1 or 2 degrees of education can't fetch us our dreams. It requires us to be 360 degrees aware in life in order to materialize every dream of ours into reality. It's not compulsory for students to pick one out of the many career opportunities available in the market. It's up to them to decide what kind of career they want to follow and create an opportunity in that field of passion. It's not compulsory to pursue just one career in life; one can pursue multiple careers at the same time. I shared my own example about how I became a trainer, public speaker, blogger, upcoming author, mentor, counselor etc in last few years of my life just by following my passion and dreams. This session served as the ignition to the weapons of talents that students possessed in them and the purpose of my speech was served. 

 

I would like to deeply thank the management of Dr.AIT, Smt. Pankajakshi mam, HOD of MBA department and Arundati Pai mam for making this event happen and for their utmost hospitality. I also would want to thank all the staff and student coordinators for their amazing contribution and participation. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my entire IU team and my mentor for the amazing support and guidance that they have bestowed on me. As we are towards the end of this post, I want to reveal the secret behind the title of this post. On the stage, to my left was Mr. Dwaraki sir who was 71 years of age and to my right was Mr. Devaraj sir, Chief in-charge of PDP sessions at Dr. AIT who was 62 years of age and I was the young chap seated between these two amazing gentleman, sharing the stage with them as a chief guest at a tender age of 26. I just want to thank the Almighty and my parents for all the blessings that are being showered on me. Thank you God once again!