Documentation passes on education

Documentation is the best way of passing on education. Man is mortal and that's why documentation becomes a very essential medium of passing on what one man knows to the other. Though man is supposed to be one of the living beings, he cannot escape death and his term of living is limited. However a non-living stone can live forever. Probably it should have been assigned with the identity of living because it lives forever. Extrapolating this to all the non-living things, every non-living thing is actually the living thing that lives through all the tests of time.

 

None of us belonging to the present generation have seen Aristotle or Plato or Galileo or even Hitler for that matter. We are lucky to know about them and how they looked, courtesy the books that printed their photos and the video-tapes that captured their precious moments of life. If there existed no papers or photographs or video-tapes, probably we would have forgotten the history of our forefather generations. The early man through different ages made his documentation on the walls of the caves. This has helped us to know what the Cro-Magnon man looked like and how he lived. Documentation has helped to avoid repetitions of inventions and discoveries. If no one ever documented anything then man had to still be in the Old Stone Age. Thanks to documentation! That it has helped to counter all these disadvantages and helped man's life to progress through different civilizations.

 

Documentation of the history has yielded our present. Likewise documentation of the present shall yield our future. Not just passing on of education, documentation also avoids repetition of work. Also one man cannot explore the entire world and all its aspects and learn all of them on his own. Different people will have to take the responsibility of exploring different fields and document about it. Once this is done, it shall serve as a form of education for others and as a result all of them shall be mutually empowered. You can pass on your feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Power of music - Aashiqui 2

I am a kind of a person who likes movies with heavy beat songs, high voltage fights and powerful dialogues but after a long time I was deceived by this movie which completely impressed me and influenced me by its slow pace and scintillating music and that movie was Aashiqui2. Congratulations to the director and makers of the movie. I just feel like saying, "Main aashique tho nahin.... magar aashiqui2... jabse dekha maine tujko mujko aashiqui hogayee".

 

The movie was completely against my taste and I had even decided that I would not be going for the movie. But my trainer in the gym gave a superb review about the movie and its music. He marketed the movie for me and I was sold for it. Finally, I made up my mind to watch the movie and I was just bowled out. The young actors with their innocent acting and the gripping background score sandwiched with situational songs completely drove me into the film. I had no clue as to what the time was and how much time had gone by as I was watching the movie. Probably the story wasn't that great in terms of twists and suspense or surprises but there was one element of the story that carried the entire film on its shoulders and that was LOVE. Love means to care for each other irrespective of every other constraint. This feeling was perfectly showcased by both Aditya Roy Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor towards each other.

 

Last but not the least, I need to talk about the music of the movie. The first song itself was damn amazing. The same song gets repeated in the female voice after sometime and Shreya Goshal has done a great job adding every bit of emotion to the song. When the hero says to the heroine that she had sung his own song far better than him in the movie, I didn't believe it but after I downloaded and started listening to the songs, every time I listened to that song there were tears in my eyes. This was one of the few times in my life that I was moved by a song for the feel it was sung in. All credits to the music director and the singers. I would definitely recommend everyone to watch this movie without any expectations but only to feel the power of music and the power of love but one cautionary statement from my side. Please go along with your spouse or would-be or lover else you will have an embarrassing time like me if you go single only to find couples around you completely involved in the movie. Do pass on your reviews about the movie on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Excel to extend

The moment I see the word 'excel', the famous movie dialogue from the movie '3 idiots' comes into my mind. In that movie, Aamir Khan tells his friend not to run behind success, instead advises him to run behind excellence and success shall automatically follow. Excellence at work is something everyone expects and people aspire to acquire. Not just work, every arena of life is important to make our life complete and hence displaying or achieving excellence in all arenas of life becomes a very important requirement to live an enriching and fulfilling life. Excellence is that epitome that differentiates the ordinary from the extraordinary and the champs from the chaps.

 

Each one of us has a desire to venture into different forms of work and also to scale up our position in the stream we are working in. Extending our boundaries of influence is a natural instinct that man has and craves for as he grows through life. How far can one extend is always determined by how far one is willing to expand himself to serve the extra responsibilities. They say that one in the hand is better than 2 in the bush. Likewise keeping up to the current work responsibilities is much more important than extending our hand to check out the next pocket. In current times, just fulfilling the duties alone is insufficient. Along with fulfilling one has to excel in the current field and prove that he has much more capacity to take in more work on his plate. Excellence serves as the benchmark to select a leader and only a leader can extend beyond the limitations.

 

You might have seen that busy people are the people who can make time for more work in spite of their busy-ness. Likewise people vest work with those who show that they already excel at the work which is vested with them. Just wishing for more freedom or more power and higher designation doesn't get us what we want. When we excel at utilising our freedom, power and position which are already with us to the best extent, only then can we extend our hands to ask for more and people shall extend their hands to give more. You can extend your hand to give your lovely feedback on

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Experience v/s Expertise

Experience and expertise are so much interconnected that it's not easy to understand them separately. In simple words they are just inseparable words. The dictionary says that experience means to just undergo an event or occurence and expertise means to be proficient at something such as a skill. However expertise itself is achieved by undergoing repeated experiences.

 

Every moment of our life is an experience for us. Breathing through our nose itself was a new experience when we were born. From the time we entered this world, we repeated this experience more than a billion times and today each one of you reading this blog are an expert at breathing and or I can say that you have the best expertise in breathing. If you ask yourself as to why you were breathing continuously, the answer would be that breathing was a necessity for surviving and you had to become an expert at it in order to survive. So, expertise was the necessity root cause for experience to occur recursively. Expertise is the root desire for repeated experiences and reduplicated experiences form the path towards achieving expertise. Every new experience is the first step of expertising that particular activity. You have to have numerous experiences of the same kind to expertise any field of experience.

 

People fall prey to wishes of becoming experts without executing the necessary actual repetitions. Just experiencing once doesn't make anyone perfect or an expert. Diverse experiences of the similar kind can only make an expert come out of us. Hence make it a point to undergo sufficient experiences related to your goal to become an expert at accomplishing it. You can feel free to share your expert feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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2P tend to P2P

The title might be little confusing. Let me clear the confusion before we go ahead with the article. 2P means practice and patience and P2P means performance to perfection. I could have easily split up this blog post into two, one on practice and the other on patience but didn't do so because at the end only the combination of these both can yield the expected result in life. Let's have a brief insight into this amazing combination.

 

'Nobody is perfect' is a repeated slogan that we hear almost everywhere, still the drive towards perfection is always enforced upon us. In fact, there is nothing wrong in racing to be perfect because on the way to perfection we shall meet excellence for sure. There is no other better satisfaction than achieving the peaks of perfection in our performance. Any kind of performance needs consistent practice to reach the perfection. Just practice alone doesn't help. Only perfect practice can lead to perfection. The duration of practice might last as long as we reach perfection and hence it demands patience. Only when we patiently practise can we deliver perfection in every performance of ours. If you practise continuously for few days and after that lose patience and give up the practice then perfection can't be achieved. On the other hand, if you're totally patient and practise once in a while without any sense of urgency, even then the perfection in performance cannot be achieved.

 

Different people who have become successful in life have derived various lessons from their journies. Some state the message of patience, some of hardwork, some of humbleness and so on. However, success is a result of culmination of all these positive qualities. No one quality alone can yield success in life. We have to possess and exhibit all the essential requirements which the success demands. You can share your opinions about success on

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The new meaning to MBA

MBA means Masters in Business Administration, a post graduation course that students pursue after their graduation. Well! In today's world, MBA degree is failing to create people who can actually master the administration of any business. Reasons are many. It might be because of the lack of expert teachers or void of practical opportunities or the huge syllabus only taught in theory etc. It was an opportunity for me to address such MBA students from one of the colleges from Bangalore by name Sheshadripuram College of Management Studies on May 2nd, 2013. I was invited by the faculty with a hope that my words could actually make a difference in the lives of those students. I had a huge responsibility to cater to as I was suppose to be addressing MBA students with myself having no MBA degree to my name.

 

It was 2:10pm in the afternoon and I entered the class of 1st year MBA. Akhila mam, the main co-ordinator for the event had made good arrangements and the director of MBA welcomed us. A boy read out my profile which wasn't updated recently and then I took upon the stage. After thanking God, parents and the students, I entered the topic of MBA. When I asked the students as to how their MBA was going, their replies were something like these,'boring', 'hectic'.... When I asked them if they were actually enjoying their MBA, the answer was silence. Some of them had no idea as to how this MBA degree would offer them any further scope in life. Some were pursuing MBA just for the sake of a post graduation degree which was a disheartening fact to notice. Instead of supplementing their qualification, MBA had become a supplement that they took to improvise their qualification credibility.

 

Through good amount of humour, I could interact with the students and discuss about the issues that were affecting them. Then I conveyed the new meaning of MBA which actually turned around the cards. M means 'Make your dreams come true'. B means 'Break your fears' and A means 'ACTION'. Taking action to break all your fears in order to make all your dreams come true should be the philosophy of MBA. Lots of examples were shared and a new trigger to look forward for a enjoyable and successful life was given. I could share my own testimonies as to how I became one of the leading bloggers with my efforts for one whole year, how from a student who couldn't converse properly in English during Engineering, today, I can take speeches in 5 different languages and have become a multilingual inspirational speaker. I wanted to present my own life stories because I was the live proof in front of them.

 

At the end, students came on the stage to claim fearlessly that they would be breaking their fears from now on and would go on to achieve their dreams. Couple of students even shared about their ideas of starting manufacturing plants in India itself instead of importing the products from foreign countries. Some even shared that they were shocked to realise that they had for the first ever time heard to a speaker who took up a 2 hour session with the utmost energy. This was a pat on my back and I felt satisfied about my work. I thank my mentor and IU(Inspiration Unlimited) for whatever I am today and of course Mr.Kunal Taswala who in spite of not having lunch, captured the precious memories in his photos. If anyone would like to have such sessions in your institutions, I would be more than willing to deliver many more such empowering sessions. You can contact me on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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WORLD INSPIRATION DAY #WID

The world has 365 days of a year to cherish every emotion possible. Still people have assigned certain specific days for celebrating special occasions. Different countries celebrate their independence days, republic days and region specific functions on particular days. However as a global audience all of us celebrate those days that are common to the entire world which influence every human being because all homo-sapiens share the same set of feelings and emotions.
 

When there can be a day to express Love to your Love on the occasion of Valentine's day, a day to express love towards your mother on the occasion of Mother's day, a day to celebrate Christmas, a day to mark international Human Rights, a day for women, a day to spread awareness about AIDS, a day to celebrate Merit (June 30) then there must be a day to share a message of inspiration, to do something inspiring, to make inspiring things happen, to energize others and that day is termed and celebrated as WORLD INSPIRATION DAY on 23rd of April every year! It was the day Inspiration Unlimited Vision was first conceived.
 

Life is a roller-coaster ride for every one of us. No one loves to suffer, yet all of us are made to, sometimes either due to the mistakes of self while other times due to the errors of the environment. Problems and hurdles are the part and parcel of the game called LIFE. No matter what, each one of us has to battle through the setbacks and failures to realize the highest purpose of our lives. There are those lucky few out there who bounce back after every boulder of uncertainty strikes them and leaves them shattered. They are the real leaders who go on to lead the globe. However, the majority who stay shattered could have reached the light at the end of the tunnel, courtesy, a little Inspiration. While they are being hit by the avalanche of issues of life, there needs to be hope and scope to uplift their lives and this can happen only when there is a possibility of solutions. The foundation of this possibility is inspiration. If people aren't inspired action doesn’t happen. Hence, inspiration is a must.
 

Amidst the countless number of problems that are thumping down the spirit of living itself amongst people, it has become the ultimate necessity to reawaken the energy of life in the world. Though it’s believed that people need to be energetic, enthusiastic, motivated and inspired throughout the year, not everyone can be, courtesy, the energy sapping nature of people around us. Hence, to respect and celebrate that day of the year that can trigger the inspiration to sustain the optimism and fighting spirit throughout and make it memorable, enters into the records of world history a day named as WORLD INSPIRATION DAY on 23rd of April.
 

This day shall remark the day responsible to pay homage to all those industrious people who have left a legacy of inspiration for each one of us alive to follow. This day shall be the standing ovation to all those world leaders who are inspiring stories that inspire their contemporaries. This day shall serve as the womb to all those inspirational legends of the future, who will decide and take immediate action to lead an empowering life influencing and inspiring the masses around.
 

To commemorate the victories of the past, celebrate the achievements of the present and cherish the visions of the future, we shall celebrate the WORLD INSPIRATION DAY on 23rd of April every year. This day embarks the significance of the requirement of inspiration in every arena of life. This day gives a chance to every person of the globe to blink at all the pressures of life and wink away into the era of inspiration. Every one of us has the right to live a fulfilling life and accomplish all our dreams, goals and visions. Each one of us has the right to stay inspired. Let’s celebrate the WORLD INSPIRATION DAY to awaken the dreamer in us who shall walk every extra mile possible to make this world truly a better place to live in.
 

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Chess for Social Change

ENTREPRENEURSHIP is a huge field to address in a span of 2-3 hours. Still team IU gave its best to cater to the necessity to kindle the fire of entrepreneruship among the youth of Bangalore on the occasion of Labour's Day a.k.a International Workers' Day on May 1st of 2013. During the session there was an interesting participant among the crowd who came on the stage to share her feedback and here's her inspiring story to inspire a lot more.

 

A brief introduction about yourself

My name is Bhavana.B. I am pursuing my MBA from Maharani College of Arts, Commerce and Management. I am a national level chess player. I have represented my school for 3 consecutive years in chess and have won many prizes. I have participated in HKES tournament wherein I secured first prize and in many other inter-college competitions wherein I have won many prizes in the chess competitions.

 

With how many people have you shared the knowledge

about chess and what were the implications?

I have taught chess to 4 of my cousins out of which one went on to participate in national level chess competition. She was trying from 4 years but was unable to make it. Last year, I left my internship to help and guide her. By God's grace and my guidance she was able to pass through all the rounds at the national level and is a national level player now. Right now, we have 3 national level chess players in our family. Also, there are couple of young cousins of mine, one studying in 6th std and another in 2nd std  whom I am coaching about chess. It's a pleasure to also be teaching about chess to a 5 year old kid.

 

Apart from these, I am also training a 3 year old kid in chess. I have shared my knowledge about chess with Gururaj.S, who is a member of faculty in RIESI Bangalore and passionate about promoting the game of chess. I had written down some articles about chess and passed them on to him. He had got them circulated and I have received many positive feedback about the same. Once I had got a message from a teacher from Tumkur whom I had never met that my material had benefited her and she would be teaching chess to her child. I was very happy to know that my material had helped someone whom I didn't even know. I wish that all these people go on to become international chess players.

 

How do you plan to use chess as a medium for social change?

Today, whenever anyone talks about sports, it's mostly cricket or football. Indoor games are not given much scope. I want to make sure that chess becomes a part of our lifestyle itself. Just like how one doesn't remember when s/he brushed for the first time, I want people to not even remember when they started playing chess. It should become an intricate part of life is what I believe to achieve.

 

You can pass on your feedback for the fantastic work that Bhavana is doing on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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The WORLD INSPIRATION DAY Logo & its MEANING

Every nation around the world has a national flag that symbolizes that particular country and its ideologies.
 

Every organization around the globe has a logo that represents the concept and belief systems of the founders. Every special day of the year is attached with a symbol that carves its remembrance in the minds of the people. Likewise we ie., team IU (Inspiration Unlimited) believed that there should be a symbolic representation for the World Inspiration Day as well. Hence we came up with the logo that has our philosophies in every layer of it.
 

The logo starts with pitch black colour at the bottom. Black colour indicates darkness and every one of us initially are in the world of problems and commotions that fill darkness in our lives. Lots of people are chained in this level of negative emotions and are struggling to get out of there. While people are spending their lives fighting through the hurdles of life, they have to rise to the next level of challenging.
 

The next level is represented by the blue colour which tells us that people have to swim across the oceans of troubles to reach age of prosperity. This ocean is huge and vast and shall take every ounce of effort from us. Blue colour symbolizes water that has the power of purification. Only after a man passes through this layer of purification of his soul can he reach the next level.
 

The level above blue layer is a layer of grey. Man is rubbed against all troubles of life and tested to the core to see if he can come out successful. Battling through all these, he has to walk on stones of fire while every effort of his is burning into ashes with a hope to find his destiny. In due course, he might find himself melting into ashes. That’s the time to rise from the ashes like a phoenix into the higher level of purity and prosperity.
 

Hence the next layer is white in colour to indicate the highest level of life which symbolizes total absence of inequality because the colour white is a combination of all different colours. At this level everyone is at the same level of purity of soul and prosperity of life.

Happy World Inspiration Day!!!!!

Happy world inspiration day!!! 23+ nations share their wishes for WORLD INSPIRATION DAY!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvGsT9uF9qI

I know I'm shattered but I also know that God is with me always

God lashes out every trouble at a person to only make him/her stronger. Here's a story of a young girl from garden city, Bangalore, who was underestimated by her close acquaintances for 20 years of her life but found her true purpose of life and started enjoying the spirit of unlimited inspiration in her life. Today, she has been responsible for making more than 35 people including children and adults literate within a span of just 5 months.
 
Kavya Madhavan is a student from Adarsh College pursuing her graduation in B.Com during the day and working part-time during the afternoon in the same institution. She is a highly sensitive person who gets emotional with just a sight of apathy of any person around her. After realizing through a number of incidents that crying alone doesn’t solve anyone’s problems she took up a dream to jump into action to give her bit to solve the problems of others. She recognized that lack of education was the root cause of all evil and hence decided to teach the under-privileged kids in her free time for one hour every day after she finishes her work and on the way to her home.
 
Here are her answers to our questions;
 
1. How did you start this campaign of educating poor children who aren’t allowed to go to school?

A. On 28^th of October, I was washing vessels during which I was thinking as to what I was doing in life. I used to get emotional at every scene of trouble of others but I was helpless as I could do nothing about it. I read a lot of books of Swami Vivekananda, who advocates that work shouldn’t be in words but in action. That’s when I decided that that day I would go out and teach any poor kid whom I found on the road. I asked the suggestion of Sujit Lalwani sir if my idea was correct and he gave me a green signal to go ahead with the project. That is when my life started to change.
 
2. How was your initial phase and experience when you started your initiative?

A. I got ready and left my home. I boarded a bus wherein I saw a beggar boy. I felt really sad for him and then approached him. He started asking me for food. I shared my lunch box with him and asked him to stay back at the same place where we both got down so that I could come back in the evening and teach him. Sadly, when I returned the boy wasn’t there. I felt that I had failed in my life but didn’t want to give up.
 
Next day, I once again went in search of poor kids who couldn’t afford their education on the roads of Chamrajpet but couldn’t find anyone. God was testing my patience while I was crying in desperation. Third day, God had to open his eyes to help me. Finally, I found around 5 kids near a construction area who were the children of the mason workers. I asked them if they would learn how to read and write if I taught them. The answered yes! And that’s how my journey began.
 
3. How many people have you taught till now and how has been your experience?

A. I have taught around 20+ kids to write their names in English, English alphabets both capital and small letters ­­and numbers from 1 to 100. Even adults were influenced to learn while I was teaching those young kids. So I have taught around 15 adults to write their names in English and basics of English language.
 
The experience has been totally satisfying. I now feel that I am living my life to the fullest. There are so many small faces that await my arrival in the evening just to learn. I feel so empowered while I am empowering someone else’s life through education. In spite of all the difficulties in my life, I feel every moment that the Almighty is right beside me and supporting me.
 
4. Were there any incidents during the process which made you sad?

A. Definitely, Yes! On a number of occasions I was disappointed and had lost hope. Thanks to IU (Inspiration Unlimited) who inspired me to carry forward my work. My parents were absolutely not supportive of my work as it included meeting strange people and teaching them. I had to make sure that initially I had to work without informing them. Couple of times, those students whom I had taught had gone back to their villages and didn’t return to Bengaluru. I was broken and felt that all my efforts had gone a waste but when I learnt from those who had returned that they had taught English to their friends and relatives in their village I was jumping with joy.
 
5. Which was the most striking incident during this whole process?

A. I used to teach a group of kids who lived near a construction site. There were 4 girls and a boy. Every day they used to come running to me as soon as I reached their place to teach them. On one fine day, it was strange for me to see that the boy who was always enthusiastic to learn was running away as soon as I reached their place. I was disappointed and felt bad thinking that he had lost interest in learning. I was into tears almost. However, I started teaching the rest of them. After sometime the boy returned and said that he also wanted to join the class. I was angry at him and scolded him. Immediately came the reply from him that he couldn’t come to learn as his pant was torn. I couldn’t control myself. I started crying. This was one of the most striking incidents of my journey.

The pool of talent for the modern world. The global platform that's changing lives

I thank Chris Arnold, the Founder of Your Big Year and World Merit*, a phenomenal platform that's bringing about talent from different parts of the globe for sharing his message with us.

Following is a direct letter from Chris Arnold, Founder of YourBigYear, Smaller Earth & WorldMerit*.

Today, Inspiration is not that difficult to find. Social Media makes great quotes extremely accessible, almost to a point beyond saturation. The oratory and poetry of great historical figures is being somewhat undermined by the sheer quantity of ‘wise words’online.
 

However, though sharing a platform with the common words of ‘Anonymous’ may dent the ego of past poets and political leaders, I say this ‘inspiration clutter’ is a great thing. It has created a modern day peer pressure to be a source or conduit for inspiration. As Anonymous or perhaps a famous poet first said, there is a pressure now to do well but also to do good.

 

Users of Social Media have already and irreversibly made a commitment to check or judge the actions and values of politicians and corporations. Though that is not always going to be fair in the unfiltered world of places like Facebook or Twitter, the consequence is that all emerging leaders know that they have to be people of value and values. The best of the upcoming generation know that it makes strategic sense to be collaborative, emotionally aware, culturally aware, ‘social’ entrepreneurs.

 

In the past, because the chance of being ‘found out’ was much lower, leaders were ‘safe’ if standards occasionally dropped lower than the electorate or customer would want. There were only so many news reporters to go around. Compare this to the speed and distance both news and innuendo can travel today. As David Jones, CEO of HAVAS Worldwide and Founder of One Young World says, "People are now empowered by social media to hold business and leaders accountable. So, if you behave in the wrong way – whether you are the head of an Arab Spring country or News International – then people can sanction you. That has taken corporate social responsibility out of the silo and put it in the P&L statement. Business cannot avoid this.”

In my opinion the remarkable effect of Social Media is not the access to information or communication it has provided, but rather the positive change in culture it is inexorably making. Twenty year olds have always been vaunted as idealists and activists, but today I believe it is increasingly more so. The tools are there to collaborate across borders and the desire to be seen to take action and have positive momentum is something for society to harness.

Old people, and by that I mean everyone who has failed to adapt to the current online methods of communication, will latch onto the painfully frivolous uses of social media. They believe that Twitter is about sharing lunch updates; they believe Facebook is simply a source for inanity; they regard the Internet mostly as an efficient delivery system for porn and a way to browse information– like a big virtual library. This view is irrelevant and almost certainly in its final years.

 

There is Merit Online. That is a useful pun for me as my organization is called World Merit and we have our own online social community, however, I mean it in a more encompassing way. The upcoming generation is grouping together in ways that will absolutely change the world. Yes! There are huge number of superficial online communities, but just look at how many powerful groups are being formed, for example,  www.worldmerit.org, www.dosomething.org, www.oneyoungworld.com. This multi–tasking generation is comfortable with being bombarded with messages that naturally splits its focus. In the same minute it will think about football and famine, pop and poverty, and these groups sit unapologetically next to each other on Facebook and in their consciousness.

 

So here is my main point. Quotes are unlimited, messaging is unlimited, but because of the actions that the upcoming generations will take and the way that content is easily shared, inspiration is also unlimited.

 

This has been recognized by my friend, Sujit Lalwani, who happened to be a finalist in the www.yourbigyear.comcompetition that I started a few years back. In YBY2 Sujit beat over 60,000 people from almost every country in the world to become a finalist. He had already recognized the power of his actions on peers and had set up the Inspiration Unlimited initiative, and has now authored his first book with the title ‘Life Simplified!’. Sujit is in his mid twenties and is one of the most motivating emerging leaders I’ve met. The incredible thing is that the ‘Your Big Year’ competition revealed to me the positive power and positive mentality of such a huge proportion of youth. They will not allow the cynicism of the older generations to infect them, but unlike in the past, this is not because of naivety.

 

They know the problems that face humanity and the planet. They understand the need for change more acutely than ever before. They also know that their approach will be unrecognizably different, more collaborative, and more open, than ever. They are aware of the risks of being subverted or made immobile by sheer weight of input and death by committee, but in the transition of leadership styles, to theirs, they know that they hold the seeds of previously unimagined potential.

Sujit from India, Charles from Uganda, Barbra from the US, Linh from Australia, Sarah from the UK, each one of them knows their responsibilities to make the world a better place. I for one, for the sake of my two children and because it is so much fun, will do everything I can to help them.

 

Join the Merit community of global citizens and emerging leaders at www.worldmerit.org. Also try and become the voice of the upcoming generation by winning our Ambassadorial world trip at www.yourbigyear.com. If you are in a position of influence please try and support both initiatives and contact me directly. If you are old, and I mean in the definition I laid out earlier (not being literate in the new world’s communication methods) then you are unlikely to have read this note, but if you have, either modernize, or get out of the way of Sujit et al.

 

Chris Arnold,

Founder, World Merit and Smaller Earth

Another dream to share

Bodybuilding has been one of my prime areas of focus. I have even written a blog about how self-defence needs to be taught at school level itself. Combining these two fired up one more thought which became one more dream of mine which I want to share with my dear audience today. Today was filled with thoughts and discussions about dreams and hence I am continuing the same tonight.

 

I have searched for bodybuilding tips on internet and have often found most of the websites featuring bodybuilders from different countries other than my own country ie., India. Hence I used to have a dream that I should help Indian bodybuilders to get websites and market themselves and their ideas using the online medium. Probably the same is true in other countries where computer education is a little low. Since physical fitness is very important for a healthy lifestyle, everyone needs to get into physical training. To serve so many customers, obviously there need to be good number of trainers at least in the ratio of 20 customers: 1 trainer. All the people should have access to their trainers websites and gyms for their physical training. To accommodate every single citizen in gyms, there should be a lot of gyms, probably at the rate of every street having a gym. I even read that Arnold Schwarzenegger had once dreamt that there would be more gyms than supermarkets in USA. His dream motivated me as it clearly synced with that of mine.

 

Once there are enough number of gyms such that everyone gets physical training, people become stronger. Most of the parents don't enroll their kids into martial arts or any other self-defence classes because of the fear of their kids getting hurt. Once every kid is strong with daily work-out at the gym and play, even parents shall have more confidence and less fear in enrolling their children for self-defence classes. Eventually our coming generations shall become physically strong and the entire population shall be so strong that there cannot be any physical assault by bullies on anyone since everyone knows how to defend themselves and help others in trouble. This shall lead to an empowered nation is what my mind imagines and believes in. Please feel free to share your feedback on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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A dream to share

As I keep writing blogs one after the other day by day, I need to ask myself as to what new have I learned today. I need to think through different diverse experiences that I have gone through till night and then pen down my most important lesson for the day. Since I have crossed more than 400 blogs now, I thought of sharing a dream of mine with my beloved readers, my true motivators.

 

Recently, I was searching for some content on 'self-evaluation' on google. I searched for more than fifteen minutes but couldn't find any valuable material. As the Japanese saying says, "when no one else has done it then you must do it", I took up the task of writing a blog on self-evaluation to present myself and for others who might search for the same. At that time, I just recalled about how many friends of mine and mentees had appreciated my blogs. They had even shared that they had learned many lessons from my blogs. Even in the blog statistics I have found that when people search on certain topics, they have landed on my blog. A lot of people search for different lessons on life skills on internet. Since I write most of my blogs on life skills, I dreamt that whenever a person wants to learn about a topic related to life skills like self-development or understanding the perceptions of the world, s/he should just type the topic '+ MohanBN blog' and find the answer to his/her query in my blog.

 

I know there's a lot of work that needs to go behind making this dream materialise into reality. I know that I need to study and learn a lot to post quality content that is completely helpful for anyone who lands on my blog. I am completely aware that I need to cover a number of topics to match with the uncountable number of queries that people can come up with in order to fulfill my dream. Knowing all these challenges, I know one more thing and that is, I shall be blogging every single day and shall take up new topics everyday. More than all, I have loving readers like you who shall support me in accomplishing this dream at the earliest. Hence I wanted to share this dream of mine with you. I would like to learn about your dreams as well, if you can post about them on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Kalpana - Beyond imagination

The word 'kalpana' in Hindi means imagination. But the word 'Kalpana' that I have used in the title doesn't refer to imagination but to a girl by name Kalpana from Gujarat who is beyond imagination. Students from 5 different colleges made their presence felt today in Bangalore to attend a session about ENTREPRENEURSHIP by Team IU(Inspiration Unlimited) and international inspirational speaker Mr. Sujit Lalwani. A large group of youth participated in this event and out of these there was one girl by name Kalpana who has an inspiring story to share with us.

Kalpana was enrolled into a Marathi school during her early childhood and had to study completely in Marathi. Then for her higher classes during schooling, she was transferred to another school that taught in Gujarathi. There was no option for her to study in an English medium school. After her schooling, she was sent to Bangalore to study in IKON nursing college to pursue B.Sc in nursing where the complete syllabus was taught in English alone. Indeed this was a big shock for Kalpana as she had to shift from regional medium school to English medium college all of a sudden absolutely without any expertise in English. However with the encouragement of her dad, she took up this bold step and entered Bangalore. This is just a brief introduction about Kalpana. To learn about how she managed through these language barriers let's see some Q&As;

How did you feel when you were transferred to schools teaching in different languages?

When I joined a Gujarathi institution to learn science I was very afraid. Then, I told myself that nothing is impossible on this earth. Even my dad encouraged me and I gave my best in the exams. Everyone around me was schocked that a girl from Marathi background had fared well in Gujarathi medium.

When you were trasnferred from Gujarathi medium to English medium institution, how did you face the challenge?

I almost doubted myself if I would be able to do anything but then consoled myself that now I couldn't turn my back on education and leave. I felt sad thinking that my dad would be disappointed to know that his daughter had accepted defeat. Hence I decided that I would put in my best efforts and learn. Today, though I make mistakes while speaking in English, I can understand English completely. I am even proficient in Marathi, Gujarathi and Hindi.

When you started practising to communicate in English how was your experience?

In our college, speaking in regional language is prohibited. So, when I used to speak in English with my Gujarathi friends they used to get irritated with the mistakes that I made while speaking and would ask me to stop speaking in English, but today the same friends appreciate me for the kind of fluency that I have mastered in speaking in English.

When you felt bad hearing to your friends' comments what did you do?

I used to cry a lot when my friends teased me. I have a habit of writing my daily dairy. I used to pour down my feelings in it. I blamed my dad for not enrolling me into an English medium school but my dad told me that I would be proud about him when I would be the topper of the class even in the English medium college.

When you were changing schools and college, your language medium was changing which upset you but because of that today you know Hindi, Marathi, Gujarathi, Nepali and English and you are a multilingual person today. How do you feel about it?

By learning different languages, I have even learned different cultures of which my friends are a part of. Hence I can mingle with all friends of mine very easily because of which I have many friends.

What is your one message to those who feel inferior while communicating in English?

Please don't think negative. Tell yourself that you will be able to do. Instead of thinking that things will not happen, give your best to make things happen. I gaurantee that if you try, you shall definitely succeed.

Who all do you want to thank for being an inspiration in your life?

First of all, I want to thank my dad about whom I am very proud of. He is the reason for my success today. In spite of low income levels, he is spending a lot on me and my studies and providing me all the amenities. Secondly, I want to thank that teacher of mine who encouraged me to go on the stage and talk to hundreds of people. Thirdly, I would like to thank Sister Devi who has helped me and my friends to get an exposure about different things happening around us and who has been a source of inspiration and encouragement for us always.

Krupanidhi School of Management invites IU

One more speech and this time it happened at Krupanidhi School of Management. It was April 1st, popularly known as the Fool's day, 2 young gentlemen from Inspiration Unlimited were invited by Krupanidhi School of Management(KSM) to address around 150 MBA students studying in their 1st year of MBA. The first man was Mr. Sujit Lalwani and the second lucky guy was me. The surprise was that both of us had no MBA degree attached to our names.

 

It was pretty long drive from the centre of Bangalore to reach KSM but somehow we made it but the students had to wait for about 60 minutes until we reached as we had lost the route on our way. It was about 12:30pm by the time we reached the college and the dean of KSM, Mr. Rahul Sharma escorted us into the auditorium filled with students with their blazers on citing that they were real MBA students. It was a very warm welcome extended by Ms. Patricia to begin the session. Sujit Lalwani sir took over the stage and with his never ending charm began engaging the audience in the talk of their life. He could make them realise that their choice of MBA shouldn't be just of a degree but a dream of their future life. He asked the students if they could be a part of a IUY2C campaign and when good number of hands went up, he took 5 minutes to find out the volunteers, plan the campaign, decide the deadline and assign the roles and proved that MBA could be learned in these 5 minutes.

 

Then Mr. Sujit Lalwani

continued talking about how few minutes of a day when used productively can help students mould their life. He explained about how grabbing every opportunity can make one go a long way ahead in life and shared some of his achievements at the national and international levels. I was glad that even I got a chance to address these set of MBA students. When I went on the stage I shared some of my experiences of my past about how otherwise advices of others can spoil our opportunities in life. I stressed on the point of making leadership a daily process and shared the example of my blogging with them. It was awesome to see that these students endorsed our points and vowed to create a difference in the world.

 

All regards and thanks to Mr. Rahul Sharma and the management of KSM for arranging this talk and joining hands with IU to spread inspiration among 150 more students.

SEPC - Sports Equipment Procurement Campaign

PLAY FORWARD is an organization from Australia which through community programs use sport as an avenue to build confidence and self esteem amongst young Australians aged 8-13. They aim to impact disengaged and marginalised children, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, whose school completion rates are well below the completion rates for other students.Play Forward harnesses the power of sport as a vehicle for social change. OSCAR - Organization for Social Change, Awareness & Responsibility is an organization from Mumbai, India which aims at encouraging children to continue their education through the medium of sports. IU Cares from India tied up with the Australian project PLAY FORWARD and OSCAR and decided to carry out the campaign named as SEPC - Sports Equipment Procurement Campaign in India.

 

We started this project around the month of November and initially this project gained wide interest among lot of teams who were willing to take it up. Whenever a lot many people take up something ultimately it ends up in no one doing it. The same happened with SEPC and the different sets of people who took up the project fell short of their commitment but IU Cares was hell-bent to make sure that this amazing campaign materialised into reality. Hence the team IU took the entire responsibility of making sure that the task of SEPC happened within 24 hours of time frame and we are glad to let the world know that we have achieved our target.

 

The target was taken precisely at 4pm on April 2nd,2013 and right after that 5 dedicated volunteers from different parts of Bangalore were selected and were informed to contact 5 or more relatives or neighbours or friends or classmates or strangers and collect at least one old sports equipment from them which they would otherwise throw away. Within just 4 hours of allotment of the task, the first volunteer by name Srinivas KN from National college reached with his sports items including cricket bat, stumps, jersey and shuttle badminton rackets. The next day on April 3rd,2013, old toys and sports equipment from 4 more volunteers reached within 3pm and finally it was a quick grand successful campaign of SEPC. More than 50 sports artciles were collected within a matter of 24 hours of time. IU Cares takes this opportunity to appreciate all the volunteers- Srinivas KN, Nivedita Raj, Aditya Kanbur, Rajath, Jayanth and Shylesh KS who made SEPC a successful campaign. All of these sports articles shall be distributed to under-privileged kids at the earliest.

You can look for more information on all these social projects on the following links;http://www.resolutionproject.org/content/vanessa-picker
http://www.iucares.org/partner-projects.php
http://www.play-forward.org/#!about_us/csgz

Follow Your Heart

One more fantastic day materialised to end the financial year in an awesome manner. 31st of March,2013 marked one more session of IU(Inspiration Unlimited) in the city of Bangalore to inspire 100 plus youth from different colleges and different streams. It was a session on the most pressing topic among youth today titled as 'Follow Your Heart'. In this dynamic world today, people are advised to follow their heart by anyone and everyone. Unfortunately there are less number of people who can understand what's really there in their hearts but who aren't being guided towards how they need to follow their hearts. To clear these confusions and provide more clarifications on the topic IU came up with this session.

 

I was more than glad that I was also a part of this magnanimous event. In the morning, all the students belonging to different streams came and settled in the auditorium and we had the introduction and the ignition to the event given by Mr. Bharath GC who mesmerized the crowd with his smile and charmful talk. He explained about how energy needs to be showcased at every moment of life to get the best learning out of life and then introduced me on the stage. I was a bit nervous to talk on this critical-cum-crucial topic but took it as a challenge to throw myself into it. I spoke about the basic confusion that people have about following one's own heart. Some are deceived by the photos of people that they keep in their hearts and follow and reach nowhere in life. I discussed about how some are stopped by the parental restrictions, some are demotivated by their peers while some shy or fear away from following their hearts were the different reasons for not following one's own heart. I shared about some of the examples from my own life about how I followed my heart when I wanted to become a multilingual guy, when I wanted to start a robotics company, when I wanted to quit my job and jump into entrepreneurship, when I wanted to create a record in blogging and succeeded in all of them. Then it was time for the show to reach the pinnacle of its purpose and we welcomed the well reknowned international inspirational speaker Mr. Sujit Lalwani on the stage by witnessing whom the audience went mad.

 

Sujit Lalwani sir in his most humourous way conveyed that following your heart was all about breaking the rules of the world to pursue your passion. He had brought along with him few slides each one of which spoke a key message to follow your heart. He spoke about how following your mind would take only courage but following your heart would take everything from you. He explained the tiny twists and turns in our life that can be the reasons for the biggest successes or failures of our life. He showcased the international platforms like One Young World, Your Big Year, World MERIT and VISIT Russia all of which he was a part of just because he followed his heart everytime without being bothered by the advices and comments of others. He showed people that success was not attached with the age of the achiever and shared few of his achievements which inspired the audience. Totally, it was an empowering session which concluded with the fearless participants who came on the stage to share their learning and commitments with the audience. Even you can be a part of upcoming IU sessions in different cities of India if you're determined to take control of your life and dreams. Do visit www.iuindia.com and contact Mr.Bharath GC on 7829414616 for more details.

Line by Line

Due to bad food in the evening today, I had a kind of bad feeling in my gut because of which I couldn't even workout in the gym in the late evening. So, came back home after some 10 minutes of cardio and saw my brother and cousin playing carrom. After a long time even I felt like getting my fingers tested at carrom and joined the game. Glad that the opponents were far less experienced compared to my gap in practice, I won both the games that we played. After the game, I went along with my cousin to drop her to her home and on the way was enquiring about her studies. She mentioned something like 'I don't understand certain stuff while I study'. This dragged my attention and I offered to clarify some of her confusions.

 

As we entered my cousin's house, she took out her Physics text book and opened a random chapter which had escaped her understanding. We started reading this new chapter. We took up the first paragraph of introduction and I read a line and asked her to repeat and then explain it to me in simple words in her mother tongue. I could find that it was difficult for my cousin to understand even the first paragraph of introduction of a chapter. Only when we read it line by line and I made her translate each line into her mother tongue and explain it to me was she able to get the meaning and complete understanding of the entire paragraph. All the time before when she had studied these chapters, she had missed this line by line approach. She had tried to scan through the paragraph and understand the concept which always deceived her understanding. Once I taught her this simple algorithm of understanding line by line which required more time and patience she could appreciate its simplicity because no more understanding could evade from her.

 

Not just studies, be it anything in life each one of them expects detail level attention for deeper and better understanding. Every situation demands momentwise reading to understand the depth of it. Every relationship requires understanding of every emotion of the people to foster better relationship. Recently I read a statement which read 'God lies in the details' which is absolutely true. One who pays attention to details can never miss out on a chance to succeed. I appreciate every feedback of yours on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Talk to self

I was checking out one of my diaries that I used to use before where I had written the notes of the leadership workshops that I had attended. In one of its pages it was mentioned that talking to oneself is very important. In Hindi it's called as 'aatmachintan'. Discussing with oneself is the best way to bring about clarity for one's decisions and shall help in aligning one's actions towards accomplishing the goals set.

 

Time and again people are confused about their own decisions. The reason is that they decide once and discuss about their decisions with 'n' other people to seek their opinions. Unless they get majority of the responses positive, they go on doing it believing that their decision will be right only when majority of the people also accept it. In doing so, people are just adding more confusion to their decisions rather than strengthing them and acting on them. The most important person on whom all your decisions might impact is you yourself. Hence you need to discuss about your decisions with yourself more than anyone else. More the number of times you discuss, more the clarity you will have as to why you made those decisions. Not just decisions, be it an idea or a simple thought or a dream, vision, goal or anything concerned with one's life, s/he has to talk to himself/herself to understand the basis of one's own thinking and evaluate it oneself. Unless you are clear about what you want to do, you can never expect someone else to understand the reason behind what you want to do. Talking to self regularly for a good amount of time shall always make our thinking clearer to ourselves first, which later can be conveyed to anyone else with complete confidence and clarity.

 

Talking to onself needn't have to be only verbal, you can even write and explain to yourself all that you want to do. Once you are convinced logically with your explanation then you can give a green signal to yourself to go on with your work without turning back. You always reap the benefits of what you do and never that of others. Hence it's completely upto you as to how much you talk to yourself so that you are the first one to be clear than anyone else about what you're going to go for. You can post your feedback once you talk to yourself for a minute about the blog on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
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