AGILE??..........WILL SURVIVE

Change, accepting change, dealing w/ change, etc. seem to be the buzzwords of our rapidly changing world. Many good books have been written about the same. To successfully survive the changes of time and tide, one needs to accept the fact that change is inevitable and having accepted that, brace oneself to make the best of these oncoming changes.

Azim Premji; successful businessman, founder of Wipro gave a presentation at IIM-A about “The Changing World”. He based this presentation on his own experiences and it can be summarized in the following 11 points. I happened to read this presentation in a Marathi newspaper. My summary is a loose translation of the same.

• Be a good sensor - Know the signs of change and watch out for them.
• Change is always lurking around the corner. Be proactive and try to prepare yourself for the same.
• Change always brings along new opportunities. Look out for these.
• Avoid getting into the comfort-zone of your routine.
• It is natural to fear the insecurity that change brings w/ it. Use this fear positively, to plan for change.
• Renew yourself constantly.
• Be in the company of pro-change people Vs anti-change.
• Play to win; give it your best shot.
• Maintain your self-esteem.
• Never forego your values and morals.
• Being successful is far different and important than just living/existing. Your success not only positively affects you but also society at large.

TEACHINGS OF OSHO

Recently I happened to read “LIFE’S MYSTERIES – An Introduction to the Teachings of Osho”. Never before had I read or listened to the teachings of any spiritual guru – never felt like it. A family friend urged me to read the book, I agreed, partly to sate my curiosity that gossip about Oshoites and the Ashram had created.

It took me a while to finish the small book. Some of Osho’s thoughts made sense to me, some were beyond me, whereas some sort of made sense yet the traditional teachings of my mind did not allow for ready acceptance.

Osho says that all the religions of the world are anti-life and his arguments in this regard were convincing.

Here are my interpretations of some thoughts that I liked and would like to remember.

• Touchstone to differentiate between the important from the unimportant – Anything that can be taken by death is unimportant and that cannot be taken by death is important.

• Don’t be life negative, be life positive. Celebrate life – live life to the fullest.

• Focus on rejoicing instead of renouncing. Focus on the present and live this moment to the fullest.

• Don’t believe in anyone – find your own path and walk on it. Follow your inner voice. When you do so, you will be on the right path. You might stumble along the way, might commit mistakes, but that is alright. In the end all these efforts contribute towards your ultimate growth – no effort is wasted.

• Each individual is unique and each individual life has a beauty in its uniqueness.

• Life’s aim is life itself – more life, better life, higher life, but life always!

• Man ordinarily functions out of the past, out of the knowledge that he has accumulated in the past and thus has standard, mechanical responses. But life is continuously changing. Right and wrong are not fixed entities. So avoid functioning through your past. Act out of awareness. Awareness means being in the present

• Receptivity is the door to the divine; it is a state of no-mind, state of awareness. Being receptive means dropping all the garbage in your mind, like your past. If you can drop this then you become more open, more receptive.

• A man of awareness does not react; he acts or responds. He is responsible. He is his own master and acts according to himself and not by anybody else. Osho gives a beautiful analogy of a mirror to the man who is aware and that of a photoplate to the person who reacts. The difference between a mirror and photoplate is that the former is dynamic whereas the latter is static. Life is dynamic and hence one should try to be a mirror instead of a photoplate.

• Love can be dependent, independent or interdependent. In the 1^st two cases it always brings misery and should not be termed as love but as an arrangement. The 3^rd case brings happiness because it is when two people are in complete synchronism and this is true love.

• To grow during our life is a choice that we have to make. Osho compares our existence to that of the seed. The seed has the potential to grow and flower, so also we have the potential to grow. The seed is very safe and secure whereas a flower is vulnerable and fragile. People prefer this security over growth and the insecurity associated w/ this process and hence many of us choose to live as seeds and just remain as potentialities.

• Avoid nouns instead emphasize on verbs. So focus on living instead of life.

• Nobody is born for the other. Nobody is born to fulfill your ideals of how a person should be.

• You can give as much as you want, but cannot demand (love for ex.) from the other – nobody is your slave. You have control only on yourself.

• Ego is something that you can feel but that which does not exist. Osho compares it w/ darkness which is nothing but absence of light. To drive away darkness you have to experiment w/ light. Similarly to be egoless you have to raise your level of consciousness.

• Meditation is neither concentration nor contemplation. It is a state of no-thinking or no-mind. Simply put no-mind means that your mind becomes your servant.

• Meditation is when our mind, body and soul are functioning together in rhythm. Any activity that achieves this can be meditation. So running, dancing, singing….all these can be meditations.

• Everybody is born w/ the same potential. Differences arise because we do not use our potential to the same extent. Meditation can make you aware of your potential, can make the passage in which your potential can grow and can find its expression.

• Ego is the root cause of fear in you.

• Fear always exists – about security, safety. When surrounded by such fear, remember this- the only thing that is secure or certain in life is death. Being dead is the ultimate security. So if you want to live, grow then you have to take risks. Don’t be shackled by these exercises of the mind - remember you have nothing to lose. Stop postponement

• Freedom and responsibility are the 2 sides of the same coin. If you want freedom you have to be responsible. Responsibility means that whatever you do it is your response. It is different than duty. When you act out of duty it becomes a burden whereas when you act out of responsibility there is no burden because it is your response.

• The inner (soul) is as real as the outer (body, material aspects), both are equally significant. One has to attain a balance between the two.

Simbly Z(S)even

Alrighty………I have been tagged……..courtesy Kusum…..so here it goes…. :)

7 things to do before I die:

1. Globe trot (….squeeze in road trips and backpacking trips….fly business class)… Okay, if not anything, at least take a trip to Kailash Mansarovar.
2. Pamper my family crazy.
3. Anger management, learn to be more tolerant.
4. Start my own restaurant.
5. Be a cool dancer.
6. Stop swearing completely.
7. Do my bit for old people and/or something related to Indian heritage.

7 things I can't do: (for now…except the last couple )

1. Prepare Bhakri. (yumm….my favorite.)
2. Write poetry.
3. Think w/ my head instead of heart when required.
4. Tinker w/ gadgets and stuff.
5. Initiate and carry on a nerdy conversation.
6. Swim.
7. Be false.

7 things I always say:

1. Tch….or Mtch….
2. Whateverr!
3. I’m hungry….
4. I mean…
5. Like Helloow…
6. Cool….
7. Anyhoo…..

7 books I have loved:

1. Love Story
2. The 7 spiritual laws of success
3. The Monk who sold his Ferrari
4. Time Machine
5. A Cup of Comfort for Friends
6. arab bhASheteel suras va chamatkaarik kathA
7. badalata bhArat

7 things I get attracted to:

1. Nature
2. Rain
3. Smells - Cologne/after shave, earth after the first rain, warm spicy food.
4. Good vegetarian food.
5. People - Creative, Funny, Good cooks, Philosophers, Achievers, people like me ;)

Sorry can’t think of more….

7 movies I love to watch over and over: (Well not over and over…’coz I am not a movie buff…..but I could modify this to movies I have enjoyed)

1. Life is Beautiful
2. Iqbal
3. Dumb and Dumber
4. Austin Powers
5. Terminal

Sorry can’t think of more….

1 Person I am tagging

• Kedar
  

KNOWING DOING GAP

I think this post has been procrastinated enough. It all started a couple of months ago, when I mentioned a Marathi proverb to my Dad, that when literally translated means “I KNOW, but, I can’t DO”. Dad mentioned a book titled “The Knowing-Doing Gap” at the time and even got me a copy in the next few days. I was intrigued by the topic/title. For sometime then I had been thinking about things like “What motivates people?”, “Knowing-doing gaps in our personal and professional lives”, etc. I started reading the book to validate my analysis of why this knowing-doing gap exists. Although, the book was focused on knowing-doing gaps in organizations; the reason behind their existence and ways of overcoming the same, it made an interesting read. You should be able to find the book summary by googling the title and hence I will not mention that in this post. Instead I will focus my attention on my original thought; “Why do knowing-doing gaps exist in our personal and professional lives?”

Some sample KNOWs –

• I KNOW I need to lose weight.
• I KNOW I should not carry work home and vice-a-versa.
• I KNOW I need to exercise regularly.
• I KNOW I need to plan my finances and make the right investments.
• I KNOW I need to improve on my listening.
• I KNOW I need to learn that new technology that is hot in the job market currently.

Here are some factors that I have identified. I would love to hear your thoughts on the same.

1. You KNOW because you are told.

I think that this is one of the most important factors. Do you truly believe that you need to DO or is an external entity directing you to DO? Unless one is convinced about the KNOW, DO cannot happen. For ex. You KNOW you need to lose weight, but that is because people say you should.

2. Inertia/Who wants to leave the Comfort-Zone!

Many times the pleasure of being in one’s established comfort-zone is more alluring than the efforts involved in the DO.

3. Fear

Fear of change during the DO. Previous failed attempts or negative information from external sources can also prevent us from DOING.

4. Lack of motivation

5. Analysis Paralysis

Does one devote time for self-analysis? Is the DOING Vs the KNOWING measured, tracked?

6. Lack of momentum

Often times one starts off enthusiastically, but falls back at some point of time. I guess lack of measurement makes the failure difficult to be attributable to this lack of momentum or any other specific factors.

Anyhoo, I know I just surmounted one gap! (I KNOW I need to write a post on the knowing-doing gap.)

ADRENALINE BOOST

Although I had visualized this post to be a photo with an interesting tag, it is going to be much more than that.

Okay, so a little background about the pictures. The pictures frame a portion of the road that stretches through the Sant Tukaram Nagar (STN) (Pimpri, Pune) area and eventually intersects the Bombay-Pune highway. The stretch of this road from STN to Vallabh Nagar (VN) has been closed to traffic due to a road construction project that is underway. While I was driving through the area a few days ago, I happened to see a couple of motorcyclists get their bikes up the mounds of rubble. (The mounds were at least a foot higher when I saw them first.) I was slightly amused at the sight and casually said to myself, “Wow, this would make an interesting picture for my blog!” Thanks to the appreciation that some of my pictures had received, I, at the time was toying w/ the idea of starting a photo-blog. Things did not get further beyond the thought and I still have it on my “TO-DO (someday)” list. Uff, I digress!

Finally, yesterday evening, I managed to gather the nerve (you won’t believe it, but, I actually consulted a would-be lawyer before I set on my mission) and verve to grab my camera and head over to the site of my photo shoot. I parked my bike in a non-descript corner and slowly pulled out my camera. Summoning a confident look, I perched myself on my bike and took a couple of shots. The delay in my camera can be really frustrating, esp. when trying to frame a moving object. I noticed the amused, curious glances of passing school-kids and other pedestrians. I wanted to get a closer shot and so started walking closer to the scene. I noticed a group of men, looking curiously at me and my camera. I tried to ignore them and focus on getting the pictures. Suddenly two men from the group approached me, asking if I was from the press. I had anticipated these questions and had rehearsed my answers. I stammered a yes, continuing to take pictures, and silently lauded myself for my foresight. The two of them stay put while I was taking pictures and began talking once I was done.

Handing his card, one of the two introduced himself as the Vice-Chairman (VC) of the local Congress committee. Apparently he had organized a rasta-roko at the spot a few days ago. The news had featured in Sakal, a prominent Marathi daily; also some local cable channel gave the place some coverage on their channel. Mr. VC appeared concerned, albeit, I was unable to discern his true intentions.

I believe that the status quo definitely IS a matter of concern for the local residents of the area. Many a brave, including the cameramen of the local channel have fallen prey to these deceptive mounds of rubble. The construction project is not due to finish for at least another year. All the traffic (two-wheelers, four-wheelers, buses, trucks) headed for the highway has to take a detour via a narrow residential street. Students, esp. young children from the nearby D. Y. Patil campus are unaccustomed and oblivious to such heavy traffic in their backyard. Considering the duration of the project, I am not sure what steps could be taken to ensure public safety. Any ideas?

That was my two cents worth….So watch out people lest you are run over!

SAGAR AND BHOOMI– AN ETERNAL LOVE STORY

Their relationship dates back to what seems like an eternity, yet they still appear to be very much in love. Together they have survived the changes of time and tide and proven that “There is such a thing as true love!” They were just meant to be together; anybody who knew them would think “Here is a made for each other couple”. Bhoomi shy, patient and balanced and Sagar the extrovert with a dynamic personality; they perfectly complement each other.

It was a clear, starry night with a gentle breeze blowing. A full moon was visible on the horizon and love was in the air. Sagar gently presented to Bhoomi the treasures of his sea kingdom – a big white conch, a few silver shells and corals of the deepest blue. He waited expectantly to see her reaction. Bhoomi stared at the gifts in wonderment and a smile broke on her lips; she had never seen such things before. “Here put this to your ear and you will hear me,” urged Sagar, handing the big white conch to Bhoomi. Bhoomi did so and was amazed by what she heard. She was impressed. From that day on Sagar continues to pamper Bhoomi with treasures of his kingdom…

After all these years they still laugh, tease and fight with each other. Sometimes Sagar and Bhoomi appear playful like young lovers, Sagar whispering sweet nothings into Bhoomi’s ear; at times they seem like content, mature lovers, taking a leisurely walk on a moonlit night. Every once in a while Sagar throws this temper tantrum; Bhoomi patiently bears his lashings. Bhoomi knows that its really not Sagar’s fault and that Mr. Moon is responsible for Sagar’s wild side. Sagar feels really guilty for his behavior, he begs Bhoomi to forgive him and then they kiss and make up.

Together they have come a long way. Sagar has always been supportive of Bhoomi’s progress and success. For centuries now, till date, Sagar and Bhoomi together, nurture and support life in its various forms.

May their love prevail!

GRENADE

The little grenade explodes as soon as I shut my mouth. My teeth dig into its crispy outer cover, out flow the cold juices and my mouth is full. The juices tickle my taste buds; a mixture of sweet, sour, tangy and hot! I try to swallow the juices, careful, so they don’t end up in my wind-pipe and all I can do is shut my eyes and nod in approval of these wonderfully blended flavors. The juices disappear quickly into my stomach and I then discover that there is more to it; soft mashed potatoes, warm chick peas, crunchy sev and the crispy remnants of the grenade.

If you are an Indian foodie, I am sure that you’ve figured out by now what grenade I am talking about. Sounds explosively appetizing right? Okay no more suspense for those unfortunate souls who haven’t experienced the little grenade yet. I am talking about “Paani Puri” (PP) aka “Golgappa”, one of India’s favorite snacks. Be it the chowpati of Mumbai or the cool locales of Manali; the crowded khau gallis of any Indian city or the food courts in the slick malls; PP seems to be there ALL.

Best enjoyed at your local “Sawaliya PP” stall, eating the PP does require some skill (ignore the garbage around you, any passing canines hoping to catch a bite from the leftovers, the not so clean appearing PP server). The PP server gently cracks the puri (a small, fried ball of flour) from one side, mechanically fills it with some stuffing (ingredients mentioned above) followed by a quick dip in the paani (the flavor is customized as per your desire – sweet, spicy, best of both) before handing it to you (about 5-6 at a time) in a plate. Now comes the time that will test your skills. The idea is to eat the puris one by one, quickly enough so they don’t become soggy and puri minus paani, yet careful enough so the juices and other stuffing end up in your mouth and not on your shirt.

This is what the renowned Marathi author Ganghadar Gadgil has to say about the after effects of eating the zesty PP. (An excerpt from his memoir about Mumbai)

"In that state of beatitude the Maharashtrians stop being surly, the Marwaris look at the millions of stars without being reminded of their own millions, the Sindhis admire the horizon without any intention of selling it, the Gujaratis speculate on the moon instead of the scrips they should have sold, the North Indians dream of things other than Hindi as the official language of the United Nations, and even the Parsi ladies stop nagging their husbands."

Like the repetitive and irritating commercials urging you to buy some book/CD-DVD/ - “Go get your PP NOW!”

LINKS –

• Another one on PP


• Gangadhar Gadgil on PP


• Make your own PP