Happy new year 2012

Books

Its really been long before I visited this page... At the year end, thought of updating this with the list of books that I read but could not get time to update my blog on those books... So here it goes:

1. Can love happen twice?

2. Life is what you make it

3. 99 Thoughts On Ganesha
4. The Blue Umbrella
5. A Roller Coaster Ride!
6. Johnny Gone Down
7. The quest for nothing
8. The journey to nowhere
9. The leader who had no title
10. "Ouch"-that hearts
11. Revolution 2020
12. How I taught my grandmother to read and other stories
13. Murder on a side street
14. I, Steve
15. Super Memory

The Idea of Ganesha

Life can be fun. Life can also be painful. Sometimes we wish to experience all the exitement of life. But then, we experience sorrow and frustration. We wish to withdraw from life. Our ancestors experienced this too and concluded that there are two ways to live life: as a hermit who steps back and contemplates on the nature of the world and as a householder who stays in the world and experiences all it has to offer fearlessly. Our ancestors visualized the hermit as Shiva, the male form of divinity, or God, and the householder as Shakti, the female form of divinity, i.e., the Goddess. Shiva does not want to be a father and to deal with the trials and tribulations of worldly life. Shakti wants to be a mother and to engage with all things worldly, but she knows she can’t do so with Shiva’s support and participation. From this tension between hermit and householder, God and Goddess, is born Ganesha, his animal head representing material joys and his human body representing spiritual bliss. In Ganesha, God and Goddess attain balance, material pleasure and spiritual wisdom in harmony.

- by Devdutt Pattanaik from the book "99 thoughts on Ganesha"

Leadership ...

• The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated. - William James
• Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. - George S. Patton
• The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already - John Buchan
• Leadership is a verb, not a noun. Leadership is action, not a position. Leadership is defined by what we do, not by the role we are in. - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead
• The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. - Amelia Earhart
• Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the ONLY means. - Albert Einstein

Happy Diwali ...

 

The walk...

For last few days it has been raining heavily in Chennai and everywhere it is muddy and muddy; maybe because Chennai roads were never prepared for this kind of sudden and heavy rain. After such days of heavy rain, one early morning I was finding difficult to walk across a road that comes in my regular morning walk. When I saw from a distance, it looked that I can not make it that day without getting my shoes muddy and wet; a mission impossible with the strict restriction that I should not make my shoe or my trouser wet and muddy. Then, I applied the law of local optimum; I stopped looking to the end of the road. I said, let me cross one step, by jumping on a small place that is not so much muddy to make my shoes muddy. So I started hopping from one end to another on the road and finally, hurray, I had completed the mission. I said, wow, why can not this be used in real life. EVerytime, I get a project or feature, I say, it is too big, will I be able to handle or take care of this? But things happen in its own course of time. Maybe, I should start applying the law of local optimum; instead of worrying too much for the final destination, I should break it into smaller milestones that could be realized and achieved. The total distance that I may have travelled that day could be more than the usual distance I would have covered if that was not a muddy road. Nevertheless, instead of worrying too much at the initial stage, I thought it was real cool and wise to walk a little more distance and to reach the destination. To solve a complex problem, we need to break into many simpler problems and then tackle each of them which is a lot easier process to accomplish...

LIFE

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

-Mother Teresa

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

2044

Some things don’t change. You’d think that in the year 2004 things would be different from 1944 or 1844 or 1744 or even as far back as 44 or 4. To think that once man crawled on all fours. But that was in the days when The Great Artist Himself was still in the planning stages, or so Darwin would lead us to believe.
But then, Man surprised the Great Artist when he suddenly stood on two feet and found he still had two more (later called hands) to eat with, throw with, fight with. It produced the strangest results as you can see.
As Man’s head rose higher, so did his ideas. From the humble bullock-cart, he graduated to the automobile and then to the aeroplane until, finally, he designed the rocket. By then, his head was well into the clouds and it’s no wonder that he desired to reach the moon.
The Great Artist was ecstatic. Ah, the marvel he had produced had no limit. He called that extra special thingummy inside Man’s brain: intelligence. But all this was, as you know, in the years 4 and 44 and perhaps even up to 1944.
But, remember; we are in the year 2044. Until then the Great Artist was pleased, for Man offered Him his prayers in the simplest, if not the quaintest, of ways. He knelt, he bowed, he folded his hands, he lit candles, diyas, agarbattis. But things took a different turn.
Man devised the computer. It began by doing small little calculations. It added, subtracted, multiplied, divided. But as the years passed by, Man added on more and more ideas to make the computer’s simple little insides into a complex labyrinth-like network.
So it came to pass that, by the year 2044, the computer had taken over complexity. It had (and you must believe this when I say it) intelligence. Of course, Man patted himself for his progress. Now, he had a machine that ate, drank, played sport, waged wars, and even thought for him.
Indeed, the Great Artist felt a little uncomfortable to have the prayers faxed to Him. It was strange to see Man reclining on his easy-do-all chair and languidly blow on a button to send up those precious prayers. It was even stranger to see electronic agarbattis come on like psychedelic lights.
I’ve said earlier, things hadn’t changed in 2044. It is just that the methods had become easier. But the Great Artist’s great mind was in great turmoil. And well it would be. What had happened to that marvel called Man that He had created?
His muscles were shrinking due to lack of use. Ditto his brain power for ditto reasons. The whole world was being run from a keyboard by robots. The Great Artist could see the great world that he had designed from a big bang of inspiration shrink and shrivel in front of His great eyes. Would it disappear with a whimper?
So, the Great Artist sat down for a great think. Then, he called all the natural elements to His aid; the wind, the water, the sunshine, all of which Man had tried to tame but thankfully had not succeeded.
‘Go forth,’ He commanded. ‘And knock some sense into Man’s head. But don’t hurt him.’
‘I’ll blow hot and cold,’ said the wind, for the great lung-power of the earth had regretfully picked up Man’s jargon.
‘I’ll swim against the tide,’ said the water, ‘and have a whale of time.’
‘I’ll serve man days sunny-side down,’ said the sunshine.
The Great Artist watched with great anxiety the happenings of 2044. It was a devastation which even Nostradamus hadn’t foreseen. The wind whirled and twirled things out of shape. The water tidal-waved continents from east to west, north to south, and sometimes even north-west or south-east or south-west… The sun disappeared for days on end, playing a skillful game of hide-and-seek.
The computers which had been fed with set of data and fixed formulae now threw out confused signals. Breakfast-shows became dinner-shows. The weather computer threw up its antenna in despair.
As for Man, he didn’t know whether he was standing on his feet or on his head. So to save himself he went down on all fours.
Here, with his ears on the ground, he thought long and hard. He had seen the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Steel Age, the Golden Age, the Jet Age, the Supersonic Age, the Jazz Age, the Space Age; not necessarily in that order, for you must remember his brains were a trifle scrambled. He concluded that this was the Confused Computer Age.
He tried to stand on his two own feet, but his weakened muscles didn’t allow him to. He tried to think, but his rusted brain didn’t allow him to. He tried to pray, but he had forgotten how to. Indeed, he thought that the world had come to an end and waited in dread for the final shudder that would send him plummeting down the big black hole of the Universe.
But that didn’t happen.
For the Great Artist watched over him with great anxiety. And as the earth righted itself Man stood up once again and vowed that he would never let himself grow slack and useless. And the Great Artist rejoiced greatly.
And all this happened in 2044.

- by Shalan Savur

Ants Philosophy ...

All of us tend to look up to big people for lessons on how to get better. We are keen to learn the secrets of their success. But we forget that sometimes the biggest lessons in life come from the smallest folks around us. Now that’s a good lesson to remember!
Take ants for instance. Would you believe those small creatures can teach us how to live a better life? Jim Rohn - the great motivational guru – developed what he called the ‘Ants Philosophy’.
He identified four key lessons from the behaviour of ants that can help us lead better lives..

1. Ants never quit: Have you noticed how ants always look for a way around an obstacle? Put your finger in an ant’s path and it will try and go around it, or over it. It will keep looking for a way out. It won’t just stand there and stare. It won’t give up and go back.
We should all learn to be like that. There will always be obstacles in our lives. The challenge is to keep trying, keep looking for alternative routes to get to our goals. Winston Churchill probably paraphrased the ant’s mindset when he offered this priceless advice: “Never give up. Never, never give up!”

2. Ants think winter all summer: Remember the old story of the ant and the grasshopper? In the middle of summer, the ant was busy gathering food for the winter ahead – while the grasshopper was out having a good time. Ants know that summer - the good times – won’t last forever. Winters will come. That’s a good lesson to remember. When the going is good, don’t be so arrogant as to believe that a crisis or a setback cannot happen to you. Be good to other people. Save for a rainy day. Look ahead. And remember, good times may not last, but good people do.

3. Ants think summer all winter: As they suffer through the unbearable cold of the winter, ants keep reminding themselves that it won’t last forever, and that summer will soon be here. And with the first rays of the summer sun, the ants come out – ready to work, ready to play. When we are down and seemingly out, when we go through what looks like a never-ending crisis, it’s good to remind ourselves that this too shall pass. Good times will come. It’s important to retain a positive attitude, an attitude that says things will get better. As the old saying goes, tough times don’t last. Tough people do.

4. Ants do all they possibly can: How much food does an ant gather in summer? All that it possibly can! Now that’s a great work ethic to have... Do all you can! One ant doesn’t worry about how much food another ant is collecting. It does not sit back and wonder why it should have to work so hard. Nor does it complain about the poor pay! Ants just do their bit. They gather all the food they can. Success and happiness are usually the result of giving 100% - doing all you possibly can. If you look around you, you’ll find that successful people are those who just do all they possibly can.

And there’s just one more lesson to learn from ants. Did you know that an ant can carry objects up to 20 times their own weight? Maybe we are like that too. We can carry burdens on our shoulders and manage workloads that are far, far heavier than we’d imagine. Next time something’s bothering you and weighing you down, and you feel you just can’t carry on, don’t fret. Think of the little ant. And remember, you too can carry a lot more on your shoulders!

Happy Independence Day 2011

Leader ...

A leader should have the following 6 qualities (by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam)
1. Vision
2. Courage to take unexplored path
3. Manage Failure
4. Courage to take decision
5. Nobility in management - Transparent
6. Work with integrity and succeed with integrity

How does competition at work help you?

Competition is inevitable at workplace. Each employee is trying to outdo another employee in his or her performance levels. Appreciation rewards and to get noticed from employers has become a very important aspect in one's workplace. It is but natural, that everyone faces competition at a workplace but stiff competition always prepares you for something tougher.
Competition in the workplace is a double-edged sword. Used correctly, you can get results; used ruthlessly, you can kill morale. A fine line exists between a competitive spirit and being aggressive hence you need to follow a healthy competition which will benefit you in many ways.

1. Compete with yourself:
Some people despise and fear competition, and some managers can misuse it. But, if viewed correctly, a healthy dose of competition can keep you on your toes, make you ratchet up your game, and inspire growth. In other words, competition can challenge you to 'be all that you can be.' And competition as part of a team can help you learn to work with others to succeed.

2. Competition validates your idea:
You know you have a good idea when other people are coming up with similar ideas. Competition validates your idea and the fact that there your boss is most likely to agree on your idea than on your colleagues.

3. Competition forces focus and differentiation:
Without competition, it's easy to lose focus on your work and you tend to divert yourself from the organization goals. Competition forces you to figure out how to be different than your competition, how you can focus on your skills. In the long-term, competition will help you build a better personality as well.

4. Career Advancement:
Possessing leadership skills and a competitive spirit reveals to co-workers, bosses, friends, acquaintances and teachers that you have a zest for life. Likewise, studying more and practicing harder, comes from an urge to do well and succeed. You may find that inspiring others is also an advantage of a competitive spirit. You hard work and successes may encourage others to be more competitive.

5. Self Worth and an Exciting Lifestyle:
Working hard toward personal and career goals can provide a person with a feeling of self-worth. Generally, competitive people aren't afraid to try new things which can lead to exciting opportunities that other less competitive people may not encounter. Likewise, the journey to achievement, working toward a goal, enhances moods and can fight depression.

6. Use others success to motivate you:
Seeing someone else succeeding at a higher level or producing work of greater quality doesn't have to lead to envy or jealousy. It can inspire you to grow, to explore, to learn more, to try harder. This is positive competition in action. Sometimes we're inspired and motivated out of fear we may lose our job or the account. And sometimes we're inspired and motivated because we admire quality and the rewards of success and want to produce quality results as well.

7. Work with others to turn competition into collaboration:
Try to learn from someone achieving more than you. Maybe they could mentor you. In that way, competition melds into collaboration, and then you and your company will see the benefits.

Source: SiliconIndia

Keep your ego in check ...

Source: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-08-09/news/29867341_1_ego-success-workplace

Many of us spend a majority of our time at the workplace and are in constant touch with our colleagues, bosses and others. In a demanding and competitive work environment, tempers can rise and small issues blown out of proportion.
When ego problems crop up at our place of work, we cannot focus on the task at hand, and this could disrupt the entire functioning of an organisation. Moresha Benjamin lists simple steps that one can follow at the workplace to prevent ego-related tussles.

Be A Team Player
The first thing to remember is that the success of any project we undertake involves team work. In many cases, one see's projects getting delayed because of ego hassles among team members. This can be very detrimental to an organisation. "The successful completion of a project should be your only focus.
Playing the game of one-upmanship or making someone look bad will benefit no one. Sink your differences and learn to be a team player. This is a key component of keeping your ego in check," says Meenakshi Roy, vice president, human resources, Reliance Broadcast Network.

Reflect On Performance
Take time out to reflect on your professional life regularly, but be honest with yourself while doing so. While it is necessary to be proud of your achievements, don't let it inflate your ego. At the same time, be honest with yourself if things go wrong in an assignment you are handling due to a mistake you have made.
"It is a good lesson for anyone who has earned success, and he needs to remind himself that success is earned and not bestowed," says Sridhar Maturi, head, HR relations, Mahindra Satyam.

Don't Get Obsessed
Most of these opinions do not matter. Rather focus on relationships and opinions of people with who you share mutual respect and friendship. This will enhance efficiency and guide your ego in the right direction, says Anuraag Maini, executive VP, HR and training, with DLF Pramerica Life Insurance.

Ask For Help
Even if you're an extremely experienced professional in your chosen field, you may not be aware of certain developments. "Do not let your ego come in the way of asking a junior colleague for help. Some of the most successful businessmen in the world openly admit to hiring people who are better than they are, when asked about the secret of their organisation's success," says Roy.

Be Humble
Hard work, single-minded focus and sincerity can make you a successful professional, adds Maini. But always be humble about your achievements. Ego affirms one's ability to take charge and keeping a check on it is critical to developing strong organisations, which can achieve sustainable results, says Maturi.

One page from a S/W Engg diary ...

I got this as an e-mail. It felt so true and real that I have posted here...

My feet were getting numb. My arms were getting tired. But I sat there, looking at the monitor, pretending to work. What if I slept off on the keyboard? What would people around me think? Am I not competitive enough. Would another night out hurt. "No it won't." I consoled myself. "Work a little more." I told myself. Images of links between tables and pages from what we call, ETRMs crossed my mind. "Why?" I asked myself. "Why doesn't my mind wander away to the more beautiful things in life?" "Why does it always have to be WORK!!!?"

That was it. I couldn't take it anymore. I pressed the shutdown button on the PC as if to say, "I hate you". As if in reply, it took me twice to shut it down. I kicked my locker and walked out of my cubicle. The security at the reception looked into my eyes sympathetically. I pretended like I am solving problems in my head. As if the world depended on my silly program. As if to justify the fact that the Security needs to respect me. I hated myself. I walked down the corridor towards the lift.

There I was, on the fifth floor. It was 3.30 in the morning. The terrace looked deserted. I loved the feeling. I was all alone. Just me, and the sky and the stars and the early morning breeze. I looked all around. The world looked much beautiful. Somewhere, far away, I could see lights. I presume that must have been another workplace where people like me are working away at their PCs.

I stood at the edge of the terrace. As I looked at the road that ran in front of our office, I slowly kept my palm on the wall. A chill ran down my spine. Tiny droplets of water had formed on the wall, which I touched. I wanted to feel it again. I touched it again. It was the most wonderful feeling. I wondered why I don't do these things often.

I decided to stay there till sunrise. I closed my eyes and waited. Finally, I could see a faint light in the east. Even though we hardly notice, these things do happen. Like sunrise and stuff. I saw the sun rise. As he rose I could see more and more buildings like ours. The breeze had got much stronger. It was like sitting near the window seat of a bus that was moving through some lonely road near a lush paddy field. I got that taste in the air. I got the feel. It was like heaven had met earth.

In the cubicle, I congratulate someone when his SELECT statement works. There I was, all alone, on the terrace, when more important things were happening and I had no one to congratulate. I wanted to cry "Thank you God". "Thank you for giving me this beautiful world to live in." But... the words wouldn't come out. I felt guilty. I knew very well that I would go back in the cubicle once my emotions wore off.

"No" I said. "I am NOT going back there again." I ran down the stairs. I wanted the glass that covers our reception to break and let some of this air in. I rushed into my cubicle and got my bag and stuff. Running out, I did not bother to sign the register. Strangely, my vehicle started with just one kick. I rode my bike quite fast, just to feel the air on my face.

When I reached the road, I realized that I was late. Considering the fact that I was in office since yesterday, I was really really late. The world had moved on. People had spent another night with their families. Kids had spent another day studying for exams. Old folks had spent another night wondering when to dye their hair. Teenagers had spent another night dreaming about their loved ones.

There I was, like a machine coming out of my office building. I saw people taking their morning walks. Some of them jogging. Some of them standing and talking. Some old aunties jogging and talking and laughing, all at the same time. There were newspaper-boys, milk- vendors and what not.

I started feeling out of place. "Was I from another planet or something?" I thought. I was dreaming I guess, a milk-vendor chap on his bicycle nearly hit my bike. "Idiot" I said. Didn't he know I am going home after a tough day? Didn't he know that I am tired, and do not have the energy for such crap? "Wait a minute," I told myself. "Are you doing somebody a favor by staying in the office so long?" "Will this world be a better place if you do that?" "Do you have it in you to buy one meal for that milk-vendor's family?"

YOU CAN'T!!! And that's the truth. You can't do anything except writing pieces of code, which you regard as full of life for reasons known best to you. I broke into tears thinking about my own plight. I hated the fact that I existed. Why was I going through this entire trauma? What was holding me here? The money?. The passion to program?. The feeling that I would be isolated if I didn't work?. I don't know. I am still searching for the answers.

Then, suddenly out of nowhere, images of my family came into my mind. My dad, who had taken care of the family since I remember him. In fact, since I remember anything. My mom who would not have slept even a little bit, since I have not reached home. "I am not alone" I shouted. "I have this beautiful world to live in, with beautiful people in it".

Friends, do go out sometimes. Share your life with the people you love the most. Share your life with the nature. Share it with the wind. Share it with the sun. Share it with the rain. Things much much more important than programming is happening out there. But it won't come for you, you have to go out and find it.

Leader ...

A leader is the one who:
- Makes the team add up to more than the sum of the parts
- Has vision and communicates to inspire
- Manages team climate
- Is trusted and respected
- Backs the team at all times
- Is approachable and understands the team
- Empowers the team, creates more leaders
- Takes them to places they have never been before
- Is open, flexible, honest and a hear-a-holic
- Is positive, optimistic
- Is courageous in decision-making, always works in the interest of the team
- Is secure, willing to surround himself with people better than himself
- Can accept responsibility and give credit
- Serves as team glue

Source: "The Winning Way" - by Anita and Harsha Bhogle

Team player ...

A team player is the one:
- Who has a ‘greater-than-me’ perspective
- Who puts more into the team pot than he takes out
- Who is willing to give up the ‘me’ for the ‘we’
- Who is willing to pass the ball especially when the other guy is in a better position to score
- Who is willing to play in whatever position the team requires him to
- Who gives 100 percent, everytime, under all circumstances
- Who plays by the team rules
- Who is encouraging and is happy to see teammates do well
- Who is proud of belonging to his team
- Who is unafraid to express his opinions

Source: "The Winning Way" - by Anita and Harsha Bhogle

Symptoms of Losing Teams ...

- Bureaucratic; delaying decisions
- Egos, internal competition, groupism
- Getting credit more important than getting the job done
- Lack of focus, energies spread thin
- Not enough back-up plans
- The same few people perform, no new people or ideas
- Too many or too few processes
- Crab mentality
- Blaming others or the environment for failure
- Weighed down by past failure

Source: "The Winning Way" - by Anita and Harsha Bhogle

Managing Success ...

- Success must be analyzed with the same rigour as failure
- Success is in the context of time, space and scale
- Keep what still works and discard the rest
- Managing success is as difficult as achieving it
- Winning comes with side-effects: ego, over-confidence, complacence
- ‘The Disease of Me’ can lead to ‘The Defeat of Us’
- Chronic winners need to guard against satisfactory underperformance
- Adversity separates champions from challengers

Source: "The Winning Way" - by Anita and Harsha Bhogle

Goals...

- Goals are dreams with deadlines
- Goals can be out of reach, but not out of sight
- The goals you set tell the world what kind of person you are
- What you achieve is a function of what you think you can
- As players become bigger, their goals become more precise
- Performance goals make you focus on the variables that can be controlled
- Individual goals must always be aligned with team goals
- Setting up a goal is important as scoring a goal
- Clarity of the role and goal is critical to winning

Source: "The Winning Way" - by Anita and Harsha Bhogle

Symptoms of Winning Teams ...

- Band of boys atmosphere, happy and relaxed
- Ability to pass the ball
- Living in the present, planning for the future
- Carrying everyone along – backing up underperformers
- A ‘can do’ approach
- Common shared vision
- Strong personal goals yet subordinate to team goals
- Focusing on competition, not internal differences
- Non-negotiable work ethic
- Bringing in new people, ideas to prevent staleness
- Nurturing or culling at the right moment
- Hunger, passion, energy

Source: "The Winning Way" - by Anita and Harsha Bhogle

His name is 'Today' ...

We are guilty of many errors and many faults,
But our worst crime is abandoning the children,
Neglecting the fountain of life.

Many things we need can wait
But the child cannot.

Right now is the time;
His bones are being formed,
His senses are being developed
His blood is being made...

To him, we cannot answer, “Tomorrow”,
His name is “Today”.

Traits of an Efficient Manager ...

In today's business world, an efficient manager can be rarely found. An efficient manager is the one who helps to run a business or an organization smoothly and effectively. He is like a captain of the ship who is responsible for the proper guidance of the other team members.
The following are the top five traits of an efficient manager.

Enthusiasm
A manager should be full of enthusiasm and have a positive attitude. Enthusiastic managers are more committed towards their work. They inspire the other team members to be optimistic for achieving a certain goal in the business organization. Managers with enthusiasm have a ‘can do’ attitude; they don't give several reasons for not being able to handle a project.

Communicates Consistently, Clearly, Concisely
An efficient manager should know the art of proper communication. A manager without proper communication skill communicates too infrequently. Therefore they fail to develop confidence between the team members. An efficient manager communicates regularly, clearly and concisely; thereby giving better direction to the team members or in finding a solution to a problem.

Needs to have a sense of humor
An efficient manager should know the art of being humoristic. A bit of laughter or wit can take him to a long way. Although controlling the work of a business or an organization is a serious task one cannot be an efficient leader without having good sense of humor.

Cool Under Pressure
In a business organization, projects are demanded to be delivered on time and under budget without major problems or obstacle. But projects do have problems as everything around does not work perfectly. Efficient managers consider the major problems interesting. They keep the problems aside and coolly tackle the problems as a great opportunity to prove their managing skills.

Truly Humble
This is one of the most important characteristic of an efficient manager. Managers, who are truly humble with a good character, influence people to work with them. Nobody wants to work with a selfish or a self obsessed person.

Courtesy: SiliconIndia

Men vs. Women Manager

Managing a team is not an easy task and it needs lot of hard work, patience, management skills. They are the persons responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of individuals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective action when necessary.

Men and women managers have different traits to lead a team. As they are polls apart, they use different ways to manage a team. But who can be a better manager that is a debatable topic. Many people have different views on working under men and women managers. Have you ever found managers of one gender to be easier or more difficult to work with?

Here are some characteristics that men and women managers have:

Behavioral differences
Men and women mangers differ in their behavior towards their employee. They have different leadership style to handle a team. Men managers are mostly task oriented. They give command and try to control their team with their power. Moreover they are more into punishment oriented, for e.g. if any of their employee made any mistake they are ready to punish them rather making them understand the problem. They are more practical towards work life.
However women managers are vulnerable to office politics. Moreover emotion takes a very important part in their life and sometime it comes between them and their work life. But they can understand the problem of their employees well and are ready to sort it out.

Different ways to dealing a team
Men managers lack sensitiveness; with the managerial power they try to dominant their subordinate. But women have the sensitiveness in them and they believe in proper communication with their team. They use smoother way to express work-related demands and needs. Women managers empathize with their employees and give them task that they are good at. This positive act make the employees perform better and faster.

Balancing professional and personal life
Women can play the role of mother, wife and a professional. They play a versatile role between their work and personal life. They can balance both their personal life and professional. They have the quality of nurturing and understanding of people. They can manage well in their work and life stress situations. However men need not balance everything as there are always women who take care of their home. Men tend to burst out their problem at office if they have any personal issues.

Courtesy: SiliconIndia

Time to Quit !!! (The pink-slip)

If you are among the talented ones in your office and is supposedly getting more attention than your Boss then you should be seeing a pink slip coming your way anytime. There are some good hard working employees, but sometimes their attitude or personality does not take them far in a workplace. But we have another set of employees who are exceptional and are determined to go beyond their bosses, which will end them up in making more enemies than friends. Employees who show up for work, do their duties very well, and their overall job is betted good then it is difficult for Managers, supervisors and corporate figureheads to put employees on probation or fire them if they have done nothing wrong to warrant such actions.
But how will you know that your boss wants to secretly get over you? What might be some signs that a boss gives out when he wants to get rid of his potential threat? Here are a few:

Concentrates on you for no reason:
If you have a your boss checking your minute to minute work, keeping a watch on when you come and leave office, checks who are on your chat list and who you are chit chatting with; then you will have to gear up as he is determined to point your errors more than once. Whether big or small, making you feel guilty is what matters and he will keep repeating it until you turn out humble in your attitude or either get frustrated and leave the job. Either way a boss may reason that he or she won't have to put the person on probation and cause him or her possible feelings of resentment or fire this person. Whatever happens, the boss just wants the potential "problem" to go away.

Insults you in front of others:
Pointing out errors will never be a private affair when a boss wants to get rid of a potential employee. He always makes sure that, people in the organization get to know your mistakes and how incapable you are of handling the job. Your confidence tends to weaken when you are insulted in front of your colleagues and friends. However, if the employee has noticed an increase in negative statements, this is a clear sign that there is something about the employee that bothers him or her.

Deploys spies who report back to him about your actions:
So how long was she in office? Did he complete the work that I had given him? Was she chatting with a person from the other department? Were they on time for work this week? Where did they go after the meeting? These are few of the questions that your boss will shoot at your spies so that he can build a very strong file against you. Records your daily actions to show how viable are you to be fired.

Ignores you and does not expect any feedback from you:
Your boss calls you for a meeting, tells you what to do and then the meeting is adjourned. Now this may not have been happening before. However, if these are some sign that your boss portrays then you need to understand that he no longer cares for your inputs.

Offers lesser responsibility:
One fine morning you come to office and you find out that you are stripped of your responsibilities and maybe your team is divided without your knowledge. Then it is a sure sign that there is something unpleasant on the horizon. After all, your boss cannot fire a person who's got a ton of important work to do, with many people underneath you. So over time, he will reduce the work given to you, reduce the people under you and eventually a new job title of which you have no clue about. Eventually you will have a hard time finding anything of real value to do all day.

Gives you impossible tasks that cannot be achieved:
If your boss cannot bend your attitude then he will pin you up with an impossible task that cannot be achieved by you, at least something that cannot be achieved in the near future. Trying to prove him wrong, you end pushing yourself harder and the people around you. This could lead to a level where you get irritated, frustrated and leads you to quitting.

Are you longer in the information loop?:
You go on a business trip and when you come back, your whole working system is changed. After a day at office you realize that you were not informed about any of these changes and all that you have to do is adopt yourself to the new system. This is a huge telltale sign. Suddenly you're finding out about company news from the cleaning lady or the new girl in accounting. If you were formally in the know about all things business related, but now suffer from "the company's doing what??!" disease, the writing is probably on the wall.

Uses psychological warfare on you:
Mental peace is very important at workplace and a psychological warfare by boss will just wipe out all the tranquility you had in your job. He will make you work overtime, disturb when you are on vacation, blow up things out of proportion and keep picking on you for silly problems. All of these sneaky ways are designed to stress the employee so much that it will make you start posting those resumes of yours to other employers.

Encourages you find job elsewhere:
Sometimes your bosses can be quite bold, especially after a disagreement, and say something like, "Well, if you are not happy here, why don't you just find another job?". It is a clear sign that he no longer wants you around him. Although you need to pay attention as to know how the suggestion was made since the last disagreement. If your boss is repeatedly reminding you of finding a new job then it is a complete red flag.

Impossible to get an idea approved:
Think back. A long time ago, people would give a green light for your projects faster than the traffic signals. But that's no longer the case. The boss is suddenly silent when it comes to approval. You're being passed around for middle-manager to middle-manager. The silent treatment is a sure sign of pink-slip disease.

Courtesy: SiliconIndia

Do first-time managers ruin your career?

Being a manager excites many - it gives the wings to dream big, but the language of responsibility and power injects nervousness to their nerves that might kill the careers of many subordinates. There are many reasons for the new managers failing to lead a team and the most important one is lack of training. It was revealed in a recent survey that more than 50 percent of managers received no training before starting the job. Most of the new managers get it wrong as they are not properly guided on their new roles and they recite the common myths and misperceptions that lead them to mistakes. Here are some of the most common mistakes by new managers that would ruin the career of many.

The Wrong Sense of Authority
Yes it's true that the chair of the manager is built of power and authority; however, many often forget that the chair is the citadel of respect to all - the subordinates, bosses, and friends. The other side of the coin is that many new managers feel very constrained in the new role as the load of responsibilities shrinks their freedom. Their expectation of wielding the designated power often vanishes once they climb into manager's chair. These wrong ideas of being a manager lead them to mistakes in dealing with the team members and the execution of plans often meets with troubles, which ultimately make the life of his subordinates miserable.

Never-Ending Changes
They say change is good, but their teammates say, not the unnecessary ones. The lack of experience in leading a team makes them jitter at the execution phase. It's when the new managers change their plans too often to meet the unexpected situations. Changing the routines and procedures without notification or adequate discussion lowers the employee morale. Sometimes the manager's excitement about a new change kills the interest of his subordinates as the change may not be needed or would invite unwanted results.

Hesitancy to Give and Receive Immediate Feedbacks
It takes one to be highly professional to give and receive feedbacks on time. The failure of managers to give apt, timely feedbacks to their team members closes the doors of growth before them. A harsh feedback can kill the employee morale too. Many develop an attitude of "I have all the answers" which makes it hard for them to solicit the feedbacks from subordinates. The stories of managers going after people who give feedback, that are meant to be positive, are often heard in the corporate world.

Focus Only on Tasks Not on People
New managers tend to live their previous routines where their sole focus was to accomplish the given tasks. However, they fail to realize that developing interpersonal relationship is an integral quality of leaders. The ideal motto of a manager is to help his subordinates to accomplish the tasks in an outstanding way and not just to focus on the budgets, reports or planning. The career of subordinates depends on the managers, and the inexperienced managers tend to make things very complex which will make life hard of the teammates. They fail to become the people managers, but rather become just task managers without realizing the needs of their subordinates.

Sets Intangible Goals
The excitement of being manager fills in ambitious aims which lead them to set targets that are unattainable and intangible. It obviously increases the work pressure that may leave the team members with no options but to call it a quit. Such targets kill the self-esteem and morale of the employees as they can never meet the deadlines. Making such a negative motivational effect on employees can be the worst thing a new manager can make.

Courtesy : SiliconIndia

The Bronze Rat ...

An Indian tourist walks into a curio shop in San Francisco. Looking around at the exotica, he notices a very life like, life-sized bronze statue of a rat. It has no price tag, but is so striking he decides he must have it.

He takes it to the owner: "How much for the bronze rat?"

"Twelve dollars for the rat, one hundred dollars for the Story," says the owner.

The tourist gives the man twelve dollars. "I'll just take the rat, you can keep the story."

As he walks down the street carrying his bronze rat, he notices that a few real rats crawl out of the alleys and sewers and begin following him down the street. This is disconcerting; he begins walking faster. But within a couple blocks, the herd of rats behind him grows to hundreds, and they begin squealing. He begins to trot toward the bay, looking around to see that the rats now numbered in the MILLIONS, and are still squealing and coming toward him faster and faster. Concerned, even scared, he runs to the edge of the bay and throws the bronze rat as far out into the bay as he can. Amazingly, the millions of rats all jump into the bay after it, and are all drowned.

The man walks back to the curio shop. "Ah ha," says the owner, "You have come back for the story?"
"No," says the man, "I came back to see if you have a statue of an Indian politician in bronze!!"

3 Idiots ...

Chehre ki hasi se har gham chupao,
Bahut kuch bolo par kuch na batao...
Khud na rutho kabhi, par sabko manao
Yeh raaz hai zindagi ka, bas jite chale jao !!!

Is rang badalti duniya mein ...

Is rang badalti duniya mein
Insaan ki niyat theek nahi
Nikala naa karo tum saj dhajkar
Imaan ki niyat theek nahi

Is rang badalti duniya mein
Insaan ki niyat theek nahi
Nikala naa karo tum saj dhajkar
Imaan ki niyat theek nahi

Yeh dil hain badaa hee diwaanaa
Chhedaa na karo is paagal ko
Yeh dil hain badaa hee diwaanaa
Chheda na karo is paagal ko
Tum se na shararat kar baithe
Nadan kee niyat theek nahi

Is rang badalti duniya mein
Insaan ki niyat theek nahi
Nikalaa naa karo tum saj dhajkar
Imaan ki niyat theek nahi

Kaandhe se hata lo sar apana
Yeh pyaar mohabbat rahane do
Kaandhe se hata lo sar apana
Yeh pyaar mohabbat rahane do
Kashti ko sambhaalo maujon se
Toofaan kee niyat theek nahi

Is rang badalti duniya mein
Insaan ki niyat theek nahi
Nikalaa naa karo tum saj dhajkar
Imaan ki niyat theek nahi
Is rang badalti duniya mein

Main kaise khuda hafij kah doo
Mujhko to kisi kaa yakin nahi
Main kaise khuda hafij kah doo
Mujhko to kisi kaa yakin nahi
Chup jaao humari aankhon me
Bhagawan kee niyat theek nahi

Is rang badalti duniya mein
Insaan ki niyat theek nahi
Nikalaa naa karo tum saj dhajkar
Imaan ki niyat theek nahi
Is rang badalti duniya mein

Forget Not...

Forget about the days
when it’s been cloudy, but
don’t forget your hours in the sun

Forget about mistakes
that you can't change now, but
don't forget the lessons that you've learned

Forget about the times
you've been defeated, but
don't forget the victories you've won

Forget about misfortunes
you encounter, but
don't forget the times your luck has turned

Forget about the days
when you've been lonely, but
don't forget the friendly smiles you've seen

Forget about the plans
that didn't seem to work out right, but...
Don't forget to Always Have A Dream

TEN MUCH

“Ten Much” is about 10 ordinary processes for extraordinary people. Here are they:
Process 1: Dream. Dream big…
Process 2: Become the Master of Your Trade
Process 3: Be Positive
Process 4: I Can Do It
Process 5: Money is a By-product
Process 6: Hold on to Your Dreams
Process 7: Bet on Your Team
Process 8: Welcome Challenges
Process 9: Everyone Should Prosper
Process 10: It’s Just One Life

Willingness to bet on your team is perhaps the simplest way to win the lifelong loyalty of your people... and let the world know that you possess one of the rarest of all leadership qualities – the ability to inspire unshakeable loyalty, a precious asset in today’s dog-eat-dog world. The reasoning is simple; when trust is placed in a person to handle a job, he will try everything in his power to reassure you that you made the right decision by putting him in charge. But yes, a lot of courage is required for you to bet on your people. It is not easy. The stakes are tremendous and it requires that you expect mistakes to be made, sometimes costly ones, but it is mandatory not to give up your faith in the people you put in charge. In fact, this will strengthen their belief in you and double their resolve to perform even better.

Greatest wonder in the world - Man, despite the fact that he witnesses the death and dying of mankind and all other living creatures almost on a daily basis, still considers himself as permanent knowing full well that he too will be gone one day.

Delegation is not just dumping work - It is choosing a person as your partner to handle a portion of work that you would have executed if you had the time.

When you want something very badly, the Universe conspires to make it come true. It actually nudges you in the right direction, so you can realize your dream. But you have to hold on fast and not change your mind half-way. That is the only condition. It is almost as if the minute you realize you want something badly, there are many people who immediately want to ensure that you don't get it! So the only passport to your dreams is your tenacity. So don't give up hope. Don't get fed up. Hold on. Till the day it becomes yours. And when it does, you will realize that the Universe was just waiting for you to be perfectly ready to enjoy it fully...

... Eyes never beheld the sea so angry, so high, so covered with foam. The wind not only prevented our progress... we were forced to keep out in this bloody ocean, seething like a pot on a hot fire. Never did the sky look more terrible; for one whole day and night it blazed like a furnace, and the lightning broke with such violence.. ...the flashes came with such fury and frightfulness that we all thought that the ship would be blasted. All this time the water never ceased to fall from the sky; I do not say it rained, for it was like another deluge. The men were so worn out that they longed for death to end their dreadful suffering.

Desire, when it stems from the heart, and spirit, when it is pure and intense, possesses awesome electromagnetic energy. This energy is released into the ether each night, as the mind falls into the sleep. Each morning it returns to the conscious state reinforced with the cosmic currents. That which has been imagined will surely and certainly be manifested. You can rely on this young man, upon this ageless promise as you can rely upon the eternally unbroken promise of sunrise and of spring.

Happy Birthday 2011

Jai Ganesh ...

Wonderful Paintings ....

Get along better ...

1. Before you say anything to anyone, ask yourself 3 things: a. Is it true? b. Is it kind? c. Is it necessary?
2. Make promises sparingly and keep them faithfully.
3. Never miss the opportunity to compliment or say something encouraging to someone.
4. Refuse to talk negatively about others; don't gossip and don't listen to gossip.
5. Have a forgiving view of people. Believe that most people are doing the best they can.
6. Keep an open mind; discuss, but don't argue. (It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable.)
7. Forget about counting to 10. Count to 1,000 before doing or saying anything that could make matters worse.
8. Let your virtues speak for themselves.
9. If someone criticizes you, see if there is any TRUTH to what he is saying; if so, make changes. If there is no truth to the criticism, ignore it and live so that no one will believe the negative remark.
10. Cultivate your sense of humour; laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
11. Do not seek so much to be consoled, as to console; do not seek so much to be understood, as to understand; do not seek so much to be loved as to love.

A beautiful moment ...

@ Santa Cruz Beach, CA (30th April, 2011)

Why should we read "Bhagavad Gita" ?

An old farmer lived in a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavad Gita. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could. One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagavad Gita just like you, but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagavad Gita do?"

The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water."

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You'll have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.

This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house.

The boy again dipped the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!" "So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket." The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.

"Son, that's what happens when you read the Bhagavad Gita. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Krishna in our lives."

Happy Easter

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

The Right Yardstick

This past year I was diagnosed with cancer and faced the possibility that my life would end sooner than I’d planned. Thankfully, it now looks as if I’ll be spared. But the experience has given me important insight into my life.

I have a pretty clear idea of how my ideas have generated enormous revenue for companies that have used my research; I know I’ve had a substantial impact. But as I’ve confronted this disease, it’s been interesting to see how unimportant that impact is to me now. I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched.

I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.

- Clayton Christianson

Personal Calling ...

There are 4 obstacles. First: we are told from childhood onwards that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it’s still there.

If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know that we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey. Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight out dream suffer far more when it doesn’t work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.

Defeats happen, even if they are necessary or not. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.

So, why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people?

Because, once we have overcome the defeats - and we always do – we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives.

Having disinterred our dream, having used the power of love to nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives.

Oscar Wilde said: “Each man kills the thing he loves.” And it’s true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want and feel that we do not deserve to get that we want either. We forget about the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give up in order to get this far. There are a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal – when it was only a step away.

This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe in yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.

- Paulo Coelho

Happy People ...

Why walk when you can fly?

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons from Arabia. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.

Months passed and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.

The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, "May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem." So he cried out to his court, "Go and get a farmer."

In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, "Bring me the doer of this miracle."

The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?"

With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, "It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting."

We are all made to fly -- to realize our incredible potential as human beings. But instead of doing that, we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless, but for most of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the comfortable, the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling… So let us learn to destroy the branch of fear we cling to and free ourselves to the glory of flight !!!!!!!

Confused Nation !!!

There is a lot of truth in this but there isn't enough of this being expressed to the young & impressionable... most of our young from middle class & lower middle class backgrounds aren't ever asked to think that this is wrong... so what values can they grow up with... they will emulate the corruption (in all senses of the word) that they see around them.

* Where a policeman kills a leopard that is actually attacking a villager, and instead of being felicitated he is booked for the crime of saving a human being at the insistence of some Wildlife Organizations.!

* A nation where Rice is Rs.40/- per kg and SIM Card is free.

* Where a pizza you have ordered reaches home faster than an ambulance or police, even if you were being murdered or having a heart attack!

* Where a car loan is charged at 5% but an education loan, so necessary for our youth is charged an interest of 12%!

* A nation where students with 45% get into elite institutions through the quota system and those with 90% are sent away because of merit.

* Where a millionaire buys a cricket team, spending crores instead of donating the money to any charity; where two IPL teams were auctioned at 3300 crores, yet still a poor country where people starve for two square meals per day.

* A country where footwear is sold in AC showrooms, but the vegetables we eat, are sold on the footpath and very often next to garbage dumps!

* Where everybody wants to be famous, not by doing good for others, but by looting others and finally getting their names in the newspapers through some scam or other!

* It’s a strange nation we live in, where assembly complex buildings get ready within a year while public bridges, flyovers and sea links take several years even to get off the drawing board and another decade to be completed.

* We are a nation where two brothers fight with each other for the nation’s spoils, but the nation doesn’t know that the two of them are cleverly looting the nation while we watch their mock battles. * We have malls, and sky-rises, with slums forming their boundary wall.

* A country where men and women squat on railway tracks, with nowhere else to go while watching them from windows, are couples with three bathrooms and one for the guests.

* A country where politicians who are supposed to serve the people accept money from the same people they are supposed to serve, and then take a salary from the government for their services to the people!

* We are a nation where we talk in hushed whispers about the corruption in the country and then dig into our pockets to bribe a cop when we are caught cutting a red light. Think about it; we are a confused nation, aren’t we?

WC 2011

I Met You...

Happy New Year 2011