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"

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

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.

Improve your life (The Last Lecture)

Personality:
1. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
2. Don't have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment
3. Don't over do; keep your limits
4. Don't take yourself so seriously; no one else does
5. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip
6. Dream more while you are awake
7. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
8. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner of his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
9. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
10. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present
11. No one is in charge of your happiness except you
12. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.
Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
13. Smile and laugh more
14. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Community:
15. Call your family often
16. Each day give something good to others
17. Forgive everyone for everything
18. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6
19. Try to make at least three people smile each day
20. What other people think of you is none of your business
21. Your job will not take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
22. Put GOD first in anything and everything that you think, say and do.
23. GOD heals everything
24. Do the right things
25. However good or bad a situation is, it will change
26. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up
27. The best is yet to come
28. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful
29. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it
30. If you know GOD you will always be happy. So, be happy.

The SECRET LAWs of MANAGEMENT

1. People tolerate being managed, but they love being led
2. Deadlines often backfire
3. People don’t say NO to interruptions often enough
4. People don’t hit invisible targets, unless by accident
5. People don’t cope with more than seven concurrent objectives
6. 1 employee + 2 managers = half the output
7. Good managers are occasionally unpopular
8. People are outrageously optimistic when they estimate time
9. Inertia sets in after only fifteen minutes
10. People hate change and change happens
11. People value praise above money
12. Mangers tend to flog their willing horses to exhaustion
13. People easily become addicted to being a firefighter
14. Attention seekers never change
15. People prefer to leave the nasty jobs until last
16. People want to be given their work in one of only four ways
17. Productivity is a natural trait
18. People are easily tricked into thinking that urgent equals important
19. Most people hate being organized
20. Managers tend to give the worst tasks to their best people
21. Some unintelligent people are a great asset, but others are dangerous
22. Some lazy people are a great asset, but others must go
23. Most people say NO in code
24. Work expands to fill the time available
25. People tend to do thing at the accepted time, which is often not the effective time
26. When leaders don’t create the culture they want, they get a culture that they definitely don’t want
27. When the managers lacks self-discipline, people don’t try
28. All bullies eventually suffer their just rewards
29. The team does not judge you by your best or worst performances
30. The team believe what they see over what you say
31. Listening to personal stuff can backfire
32. There is often an unfair time delay between effort and reward
33. Most people resist planning
34. Teams rarely achieve things when they believe they can’t
35. Team goals + team desire = team results
36. Few people think, really think
37. Energy levels rise and fall with expectations
38. People don’t get out of bed to achieve your goals
39. There are nine common de-motivators
40. Many managers don’t truly want to be the boss

Love your Life!

When most people reach the twilights of their lives, they will tell you it's not about having a bigger house or better job, or about the car they drove or the clothes they wore. They will tell you it was all about investing in themselves and their relationships with other people. How many times have we heard people say with regret, "If only I would have taken better care of myself.... if only I would have have spent more time with my family and the people I love." That does not have to be you. Loving your life is being willing to make changes, to let go of old ways and unhealthy habits so that you can be the best you can be. It's about having the right perspective and understanding the value of who you are and what you have.

It's learning to love others and learning to love yourself so that you can get more out of your relationships. It's about recognizing the gifts that God has given to you and making the most of these gifts.

Ultimately, loving your life is about discovering the greatness that is inside of you and the influence you have on the world around you. You will be amazed at the impact you will have when you tap into those treasures within.

No matter where you are today, you have the potential to have better relationships, to increase in confidence, to overcome obstacles, and to celebrate the life God has given you. Perhaps some unfair things have happened in your past, but those things don't define you and they don't determine your future. It's not what happens to you that matters most, it's what happens in you. You don't have to let your experiences draw confidence from you; instead you can draw confidence from your experiences. Be encouraged today because there is no much more in you that is waiting to be discovered. There are new options for your future, and opportunities to be recovered. Now is the time to leave the past behind and make room to embrace the destiny that lies ahead for you...

Facts about India ...

Surprise! Today I was browsing through the books in the nearest book store here in Milpitas, CA, USA and came across a book which looked interesting and I grabbed the book; mainly because of its low price and eye-catching title. The title of the book goes as "WHY we want YOU to be RICH". Back to my hotel room, when I flipped through the book, I rested on page-57 and on one line which read as, "India is important to our future" ! I was surprised to see that line in a book written by DONALD TRUMP and ROBERT KIYOSAKI. Being curious, when I just glanced on the previous page, it listed few facts about India and I am proud to list those points here for the readers of this post:

1. India is the world's largest, oldest continuous civilization.
2. In the last 10,000 years, India has never invaded any country.
3. India is the world's largest democracy.
4. India is one of the few countries in the world that gained independence without violence.
5. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 6,000 years ago.
6. Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages.
7. India was the richest country on earth until the 17th Century, when the British invaded.
8. Chess was invented in India.
9. India invented the number system. Albert Einstein said, "We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made."
10. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus originated in India.
11. The value of "pi" was first calculated by the mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Phythorean Theorem. He discovered it in the 6th Century, which was long before European mathematicians.
12. India is the largest English-speaking nation in the world.

Now, are you proud to be an Indian? I do... [:)]

Who will cry when you die ?

"When you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries while you rejoice."

1. Discover Your Calling
2. Every Day, Be Kind to a Stranger
3. Maintain Your Perspective
4. Practice Tough Love
5. Keep a Journal
6. Develop an Honesty Philosophy
7. Honor Your Past
8. Start Your Day Well
9. Learn to Say No Gracefully
10. Take a Weekly Sabbatical
11. Talk to Yourself
12. Schedule Worry Breaks
13. Model a Child
14. Remember, Genius Is 99 Percent Inspiration
15. Care for the Temple
16. Learn to Be Silent
17. Think About Your Ideal Neighborhood
18. Get Up Early
19. See Your Troubles as Blessings
20. Laugh More
21. Spend a Day Without Your Watch
22. Take More Risks
23. Live a Life
24. Learn from a Good Movie
25. Bless Your Money
26. Focus on the Worthy
27. Write Thank-You Notes
28. Always Carry a Book with You
29. Create a Love Account
30. Get Behind People’s Eyeballs
31. List Your Problems
32. Practice the Action Habit
33. See Your Children as Gifts
34. Enjoy the Path, Not Just the Reward
35. Remember That Awareness Precedes Change
36. Read Tuesdays With Morrie
37. Master Your Time
38. Keep Your Cool
39. Recruit a Board of Directors
40. Cure Your Monkey Mind
41. Get Good at Asking
42. Look for the Higher Meaning of Your Work
43. Build a Library of Heroic Books
44. Develop Your Talents
45. Connect with Nature
46. Use Your Commute Time
47. Go on a News Fast
48. Get Serious About Setting Goals
49. Remember the Rule of 21
50. Practice Forgiveness
51. Drink Fresh Fruit Juice
52. Create a Pure Environment
53. Walk in the Woods
54. Get a Coach
55. Take a Mini-Vacation
56. Become a Volunteer
57. Find Your Six Degrees of Separation
58. Listen to Music Daily
59. Write a Legacy Statement
60. Find Three Great Friends
61. Read The Artist’s Way
62. Learn to Meditate
63. Have a Living Funeral
64. Stop Complaining and Start Living
65. Increase Your Value
66. Be a Better Parent
67. Be Unorthodox
68. Carry a Goal Card
69. Be More than Your Moods
70. Savor the Simple Stuff
71. Stop Condemning
72. See Your Day as Your Life
73. Create a MasterMind Alliance
74. Create a Daily Code of Conduct
75. Imagine a Richer Reality
76. Become the CEO of Your Life
77. Be Humble
78. Don’t Finish Every Book You Start
79. Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself
80. Make a Vow of Silence
81. Don’t Pick Up the Phone Every Time It Rings
82. Remember That Recreation Must Involve Re-creation
83. Choose Worthy Opponents
84. Sleep Less
85. Have a Family Mealtime
86. Become an Imposter
87. Take a Public Speaking Course
88. Stop Thinking Tiny Thoughts
89. Don’t Worry About Things You Can’t Change
90. Learn How to Walk
91. Rewrite Your Life Story
92. Plant a Tree
93. Find Your Place of Peace
94. Take More Pictures
95. Be an Adventurer
96. Decompress Before You Go Home
97. Respect Your Instincts
98. Collect Quotes That Inspire You
99. Love Your Work
100. Selflessly Serve
101. Live Fully so You Can Die Happy

OOPS - I Fell In Love...

OOPS - I Fell In Love... is yet another Indian novel penned down by Harsh Snehanshu ... A good humorous love story to spend time with, it will keep you bounded till the last page, when you realize that it is not the end of the story, but just the beginning of the love story...

People say that love is pure, love is blind, love is fair, love is unfair, love enhances oneself or love spoils oneself; but I haven’t experienced anything! My feelings have not been changed nor am I. I am still the same guy who cries watching any romantic movie, who abuses the Indian bowlers if they are struck for boundaries, who spends useless hours on net just refreshing his scrapbook… but there is something that ensures an immense contentment inside me. I am not mad in love, but I love somebody madly.

It’s not that I am never sad or negativities don’t shoot me because I am in love… It’s not that I don’t give a damn to this world because I am in love… It’s not that I am not affected by the jeers of this world… but it’s just that I have a very very special person on this planet, after talking to whom all my pains are sublimated, I become abnormally rejuvenated and satisfied. My life has been touched to the core, and there is a big difference in me which only I can realize.

I am in love; ‘I’ am in love and ‘I’ love to be in love!

-- Harsh Snehanshu

Discover the Diamond in you ...

The 9 P’s of SUCCESS

1. PASSION – There is nothing more powerful than a human soul on fire. Nothing in life defines us more than how passionately we go about doing what we believe in. Follow your passion and everything will follow.

2. POSITIVE ENERGY – The higher the positive energy, the more our chances of achieving success. All your passion can go waste, if it is not backed up by a tremendous amount of positive energy.

3. PERFORMANCE – Insanity is continuing the same behaviour and expecting a different result. If you want things around you to change, you need to be that change agent. You have got to do something more than what you’ve always been doing. SUSTAINED SINCERITY: The two most important words that make an achiever!

4. PERSEVERANCE – “The only people who never fail are those who never try!” Success teaches us very little – it is failure that makes you think and work harder. Be prepared to fail, but have the perseverance to try again and again. Success will not be far behind.

5. PERSONALITY – LAW of personality stands for Looks, Actions and Words. In a leader, personality is more important than technical expertise. He has to have this ability to create an aura of dynamism around him and bring in so much good cheer and positive energy that it sets the right tone for the entire organization and has a strong, positive impact on group performance.

6. PEOPLE SKILLS – “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” You need to have the ability and knack of building a great team. The most important job of a leader is to find his replacement. Only then he can grow in life.

7. PERSPECTIVE – If you know where you are travelling to and what you want in life, everything else becomes clear, and your journey reaps the maximum rewards. The unfortunate reality in our lives is that often, because we lack perspective, we chose that path which gives us short-term returns, but it is harmful in the long run.

8. PRINCIPLES – Let there never be any doubt about what you stand for. Principles and ethics make a man stand tall in the long run.

9. PATRIOTISM – Patriotism makes your success live forever – it is the love for your country and for human beings anywhere in the world that makes a human diamond perfect!

The Greatness Guide 2

Another book from Robin Sharma on "Greatness". Name of the book is "The Greatness Guide 2 - 101 ways to reach the next level".

Following are the 101 points that he talks about:

1. Be the Best You - There will never be a better time to be the best you than today.

2. Invisible Fences - As we grow up, we adopt negative beliefs and false assumptions and sabotaging fears from the world around us. These become our Invisible Fences.

3. The Power of Simple – Success will come from simplicity.

4. Be So Good They Can’t Ignore you – Life is always fair in the end. Trust it.

5. The Success Expansion Principle – On the other side of every fear door lie gorgeous gifts.

6. Wear Shiny Shoes – The way you do little things says a lot about the way you will do the big things.

7. Listen Carefully – Every person you meet knows at least one thing you don’t; don’t let them leave without learning it.

8. Dream like David (Mejia) – You can curse the darkness, or you can light a candle and show up as a leader.

9. Do It Now – Why delay having a remarkably good time until you are old?

10. JBN (Just Be Nice) – Nice is what builds enduring businesses.

11. There Are No Mistakes – Everything that has happened to you in your life, the good and the difficult, was necessary to help you become the person you are now.

12. The Blank Slate of Tomorrow – It’s better to die standing than live your whole life on your knees.

13. Get Great at Gratitude – What you value in your life increases its value.

14. Take Charge Fast – Leadership occurs in moments of challenge, not during moments of ease.

15. Ideas Are Worthless if? – The world of ours is full of great thinkers who never realized their greatness. Nothing happens until you move.

16. Open Your Eyes – It’s easy to get caught up in the rush of busyness and the call of our routines that we forget the imperative of being aware of the very things we are doing.

17. Symbols of Glory – What tokens of excellence can you find that will quickly help you get back to your priorities when the crush of daily events clamors for your attention?

18. Be Unreasonable – The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Critics have always laughed at the visions of bold thinkers and remarkable visionaries. Ignore them.

19. Not All Leaders Are the Same – Everyone can show leadership behavior but that doesn’t mean everyone will lead the organization. Everyone really can be a leader and have a profound impact by standing for excellence within the area of their responsibility. But not everyone is the same.

20. I Learn from My Mistakes (Sometimes) – If you don’t try, you’ll never know.

21. Ask Powerful Questions – In business, remarkable performers are dazzlingly good at getting to the right question, the one that speeds them to the place they need to reach.

22. Be Breathtakingly Humble – Humility. An essential element in the creation of a beautiful legacy.

23. Be a Cool Brand – What would it take for you to become a cool brand, so that when people think of you, words like innovative or world class or unique infuse their minds.

24. Cherish Conflict – Conflict is nothing more than an opportunity for greater growth and a deeper connection.

25. The Responsibility Meter – Life is all about balance. And one of the most vital of all balance points is the one involving freedom and responsibility.

26. A Lust for Growth – Growth is the only evidence of life. We are here only because of that.

27. Credit Doesn’t Matter – You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you don’t mind who gets the credit.

28. The Brilliance of Acceptance – We all get hard days and mean seasons, from time to time. But days do get better and seasons always change.

29. Be a Beautiful Thinker – Commit to making each of your thoughts a thing of beauty.

30. Opinions Doesn’t Matter – Success isn’t a popularity contest.

31. Are You Jokeable? – When was the last time you allowed someone to make you laugh so hard tears streamed down your cheeks?

32. How to Get Power – The only way to truly get power is to give it away.

33. Habits Are Hip – What separates the best from the rest comes down to habits.

34. Find Perfect Moments – Life could always be better, but happiness is all about gaining a sense of promotion and perspective.

35. The Paradox of Praise – Giving praise to all those around you, when they most deserve it, makes you look like more. It elevates you. It makes you look like a hero.

36. Luck Versus Law – Good things happen to people who do good things. Do the right things and you cannot help but see the right results.

37. Camel’s Back Syndrome – Sustained failure happens as the consequence of small, daily acts of neglect that stacks up over time to lead to a blowup, and a breakdown.

38. Burn the Extra 1 Percent – The last 1 percent most people keep in reserve is the extra percent champions have the courage to burn.

39. Remember Reciprocity – It’s only human nature to want to help those who’ve helped us. Each of us has a deep-seated hunger to do unto others as they’ve done unto us.

40. Say What You Mean – It’s the people we love most that we take most for granted.

41. Richard Branson and Outrageous Optimism – Being the most optimistic person in the room will help you transcend the rest.

42. Beware of Victimspeak – No matter what life sends us, we are responsible for the way we respond.

43. I’m Stretching Too – Never let anyone tell you that your dreams can’t come true. Eventually someone’s going to do what you dream of doing. Why not you then?

44. Stop Trying So Hard – Life will always lead you to a place that’s better.

45. The Mirror Test – Ask yourself, “What one thing could I do today that if I did it, my professional and personal life would get to its NLG: Next Level of Greatness?”

46. Find Uncomfortable Friends – Why spend time with people at work who play at mediocre? Why have friends in your personal life who resign themselves to being ordinary?

47. Improve Where You Are – To get world class, it is absolutely essential to become an excellent innovator.

48. Pride In Parenting – Money us not the most important form of wealth.

49. The Hidden Machinery – Masters make everything look so simple. The most brilliant of the best do their craft with effortless ease and exceptional grace, or at least, make it look that way to you and me.

50. Don’t Wait for Change – Sometimes, when everyone else is waiting for someone else to take the first step, you need to be the one to drive the change.

51. First Principles for Great Relationships – Never miss an opportunity to celebrate and elevate another person.

52. Worry Versus Reflection – Isn’t there something good about going back and delighting in the delicious moments of journey so far and in learning from all we’ve experienced?

53. Believe in Others – Leadership is all about believing in others (and yourself) when no one else does.

54. The Best Practice is Practice – Brilliant results don’t just show up by chance. The finest things in life take patience, focus and sacrifice.

55. Pain Servers You Well – Perhaps the things that break our hearts are the very things that serve to open them.

56. Your Team’s Only as Good as You – You set the standard to which you all can rise. Each finger affects the strength of the hand.

57. Music Makes Life Better – Music will help a lot. It will make every moment better. It is the soundtrack to a brilliant life.

58. Don’t Fight for your Excuses – No great life was ever built on a foundation of excuses. So stop making them.

59. ABC (Always Be Connecting) – Find ways to connect, with the people you work with, with the loved ones you live with, and with the strangers with whom you share this journey called life.

60. What Separates You? – Know what separates you from everyone else. Because if you don’t know what makes your business special, how can you tell everyone else?

61. Time Passes Too Fast – Go the extra mile in all you do. Speak truthfully. Live with honor. And have some fun. Because one day, your time will run out.

62. What Happened to Quiet? – Too much noise gets in the way of dreaming and good conversations and time to just be.

63. A Stainless Character – We always have a choice. We can always choose between right and wrong.

64. Set People Free – People want to be a part of an organization that lets them bring their gifts to work and be fully alive.

65. A Day of Listening – Everyone has a voice. And each of us craves to have ours recognized.

66. Smart Companies Compete for Emotion – The main competition is not for “share of wallet”. No. It’s for share of your customers’ hearts.

67. You’ll Know When You Know – Do your best and let life do the rest.

68. Be a Hero – Greatness inhabits each one of us irrespective of who we are and where we are.

69. Why Plan? – Start writing about the work and home you desire to create.

70. Ask to Get – The most brilliant of the best, those who live glorious lives that matter, ask like crazy.

71. Do New Things -

72. On Personal Mastery – Life offers you daily opportunities to shine, to polish your gifts, to release your chains, to achieve personal mastery.

73. Be Unpopular – Business that try to be all things to all people end up being nothing to anyone.

74. Own Your Greatness – People appreciate being reminded that they are meant to play at great. That there are no extra people on the planet. That every life has a purpose.

75. Be Like Coldplay – Create fans, then delight them and do whatever it takes to get them coming back for more.

76. Stop Sleeping So Much -

77. Go Perpendicular – It is not possible to discover new oceans unless one is willing to lose sight of the shore.

78. Do Your Life – An excellent life grows out of an authentic one.

79. Give to Get – You need to give to get. Giving does begin the receiving process.

80. Be Like J.K. (Rowling) – Visionaries see an opportunity that most around them just don’t get.

81. Whatever Happened to Commitment? – Nothing comes for free. The best things in life require sacrifice and devotion.

82. Get Excited or Get Upset – Each day we have the opportunity to make choices and the way we choose shapes our destiny.

83. Build Bridges, Not Fences – We all crave to belong, to know we are part of a larger whole.

84. Fail Faster – There can be no success without failure. It’s just part of the process. You need to fail to win.

85. Angels in Your Evolution – Everyone who is causing you stress, struggle and challenge in your life just might be an angel of sorts… carrying the lessons you most need to learn.

86. Lead By Example – The greatest sermon on life is the one you see.

87. Be an Idea Factory – One big idea could revolutionize your life and even the world around you. All it takes is that single genius thought to change the whole game.

88. Speak Your Truth – One of the things that separates leaders from followers is that those who lead speak openly, honestly and courageously.

89. Leadership Begins at Home – The fruit never falls far from the tree, and your children will become a lot more like you than you may believe.

90. Respect Rules – Making your teammates feel special is job number one.

91. Learn from Michael J. Fox – Every life is terminal. No matter how long we get to live, we are all headed for the same end.

92. The Journey’s as Good as the End – Climb offers you far more value and as many rewards as getting to your mountaintop.

93. What Is Success? – Success is all about being in the process of joyfully creating a life that reflects your highest values, your deepest beliefs and your greatest dreams.

94. Your Highest Freedom – Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude to a given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.

95. Go Hollywood – Many of our professional and personal desires really can come true, if we write the script.

96. On the Burden of Greatness – At the end of our lives, the only thing that endures is who we became, the difference we made and the love we gave.

97. Live an Intense Life – Do it all with rare passion, with bravery and with a sparkle in your eye. Do it all with intensity.

98. Make Your Mark – If you don’t use each day to do even one thing to make your mark and to advance your vision and to become your brilliance, you may muss what truly counts.

99. Create Your Body of Work – Greatness comes when you create something with your life that is not only bigger than you but outlasts you.

100. Big Like Mandela – Nelson Mandela is an amazing example of the heights to which human beings can rise.

101. Will You Be Great Today? – Get to the truth: You are meant to play big with your life.

Zero Percentile

"Zero Percentile: Missed IIT, Kissed Russia" is one more novel by Indian author "Neeraj Chhibba" that I completed last weekend.

A book to read through if you are interested to know about Russia. The author has beautifully brought the internals of USSR. It is not like other good books that keep you captivated until you finish the last page of that... It is a good story, but not a good storytelling...

Zero Percentile is a heady cocktail of the fascinating adventures of Pankaj, a less favoured son of destiny across two completely different countries, India and Russia.

As a brilliant young boy Pankaj never imagines that he will ever be swamped with problems. Life with his friends Motu and Priya is fun. Always destined to go to IIT, a cruel accident makes him end up in a place he had never heard of before, Volgograd – a Russian ‘City of Heroes’, so-called for its role in the Second World War for stopping Hitler’s assault on Russia.

At hostel, in Volgograd, life is entirely different. There, not brain but brawn rules, which makes him land in jail after being induced into a gruesome brawl over food, with other very powerful and aggressive hostellers. Desperate for a win, he masterminds a coup, but makes the Dean his enemy instead who becomes hell-bent on destroying him. The journey never eases for him after that. Under extreme peer pressure he tries hard to lose his virginity and then cope with the agony of his best friend Nitin getting infected with HIV.

After his father’s death, he struggles to sustain himself in a highly expensive, newly capitalist Russia. His seniors, who he always looks upto as Gods unexpectedly turn into his enemy and conspire to ruin him with the help of the local mafia. He takes the gauntlet of fighting all these adversities and emerges victorious ultimately only to succumb to love.

I too had a love story…

“I too had a love story... A heartbreaking true love tale” is a fiction by yet another young Indian author, Ravinder Singh… I finished the book in just 1 day…

Simple, honest and touching story it is… The reality he has pen down in this book is really touching…

The very first line of this book starts as:

Not everyone in this world has the fate to cherish the fullest form of love. Some are born, just to experience the abbreviation of it.

I am sure, at the end of the book (Rather, at each stage of reading the book), you will feel the same, clearly putting yourself in one of these buckets (One having fate to experience the fullest form and the other having fate just to experience the abbreviation)

The Secret

The Secret Revealed

1. The Great Secret of Life is the law of attraction.

2. The law of attraction says “like attracts like”, so when you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you

3. Thoughts are magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency. As you think thoughts, they are sent out into the Universe, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source – you.

4. You are like a human transmission tower, transmitting a frequency with your thoughts. If you want to change anything in your life, change the frequency by changing your thoughts.

5. Your current thoughts are creating your future life. What you can think about the most or focus on the most will appear as your life.

6. Your thoughts become things.

Secret Made Simple

1. The law of attraction is a law of nature. It is as impartial as the law of gravity.

2. Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts.

3. To know what you’re thinking, ask yourself how you are feeling. Emotions are valuable tools that instantly tell us what we are thinking.

4. It is impossible to feel bad and at the same time have good thoughts.

5. Your thoughts determine your frequency, and your feelings tell you immediately what frequency you are on. When you feel bad, you are on the frequency of drawing more bad things. When you feel good, you are powerfully attracting more good things to you.

6. Secret Shifters, such as pleasant memories, nature, or your favourite music, can change your feelings and shift your frequency in an instant.

7. The feeling of love is the highest frequency you can emit. The greater the love you feel and emit, the greater the power you are harnessing.

How to use the Secret

1. Like Aladdin’s Genie, the law of attraction grants our every command.

2. The Creative Process helps you create what you want in three simple steps: ask, believe, and receive.

3. Asking the Universe for what you want is your opportunity to get clear about what you want. As you get clear in your mind, you have asked.

4. Believing involves acting, speaking, and thinking as though you have already received what you’ve asked for. When you emit the frequency of having received it, the law of attraction moves people, events, and circumstances for you to receive.

5. Receiving involves feeling the way you will feel once your desire has manifested. Feeling good now puts you on the frequency of what you want.

6. Starting with something small, like a cup of coffee or parking spaces, is an easy way to experience the law of attraction in action. Powerfully intend to attract something small. As you experience the power you have to attract, you will move on to creating much bigger things.

7. Create your day in advance by thinking the way you want it to go, and you will create your life intentionally.

Powerful Processes

1. Expectation is a powerful attractive force. Expect the things you want, and don’t expect the things you don’t want.

2. Gratitude is a powerful process for shifting your energy and bringing of what you want into your life. Be grateful for what you already have, and you will attract more good things.

3. Giving thanks for what you want in advance turbo-changes your desires and sends a more powerful signal out into the Universe.

4. Visualization is the process of creating pictures in your mind of yourself enjoying what you want. When you visualize, you generate powerful thoughts and feelings of having it now. The law of attraction then returns that reality to you, just as you saw it in your mind.

5. To use the law of attraction to your advantage, make it a habitual way of being, not just a one-time event.

6. At the end of every day, before you go to sleep, go back through the events of the day. Any events or moments that were not what you wanted, replay them in your mind the way you wanted them to go.

The Secret to Money

1. To attract money, focus on wealth. It is impossible to bring more money into your life when you focus on the lack of it.

2. It is helpful to use your imagination and make-believe you already have the money you want. Play games of having wealth and you will feel better about money; as you feel better about it, more will flow into your life.

3. Feeling happy mow is the fastest way to bring money into your life.

4. Make it your intention to look at everything you like and say to yourself, “I can afford that. I can buy that.” You will shift your thinking and begin to feel better about money.

5. Give money in order to bring more of it into your life. When you are generous with money and feel good about sharing it, you are saying, “I have plenty.”

6. Visualize checks in the mail.

7. Tip the balance of your thoughts to wealth. Think wealth.

The Secret to Relationships

1. When you want to attract a relationship, make sure your thoughts, words, actions, and surroundings don’t contradict your desires.

2. Your job is you. Unless you fill yourself, you have nothing to give anybody.

3. Treat yourself with love and respect, and you will attract people who show you love and respect.

4. When you feel bad about yourself, you block the love and instead you attract more people and situations that will continue to make you feel bad about you.

5. Focus on the qualities you love about yourself and the law of attraction will show you more great things about you.

6. To make a relationship work, focus on what you appreciate about the other person, and not your complaints. When you focus on the strengths, you will get more of them.

The Secret to Health

1. The placebo effect is an example of the law of attraction in action. When a patient truly believes the tablet is a cure, he receives what he believes and is cured.

2. “Focusing on perfect health” is something we can all do within ourselves, despite what may be happening on the outside.

3. Laughter attracts joy, releases negativity, and leads to miraculous cures.

4. Disease is held in the body by thought, by observation of the illness, and by the attention given to the illness. If you are feeling a little unwell, don’t talk about it – unless you want more of it. If you listen to people talk about their illness, you add energy to their illness. Instead, change the conversation to good things, and give powerful thoughts to seeing those people in health.

5. Beliefs about aging are all in our minds, so release those thoughts from your consciousness. Focus on health and eternal youth.

6. Do not listen to society’s message about diseases and aging. Negative messages do not serve you.

The Secret to the World

1. What you resist, you attract, because you are powerfully focused on it with emotion. To change anything, go within and emit a new signal with your thoughts and feelings.

2. You cannot help the world by focusing on the negative things. As you focus on the world’s negative events, you not only add to them, but you also bring more negative things into your own life.

3. Instead of focusing on the world’s problems, give your attention and energy to trust, love, abundance, education and peace.

4. We will never run out of good things because there’s more than enough to go around for everyone. Life is meant to be abundant.

5. You have the ability to tap into the unlimited supply through your thoughts and feelings and bring it into your experience.

6. Praise and bless everything in the world, and you will dissolve negativity and discord and align yourself with the highest frequency – love.

The Secret to You

1. Everything is energy. You are an energy magnet, so you electrically energize everything to you and electrically energize yourself to everything you want.

2. You are a spiritual being. You are energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed – it just changes form. Therefore, the pure essence of you has always been and always will be.

3. The Universe emerges from thought. We are the creators not only of our own destiny but also of the Universe.

4. An unlimited supply of ideas is available to you. All knowledge, discoveries, and inventions are in the Universal Mind as possibilities, waiting for the human mind to draw them forth. You hold everything in your consciousness.

5. We are all connected, and we are all One.

6. Let go of difficulties from your past, cultural codes, and social beliefs. You are the only one who can create the life you deserve.

7. A shortcut to manifesting your desires is to see what you want as absolute fact.

8. Your power is in your thoughts, so stay aware. In other words, “Remember to remember.”

The Secret to Life

1. You get to fill the blackboard of your life with whatever you want.

2. The only thing you need to do is feel good now.

3. The more you use the power within you, the more power you will draw through you.

4. The time to embrace your magnificence is now.

5. We are in the midst of a glorious era. As we let go of limiting thoughts, we will experience humanity’s true magnificence, in every area of creation.

6. Do what you love. If you don’t know what brings you joy, ask, “What is my joy?” As you commit to your joy, you will attract an avalanche of joyful things because you are radiating joy.

7. Now that you have learned he knowledge of The Secret, what you do with it is up to you. Whatever you choose is right. The power is all yours.

Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do

Principles of Problem:
1. Every living being has problems
2. Every problem has a limited time span
3. Every problem holds positive possibilities
4. Every problem will change you
5. You can choose what your problem will do to you
6. There is a negative and a positive reaction to every problem

12 Principles for Managing Problems Positively:
1. Don’t underestimate
2. Don’t exaggerate
3. Don’t wait
4. Don’t aggravate
5. Illuminate
6. Motivate
7. Bait
8. Date
9. Sublimate
10. Now dedicate
11. Communicate
12. Insulate


Taking Charge and Taking Control:
1. Don’t surrender leadership to outside forces
2. Don’t surrender leadership to faces
3. Don’t surrender leadership to farces
4. Don’t surrender leadership to fences
5. Don’t surrender leadership to frustrations
6. Don’t surrender leadership to your fantasies
7. Don’t surrender leadership to fears
8. Don’t surrender leadership to fatigue
9. Don’t surrender leadership to faults
10. Don’t surrender leadership to facts
11. Don’t surrender leadership to frenzies
12. Don’t surrender leadership to fates
13. Don’t surrender leadership to forecasts
14. Don’t surrender leadership to foes
15. Don’t surrender leadership to friends
16. Don’t surrender leadership to fracturing experiences of life
17. Don’t surrender leadership to the flattering-out experiences of life
18. Do surrender leadership to one thing – faith…

Ten Commandments of Possibility Thinking:
1. Never reject a possibility because you see something wrong with it!
2. Never reject a possibility because you won’t get the credit!
3. Never reject an idea because it’s impossible!
4. Never reject a possibility because your mind is already made up!
5. Never reject an idea because it’s illegal!
6. Never reject an idea because you don’t have the money, manpower, muscle or months to achieve it!
7. Never reject an idea because it will create conflict!
8. Never reject an idea because it’s not your way of doing things!
9. Never reject an idea because it might fail!
10. Never reject and idea because it’s sure to succeed!

Five Phases of Faith:
1. The Nesting Phase
2. The Testing Phase
3. The Investing Phase
4. The Arresting Phase
5. The Cresting Phase

Handling a good idea:
1. Don’t hibernate
2. Don’t luxuriate
3. Don’t commiserate
4. Don’t procrastinate
5. Dedicate yourself to that idea

Alphabet for Action:
1. A – Affirm. Affirm that you can do it.
2. B – Believe. Believe that somehow, some time, somewhere, through someone’s help, you can achieve your heart’s highest goal.
3. C – Commit. Commit yourself to a dream.
4. D – Dare. Dare to try. Dare to take a risk.
5. E – Educate. Educate yourself.
6. F – Find. Find the talent, the possibilities, the time, the money, and the way.
7. G – Give. Have giving attitude.
8. H – Hope. Hope is holding on, praying expectantly.
9. I – Imagine. Possibility thinking is in actuality the exercise of dynamic, creative, sanctified imagination.
10. J – Junk. Junk the junk food of your mind.
11. K – Knock. Knock out depression, discouragement, all kinds of forecasts of gloom and doom.
12. L – Laugh.
13. M – Make it happen.
14. N – Negotiate.
15. O – Overlook and overcome.
16. P – Persevere.
17. Q – Quit. Quit complaining.
18. R – Reorganize.
19. S – Share. Share the credit, power, and the glory.
20. T – Trade-off.
21. U – Unlock. Unlock faith, hope and love.
22. V – Visualize. Visualize the dream before you.
23. W – Work.
24. X – X-ray.
25. Y – Yield.
26. Z – Zip it up.

The Professional...

One more wonderful book by Subroto Bagchi, that I completed last weekend. Last weekend, I visited my uncle's place where he asked me, "Which book keeps you busy these days?" and I replied "The Professional". Then he replied, "Do not go deep into professionalism, then you will miss the real life". Actually I do not believe so, I think, being professionalism is tightly attached to being a good person and possessing good attitude. To him and to the readers, I want to put some excerpts from the book that says all about professionalism and "being professional" ...

‘Profession’ is defined by Dictionary.com as ‘following an occupation for a livelihood or gain’. It is a ‘vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science’. The Oxford Dictionary of English describes it as ‘a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification’. It defines the word ‘Professional’ as ‘relating to or belonging to a profession’.

Actually being a professional is nothing short of a religion and that the capacity to serve is indeed a blessing of life.

Ten attributes of a professional:

1. Integrity
2. Commitment and ownership
3. Action oriented and goal seeking
4. Continuous learning
5. Professional knowledge/skills
6. Communication
7. Planning, organizing and punctuality
8. Quality of work
9. A positive attitude, approachability, responsiveness
10. Being an inspiring reference to others; thought leadership – Tomorrow’s professional must have a beacon-like presence in a world that will ask for memorability. Because being ordinary will no longer be considered professional.

Self-Awareness: This is inevitable quality that each professional should have. Qualities of self-aware people build on the foundation of integrity and ethics.

Knowing who you are: Do not let yourself carried away; do not start believing in the myth about yourself and your achievements. The self-aware understand what their true strengths are; they know exactly how much of their success is because of their inherent strengths and how much is situational.

Being Authentic: There is no point of being inauthentic and insincere. A true professional has no need for unnecessary embellishments of experience, mentioning ‘connections’, or being put-on or plain fake. Being authentic might sometimes get us a ‘no’, but that is better than the ignominy of being unmasked, because we live in a small world where everything is connected, and the hollowness of our sincerity will eventually be revealed.

Being comfortable: If you cannot add value, then you must not add to the problem with your pretence. The more you pretend, the more naked you become. Sometimes, starting your ignorance can be the simplest solution. Others then take it upon themselves to explain complex technical jargon in easy-to-understand language. Concede the ground and wait, emotionally secure. The team will come back to you when they need you, and then you can truly add value.

Seeking Help: Seeking help is not always about solving an organizational problem. Sometimes we may have a personal problem – an emotional issue, an awkward health matter – which we keep to ourselves. Sooner rather later, it will adversely affect our work. There is no shame in signing up for help – in matters of work, or in matters of mental and physical well-being.

Not suffering false Comparisons:

Having a reasonable view of the Future:

Looking beyond money: The day you feel empty, shift the attention from yourself to others – go and spend time with a bunch of colleagues who have just joined the organization, help an intern with his work, write a series of how-to articles based on your experiences, take on pro-bono work with your industry association... See how the pitcher of emptiness begins to fill again…

Being deeply self-observant: Observing yourself on a daily basis and replaying your actions and reactions does not mean you cease to be natural, or lose spontaneity. Just as the player on the sports field is unconcerned with the camera recording the game, the professional is able to go with the flow, be natural and normal, but has the capacity to record events and faithfully reconstruct them to the smallest detail. Such people do not suffer from illusions.

Reining in Reactions: In extremely high pressure situations, often the best emotion to express is control… And a true professional has a calibrated thermostat which prompts the degree of reaction and control required in any given situation.

Welcoming Feedback: As you practice the art of listening to feedback, you begin to pick it up when it is a whisper, like the sound of your own breathing, and you pick it up from unusual sources.

Not suffering false Attractions: Flirting with false attractions makes us lose affection for what is on hand. If you do not have a serious need for the offered job or assignment, do the professional thing and resist the temptress.

Doing something for yourself:

Being proactive: Someone who is proactive in the workplace is more likely to be proactive with his health, and in his relationships with friends and family…

Taking charge: Developing the power within, to have the confidence to take charge in the most difficult and dangerous of situations, is the hallmark of a true professional…

Courtesy and Humility: A professional does not take respect for granted, but is one who actively cultivates respect and understanding for people who are way below him.

The Big Picture: Only the big picture, the context in which we live and work, makes the facts relevant. And it is only when we understand and actively look at the big picture, will we develop into grounded professionals.

Professional Qualities:

Of Time, Body and Soul:

Doing more by doing less:

The to-do list:

Saying NO:

Quit Whining:

A long view of Time:

White Space:

Creating Reuse:

What is your touch-time? :

When paths diverge:

The power of vision:

Affective Regard:

Commitment to Commitment:

Be prepared:

Ask pertinent Questions:

Intent Listening:

Human beings First and Foremost:

The responsibility of Dissent:

The rewards of Transparency: