|| and > (Pause and Play)

From here

Leonardo da Vinci spent countless hours ruminating upon things of the spirit as he worked on his famous canvas of the Last Supper. He spent so much time meditating in the cloister that some of the monks in the community became concerned. They remonstrated with the artist about his wasting precious time and money. "Why do you spend so much time with us in prayer when you have come here to work?" they wondered.

Leonardo answered, "When I pause the longest, I make the most telling strokes with my brush."

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Hmm. In today's world, such pauses are considered to be nothing less than a crime. Especially in the corporate world. Ironically, lack of such pauses is what causes permanent gaps in the long run. Permanent gaps that smack of chaos caused by people who did not initially want to stop for a while.

Something tells me that most people will gradually and ultimately slow down when they need to and go in search of a life and work that allows them to take in life the way it should ideally be. I know of some people who have held their own in such a blind, meaningless and merciless world. These are people who have, paradoxically, escaped herd mentality but tapped into the wisdom of a wiser 'world'. Hats off to these folks! They've found the guts, faith and conviction to take the less-trodden path and lead the way for the rest of us....toward a more serene and fulfilling future.

Being busy can be addictive (Like Calvin says, "Everybody is a slave to routine"). We need more and more people who can overcome this addiction and free the world from its clutches. People who can make it a better place to live in - for the current crowd and generations to come. We may not be able to save the world from its eventual fate but we can at least make the remaining parts of the journey more meaningful.

Spiritual thinking, as I know it, would advocate that we need to be calm and composed even when surrounded by such chaos, ambiguity and uncertainty. If one were to rule out the thought of running away from such a world, it leaves us with the next best (to my mind) option. Pausing, slowing down, taking breaks, experimenting, introspecting and being happy with a life that's 'different'. These may be the wisest ways to continue to be in the 'real' world and yet lead a more meaningful life. Such a style of living, I guess, will make us less desperate to change the world in one master stroke and have faith in its (and our own) evolving destiny.

KM - Journey Vs Destination

Experience gives me the assurance that KM exists so it can deliver one or more of these four key tangible benefits to organizations: Operational Efficiency, Customer Intimacy, Innovation and Learning/Competency Development.

Most organizations, boringly enough, look for Operational Efficiency via KM. Because they can't think beyond cutting costs and time. Or because it is easier to prove improvement in efficiency as compared to, say, Innovation or Learning benefits. But, a serious challenge in terms of dipping customer satisfaction or the presence of a significantly novice workforce or a serious passion for breakthroughs (and/or a dying business) urges organizations to look beyond Operational Efficiency. At least, that's what it seems like to me. What is seen as high priority (and as safe) is attempting to be better at operations. Most other initiatives are 'risky' & complicated and, moreover, do not assure benefits. In other words, "Don't rock the boat!" is a prevalent attitude unless there is an alien on the boat or it seems to be capsizing.

Stepping away from the proven outcome(s) of KM, it struck me that the ultimate benefit of an effective KM initiative (with multiple dimensions) actually lies in the process of implementing KM. Let me elaborate. In the attempt to achieve these tangible outcomes, the process of creating an environment that appreciates and celebrates knowledge management involves concepts and philosophies of sharing, learning, collaboration and reuse. What this means is the ushering in of a unified work culture (the lack of which is the bane of many a large organization today). The next thing I see as an ultimate benefit is the necessity of instilling a single and well-defined (and understood) sense of purpose in order to set up such a unified culture! Step out of the CFO-mindset and step into that of a passionate founder and you'll see the meaning and joy of KM as an enabler for a unified work culture and a single sense of purpose!

The Power of PPTs

Thinking about Power Point Presentations this morning. I know of people who love it more than you could possibly imagine and others who abhor them so much that they might even walk off from discussions in which people make use of them.

I, personally, have enjoyed occasions when I was able to get creative with PPTs. (Excuse me.....if you belong to the second school of thought). For me, it was the closest I could possibly come to making an official movie of sorts, however crude it happened to be. The joy of using creative and powerful themes, colours, images, charts, messages, metaphors, one-liners, take-aways etc was always there for me. I honestly think PPTs can be very interesting provided you let your creative juices flow.

And I am happy to see a clear trend in that direction. While people used to stick to plain text and bullet points earlier on....now, they have begun to mostly experiment with backgrounds, themes, images, short and meaningful phrases, humorous one-liners and the like. But here's what it implies to me from the perspective of KM. While the old way of making PPTs served the purpose of asynchronous knowlege sharing to a reasonable extent (with notes, links and comments), the current style of PPTs, arguably, are best shared face to face. This does not mean that they cannot be shared offline. All it means is that it will not suffice to let readers run through just the slides....you need to capture the audio bites - the voice over - as well. Coming down to brass tacks, it simply means that we need truly enormous and efficient storage and retrieval infrastructure (and mechanisms).

Blogiloquy

Whew! I just wound up a stressful discussion with someone who sounded like a born pessimist and found something wrong with almost everything we are attempting to do! To top it, he even sounded annoyingly snobbish! :-X Where do they make such people? Can't the Pessimist Factory be shut down, please? Or be converted into an Optimists Shop? Don't they realize that they drain other people's energy too?

It's been ages since I ranted on my blog........ages, really! I don't really like ranting and complaining on my blog....(Should have named it "Ranting Inside the Blog" if that were the case! Poor joke, I know!...Sigh....but, hey, I am just desperately trying to bring some relief to myself after all that unnecessary stress). Anyways, even if I end up ranting occasionally, I'd like to see the silver lining around the cloud (I have to.....else what's the point in complaining about pessimists? ;-)) .

If you're worried things will not change, the world will not change, people will not change etc....remember, that is not a reason why you should stop experimenting or trying to change things. And changing things, like many wise people tell us, is about changing yourself. When you believe in something, go for it! You cannot change people with a magician's stick, but you can lead by example....and inspire at least a few.

The silver lining that I'd like to point out to myself is this. (Soliloquy! Err...shall we call this blogiloquy?) It's when you have no one saying anything to you that you have to be worried....for it is a sign of zero progress. So, when you find people around you trying to "act or sound smart"/pull you down/object etc, be happy. It means you're on your way to learning something and hopefully achieving something as well. Happy? Happy! Now...scream with me...1,2,3....."I am an optimist!"

The Battle between Products and Processes

Ever since I read the book Business Process Re-engineering and many other interesting articles on business processes, way back in college, I've been a strong believer in the concept of tweaking products to meet business process needs rather than tweaking processes to meet the product design and requirements. I've passionately argued against deploying products without a thought for existing organizational processes and sometimes even flicked a few specks of dust from my sleeves during these arguments ;-). So far so good, Nimmy. But a recent experience makes me re-look at my beliefs.

It's not been hard for me to understand that if you're talking about a really 'good' product (brilliant because of the minds behind it or something that has had time on its side and has evolved into a very mature version), then the organization deploying it must definitely consider studying and comparing the ways of the product with its own. If the organization has been a laggard in the innovation and improvement of its processes, it truly doesn't make sense to stick to them and say that the product must be turned upside down to meet the former's requirements.

Without rambling on aimlessly, here's what I think organizations could do to avoid this "business process ego" trap! If the fear is that of being brainwashed by the product features, why plunge into it without appropriate preparation? A few days of unbiased brainstorming, introspection and analysis of the existing set of processes and what they lack in, before considering products for deployment may do the trick! Post this exercise, When you actually look at the product and its features, you are ready to accept and admit its brilliance (if any) and are prepared to stoutly refuse to accept some of its features as not apt for the organization and the way it works.

The Story of a Story...

Just occurred to me. I guess most of us end up looking, or rather intensely scouting and scanning, for lessons in stories that don't deliver them to us in the direct sense. We let out a whoop of joy when we think we have distilled the meaning out of a casual story. We believe that we have understood life and can see beyond the obvious. We are - rightly or wrongly - subjected to delusions of being intelligent and perceiving. But what do we do when the stories are otherwise? Here's what I've observed....we tend to almost dismiss stories that give us the lessons in a 'raw' form, as boring and too obvious. (I am referring to stories that make it clear to us that they are there to teach us something.) But, even amongst such 'raw' stories, I think those that successfully build a meaty and meaningful context and/or use inspiring language escape this trend. What could this possibly imply?

- People love "finding" things on their own rather than being told things directly. Hard situation to set up though. If you have the talent to make people believe they are the ones who are discovering the lessons, I bet you can "sell" anything under the sun. For that, you first need to shoot your own ego and not pine for credit.
- Those of us who do not have such niche talent need not panic. Direct play of (meaningful) context and (inspiring) communication alone can make up for the lack of fun that people get out of "discovering" things by themselves.

PS: BTW, this doesn't mean that the context and communication can be left out of the indirect stories. These stories not only have to be unique & creative but also complete in every sense. How we play around with the context and communication is what would perhaps determine how successful we are in delivering the lesson/moral in an indirect manner.

Blogs Again....

After I posted links to a couple of cool and popular blogs I discovered in the recent past, I realized that there are a few more blogs that I'd found to very impressive in the more distant past but had forgotten to mention here. I must spread the word about them as well... :-) Here goes....

(Note: There is one common element amongst all these bloggers - They were the ones to discover my blog and comment on it as a consequence of which I discovered their writings!)

Carnal Zen (CZ writes soooo well. And, btw, I love the tagline on her blog. She is very introspective about life and love among other things. In my opinion, she belongs to the category of bloggers that are liked for being genuine and honest. She has left many a comment on my blog that has helped me add to my thoughts)

Cool Alien from Mars (Has a cool writing style.....he muses about a variety of things...actually just about anything....but I guess the highlights of his blog, to me, are his compassionate stories and "out-of-the-world" poems ;-))

Medhini (She is a wonderful storyteller! Specializes in short stories and contributes to many a group-blog focusing on them. She also reproduces some famous short stories once in a while. Read this thoughtful story of hers. And I love this one off introspective post)

Circle of Life (Rakesh. Introspective. Poetic. Passionate. To start with, I found this poem to be stunning and extremely moving.)

And, finally, it is going to be difficult for me to forgive myself for missing out on mentioning this blog earlier. For some strange reason, I seem to have st(r)ayed away from a specific post to spread the word (literally, because you are bound to discover all the beautiful words that exist in the dictionary, on his blog)......Anyways, better late than never. I've been reading this blogger's - Alok's - brilliant poems for perhaps more than a year now! His poems are extremely passionate, introspective, and extraordinary. He can get England down on its knees with his language and poetic skills. Alok has a huge fan following and can, honestly, be difficult to comprehend for the average literate like me ;-) Hee Hee. His middle name ought to be Wordsworth for both his poetic skills and his mind-boggling vocabulary. Be sure to drop in if you have a sophisticated taste for poetry (He used to be a frequent commentator on my blog but, unfortunately, seems to have gone into hibernation - from blogosphere - for the past two odd months.)

Friday Fun

Love this song....

Discovered in Blogosphere.....

New discoveries in Blogosphere. Blogs I have become quite a big fan of.

Here's a girl who writes quite like RK.Narayan. The language, humour, and the narration. Typical Indian writing as many of us know it; Completely Desi with a South Indian flavour. She happens to be a journalist based out of Chennai. No idea what her real name is. She calls herself Asal Tamil Penn (ATP - Typical Tamil Girl) on her blog. Her real-life stories are guaranteed to make you laugh and chuckle......and sometimes guffaw.

Check out her latest post. Chuckle! :-) (BUT....there are a few sprinklings of Tamil words here and there. So, if you don't understand Tamil, you may not be able to savor her posts in the sense that they are intended to be. Try some and decide for yourself)

Here's another girl who has a wonderful way with words. She is undoubtedly a talented and intense writer.

Check out this little but profound post of hers. I love it and it is on the lines of a poem that always has a huge impact on me - Kipling's IF. And check this post too. And this one as well.... :-)

Cool School

Check this out. This is a topic that gets me thinking really hard and piques me enough to want to do something revolutionary about education and learning - at least in India. I have often wondered how wonderful it would be if children were to be able to find out - at as early an age as possible - what they are good at and what they would love doing their entire life. Not so easy except in the case of prodigies (which typically is related to music, dancing, computers, language etc). The paradox - in the context of Rashmi's post - is that you first need to know the various things that are possible to be able to find out what you are good at or what you would love doing! (Take for example this - you may have to go to 10 shops and see a lot of uninteresting things before you end up going to a shop that has exactly what you want!). And therefore it is the duty of parents, teachers and society in general to expose children to the whole gamut of possibilities and observe what attracts and appeals to them.

The challenge doesn't stop there. You then need to have the right environment and training to be able to encourage and develop that budding talent and passion. In order to lead a life that is not consistently unsettling, we do need to cover the basics of the worldly knowledge in school and learn how to learn a lot of other things if and when needed! Easier said than done because parents, having been brought up in a conventional manner, are not sure and confident of such an approach to life. I don't agree with the argument that we need to go through formal education in order to be labeled as an educated person. A truly educated person is one who has been exposed to multiple dimensions of life - emotional, spiritual et al. Schools focus on mental development closely followed by physical development (sports).

Anyway, lest I continue rambling forever....I'd like to also record what I hurriedly said in response to Rashmi's post...on her blog:

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Thought-provoking! My 2 paise worth. I think the real question ought to be "How should schooling change in order to help us be what we want to be....anytime during our mortal journey?" People who have been considering this have been sending their kids to unconventional schools like the JK foundation etc. Having said that, I believe that quite a lot of the stuff we learn during primary school are essential irrespective of what we choose to do in life. So what if you're a singer....would you not want to use some basic school knowledge to figure out your financials, your relationships, your geography etc? I think only the sophisticated parts of math and science may not be of use for someone who gets into Arts. I think it is the post-school life that we really need to tweak. And we are bound to end up studying unwanted stuff in college if we are going down the wrong path (i.e we don't know what we want to do and therefore it doesn't matter whether we study commerce or science).

Where does this bring us to? For now, instead of rambling on....I think I'll safely conclude that

1. We need to help children identify what they want to do/what they are good at/what holds minimum promise for a decent future as early as possible
2. We need to realign schooling and education towards the above
3. We need enough options for schooling and education once we identify what we want to do
4. I agree with one of the above comments - We need to teach children how to learn so they can learn anything new anytime...

Thanks for the thought-provoking post! And I think you have a smart girl! :-)

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Now, I am wondering whether there is research that compares and contrasts different methods of education and its results with a whole life-time as the time frame.

Sarcasm, Anyone?

Sarcasm is sometimes strangely satisfying. Provided you're not the subject, that is. Wonder why? It obviously can be humorous if handled well. And it seems to be an entertaining way to more or less dismiss experiences that, in reality, call for some profound thinking and action. Having said that, sarcasm itself, paradoxically, leads to enormously witty solutions that may eventually be distilled into something worth being applied. And hey, this post is not here just for the alliterative opening sentence. If I must add something to it, I would say this - No wonder, Dilbert is so hugely popular. But, of course, Dilbert goes way beyond sarcasm...into super sarcasm.

Docs and Ducks....Promises Fireworks! ;-)

Time for a "nonsensical" post. They charge me up...these so-called nonsensical posts!! :-) So, here goes. Just wondering.....would Vets who are brought sick ducks to be cured, lose their temper very soon? That is, the minute the duck decides that its voice ought to be heard by the doc? ;-)

When the doc meets the ducks....
(Beware...!)
(Because)...there may be a lot of fireworks....!
Even if the duck spends many a buck...
It may soon run out of luck....!
For a duck has to say something to the doc...
And what else can a poor duck say other than "Quack"?

Life...and its puzzles...

"Life is a balance between holding on and letting go." - Anonymous

I call this emotional and spiritual maturity! a.k.a Wisdom? Oftentimes, holding on to something, however elusive it seems, will result in the expected achievement. What we need to consider during this mesmerizing/passionate journey, however, is whether what we are going after is really what we want. We also need to foresee what we are going to miss out on because of the obsessive focus on that something. On introspection, letting go may come across as the more sensible approach. This realization needs to be closely followed by an effort to realign ourselves and go after things that really matter to us, if we are to not lose hope and slip into a meaningless existence. Looking at it from another angle, not letting go would be the mother of all mistakes if the pursuit itself happened to be a mistake in the first place. It is perhaps the faith and confidence with which we pursue something or let go of it that determines how happy we are likely to be in life.

The Hare and the Turtle

From DailyOM. Appealing arguments. Be it learning something new (driving, swimming, music) or going out on one's own...!

Small Steps To Big Change - Making Big Change Easier

When we decide that it’s time for big changes in our lives, it is wise to ease into them by starting small. Small changes allow us to grow into a new habit and make it a permanent part of our lives, whereas sudden changes may cause a sense of failure that makes it difficult to go on, and we are more likely to revert to our old ways. Even if we have gone that route and find ourselves contemplating the choice to start over again, we can decide to take it slowly this time, and move forward.

Sometimes the goals we set for ourselves are merely indicators of the need for change and are useful in getting us moving in the right direction. But it is possible that once we try out what seemed so ideal, we may find that it doesn’t actually suit us, or make us feel the way we had hoped. By embarking on the path slowly, we have the chance to look around and consider other options as we learn and grow. We have time to examine the underlying values of the desire for change and find ways to manifest those feelings, whether it looks exactly like our initial goal or not. Taking small steps forward gives us time to adjust and find secure footing on our new path.

Life doesn’t always give us the opportunity to anticipate or prepare for a big change, and we may find ourselves overwhelmed by what is in front of us. By choosing one thing to work on at a time, we focus our attention on something manageable, and eventually we will look up to see that we have accomplished quite a bit. Forcing change is, in essence, a sign that we do not trust the universe’s wisdom. Instead, we can listen to our inner guidance and make changes at a pace that is right for us, ensuring that we do so in alignment with the rhythm of the universe.

PS: related post; another related post

Music as a tool for Nostalgia...

I am back. A week of unplanned silence sometimes seems like a whole month of silence for a blogging freak like me. ;-) I have nothing profound to report or muse about. But I thought I'd just make a quick connection and resume my blogging frequency. I have a small tidbit related to music and friends that I should probably share. It is a coincidence that it comes just after the friendship day binge in the first week of August. There was a time (last year) when I was in the middle of a transition and utterly jobless as a result of which I indulged in considering all sorts of unusual ideas. One of the ideas I had that was easy to implement was to create a special playlist on my iPod. I went down memory lane as much as I could and added songs (to a playlist I called Nostalgia) that reminded me of all my friends and relatives in a chronological order. Some songs were to do with not just one person but experiences like school events/class tours etc. (These are songs my friends/relatives like, songs from movies we watched together, or songs that in some small or big way reminds me of them) I ended up with quite a lengthy playlist and was quite excited about it. But I knew listening to it immediately would not really have an impact on me as I had just wound up an exhaustive trip down memory lane. After almost a year, I listened to the songs yesterday night and it was an awesome experience. It almost felt like I had a face to face meeting with almost every character that I associated the songs with in my playlist! Nostalgia indeed! :-) I recommend it for all of those who would love to re-live some moments with their friends and relatives....

Why and How....The VIPs

Whenever I start a new activity or task, I feel complete and confident only when I've attempted to answer the most critical of questions - Why, What, Who, When, Where, and How. (Rudyard Kipling's famous expression - the six honest serving-men). Answering Why and How gives me a lot of satisfaction for obvious reasons. Why explains the purpose and reasoning behind things and reveals the driving force. How results in successful execution and helps us dig into the details, unfold every dimension of the activity and discover everything that may matter. I am of the opinion that answering What will be quite easy once the Why is clear. And, How naturally follows the What. Who, When and Where are definitely important but, arguably, easy to crack once we know the answers to Why, What and How.

I guess you may now be wondering what I am driving at! :-) Well, to my mind, KM systems should approach knowledge sharing and exchange in the light of the above. People may find it easy to outline answers (verbal or written) to all questions except Why and How. Why so? Because Why involves a lot of contextual, historical, intrinsic, intuitive, inspirational and difficult-to-articulate knowledge. And also ,unfortunately, in many cases, people may not even have thought about why something is being done. (The orders come from the top and are executed without being questioned and understood why it has to be done.) How, on the other hand, is difficult to elucidate because of the sheer volume of details, complexities and inter-relationships, and presence of content that transcends simple information sharing and touches areas concerning physical action and skills. Moreover, even if the knowledge provider were to successfully share the answers to Why and How, the person who receives it is likely to have a different interpretation of these dimensions as compared to What, Who, When and Where! But what do you know? Tsk. Tsk. Life has its laughs. The most valuable knowledge that needs to be shared and leveraged upon, ironically, exists in answers to Why and How! Therein lies one of the most dicey challenges of Knowledge Management.

That is why Knowledge Management cannot be equated to simple repositories. It has to transcend them and progress into practices that get closer to people and their day-to-day routine; practices that touch people, identify them, relate to them and their behaviours, activities and thoughts. That is why we need to focus on collection-based connections, continuous debates and discussions through communities, mentoring and shadowing, and exhaustive collective thinking and learning. Identifying knowledge that is relevant from the long tail (of knowledge) is possible only through such collaborative methods.

On a related note, I wonder whether there will be a radical change in the approach that schools will have towards education here on. With the increasing internet proliferation and popularity of the Web 2.0 culture, students themselves are going to be open to (actually, excited about) a collaborative environment rather than a competitive one. Schools must make use of the changing environment and values and encourage collaborative and collective learning while, at the same time, retaining the individualistic streak in children. Tough job. We need thought-leaders who can show us how to balance the two. (The Long Tail, I guess, is an example of collaboration as a subset of individualistic preferences)

Gift of Thought

Aaahhh. August 4th was my 'happy birthday'. So what? I did not honestly plan to announce my birthday on this blog though I did tweet about it at the end of the day. (A good example of something that is tweet material but not blog material). But there's something that makes me blog about it now. If there's something I think I don't have to be humble about, then it's probably the friends I have. There is a hidden sense of pride when one shows off one's friends, I guess. But I'd like to ignore that thought for now. ;-) So, here's the story...!

A close friend gifts a fantastic book. I read the book. I love it. So, I blog about it. (here's the first post) The author of the book stumbles upon the post. (Thanks to Google) He contacts me. (Long live the Internet and Web 2.0). I am, of course, overwhelmed by the down-to-earth attitude of such a thought-leader! Email exchanges happen on a regular basis. He even keeps an eye on my blog and sends me thought-provoking messages whenever he feels like saying something in response to my musings. After some months, to my utter joy, I discover that he himself has started to leverage on blogging to spread his brilliant thoughts and perspectives (in short installments, outside of the book). And, well, here's what I am coming to........this year, he writes a beautiful post on the theme of unity in diversity on the occasion of my birthday and dedicates (gasp!) it to me!

What a thoughtful gift (in more than one sense of the word)! I am, needless to say, touched! And I am writing this post because I want to spread the message further. Not because a great human being like Zeph has dedicated such a nice post to me (yippee...that's for my own celebration!!) but because the message(s) it contains is meant to be spread. :-)

Twitter's Tomorrow

I wonder.........will there be a time when there will be automatic twitters of our thoughts, perhaps, based on predetermined rules and conditions? (Provided we agree to be involved in such a thing.....and it can be done through sophisticated receivers of brain signals or whatever). Rules could be....Twitter when the brain gets hyperactive, Twitter when extremely emotional....etc

And will that help us understand our own thoughts and emotions better? What a weird and scary thought, eh?! And here I am, blogging about it......when, amusingly enough, the thought of an automatic (involuntary) twitter doesn't really appeal to me!

Speaking of which, I think Twitter can be extrapolated to do a lot more interesting and intriguing things....I wouldn't be surprised if Tomorrow's Twitter is much more than simple twittering!

What's the secret?

When poise is maintained within us,problems and challenges vanish like mist before the rising sun.- Swami Chinmayananda

:-) The 'real' mind we have been bestowed with is quite an undiscovered gold mine! I think one of the greatest assets we can have as a human is poise, composure and balance. I know meditation is known to grant us such a mind. What are the other things in life (especially during our growing years) that add this dimension to our character? Is it largely intrinsic or is it about how we are mentored by people around us or does it depend on what we go through (natural training)? I have miles to go before I sleep...!

She Knows...She Knows Not....

She who KNOWS NOT and KNOWS NOT that she KNOWS NOT is deceived. Ignore her.

She who KNOWS NOT and KNOWS that she KNOWS NOT is unlearned. Teach her.

She who KNOWS and KNOWS NOT that she KNOWS is asleep. Awaken her.

She who KNOWS and KNOWS that she KNOWS is wise. Follow her.-- Anonymous

PS: Methinks: KM helps the first category (Why ignore when we can possibly help?) through practices revolving around interaction and knowledge exchange that brings to light what one knows not. It helps the second category through the opportunity to learn from focused communities, mentoring, and sharing forums. The third category can leverage on platforms that help introspect - through blogging and sharing on request. KM provides the fourth category with ample opportunities to share and lead.

KM - Checklist

I like this post from Christian Young. Spot on. Agree with almost everything prescribed. This is a bit shameless, but, being a KMer, I myself ought to have written something like this a few years ago. Having said that, I don't want to be too hard on myself. Because, I did write a paper on my KM experiences and learnings after 2 years of fundamental but quite enlightening KM. In retrospect though, I think I should have written another paper on the same theme after putting in another 2-3 years. Rather, I found myself writing papers on potential KM concepts and concise frameworks for its implementation.

Anyway, had I made the effort to write another paper on my KM experiences and learnings, I am inclined to think that it would have been very similar to CY's post. Except a few significant differences, perhaps. I would have focused more on identifying and studying knowledge-intensive processes and then worked on effective creation/sharing/capture of knowledge as a by-product. And, I don't think I would equate managing KM to managing a product. I'd rather equate it to managing people and the environment. And, btw, managing is not a 'bad' word here. ;-) Managing = Understanding, Enabling, Providing, Supporting, Motivating etc...you get the drift?

Thinking about KM's Growth as a Concept....

• Knowledge was thought of as an occasional and almost-permanent Thing - Thus were born Repositories
• Knowledge was thought of as something only in People's Minds - Thus were born Expertise Locators
• Knowledge was thought of as a constant Stream of Thought - Thus were born Blogs
• Knowledge was thought of as a Collective Entity (rather than Individualistic) - Thus were born Communities
• Knowledge was thought of as a Constant and Collective Flow & Evolution of Thought - Thus were born Wikis
• Knowledge was thought of as Contextual and Specific to Relationships between People - Thus were born Social Networks
• Knowledge was thought of as that which People Value - Thus were born Social Bookmarking and RSS
• Knowledge was thought of as something that can be extracted, in the form of trends and patterns - from oceans of data and information, through smart/intelligent tools - Thus was born Business Intelligence and Data Mining
• Knowledge was thought of as something that emerges and suggests itself rather than something exists in a ready-to-use form - Thus were born the practices of Brainstorming and After Action Review

Knowledge is not just one of the above but all of it. It has multiple dimensions. Each dimension contributes in its own way towards efficiency and effectiveness. But people, of course, have their own pets and preferences. The culture and specific situation determine what would be the solution's ideal mix.

A Vision that Liberates...

Zeph has a thought-provoking and wonderful post on being a visionary. I believe that the attitude that 'his' practiced visonary has is extremely liberating! The specific part of the post that made me come to this conclusion is this: "The practiced visionary understands that the vision which compels her in every interaction is owned by the universal flow and not by her limited likes and dislikes. She subjugates her ego to the welfare of the moment. Ultimately the practiced visionary is not heroic, because fear ultimately retreats."

C for...

Nice post on employee engagement from Terry. I think every C in the list is Critical for effective employee engagement. Except that there could, arguably, be an overlap between Contribution and Content.

Attack or Attract? I'd like to follow Hobbes....

Attack or attract? Hang on. Don't jump to conclusions or, for that matter, jump to some other blog or post as the case may be! The phrase, in the absence of a context, sounds a bit strange, I know....but wait till I finish before you think I've lost it.


Despite several complaints from the folks at home, I can't stop tuning into all the worthwhile music shows and competitions on TV, during the weekend. I could perhaps spend my whole life listening to budding musicians and singers. I might not even know if the world was coming to an end! Anyways, in one such music competition, one of the judges (a new music director who has composed some extremely popular songs) advised some participants to "Attack!". Another judge (a playback singer with a voice that can scale the highest of pitches), meanwhile, sent a very different message to the participants. He suggested that the participants need not 'attack' and that things will naturally come to them if they just went about their life in a focused and passionate manner. There was no real argument between the two judges (on the show)...but both the judges repeated and emphasised their messages without challenging each other. It was a 'silent debate'...! And, well, it occurred to me that I could label the second approach as "Attract!"


So, do you think this is debate material? Are these really opposite/contradictory approaches - Attack vs Attract - to achieving something in life? Or are they quite similar underneath the deceiving covers? I am intrigued enough to want to dig deeper and see if this is just a game of meaningless semantics (hey, that sounds like an oxymoron!) or something more important. Let's explore this a bit. Shall we?
Attack, to me, indicates speed, a "go for it" attitude, aggression, and an impatient (?) "will not wait for things to fall in place" attitude. It probably involves an explicit show of one's approach and no tolerance for delay or failure. It perhaps involves putting the burden of achieving something or winning on oneself and not expecting any kind deed/favour to be returned unless we scream out loud for it?! Attack, to me, has a slight flavour of pessimism in the world's ways. It sounds like a recommendation to go get things from wherever they are and not believe in Karma (reaping the fruits of our action as a natural consequence). It reminds me of words like Go Getter, Forceful, Unforgiving and Dynamic. An attacker will want to go find the target and escort it to his place by hook or, sometimes, crook? And, arguably, Attack sounds like a short-term approach. Interestingly enough, the judge who recommended the participants to 'attack' stood up and pumped his fist in the air when he said so. That's complimentary body language for you!

Now, let's look at 'Attract'. Attract, to me, sounds like extreme faith in oneself, more specifically in one's innate qualities and everything complimentary to it. It sounds like faith in the concept of reciprocation, Karma and everything good. It smacks of a confidence akin to the knowledge that a piece of iron is bound to attract the magnet lying around in its circle of 'influence'. It maybe an intense approach but yet reflects patience rather than impatience. It could be labeled as an inward focused approach whose natural pace the achiever is comfortable with. But this approach may perhaps be misunderstood to be manipulation (rarely?) or indifference (more often?). It reminds me of words like Charismatic, Charming, Accommodating and Inner Power. An attractor will want to use her charm and inner power to get the world's positive forces to work for her, locate the target and get it to submit itself to her willingly! And, arguably, Attract sounds like a long-term approach.


Coming back to the people that triggered me into this thought-process, the judge who said things would come on their own, unlike the other, was seated when he said it and looked away when the other judge stood up and reemphasized that one needs to 'Attack'. :-) Body language aligned with the philosophy again.

So, of the two, which one do you like? Or does it....famously.... 'depend'? Maybe one needs to 'Attack' only when, for example, one has a formidable enemy who is out to spoil things and has to be necessarily stopped by force but work on the inner glow to 'Attract' life at most other times? Would I incur your wrath by suggesting that we should perhaps settle for an easy, obvious and non-controversial approach - get the best of both worlds and make it a combination of the two - Attack and Attract = Attrack?! ;-)

Whew. Er. I don't know, really. I am, admittedly, having second thoughts on whether this is genuine enough to merit a debate or if this is a not-so-critical story of whether the zebra is a white one with black stripes or a black one with white stripes (Courtesy: Madagascar). In one of Calvin's conversations with his dad, the latter confuses him completely and Calvin, as usual, goes to Hobbes and tells him that the world is a complex place....and is difficult to understand. Hobbes, who is half asleep, nonchalantly tells Calvin that he " takes a nap and waits for dinner" whenever the world seems so. :-D Brilliant and tempting, I must say! So, here goes. I am borrowing Hobbes's idea of what one should do when things seem complex and adding my own bit to it as well :P - I am going to check out today's music show, wait for dinner and then snooze off. Good night! :-) Hee hee

Sea Ship....

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Difference between Managers and Leaders...

Chetan Bhagat - Where is the Spark!

Confession time. I haven't read any of Chetan Bhagat's books. Even though I've been intending to, for quite some time now. I somehow end up laying my hands on humor (Wodehouse) and mystery more than anything else when it comes to fiction. A friend just forwarded Chetan Bhagat's speech at Symbiosis, Pune and I think it is wonderful. :-) I've been more than inspired by the widely circulated speeches by Steve Jobs, Bill Watterson, Rowling, Subroto Bagchi and Randy Pausch in the recent past. And, I must say this speech belongs to the same category for me! :-)
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Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.

I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the spark? (Nimmy's comment: I actually cried when I thought of how Kareena or rather the character she played in the movie had got transformed from someone so alive and intense to someone so pale and drained!)

Imagine the spark to be a lamp’s flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.

To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn’t any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.

Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement.
But it isn’t the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won’t be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday?
They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.
Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature’s design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school. Where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. (Emphasis by me) Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark - don’t take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don’t be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It’s ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

I’ve told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.
Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don’t go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you.

But it’s life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that’s where you want to be.
Disappointment’s cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don’t know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release.

Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result – at least I was learning how to write scripts , having a side plan – I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.
Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you.

In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty darn lucky by Indian standards. Let’s be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don’t. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don’t get literary praise. It’s ok. I don’t look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It’s ok. Don’t let unfairness kill your spark.

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I’ve told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, you eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.
Thank You.

Come (to my) Home (dear) Life...!

Been listening to this song during the weekend and feel like I could go on listening to it forever.....awesome music, lyrics and voices. There's nothing like music. Nothing!

PS: What an amazing first line....! (Title of this post...)

The Curse of Growth...

I am looking for books/articles/sources of information that narrate real and genuine stories of large companies that manage to be agile, efficient and effective. I am aware of "Who says Elephants can't dance?"...but are there any other worthwhile books to be read? And, btw, is "Who says Elephants......" a good book in this context? Thanks in advance for sharing your views. I am keen to learn how large organizations manage to grow and decentralize their operations and yet manage to retain a single inspiring vision, a wonderful connectedness, overall efficiency (cutting across processes and departments), and knowledge - undiluted and reliable - that flows through every node in the organization.

It's another thing that I've always believed that an organization that is high and genuine on vision and not a run-of-the-mill, crude profit-making machine should actually try and retain an optimal size rather than focus on growing to an enormous size and satisfying the stock market's whims and fancies. On a related note, I'd, for example, partially expressed my thoughts on MindTree's business strategy many years ago.

There's another very relevant and current example that I need to mention in this context. Though I've been a bit slow in terms of catching up with the latest business stories, a friend recently brought up the topic of Starbucks' current plight in one of our conversations. The very next day, I also, coincidentally, bumped into an article in HBR on Starbucks. The article opines that Starbucks' problems started when they went public and subsequently diluted their brand while trying to expand in conventional ways. Sad, eh?

PS: Kung Fu Panda is likely to shake his cute head in disagreement if he reads this post...."There is no such thing as the curse of growth!" he might say.... ;-)

Lion of a Vision!

"Empower yourself with the highest, grandest and joyest vision that motivates and inspires you. Higher the vision, the more you will draw the positive, vibrant and dynamic energies required to live and fulfill that dream." - Zenyasi

Hallelujah!! The quote flows through me like a flash, from head to toe. I want to pursue such a vision....! When on earth do I start? When on earth do I realize my true potential? When?

Honestly....

I can't tolerate manipulation. I can't tolerate manipulative people. Even if it is for a good cause that the manipulation is being resorted to. Something tells me it will simply not work in the long run...in fact, it is bound to backfire. It cuts off human bonds. I like straightforward inspiration and openness. I like honesty. I like people who speak their heart even if it is a frightful thing to do for them. The only exceptions being situations wherein you don't want to unnecessarily hurt someone who doesn't deserve to be. But most people today seem to think that being ruthlessly honest and straightforward is a drawback - in the corporate world, if not in one's personal life. People seem to tend to think it is a disability that the world will take undue advantage of.

Both fiction and world history give us stories of heroes who were manipulatively clever with their enemies and of heroes who were honest, upright, simple and straight. The honest hero can sleep peacefully and does not have to worry about getting entangled in the threads of manipulation that are likely to form a web of distrust, confusion and falsehood. We have enough and more confusion in the world already! Why not make things easy and simple for ourselves? If the cause that we are fighting for is genuine and really worth it, being honest ought to yield positive results...tomorrow, if not today. Being honest will result in people trusting you throughout. Being manipulative will sow seeds of doubt in the minds of people you deal with (sooner or later) and make them suspect every move of yours. They begin to look for hidden agendas, blind spots and sudden curves. They become over-cautious thus spoiling the overall experience for everyone involved. Such situations do not bring forth genuine enthusiasm, trust and passion. Nothing great is ever achieved without an environment that makes everyone feel excited, enthusiastic, positive, trusting and passionate.

Say 'No' to manipulation. Go for honesty, transparency and simplicity. Please don't take the honest folks for granted. Instead, respect them for it. The world will be a simpler and happier place to live in! :-) Over and out.

KM and the World's Problems

"Knowledge Management will not solve the problem of world hunger!"....like some folks fed up of being chased by overenthusiastic KMers, might say. ;-) But you know what? I would like to dare to suggest that KM may not definitely solve the problem of world hunger....but it may very well have been the very lack of KM mechanisms and environment that lead to world hunger! Doing something does not make the world more exciting than it is....but not doing it can leave the world a more difficult place than it would otherwise be. Makes sense or what? No? Let me tell you a story that made me think on these lines....

A few days ago, I was a passive participant in a group conversation that covered a plethora of topics which were not of great interest to me. Suddenly, a scientist (who was naturally inclined towards research) in the group mentioned something that caught my attention. He said he had spent a lot of time digging into the concept of horoscopes and had come to the conclusion that the (Indian) practice of seeking an alignment in the horoscopes of potential grooms and brides was dicey and unreliable. He went on to explain that the concept of horoscopes per se was convincing and he was quite inclined to believe that the relative movement of planets as well as the positions of planets at the time at which a person was born (Indian style of drawing a person's horoscope) seemed to have a mysterious say in the human's personality and destiny. So, where did he have a problem? He then said he explored the method/approach of comparing two horoscopes to find out whether there was an alignment or not and that was when he discovered that there were three key methods. Now, that's not what is meant to open your eyes. It may be obvious to you. What he said after that is what you might find thought-provoking. He said the results obtained on using the three methods are never the same. He said the outcome of following these approaches turned out to be different...and sometimes the opposite of each other! So, how do you know which one to believe? How do you know which one is 'right'? He went on for a while and strongly recommended listeners to take his finding into consideration and not believe the practice blindly because you simply don't know what's the right method. Sensible, I thought. Unless, as a layman, you somehow have the unbiased wherewithal to dig really hard and acquire the knowledge to find out what's the 'right' method...the so-called truth.

The conversation ended there, but it had me thinking for a while. Why was there more than one version of the "truth"? Why was there so much confusion? What is 'true' knowledge and how do you recognize it? Which of these three approaches would one decide on using and how? What was the origin/cause for such a situation?

I did not get all the answers but some of the things that occurred to me was that....
a) There was perhaps no centralized ownership, body, system, and mechanism to harness and manage this knowledge and that must have chiefly led to the existence of multiple and opposite approaches...causing the confusion that exists today. Knowledge creation? Yes. Management? No.

b) There was perhaps not enough and effective collective thinking and collaboration on merging the latter approaches and findings with the first-constructed method (Of course, let's not forget that ego and politics play a major role in such things. Sometimes it is really about lack of unbiased leadership and lack of a desire to get to the truth and be honest and sincere to one's profession. It is about safeguarding one's place under the sun. Thus, admittedly, the current situation may not quite be because of lack of collective thinking processes and mechanisms but because of the lack of an appropriate culture)

Anyway, I found myself gravitating towards the belief that the confusion today ought to be partly because of lack of KM practices! :-) And I then extended the same thought process into areas like religion. I found myself thinking about why there are so many religions even though most religions advocate the same noble things. Why is there no knowledge management and collective thinking when it comes to religions? Realistically speaking, is it possible at all to merge everything into one entity? But of course, the idea is not about avoiding variety and opposition but allowing it to emerge and then merge. It's like letting all the variety live together....letting all the rivers flow into one ocean. Speaking of which, I believe there has been an attempt to unify all religions into one...eh? I think I read about it somewhere....don't seem to be able to recall now...

And, hey, if you're reading this, thanks for letting me ramble.....yet again! :P

Mr.Mistake Comes Knocking Again...

After reading a thoughtful post on Jack's blog, I rambled about mistakes here and here. If you happened to have tuned into those posts and introspected about your own mistakes and their repercussions, you may like this one from Steve Goodier. Some food for thought from Steve on there being no need to be Right all the time.

Rats, Rabbits, Hats, Habits....

Anonymous - "A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats."

Hahahaahaa!! What an astonishing discovery! Must have been a serendipitous one that probably started off with some spoonerism. Tickles me. And, hey, did you notice that biting off a bit of the habit leaves us with the hat (and the rat in case it was the rat that did the biting)?

I know....you might now want to join the gang of 'pullers' and want to pull my life out of me. Relax. Pip-pip till the next post...! ;-)

"Cool Thinking"?

A cool thinker neither thinks positively, nor negatively. He is simply balanced in his thinking. He strikes a practical balance between the two, after having clearly understood and analyzed the pros and cons of a situation. Such complete thinkers turn out to be great decision-makers and efficient managers. Think Cool! Think Complete! - Br. Sattvika Chaitanya

Agree. Makes complete sense - and actually inspires me - when it comes to most of the routine and mundane things....as in regular day-to-day life. But I believe there are times when it is a brilliant idea to refuse to acknowledge reality and do one's own 'unbalanced' thing or even the opposite of what is considered sensible. To put it bluntly, at times, it is an awesome idea to not be balanced, understanding and accommodating in one's thinking! Thinking positively, in a skewed way, about something that is generally considered impossible today can make it a reality tomorrow depending on how strongly skewed our thinking is ;-) (Think of airplanes). Only if the thinker passionately believes in it (despite all previous evidence and logical thinking pointing the other way) and cares two hoots for 'reality' do such miracles happen in life. The magic of life manifests itself only when we get a bit 'crazy' and forget 'reality' and how society would expect us to react to it.

Of course, such thinking may not always result in miracles and magic, but we at least have the extreme satisfaction of knowing we had a dream and gave it our all. And we are going to be happier we listened to our crazy little inner voice rather than settle for the boring and ordinary and then wonder till the very end if we could have probably pulled off something visionary or radically different.

Unusual Paradox

It's been a long time since I spoke of Paradoxes. I haven't been bumping into them for a while now. So, I was a bit excited to come across one recently. It is about something that's, well, a bit gross. But I just can't help mentioning it because it is, nevertheless, a paradox. I will not be doing justice to my love for paradoxes if I don't record this on my blog. And moreover, it is about saving the environment....

This may be a nasty and disgusting thing for people who don't know India or, in other words, for people who are not used to such things. It is a common sight, here, to see men attend to nature's call in public (disgusting...even if it happens to be an isolated corner or away from the pavements and traffic). Sick. Unpardonable and gross. Shoot them down is my unilateral suggestion. (My temper is rising. Need to come back to the paradox thing lest I forget what I am writing this post for). There have been many attempts to build public rest rooms to prevent such a criminal treatment of the environment and not to forget the embarrassment to the other people on the road. But most of these places charge a small sum of money for usage, especially in bus stands, parks, tourist spots etc. (Of course, in some places, there is no charge.) So, where is the paradox now? Would you have thought of this? I recently came across an article which says, in TN, there apparently is a place where they have decided to pay money (the same small amount) to the people who use the rest room rather than dirty public places!!! I think the guys who thought of this idea need to be garlanded and celebrated for life. Brilliant. You want the environment to be clean and healthy, then don't ask them to pay in order to keep it that way.....instead, you pay them for listening to you! :-)

Trains, Trees and Challenges!

Got this from a friend. Awesome. Love it. Adore it. :)

Challenges are like trees seen through a running train. As you approach them they grow bigger, once you pass them they become smaller! So never be afraid of them.

Child -> Adult and Adult -> Child

It pains me to see children who behave like (most) adults, that is, minus the innocence, naivety, silliness, mirth, playfulness, curiosity, courage, blind confidence, lack of botheration about what others will say or think etc. And, ironically, it also pains me to see adults who have forgotten how to 'be' or don't believe in 'being' a child..... :-(

Flash in the Brain

"Anything is OK....just as long as you accept it as it is and figure out how to deal with it....err....either before it is too late or, in certain cases, even as it changes." - Nimmy :-)

The Story of Adversity

Like anything in life, it is only when you are faced with adversity that you find out what you are truly made of. - Dr Sattar Bawany

Studying how we respond when we are subjected to adversity can surely be a shocking or blissful (or perhaps even boring) revelation of our true selves and how we have 'brought ourselves up'! :) I guess how we respond during our growing years depends on how much we learn to and draw upon our native wisdom and inspiration and how much we are influenced by our family, friends and advisers. How we respond to adversity as we grow much older depends on how much we have learned from our previous approaches and experiences and, further on, how much time we spend thinking about what's the 'right' and 'happy' way to face adversity....

I guess the response to adversity can be categorized or generalized even while considering that the context keeps changing....we have the shameful "i want to run away" escapism, the cool "don't worry, be happy" attitude, the brave "i shall not let this get to me" way, the casual "this is life...it had to happen" style, the methodical "i'll analyse this thing and crack it even if it takes time" approach, the controlling "what the hell is happening here" style, the creative "i'll handle this my style" stuff, the wise "ok. it's over. nothing. learn. move on. dont let it happen again" method, the humble "i need some help" resignation, the challenging "hah. you're nothing. give me more" attitude, the intrigued "why did this have to happen?" attitude, the confused "eh? oops? what?' incompetence, the blank and ignorant "really? i did not know" character, the admirable "laugh. see the humor in it. it's not so serious actually" style.....whew!! OK. I am tired of generalising. Hey, actually, that's another style of facing adversities....the weak "I am tired. No more." attitude.... ;-)

I guess there are many more generalisations that one could list down. But each of us is probably habituated to and known for one or two dominant styles (that may be difficult to shake off!). What's your style?

Post from the Past

I revisited some of my old posts...with the intention of taking a quiet walk down memory lane, finding something amusing or inspiring and generally exploring my past introspections....

Out of the dozen odd posts I had the time to revisit, there was this old post written three years ago that brought some light into my eyes and made me wish I'd be inspired to the same extent once again (but I don't remember the context in which I wrote the post...must have probably read something inspiring or may have been fortunate enough to experience a sudden burst of energy and wisdom on that day)

Radically Conservative

Mark Twain - "The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them."

Not the first time I have quoted the one and only Mark Twain.......This statement of his is, I believe, the bare truth! Wondering if this thought of his was considered radical at that time? ;-) Now you know why some geniuses who weren't understood by society were stated to be 'ahead' of their times... :-)