MY CONVERSATION WITH GOD...

God : Hello. Did you call me?
Me: Called you? No.. who is this?
God : This is GOD. I heard your prayers. So I thought I will chat.
Me: I do pray. Just makes me feel good. I am actually busy now. I am in the midst of something.
God : What are you busy at? Ants are busy too.
Me: Don't know. But I cant find free time. Life has become hectic. It's rush hour all the time.
God : Sure. Activity gets you busy. But productivity gets you results. Activity consumes time. Productivity frees it.
Me: I understand. But I still can't figure out. By the way, I was not expecting YOU to buzz me on instant messaging chat.
God : Well I wanted to resolve your! fight for time, by giving you some clarity. In this net era, I wanted to reach you through the medium you are comfortable with.
Me: Tell me, why has life become complicated now?
God : Stop analyzing life. Just live it. Analysis is what makes it complicated.
Me: why are we then constantly unhappy?
God : Your today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.You are worrying because you are analyzing. Worrying has become your habit. That's why you are not happy.
Me: But how can we not worry when there is so much uncertainty?
God : Uncertainty is inevitable, but worrying is optional.
Me: But then, there is so much pain due to uncertainty. .
God : Pain is inevitable able, but suffering is optional.
Me: If suffering is optional, why do good people always suffer?
God : Diamond cannot be polished without friction. Gold cannot be purified without fire. Good people go through trials, but don't suffer. With that experience their life become better not bitter.
Me: You mean to say such experience is useful?
God : Yes. In every terms, Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first and the lessons afterwards.
Me: But still, why should we go through such tests? Why cant we be free from problems?
God : Problems are Purposeful Roadblocks Offering Beneficial Lessons (to) Enhance Mental Strength. Inner strength comes from struggle and endurance, not when you! are free from problems.
Me: Frankly in the midst of so many problems, we don't know where we are heading..
God : If you look outside you will not know where you are heading.Look inside. Looking outside, you dream. Looking inside, you awaken. Eyes provide sight. Heart provides insight.
Me: Sometimes not succeeding fast seems to hurt more than moving in the right direction. What should I do?
God : Success is a measure as decided by others. Satisfaction is a measure as decided by you. Knowing the road ahead is more satisfying than knowing you rode ahead. You work with the compass. Let others work with the clock.
Me: In tough times, how do you stay motivated?
God : Always look at how far you have come rather than how far you have to go. Always count your blessing, not what you are missing.
Me: What surprises you about people?
God : when they suffer they ask, "why me?" When they prosper, they never ask "Why me" Everyone wishes to have truth on their side, but few want to be on the side of the truth.
Me: Sometimes I ask, who am I, why am I here. I cant get the answer.
God : Seek not to find who you are, but to determine who you want to be. Stop looking for a purpose as to why you are here. Create it. Life is not a process of discovery but a process of creation.
Me: How can I get the best out of life?
God : Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear.
Me: One last question. Sometimes I feel my prayers are not answered.
God : There are no unanswered prayers. At times the answer is NO.
Me: Thank you for this wonderful chat.
God : Well. Keep the faith and drop the fear. Don't believe your doubts and doubt your beliefs. Life is a mystery to solve not a problem to resolve. Trust me. Life is wonderful if you know how to live. "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that took our breath away!

Success Redefined - Individual, Team or Organization: The Rule of 21

hi guyz.. one more article from my side which you can read from the link given below.. just click on that and let me know how is it.. previously i wrote on success and this one is on success redefined..
kaash hume bhi chhu jaye ye success ka keeda..

http://www.coolavenues.com/cafe/articles/gaurav-success-1.php

truly admirable... what do you say?????

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING
THROUGH THE DESERT.
DURING SOME POINT
OF THE JOURNEY,
THEY HAD AN ARGUMENT;
AND ONE FRIEND SLAPPED
THE OTHER ONE IN THE FACE.
THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED
WAS HURT,
BUT WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING,
WROTE IN THE SAND:
TODAY
MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME
IN THE FACE.
THEY KEPT ON WALKING,
UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS,
WHERE THEY DECIDED
TO TAKE A BATH.
THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN SLAPPED
GOT STUCK IN THE MIRE
AND STARTED DROWNING,
BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.
AFTER HE RECOVERED
FROM THE NEAR DROWNING,
HE WROTE ON A STONE:
"TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE".
THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED AND
SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND
ASKED HIM,
"AFTER I HURT YOU, YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW, YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?"
THE FRIEND REPLIED
"WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN IN SAND,
WHERE WINDS OF FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.
BUT,
WHEN SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING GOOD FOR US,
WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE WHERE NO WIND CAN EVER ERASE IT."

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND
TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

THEY SAY
IT TAKES A MINUTE TO FIND A SPECIAL PERSON,
AN HOUR TO APPRECIATE THEM,
A DAY TO LOVE THEM,
BUT THEN AN ENTIRE LIFE TO FORGET THEM.

"DEAL WITH STRESS: THE POWER OF 9"

EVERY ONE OF YOU IS DEALING WITH THIS. EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT IT’S BAD FOR THE HEALTH AND EVERYBODY KNOWS HOW TO COPE UP WITH IT. BUT DO WE REALLY MAKE THE SINCERE EFFORTS TO DEAL WITH STRESS.

I WOULD JUST LIKE TO DRAW YOUR ATTENTION TO A SMALL STORY WHICH YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD SOMETIME. A CLASS TEACHER ONCE DREW THE ATTENTION OF HIS SCIENCE CLASS TOWARDS A GLASS FULL OF WATER. HE ASKED THE CLASS TO GUESS THE WEIGHT OF THE GLASS. SOME ONE SAID 200ml AND SOME ONE SAID 500ml AND SO ON. THE TEACHER NOW LIFTED THE GLASS HIGH IN AIR AT AN ANGLE OF 180DEGREES AND ASKED THE CLASS AS IF HE CAN HOLD THE GLASS FOR HOW LONG. AGAIN THE SURMISES BEGIN RANGING FROM 2MINS TO 2HRS DEPENDING ON THE STRENGTH OF THE TEACHER. AND THE NEXT QUESTION WAS, “WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER 15MINS?” ONE STUDENT SAID THAT THE HAND WILL START PAINING MILDLY. “AND WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER 1HR?” THE TEACHER ASKED. THE CLASS REPLIED THAT THE HAND WILL STRAIN AND CAN LEAD TO LEAUKEMIA TOO. BUT RIGHT THEN THE TEACHER PUT DOWN THEW GLASS AND ASKED THE RESULT. “YOUR HAND WILL COME TO NORMAL POSITION AFTER FEW SECONDS” THE CLASS SAID IN UNANIMITY. NOW TEACHER EXPLAINED THAT THE GLASS IS NOTHING BUT OUR MIND AND WATER IS LIKE WORRIES. WE KEEP CARRYING THEM TILL THE TIME THEY LEAD US TO DISASTER. AND ONCE WE PUT THEM DOWN, WE ARE BACK IN HEALTH. SO WHY CARRY THE BURDEN OF YOUR WORRIES FROM HERE TO THERE.

IT IS, PRACTICALLY, IMPOSSIBLE TO AVOID STRESS IN TODAY’S FAST CHANGING WORLD AND THE REASONS COULD BE DIFFERENT. ONE MIGHT HAVE GOT A SCOLDING FROM THE BOSS OR THE TEACHER, OR ONE MIGHT HAD A FIGHT WITH A FRIEND OR A LOVED ONE. ONE MIGHT BE UNABLE TO COMPLETE A TASK OR MIGHT BE SEARCHING FOR A TASK TO COMPLETE (UNEMPLOYED)… THE REASONS COULD BE DIFFERENT BUT ONE THING IS SURE THAT EVERYONE IS STRESSED IRRESPECTIVE OF HIS/HER BIOLIGICAL STATE.

HOWEVER ALL STRESS IS NOT BAD SO NO NEED TO AVOID IT EITHER. THERE IS GOOD STRESS ALSO KNOWN AS “EUSTRESS” WHICH HELPS INDIRECTLY. STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT ONE PERFORMS BEST UNDER STRESS. THE PRESSURE TO REACH THE DEADLINES MAKE PEOPLE PERFORM. BUT IT IS HELPFUL ONLY IN SHORT TERM. THUS ONE MUST ALWAYS TRY TO AVOID STRESS AND IF NOT POSSIBLE, DIRECT IT TO POSITIVE SIDE…

SO HERE ARE SOME OF THE TIPS WHICH ARE PRACTICAL, DOES NOT CONSUME MUCH OF YOUR TIME AND MAY HELP YOU NOT ONLY OVERCOME STRESS BUT ALSO AVOID IT IN FUTURE.TRY THEM…
1. TALK: WHENEVER STRESSED, TALK TO SOME ONE WHO CAN LISTEN TO YOU, MAY BE YOUR BEST FRIEND, YOUR MOM, ETC.
2. TAKE DEEP BREATHS: SOUNDS CLIQUE BUT IT WORKS.. TRY IT WHENEVER YOU ARE IN STRESS.
3. EAT, SLEEP, EXERCISE: IT’S THE GURU MANTRA, THE PANACEA.. ALL THREE IN BALANCE AND STRESS CANNOT EVEN TOUCH YOU..
4. SMILE: IT COVERS A MILE.
5. RECOGNIZE YOUR POTENTIAL: LEARN TO LOVE YOURSELF; AFTER ALL YOU ARE THE BEST.
6. PURSUE YOUR HOBBY: DON’T BE AFRAID TO PURSUE YOUR HOBBIES AT ANY AGE, AFTER ALL WHO CARES.
7. MAINTAIN A DIARY: WHEN NOONE IS THERE TO LISTEN, POUR OUT YOURSELF ON A PIECE OF PAPER. YOU WILL FEEL LIGHTER.
8. TAKE BREAKS: IT MISGUIDES THE STRESS. IT COMES IN INSTALLMENTS AND YOU CAN DEAL WITH IT.
9. LISTEN: VERY HARD TO PRACTICE BUT HELP YOU IN LONG RUN.

WELL, THESE ARE SOME OF THE GOLDEN RULES TO DEAL WITH STRESS, CALL THEM “THE POWER OF 9”.

AND YES, START WORKING NOW BECAUSE,

"Even if you're on the right track you'll get run over if you just sit there."

an address by subroto bagchi, juz to start with...

(This is the address by Subroto Bagchi, COO, MindTree to the Class of 2006 at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore on "Defining Success". July 2nd 2004.)

I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school near-by and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and, without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father. My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system which makes me what I am today and largely defines what success means to me today. As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government - he reiterated to us that it was not 'his jeep' but the government's jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary. That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do. The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my father's office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix 'dada' whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, 'Raju Uncle' - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family drivers as 'my driver'. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe. To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors. Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother's chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was no gas, nor electrical stoves. The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman's 'muffosil' edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson. He used to say, "You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it". That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept. Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement Of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons. We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply, "We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses". His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant. Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions. Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father's transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, "I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited". That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success. My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life, I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness. Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term "Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan" and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University's water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination. Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.Over the next few years, my mother's eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, "Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair". I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, "No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed". Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes. To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light. Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life's own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life's calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world. In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my father opened his eyes and murmured to her, "Why have you not gone home yet?" Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self. There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what is the limit of inclusion you can create. My father died the next day. He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion. Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant's world. My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post- independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions. In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum. Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said, "Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world." Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees 300, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity - was telling me to go and kiss the world! Success to me is about vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy f pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives. Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and Godspeed. Go, kiss the world.