Do take a Leaf out of Someone’s Book but also Look at the Entire Book - My Thoughts

Meaning :

Meaning of the phrase "Do take a leaf out of someone’s book" is - To adopt an idea or practice of another person so that it brings one with the advantages.
This shows the importance one needs to give to the good ideas or practices of people whom we come across in our walk of life and look at putting these into practice for our betterment.

 

My Views :

In this case we tend to focus on the leaf of the book – i.e. select ideas of people that appeal to us. This is all fine but I feel we also need to look at the other facets in people - whom we come across in our life journey as these facets, qualities can also be equally good and worth picking up.

This can be simply co-related with the flowers of a plant or a tree that most of us appreciate and comment on - for the simple reason that these flowers strike our gaze, enchant us by their looks, vibrant colours and smells. But I feel credit should also be given to the tree – which has grown in the first place and due to which the flowers have bloomed thereon.  And then the life-cycle of seeds from the flowers again making way for new trees to grow carries on.

 

Co-relation to life :

Do look at the small and beautiful aspects of our lives and treasure them – but do keep in mind that these treasures have become possible and are an off-shoot, part of life in its entirety. And this understanding of life will surely help us in enjoying the joyous moments, living the challenges – that life offers and open up our minds wider to the entire diversity in our lives. More-over this will also help us in interacting with different people - better - during the course of our life journey and possibly make this journey more enriching in the years to come.

 

Synopsis :

So go ahead and surely do take a leaf out of someone’s book, but don’t restrict yourself to the leaf in the book – take a hard look at the book in its entirety.          

 

 

Kindness is Contagious – so spread it - Article from May 2014

Dear All

The title is inspired by same proverb displayed on sticker that is stuck on 1 of the doors of a neighbour’s house where I stay.    

Occasion for this article is a real life incident which happened sometime in the last week of May 2014 at around 9 pm at night while I was driving back home from my office at Bandra.

After driving for 5 minutes on the road at Kalanagar-Bandra, enroute to the Western Express highway I saw a man sleeping on the road and blocking the car path (half of the road). I had an option of turning my car on the right and drive away back on route to home. But at that instant thru some instinct I stopped the car. Then I walked near the man to check if he was injured and saw no signs of any injury or blood but could see that he was breathing by the movement of his chest but was fast asleep otherwise (I sensed that apparently he was heavily drunk and had fully passed out).  

I travel by the road frequently and the cars drive fast in there. So there was a possibility that some car/cars would not be so careful and drive over the man’s body – injuring him severely or even killing him. I immediately decided that I needed to take all possible steps to save this man from getting injured. The reasons for his drunkenness may or may not be his fault – but he will be someone’s son, someone’s husband, someone’s father or any combination out of the three. I knew that 5 minutes enroute there is also a police check-post and police vans are stationed there.
I drove near the police check-post - on the way waved and stopped 2 cars coming from the opposite direction and narrated them to drive carefully so as not to drive over the man.
I narrated the incident of the sleeping man in detail to 2 police staff who were sitting at the post and to 1 police officer who was sitting in the police van and requested them to take due care and sensitized them that otherwise there was a high risk of the man getting seriously injured by moving vehicles.

I stopped to see & from a distance saw them reach over near the man and then I started the car and drove back home. I had possibly saved 1 life or at-least a major injury  

After returning home, post my dinner I got a rush of thoughts in my mind:

Why did I stop my car?
Because this may not be first instance of me observing a man lying sleeping on the road and I don’t recollect stopping my car even once in the past 10 years since I am driving except may be on 2/3 occasions where I had stopped for a moment and then driven away the next instant.

Was there any purpose for my actions being different this time?

Am I seeing some shift in my thinking – closer to becoming kinder, serving society?
I decided to think deeper but I still could not get the correct answers.

One thought that struck to me was, may-be it was possible that some people had taken care of me in the earlier years of my life when I had suffered injuries or encountered difficult situations and may be God wanted me to repay back to the society- by helping others.

Then I recollected 2 incidents from my childhood days:

1) When I was in 4th standard in school we were playing langdi on school ground after the school got over at around 12.30. The ground was of concrete and I had just learnt the langdi pose or stance. It was my den and I slipped while trying to catch my friend with the langdi pose and fell on the concrete floor on my head. The next instant I recollect I was in doctor’s cabin (since I had passed out) with my grandfather by my side and the doctor putting a bandage around my head and telling grandfather not to send me to school for 10 days.

l came to know on the next day from grandfather that my entire fore-head had been stitched and told me that 1 of my friend (I recollect Sanjay-he used to stay somewhere @ Chakala) along-with his mother had checked around – traced the maid servant who used to come for picking me – put me in an auto and dropped me home @ Vile-parle in the fastest possible time, since I was bleeding profusely.  He also told me that the Doctor had said that delay would have resulted in blood loss since it not stopping and me being admitted to hospital.

I need to check on Sanjay and meet his mother – the last time I recollect meeting him was at-least 13-14 years back.  

2) Next incident was when we were playing cricket on our ground when I was in 8th/9th standard. I ran for catching the ball for getting a batsman out and one of my friend also ran for the catch. My friend collided with me head on and his head hit my nose and my nose started bleeding profusely. One of our other friends from the group (I recollect his name was Diru) was staying across the road and he with all our cricket team (we were 5/6 boys) took me home. Diru’s house was locked so we rang his neighbour’s bell and the lady in the house, applied Ice on my nose for the next half an hour with her 2 daughters taking turns. The lady said that my nose had shaped into a tomato shape – with red colour – to which except me all others had a good laugh on her joke.    

The very next day of the incident, I visited the same police post near Kalanagar-Bandra and checked about the drunken man – whose whereabouts I had notified to the police and got a positive feedback from the police post to the effect that the man was recovering from his drunken-ness.  

Some Learnings that I could derive from these childhood incidents:

1. There may be other such incidents also – and I mentally thanked them in my mind and then realized that maybe now the time has come for me to return the good deeds back to the society. I also made up my mind to stretch my memory and recollect all the good people who have helped me in the past and try to trace and visit them.

2. May be there is something bigger that God has in mind for me to contribute to the society at large. I am still to think of a way – though I know that there are a lot of options available at hand, to make this genuinely possible.

Also if by this small write-up, I can ignite a spark in some people’s minds – I think this would be a good beginning. 

 

Have a great day

Ravindra

 

Make my day and make lives of people better

Dear Friends

 

My Inspiration for this article is based on a true incident that happened with me, some time in month of February 2017.

Sometime during this year we had an office lunch party, but forgot to narrate to my wife and she packed my regular lunch-box. I realized in the evening, that the lunch box was there with me and more-over I would be late in returning home since I had to attend our office dinner party.

Also by that time almost all the office staff had left, so there was no person to whom I could have given away my tiffin box.

I left my office and started walking across the road to where my car was parked and thinking to myself what to do with the tiffin box – not wanting to waste the delicious food in anyway – that was home-cooked by my wife.

Just then I came across 2/3 hutments across the road near to the place where my car was parked and a lady cooking on a stove outside 1 of the hutments. I immediately walked across and spoke to the lady and offered her the tiffin box. She took it gladly and emptied the contents of my tiffin box in her spare utensils. On seeing the vegetable (it was potato-brinjal mix curry), she let out a squeal – and said thanks my boy - it’s my son’s favourite vegetable. The shine in her eyes said a thousand words and made my day.

I also recollected another incident from my school years, when during rainy season I took 1 student of our school (unknown to me) who was not carrying any rain-coat / umbrella along-with me in my umbrella…to the school from the bus-stop. And that boy gave me the greatest of thank-you wishes that I still re-collect and treasure, much more than any other gifts that I have received till now.  

I thought to myself that in the same way as I had helped and supported the people in their lives in my own small way, another set of people would also have given me the help, support in their own special way. And thereby it must be God’s own way of returning back the good deeds to people, (through me as a medium) of the good deeds that were rendered to me by other people.  

That day I thought to myself – there are so many ways of supporting the people while living our daily lives and this need not necessarily be only through financial means.

I mean simple things like - giving away your son’s last year text-books to the needy children instead of selling them to the newspaper vendor, teaching simple basic mathematics to your maid’s son who can’t afford to go to school – which will surely help him in his routine life when he grows up, reading out newspapers to the people at old-age homes and so on.  

Thus if we can through different ways – Make someone’s day brighter and cheerful and in the process improve the lives of at-least some people in this world....and that too without expecting anything in return, then I am sure the satisfaction that we would get out of these deeds would be worth its weight in gold.

 

Get Inspired and enjoy

Ravindra

Learnings from Facebook (Article from June 2014)

Dear Friends


You must be wondering what the title is about:

•    Is there something new happening on Facebook?

•    Is there any new post put up or any gadget being advertised?

•    Is there any new app FB has developed?

Well it’s not about Facebook but about someone from Facebook.

This is about book by Facebook COO - Sheryl Sandberg that I read in June 2014. In the book she talks about women empowerment, work life balance and a whole lot of things.

I am quoting some snippets from her book - that are backed by statistical data:
 

•    Men get promoted based on potential and women based on past accomplishments.   

•    For women - when it comes to work life balance, life always wins over work.
•    Men make most of the decisions in the world whereas women’s voices are not heard.
•    Women hold themselves back in their work areas by the lack of self-confidence, not

      raising their hands, pulling themselves back when actually they should put forward their  

      thoughts firmly.
•    She talks about women to get rid of their internal barriers and to recognize their potential.
•    She puts forward her thoughts of a move to an equal world of opportunities for women as
.     well as men.

 My thoughts
 

1. Though we are seeing a shift where women are now moving to the top and we have some

    examples in India like Kiran Shaw at Biocon, Indira Niyoogi at Pepsi, Vinita Bali at   
    Britannia, Naina Kidwai at HSBC India, we are not yet seeing more women at the top  
    positions in India.
2. However I sincerely believe that it is a matter of time since the current generation of    
    women have the aspirations, will and the attitude to go the full distance.
3. We can also take inspirations from women within our group and relatives, and though    
     majority of them do not work in the outside world, in their own special way they influence
     and contribute to the success of their other family members.
4.  I strongly believe that in our group, we have women with the potential to go the full way
     and head the organization in various positions either as CEO/CFO/COO etc. in the near    
     future - be it in the fields of architecture, medical, finance, banking, HR, dentistry etc. It is
     just a matter of believing in yourself, dreaming big & consciously working towards it.
5.  Even our Indian government has made an indirect contribution by insisting on having   
     women directors on the board of companies that are listed on the stock exchanges.

SO - I am willing to bet against anyone, that we will have at-least 1 women from amongst our group who will make it to the top and head an organization in the future. 
If I consider the pool of young talent in our group be it one from the many Zara’s, Surabhi’s, Misha, Tanaya, Aarya, Vibha, Sarika and from other siblings of our extended group - just quoting some names for reference that I could think of from my whole laundry list of relatives.  (since recollecting & quoting names of all woman from this list is simply beyond my limited level of intelligence)!!

But I am sure quite a handful from these talented lot of women will rise to fame, I think the chances of my bet on 1 woman from our group making it to the top are loaded heavily in my favor.   

What can we do to inspire and motivate the women in our life to recognize their potential and go to the top? 

Well you can start with inspiring, guiding & motivating the women at your work-place - either who are reporting to you, your colleagues.

Alternatively you can take-up some additional portion of the household chores and if it means your spouse upgrading her knowledge in that time, doing some professional work it is worth it. 

If above effort seems difficult to you, you can start with reading this book which will definitely inspire you for taking the next steps..

 
In the future generations then may-be we will change the proverb from –
Behind every successful man there is a woman - TO - Behind every successful woman there is also a man !!

 

Enjoy

Ravindra

 

Journey to Leh-Ladakh & the journey within (Article from August 2014)

Journey to Leh-Ladakh & the journey within

Dear All

Sharing some insights on our Leh-Ladakh trip which we had been from the 3rd to 13th August,2014 with a total of 12 travelers – having an assorted mix of youth , middle-aged & elderly persons - by age - but all of them – young by heart !!

1. Travelers list
Myself-Ravindra
Shilpa
Milind dada
Nutan Vahini
Rajas
Sukhada
Anuja
Nitindada
Jyotivahini
Kedar
Vijumai
Vivekkaka

By the way the travelers list is randomly arranged and it will take some effort to judge the persons who are youngest by heart
Moreover as you go thru the article, you will see that the persons who were eldest by age were the ones who effortlessly demonstrated that they were the youngest by heart.

2. Visit to Hall of Fame (Kargill war-May to July 1999)
We visited the Hall of fame at Kargill where the Indian soldiers had fought & won key strategic India locations – that were captured by the Pakistan army.
We also watched the video film of the Kargill war where the battles fought at Tololing, Tiger hill, other locations were displayed – along with the modern weapons used e.g. Bofors guns, bombing of Pakistani bunkers by the Mirage 2000 aircrafts. The war showcased the co-ordination by the different units of the Indian army viz. the Navy, Airforce & Artillery units and is ranked as one of the benchmarks of all the wars, considering that this was done in the face of harsh climatic conditions & without having the full-fledged infrastructure for waging this kind of a war.
Our group distributed sweets at the Kargill venue to some soldiers- and the shine/gleam that I noticed in the soldiers eyes was priceless.
I also read some letters written by the soldiers to their children wherein they mentioned that the threat of death is a part of the professional hazard and their children should take care of the elderly persons in the family & the grandchildren. And impart good values to the grandchildren for succeeding in life. The clarity of thoughts, especially even while facing threats of death (in adversity) left me spellbound.
One thing that struck me immediately was that we appreciate, recognize the importance of the soldiers / army only when we visit such places or at best only on the 2 days of 15th August & 26th January.
To start with - Next time when we are making / buying sweets (ladoos, chivada) or at-least before eating them, let us resolve to think or pause for a moment about our soldiers and their war deeds. - this will be a good beginning.

3. Mother Nature is the King
We visited a lot of places – highest motorable road at Khardung pass @ 18380 ft., Pangong lake, Sonmarg, monasteries, anti-gravity point, took a lot of photos.
The topography in terms of rock & snow formations, the variety of rock, flora & fauna colors, birds, water, breeze was out of the world and dynamic (changing every 500 meters or so)
One important learning was that - No matter how much intelligent we human beings are – with a variety of skills & experiences at times you are helpless against Mother Nature.- this realization was reiterated when we were stuck for 4 hours on the way to Sonamarg due to a landslide and later due to traffic.

4. Funny & Thrilling Incidents
At one of the hotels we were served bread for breakfast. On enquiring with waiter about what to eat with the bread – we got Tea, coffee as the answer – can you beat that !
Drivers view of Leh-Ladakh : there’s nothing to see here except mountains, valleys, snow & monasteries.
One hotel at Kargill – had 1 common key for 2 rooms
Crossing stream enroute to Pangong lake – While travelling to Pangong we had a stream flowing on the road at high speed and carrying small rocks with it. So all vehicles were waiting – fearing that driving thru would mean taking risk of vehicle being washed away by forcing water. One of the car drivers crossed the stream by running from 1 side to the other and then drove his car cleanly over the stream. The other drivers then drove over the stream. In this situation the first driver demonstrated himself as a situational leader - by taking a calculated risk. (and thereby challenging the belief that leadership is demonstrated only by people at the top or those in white collar jobs). And set an example for others (drivers) to follow.
The extensive usage of solar energy at Pangong school, and the location of the students classrooms & lodging based on sunlight was impressive
Skills of drivers and their ability to drive & maneuver on the narrowest of roads was remarkable

5. Interactions
We played cards, cracked jokes, attempted some songs, had insights from all our traveler members
Nutanvahini wrote and narrated great article on our entire journey, our group – I suggest she should compile articles of each of our trips and compile a book on same.
Vivekkaka & Vijumai shared their experiences on Sanskrit literature and were always the most enterprising people in our group
Nitindada shared his radical viewpoint on having a zero-based budgeting for 2 to 3 years for the younger generation so that they understand the efforts involved in striving for even the basic necessities
Milinddada, Shilpa, Jyotivahini & to some extent me - we all contributed to the chaos
The importance of camphor and its recognition as a medicine was instrumental (so much that I became jealous of the importance it got !!)
Younger generation from our group (by age) was busy in taking selfies, photos etc. I think they can do lot of multi-tasking- by simultaneously eating with 1 hand, using camera/phone with other hand, listen to music and speak out on a separate topic - with equal ease & confidence in all areas. (unlike us - when we get a call while working on PC – we inform the caller that we will call back later). Wav!! – what a super potential for India’s future growth. – key is give to them enough space to draw their own canvas and balance this freedom with values.

6. Insights
Personally I have sensed an Increase in my energy & optimism levels (even though we travelled in areas with lower oxygen levels)
Increase in awareness and/or importance about our army, soldiers and the need to recognize this belief and pass it on to the next generation

I am sure my other fellow travelers would also have felt a surge in their energy levels and got struck with inspiring thoughts.

I think trips like these also give us an opportunity to re-discover our own-self and understand ourselves better.
In that sense though the Leh-Ladakh journey is over, I believe the journey within (our minds and possibly our hearts) has just begun.
Here’s wishing that let this Journey prosper, bloom, bear fruits and continue………..

 

Enjoy
Ravindra

__._,_.___

 

Brexit Revisited..with a difference (July 2016 article)

Dear Friends

 

With the recent Brexit event that everyone knows off (viz. Britain's exit from the European Union in June 2016) I have come up with some new acronyms / definitions on my own:

1. Axeit / Axit - Deciding of doing away with something.

    For example..I have axited from joining the gymnasium.

2. Compxit - Withdrawing from participating in any competition / competitive event.

    For example..The cricket great announced compxiting from playing in the IPL cricket     

    tournament from next year onwards

3. Mixit - Mixing or messing up any task, assignment and exiting from it.

    For example..The sales manager mixited the company's sales strategy and left his job.

4. Socxit - Removing socks from one's feet or removal of a person, people from society.

    eg. The couple was socxited from their community after their inter-caste marriage.

 

And finally the 2 most popular terms that all of us know of, but I have tweaked them a little bit as below:

 5. Rexit - Resigning or giving up any task or assignment.

6. Breakxit / Brexit - Taking a break from doing any task or work.

    For example..I have brexited from my job for taking up a sabbatical.

 

Hope you all have Brexited your task at hand and enjoyed reading all these different Brexits...

Now I am making a temporary exit till I blog and post a new article...

Enjoy

Ravindra

It’s Your Life – Make it large

I was inspired to write this article after watching a Marathi play in April 2016 titled “2 Special”.

The play narrates story about 2 lovers who deeply loved each other in their youth but who could not get married to each other due to certain circumstances. And who get married to different partners.

By a twist of fate they again come face to face, after a long time and the story of the play unfolds.


Some Learnings / Insights from the story :

1. Accept the past and take insights and positives from it, but don’t dwell upon the negatives from it.
2. Life is too short to quarrel about petty things and regret things that you don’t have.
3. Make the best of what you have and enjoy all the small things that life offers us - be it mother nature, sweet aroma of tea across the road, the enchanting smell of water lilies, innocence of your child, calm voice of your mother, the comforting words of your teacher.
4. Live in the present but aspire for your dreams and work towards it consciously.
5. Do take some time out and help the needy people, the shine in their eyes after you help them – will definitely make your eyes moist and you will feel proud to have made a positive difference in their lives.
6. Take some time out and visit your school and college teachers. Since they are the ones who have contributed in shaping up some part of the goodness that lies within you.
7. Every day when you wake up in the morning, think that you are going to have a great day. This will automatically generate positive thoughts in your mind and you will act accordingly.
8. Reward yourself for all good things and achievements that you do…………..be it by indulging in eating a chocolate or ice-cream or any fruit that you like or have a glass of drink with your friends or listening to music… anything that you like.
9. Do note that the only thing constant in life is Change… so change your-self thru your thoughts, change for a better tomorrow, accept and embrace change and do help in making a positive change in other people’s lives.
10. So nothing in life remains constant…… after good things… you will have to face some bad things……. and then again good things would follow………so in case you have a bad day @ work or you are facing some challenges just remind yourself mentally – that this too shall pass. And you will come out of challenges in life mentally stronger, wiser and a better person.

Moral :

 It is your life. So you have a big role to play in making it count for the better.

“It’s your life, make it large“! (phrase borrowed from the TV advertisement… of Seagram’s Royal Stag Whisky)